ON THE TECHNOLOGY OF CENTRAL ASIAN WALL PAINTINGS: THE PROBLEM OF BINDING MEDIA

Abstract

Organic components of paint layers and grounds in specimens of late antique and early medieval Central Asian wall paintings were studied. Quantitative analysis of amino acids isolated from specimens of Mansur-Depe wall paintings, second to first century B.C., has demonstrated that gelatin was used for the preparation of painting media and grounds—proline, glycine and alanine were revealed to a high percentage while hydroxyproline was not detected. In other wall paintings of the second to the eighth century the use of plant gums was inferred since polysaccharides isolated from the specimens had infrared spectra resembling those of polysaccharides from the Prunoideae sub-family. The gum used in the Toprak-Kala wall paintings, third to fourth century, and in a nineteenth-century painting from Khiva could be identified precisely: it was either apricot or cherry gum. The technique used for the preparation of paints and grounds in Mansur-Depe and Kara-Tepe, second to fourth century, resembles those described in medieval Indian manuscripts.

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