Reborn as a great painter, with a system, you can be willful

In late autumn in New York, the maple leaves in Central Park are dazzling red.

Jiang Zhe came to the Art Restoration Laboratory of Columbia University with a backpack and greeted Professor Kerry, Professor Black, several graduate students and teaching assistants in turn.

Everyone gathered around an oil painting on the lab table.

In his previous research, Jiang Zhe gradually demonstrated his restoration skills and was able to formally participate in restoration research.

Today is his first time participating as an important member.

The lab is very clean, but there is a characteristic smell of solvents.

"Ginger, this is a work by Charles Howard from 1898." Professor Kerry touched the frame with his white-gloved hand. "It's one of the last harbor landscapes of the th century, but look at this oxide layer."

Jiang Zhe walked closer and observed the entire work.

Under the dark oil film on the canvas, the originally azure sky has taken on an eerie greyish blue hue. The cracks on the mast of the sailboat spread like a spider web across the entire cloud layer. The brown coat of the dock worker in the lower right corner is mottled like the pages of an old book eaten by insects.

Jiang Zhe pretended to be observing and thinking, but he was actually using the system to record the data information of the painting.

First make sure that the painting is authentic.

By the time the system listed the damage to the painting, he felt confident.

Knowing all the problems, you can find the corresponding solutions.

At this time, others were still searching, recording and analyzing the damage to the painting.

Jiang Zhe said to Professor Kerry: "Professor, this is repainted with tempera."

He pointed out three fingernail-sized areas. If you compare them carefully, you will find subtle differences. However, using special instruments, you can find that the places he pointed out contrast with the dark blue of the surrounding oil paint.

Professor Kerry raised his eyebrows: "Is that true?! How did you find out?"

"Observe. I am familiar with these materials." Jiang Zhe is the most famous painter among the people present. Others know how to restore or are good at research, but they are not professional painters.

So, he used this reason and no one else could refute it.

Because Jiang Zhe was praised for his creation, some people originally opposed his participation in the restoration.

At this time, he was more sensitive to problems than professional restorers, leaving many people speechless.

A graduate student asked the teacher when these counterproductive repairs occurred.

Others also want to know, in order to determine the next solution.

A person in charge said: "I need to ask the previous collector, but I don't think he knows, otherwise he should tell me."

While waiting for the news, Jiang Zhe told Professor Kerry that he judged that the most recent restoration may have been carried out in the 70s.

Professor Kerry asked for the basis.

Jiang Zhe said it was his experience and intuition. He deliberately showed his ability in order to participate in more important subjects.

Others scoffed at this statement.

Those who go to inquire about the news will come back soon.

"When the previous collector bought the work, he heard from the seller that the painting had been restored once, but he only remembered that it was probably in the 1970s."

Everyone looked at Jiang Zhe.

Jiang Zhe's reaction was calm.

Professor Kerry is very happy that his student can stand out among many graduate students.

He deliberately raised his voice: "That idiot in the 1970s actually used the tempera technique to restore oil paintings?"

After complaining, everyone started to work out a repair plan.

People involved in the restoration went in and out of the laboratory.

The restoration plan in front of Jiang Zhe was seven pages long.

He submitted his plan to Professor Kerry for review.

Soon, Professor Black also saw Jiang Zhe's plan. He asked in a British accent: "Jiang, you even have to mix the repair varnish yourself?"

"Yes."

Blake's expression gradually became serious after seeing the detailed formula written by Jiang Zhe. The precise ratio of dammar resin, beeswax and turpentine was neatly arranged on the paper, and the climate data of New York in the 1890s was also marked next to it. "You even want to restore the humidity of the port back then?"

On that day, all the people involved in the restoration began to summarize and discuss the plan.

With the advice of Professors Kerry and Black, a new plan was formed based on Jiang Zhe's restoration plan.

The next morning, Jiang Zhe put on a light blue lab coat.

The oil painting has been taken down and laid out on the lab bench.

Everyone did their job and started to get busy.

Three shadowless lights illuminated the picture in great detail. The mildew on the sailboat's canvas looked like scattered black sesame seeds, and the lead white pigment on the tip of the goddess' torch had oxidized into a turbid gray-yellow.

"Surface contaminants include nicotine tar, soot and accumulated sulfate crystals." An assistant enlarged the image on a screen display, showing tiny black particles stuck in the cracks of the paint.

Jiang Zhe adjusted the thermometer and hygrometer to 23℃/55%RH and began to prepare the cleaning agent.

The light yellow liquid in the glass dish had an amber luster. He observed the transparency of the solution under the light: 62% turpentine, 13% acetone, and 25% ethanol, which was just right for dealing with multiple layers of stains.

"Begin surface cleaning." Jiang Zhe's voice was as steady as when he mixed the solvent. He adjusted the angle with a magnifying glass, and the mixed solvent dipped in the cotton swab glowed with an amber glow.

When the first cotton swab landed on the crack of the sailboat's mainmast, many people subconsciously held their breath.

Professors Black and Kerry were a little worried. They had seen too many restorers fail at this step—either the solvent seeped through to the bottom layer and ruined the canvas, or left glaring cleaning marks.

However, the cotton swab in Jiang Zhe's hand lightly drew spirals on the paint layer, and the dirty substance was rolled up like melted butter, revealing the bright cobalt blue underneath.

Professor Kerry moved closer and watched Jiang Zhe avoid all the tempera color-complementing areas. Every time the cotton swab landed, it was precise and decisive. Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief.

As several troublesome areas were cleaned up, the breathing of many people in the lab became heavier.

When Jiang Zhe was working on the chimney of the freighter, a layer of paint the size of half a fingernail suddenly lifted up.

One graduate student nearly dropped the clipboard in his hands.

Blake was ready to launch the emergency plan, but saw Jiang Zhe holding up a miniature electric iron preheated to 38 degrees Celsius in his left hand, and using a camel-hair brush with his right hand to apply special glue to the peeled area. The moment the steam iron touched the back of the canvas, the lifted paint layer returned to its original position as if by magic.

Jiang Zhe's voice remained steady, but beads of sweat formed on his forehead. "Nineteenth-century canvases contain a high amount of flax and require..."

"The temperature needs to be controlled so as not to exceed the glass transition point of the hemp fiber." Professor Kerry continued, also strengthening Jiang Zhe's confidence.

He thought of the top restorers he had known for thirty years and quietly compared Jiang Zhe with these people.

When the clouds in the upper right corner of the painting regain their mother-of-pearl luster, Jiang Zhe's work for the day is over.

Several people who claimed to be good at repair finally understood why the two professors made an exception and let Jiang Zhe do the repair. "The next step is filling." Blake began to direct and asked Jiang Zhe to prepare the materials.

Early morning on the seventh day after the restoration began.

Jiang Zhe spreads the reinforced canvas flat on the adjustable restoration table.

More onlookers crowded into the lab

"The widest part of the crack is 0.05 mm." Jiang Zhe projected the data onto the screen, "It needs three layers of staggered filling."

The animal glue he took out had a sweet scent of honey and mixed it with fillers.

A few sharp-eyed people, including Kim Soo-yeon, noticed that his right hand holding the tweezers always hovered three centimeters above the canvas - this was to prevent moisture from affecting the bonding.

Jiang Zhe, Professor Blake, and an assistant teacher took turns working and completed most of the filling process.

Jiang Zhe replaced the magnifying glass and used the sable brush tip to dip the special repair solvent into the crack in units of 0.01 ml...

"Color restoration is 92.3%." As the spectrum analyzer spit out the data sheet, Blake was scanning the back of the canvas with a thermal imager. The evenly distributed orange blocks on the screen made him gasp: "How is it possible that the tension values ​​of all reinforced parts are no more than 5% different from the original?"

Jiang Zhe took off his gloves, revealing his knuckles that were whitened by sweat. "Charles Howard used to start his painting from the lower right corner, so the fibers of the mast of a sailboat go to the right." He suddenly paused and found that the laboratory was so quiet that he could hear the sound of leaves falling outside the window. More than 20 pairs of eyes were staring at him.

The blue light from the data screen reflected off Professor Kerry's reading glasses.

"Go on. You just mentioned the direction of the fibers."

Unconsciously, many people are willing to listen to Jiang Zhe's opinions.

On the fourteenth working day, the repair entered the final protective layer stage.

The varnish prepared by Jiang Zhe filled the entire laboratory with the fragrance of rosin.

A drop of golden liquid fell into the beaker, causing ripples.

Jiang Zhe looks at the harbor that has regained its vitality on the canvas: the morning glow is penetrating the century-old dust, the brass buttons of the dock workers are shining with a real luster, and the steam coming out of the chimney of the cargo ship seems to be about to burst out of the frame in the next second.

"They should see the real Dawn in New York Harbor." Jiang Zhe loaded varnish into the spray gun, and the barometer needle stabilized at 0.8MPa. "It is not destroyed by time, nor tarnished by shoddy restoration."

The spray gun is activated... the transparent varnish covers the canvas like morning mist...

Blake looked at the picture and saw the sunlight of 1898 refracting a double phantom on the glass window of 2005. The young man in front of the restoration table seemed to be standing in the center of a long river of time, and the spray gun in his hand was stitching up the fault of two centuries.

Outside the window, the authentic whistle of New York Harbor penetrates the clear autumn sky. In the laboratory, a 19th-century sailing ship is slowly setting sail on the restored canvas, carrying the morning light of the 21st century.
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Columbia University's East Asian Documents Conservation Room in winter.

When Jiang Zhe pushed open the glass door, he heard Professor Kerry's voice: "Jiang, come and see this 'surprise' - the resignation letter of your Ming Dynasty officials."

During the last restoration of the oil painting, Jiang Zhe demonstrated superb skills and played an important role, and was invited to participate in a more important restoration.

Most of the people involved in the restoration work have become more and more friendly towards Jiang Zhe.

He saw the silk calligraphy spread out on the restoration table. It was brown and yellow like a dead leaf, and the silk mounting had long since shattered into a spider web.

His eyes swept across the words "Although I am not sensitive", and suddenly stopped at the lower right corner of the word "sensitive" - ​​there was a curled up ball of mold, like a tear drop that had solidified for three hundred years.

"Cultural relics lost overseas." Jiang Zhe found it hard to calm down when he saw this item. Restoring such calligraphy gave him more motivation.

Professor Kerry opened the infrared image, and the dense fluorescent spots flickered like stars. "The school requires that the traces of the war be preserved, but the handwriting must be seen again."

After agreeing on a repair plan, everyone started working.

Jiang Zhe adjusted the thermostat to 18 degrees Celsius. When he took out the processed paper mulberry, an assistant teacher, Jin Xiuyan, argued with him about whether to use Korean paper or paper mulberry.

However, the two professors agreed to use Jiang Zhe's method.

"Jiang, do we use wheat starch to make the paste?" Kim Soo-yeon continued to ask.

"Add loquat kernel powder to prevent insects." Jiang Zhe shook the small celadon jar, and a faint fragrance wafted out of it.

"The method of repairing the scrolls of the Dunhuang Caves." He kept this sentence in his heart.

Kim Soo-yeon sneered: "Use fruit cores to fight fungi? This is how you do Eastern restoration." This person has always considered himself a Westerner.

Her words got stuck in her throat before she could finish them.

The microscopic image of the mold that Blake opened proved Jiang Zhe's method.

……

"Pre-treat at 98% relative humidity for two hours." Jiang Zhe put the silk book into a sealed box, and mist instantly covered the glass. "Let the mycelium absorb moisture and become brittle." He stared at the temperature control meter while speaking, and his eyelashes cast a trembling shadow on the dashboard.

The restoration work was proceeding in an orderly manner. Outside the laboratory, some students who had heard the news gathered.

Jiang Zhe took out the silk scroll, observed the mildew, and quickly made a decision: "0.5% sodium bicarbonate solution, pH 8.2."

Another teaching assistant looked closely at the reagent bottle label and asked, "Will this concentration dissolve the ink?"

"This is pine soot ink from the Ming Dynasty. The glue content is enough to hold up." Jiang Zhe held the wool brush with the tip of the brush suspended 0.5 cm above the mildew spot.

"I remember reading about leather glue, bone glue, and fish bladder glue, all of which are used to make ink." Professor Kerry asked, "How do you know which one it is?"

Jiang Zhe adjusted the light, and an invisible seal "Tianlu Linlang" suddenly appeared in the area covered by the mildew. "This is an anti-counterfeiting mark of the old collection of the Qing Palace. It means that this calligraphy scroll has been restored at least during the Qianlong period."

Many people knew about this seal and immediately became more energized.

Jiang Zhe began the most dangerous cleaning. He used the "hanging brush method" to keep the brush hair from touching the silk surface, and the sodium bicarbonate solution rolled down from the tip of the brush like morning dew. The mildew stains dissolved under the chemical action, but the ink remained motionless like quenched fine steel.

"The temperature is 19.5°C, and the solution flow rate is 0.3 ml per second." Kim Soo-yeon muttered to herself as she stared at the sensor readings.

When they were cleaning the last vertical stroke of the character "臣", something strange happened. Everyone heard a very slight "crackling" sound, like ice breaking in spring.

"The warp and weft density of Ming Dynasty mulberry silk—" Jiang Zhe said, "Under certain conditions, the patched silk from the Qianlong period will fall off."

The magnifying glass in Professor Kerry's hand reflected a red seal on the back of the silk manuscript.

Some of the people in the repair room could go and rest, but no one moved.

Everyone watched as Jiang Zhe used similar materials to piece together the torn word "loyalty"...

At nine o'clock in the evening, Jiang Zhe was in the study of his mansion, watching the restoration process recorded by Professor Kerry on his laptop computer.

While making the repair material himself, Professor Kerry filmed the process.

Professor Kerry plans to use this video as Jiang Zhe's research results and also plans to include it in Columbia University's art restoration teaching materials.

Jiang Zhe had already improved his skills through the repair and was able to achieve academic results, so he naturally agreed.

He is not worried that someone might learn these techniques by watching videos.

Open the system and find the repair skill in the skill bar.

His oil painting restoration skills and ancient book restoration skills have been upgraded to the special level after participating in several restorations.

(End of this chapter)