62b-SL-2022_Turin, Museum of Oriental Art, Luohan sitting in dharmacakramudra, inv. 449

Facilitated description: 

 

Luohan is a painted wooden sculpture from China.
The Luohan for the Buddhist relic is a saint. The Luohan is represented sitting with his legs crossed and his hands close to his chest in the gesture of preaching.
The Luohan was built during the 1300s and is kept at the Museum of Oriental Art in Turin (MAO). 
The La Venaria Reale Conservation and Restoration Centre restored the Luohan in 2022 for an exhibition. 
Scientists at the Venaria Center have done scientific analysis to study the matieriali of which Luohan is made. 
The restorers placed the Luohan in the anoxic chamber (room without oxygen to eliminate insects that feed on wood). 
They carried out a cleaning (cleaned the surface of the sculpture from the dirt deposited over time). 
They consolidated (made more stable) the fractures of the wood and the parts of color that were detaching.
They designed the intervention on colors with the superintendence. 
Eventually they painted the Luohan to protect it from the sun's rays and dust. 

 

 

 

Abstract of the intervention: 

 

The work was restored on the occasion of the exhibition Buddha10. Fragments, drifts and refractions of the Buddhist visual imagination (Museo d'Arte Orientale di Torino, 20 October 2022 – 3 September 2023). The sculpture was subjected to an in-depth diagnostic campaign in order to deepen the executive technique and the state of conservation of the sculptures. 

 

Restoration

The sculpture was particularly compromised from the structural point of view (fractures and signs of entomatic attacks) and the pictorial decoration. In addition, the preparatory layers were affected by adhesion defects. At the level of the pictorial decoration there was an overlapping of different colors probably attributable to remakes due to changes in taste. 
The intervention therefore consisted in a general safety in view of the exhibition. In particular, the following operations have been planned: disinfestation of the product in anoxic chamber, surface cleaning of incoherent deposits, remediation operations to ensure greater solidity during the handling phases. The aesthetic restitution phase was designed in collaboration with the protection body, evaluating the possibility of intervening with plastering and pictorial integrations. Finally, a protective layer has been added with a UV filter.