Buddhist Monk Statue at Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Conservators removing the soberi, or outer border of the mount, of Hanabusa Itchō'southward "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (all photos courtesy Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Starting tomorrow, visitors to the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA), Boston, willaccept a rare opportunity to feel what usually occurs behind the scenes in conservation labs. For v months, experts from the museum's Asian Conservation Studio and the Smithsonian's Freer Gallery of Fine art will engage with the public as they restore, in the MFA'south Asian Paintings gallery, an ancient Japanese hanging scroll that depicts Buddha'due south entry into enlightenment. Painted in 1713 by Hanabusa Itchō (1652–1724), the massive "The Death of the Historical Buddha" was well known in the Edo flow, cartoon travelers to a Zen temple known as Ginsoin that stood in present-day Tokyo. For over 150 years, the near 16-foot-tall and vii-and-a-half-human foot-wide piece of work is believed to acceptgraced the walls of the now-gone building annually, to commemorate the Buddhist holiday Nehan -e, or Nirvana Day. "The Death of the Historical Buddha" was last on view at the MFA in 1990, and its conservation marks the starting time time in the museum's history that a work undergoing treatment has received such public visibility, co-ordinate to Jacki Elgar, the institution's Head of Asian Conservation.

Hanabusa Itchō, "The Decease of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (Fenollosa-Weld Drove, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) (click to enlarge)

"We practise conservation in action very well here, but there is room for improvement," Elgar told Hyperallergic. "I wanted to remove any barriers, that wall, considering it's a fishbowl for people on both sides." For gear up periods during the run of the exhibition, which is titled Conservation in Action: Preserving Nirvana, a team of two to six conservators will nourish to Itchō'south masterpiece, with scheduled times for the public to speak to them. To avert any accidents, a waist-high safety barrier will forestall people from getting also shut to the work. The show will also feature other hanging scrolls and woodblock prints from the 19th and early 20th centuries that portray scenes executed in the same memorial portrait tradition as "The Death of the Historical Buddha."

The work is due for treatment, as information technology's returning to Nippon as role of a larger, touring exhibition, but Elgar also thought the scroll would be ideal to demonstrate certain conservation processes; similar public endeavors previously undertaken by US art museums have focused on Western works. Rendered on medium-weight Japanese paper known asgampi, the painting requires very specific methods. Although concluding treated in the 1850s, the detailed, figure-filled roll is well preserved, presenting some creases and cracks only little loss of paint. Conservation really began in the lab this past jump (you can glimpse some of that activeness in this video) with the team consolidating pigments — essentially, using tiny brushes to reinforce them with animal glue to ensure that the painting'south surface does not flake off or abrade.

"It'due south nervus-wracking enough for conservators to exist on view, but the painting itself is pretty stable," Elgar said. "And then it became the all-time candidate for this, as the risk I felt in having it on view was quite small in the sense of damage and people watching the whole operation."

The procedure in the gallery will involve dismantling and reassembling the ringlet, replacing all the paper linings that hold information technology in its hanging mount, which itself is big: without it, the painting measures just over nine feet tall. Conservators will treat every component of the mount separately, trimming and connecting each of the colored strips of silk brocade that wrap around the edges. While they volition save some parts of the original object, others will exist replaced. A new concluding, patterned layer of brocade, for instance, arrives from Kyoto, where traditional weavers replicated the fabric, fifty-fifty maintaining its softened, anile wait. The dowels of the scroll are their own works of art, created and signed by the metalworker YokoyaSōmin, a shut friend of Itchō's. They characteristic gilt metal fittings whose knobs he carved with mythical lions, which Elgar says are "in perfect shape."Once reassembled, the scroll volition prevarication confront-up for several weeks on a drying board earlier it goes off view to be flipped.

Hanabusa Itchō, particular of "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (Fenollosa-Weld Collection, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) (click to enlarge)

Hanabusa Itchō, item of "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (Fenollosa-Weld Collection, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

In addition to being a painter, Itchō was know as an "artist-rebel" and "enigmatic anti-hero," according to a mail service on the MFA's website. He painted this scroll after existence exiled for over x years for unknown reasons. We're able to place him equally the artist of the work considering he signed it — a rare gesture for a Buddhist painting, Elgar said, and one that indicates that he considered it a masterpiece.

"Itchō is wonderful in the style he portrays the group mourning Buddha'south loss," she said. "It's non only bodhisattvas and his disciples, only even Hindu deities. He really portrays 44 dissimilar species of animals — from a bat to an insect to wild boars — coming in and grieving. There is an elephant on its back, and yous can see the sorrow because the elephant doesn't really understand what's going on. Whereas the bodhisattvas are more than serene; they look distressing, but it'southward not this anguish you lot see on several of the other figures. Coming down from the sky is his mother, Māyā, and she has her sleeves in forepart of her confront considering she'south weeping.

"I remember he's showing off when he portrays some of his animals," Elgar added. "He portrays two different types of monkeys: a gibbon and a macaque. Yous don't need two different types of monkeys. Information technology's near to show, I can practise this."

Although the whorl is headed to Japan, when it returns Elgar would like it to finally hang in the museum, ideally during the same flow of the year when it was originally displayed: the fifteenth day of the 2d month, according to the lunar agenda. For now, she' s hopeful that Conservation in Action: Preserving Nirvana volition offer people more than reason to make multiple trips to the museum in the coming months.

"Information technology's an exhibition, but it's a irresolute exhibition," she said. "Every week will be different because nosotros'll exist progressing in the treatment. To me, it's more like a performance piece."

Hanabusa Itchō, detail of "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (Fenollosa-Weld Collection, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) (click to enlarge)

Carvings of mythical lions by Yokoya Sōmin on the dowels of "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (Fenollosa-Weld Drove, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Conservators consolidating pigments of Hanabusa Itchō's "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713)

Conservators removing the 'soberi,' or outer border of the mount, of Hanabusa Itchō's "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713)

Conservators joining sections of the 'soberi,' or outer edge of the mount, of Hanabusa Itchō's "The Expiry of the Historical Buddha" (1713)

Conservators consolidating pigments of Hanabusa Itchō's "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713) (click to enlarge)

Conservators removing old backing papers of Hanabusa Itchō's "The Death of the Historical Buddha" (1713)

Artist unknown, "Memorial Portrait of Role player Ichikawa Ebizô V; Parody of The Expiry 
of the Historical Buddha (Nehan)" (1859) (William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Utagawa Kunisada 3, "Memorial Portrait of the Famous Player Ichikawa Danjûrô Ix (Meiyû 
Kudaime Ichikawa Danjûrô); Parody of The Decease of the Historical 
Buddha (Nehan)" (1903)

Artist unknown, "Memorial Portrait of Actor Nakamura Utaemon Iv; Parody of The 
Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan)" (1852) (William Sturgis Bigelow Collection, photo © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Artist Unknown, "Memorial Portrait of Actor Ichikawa Danjûrô VIII; Parody of The 
Death of the Historical Buddha (Nehan)" (1854) (William Sturgis Bigelow Drove, photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Conservation in Activity: Preserving Nirvana continues at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (465 Huntington Avenue) through January 16.

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Source: https://hyperallergic.com/317473/mfa-boston-publicly-conserves-18th-century-buddhist-painting-masterpiece/

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