Scientific Research on the Pictorial Arts of Asia

Investigations into a variety of materials and techniques used in creating pictorial art from various parts of Asia are presented in this volume: painted reliefs in a Cambodian temple; wall paintings in India; panel paintings in the Philippines; the figures of gods and guardians in a Japanese temple; paintings on silk and several papers covering aspects of the materials, pigments, painting and printing techniques used in works of art on paper. This preponderance of investigations relating to paper seems appropriate given the invention and extensive use of paper in Asia, and East Asia in particular.

This volume is the second in an ongoing series of Forbes Symposium proceedings. The first title, Scientific Research in the Field of Asian Art, edited by Paul Jett with Janet D. Douglas, Blythe McCarthy, and John Winter, was published in 2003 (by Archetype Publications in association with the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution). The next Symposium volume concerns the scientific study of Asian scilpture.