Publication of a Report,

『Traditional Artificial Inorganic Pigment』

by National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage

- Restoration of Disconnected Traditional Artificial Inorganic Pigments and Establishment of Quality Standards -

The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage (NRICH, Director General Kim Yeonsoo) under the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA) of Korea published a report, 『Traditional Artificial Inorganic Pigment』 including the restoration of disconnected traditional artificial inorganic pigments and research achievements of quality standards.

* Inorganic pigment: As a pigment made up of chemically inorganic materials, it is manufactured with the natural mineral itself or with processed and pulverized natural minerals, and with metallic compounds

In Korea, to protect and decorate major elements of wooden structures such as temples and palaces for maintaining their dignity, Dancheong has been painted with the natural and artificial pigments from the past. But since the end of the 19^th century, cheaper and easily supplied chemical pigments have been brought into Korea and caused decrease in demand for those traditional pigments. Therefore, the manufacturing techniques and application methods about traditional pigments were naturally disconnected, which led to difficulties in application to repair for the cultural heritage on the site.

In this context, the NRICH carried out ‘Research on Manufacturing Techniques and Quality Standards of Traditional Pigments used for Dangcheong’ to restore Dancheong pigments and to prepare plans for applying them stably to the side of cultural heritage. The research targeted the natural inorganic pigments (2014-2018) and then the artificial inorganic pigments (2019-2022), and the report including research outcomes of the natural inorganic pigments was published in 2020.  

The newly published report this time presents the research achievements of traditional artificial inorganic pigments for 4 years since 2019, including main research outcomes such as identifying characteristics on traditional artificial inorganic pigments, securing source technology of traditional manufacturing techniques, preparing quality standards as well as scientific analysis information on re-produced pigments obtained during the research and commercial pigments.

In particular, the notable accomplishment of this research is that the manufacturing technique of green pigment, ‘Dongrok’ referred to as the ‘Hayeop’ color was systematized and its material characteristics were scientifically investigated. Dongrok has been widely used for a variety of colored cultural heritage such as hanging Buddhist paintings and murals of temples as well as Dangcheong for a long time but its raw material was not clearly identified and manufacturing techniques were disconnected. However, this research secured the source technology for restoring Dongrok and provided significant academic materials for preparing the groundwork of production.

In addition, 『Quality Standards of Traditional Artificial Inorganic Pigments』 includes the standards of components, standards of performance and testing methodologies on the basis of definitions of five kinds of traditional artificial inorganic pigments such as Dongrok(copper green rust), Heocheong (smalt), Miltaseung (litharge), Yeondan (lead red) and Yeonbaek(lead white) through this research. The preparation for quality standards of natural inorganic pigments used for Dancheong was followed by the preparation for quality standards of traditional artificial inorganic pigments, which could be said that this research established the foundation for applying traditional pigments to the site stably and raised the completion level.

 * Dongrok (銅綠, copper green rust): green pigment artificially made by corroding copper or copper alloy with salt 

* Heocheong (回靑, smalt): blue pigment artificially made by vitrifying cobalt with inorganic materials such as quartz 

* Yeondan (鉛丹, lead red): red pigment artificially made by heating lead or lead oxide

* Miltaseung (密陀僧, litharge): yellow pigment artificially made by heating lead or lead oxide

* Yeonbaek (鉛白, lead white): white pigment artificially made by corroding lead  

This publication is open to the public and available to everyone through the homepage of CHA (www.cha.go.kr) and the homepage of NRICH research publications (http://portal.nrich.go.kr).

The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage under the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea expects this report to be utilized as significant materials for the development to preserve and inherit traditional pigments used for Dangcheong. Furthermore, it will make efforts to enhance authenticity of materials used for repair and restoration, and improve the quality of repair by steadily working on research of the restoration and quality of traditional materials.  

Division: The National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage,

Restoration Technology Division 

Contact person: Senior Researcher, Kwon, Hyuk Nam (82-42­-860-9341),

                      Researcher, Lee, Sun Myung (82-42-860-9348)