Analysis of Pigments in Mural Paintings from the Western Han Tomb at Xi’an Jiaotong University

Nevertheless, the stability and preservation condition of the murals are severely compromised by historical vicissitudes and adverse preservation environments. To identify the types of mural pigments, multiple micro-destructive analytical techniques including XRD, ultra-depth-of-field microscopy, polarizing microscopy, SEM-EDS and Raman spectroscopy were comprehensively adopted to characterize the micro-morphology, chemical composition and elemental distribution of the pigment layers.

The results demonstrate that both the white ground layer and white pigment are composed of cerussite; black pigment is carbon black; red pigments comprise hematite and cinnabar; blue pigment is azurite; green pigment is malachite; and purple pigment is barium copper silicate (BaCuSi₂O₆, Chinese purple). All pigments applied in the murals are ancient inorganic mineral pigments. The research findings offer references for the scientific identification of mural materials and craft techniques of Western Han tomb murals in Shaanxi Province, and also lay a scientific foundation for subsequent conservation and restoration work.