Page 82 - Tibetan Thangka Painting Methodsand Mat, Jackson

Malachite Green (spang ma; mdo spang)6 and for this the painter would add some water to the
already damp, earthy mass in the mortar before he
began grinding~ In their crude state the mineral
pigments were dull and unattractive, but after cleaning
and just a little grinding the deep rich colours appeared.
The actual grinding of the pigments proceeded in
a steady, smooth way. It was not necessary to' grind
N'" I.·~ azurite or malachite to an extremely fine powder. In
].?~,
~' .... ;,"'-. fact, it was better to grind them too little than too
much. Unlike lapis lazuli (another mineral yielding a
deep blue that was used outside Tibet), azurite and
After azurite blue, the next pigment to be applied was malachite become progressively whiter and paler the
the green derived from the closely related mineral mala- more finely they are ground. If ground as finely as most
chite, the basic carbonate of copper, CuC0 .Cu(OH}z.
3 pigments are, they lose their original deep colours almost
As noted above malachite and azurite generally occur completely.
together; in Tibet both minerals were in fact extracted This special property of the copper carbonate
from the same deposits in Snye-mo-thang. Malachite is minerals was a reason for caution during grinding, but
also m~ntioned in the pharmacopeias of Tibet, where it it also made possible a simple method for deriving
had the additional names spang tshon and tshon Ijang. 7 several shades of colour from each mineral. Grinding
The azurite and malachite from Snye-mo-thang reduced the original crude pigment into particles ranging
came in a crushed, sandy form, wrapped in small leather in size from fme sand to very fine dust. Because
bags. One painter informed us that up to three different different values of colour corresponded to the different
colours were available from this source; in addition to sizes of particles, several lighter and -darker values of
the usual azurite blue and malachite green, he could green and blue could be ~xtracted through progressive
sometimes also get a deep blue-green colour called sedimentation. First the artist stirred up the ground
g.yu kha. mineral in water. When most of the heavier, darker
Before they could use these colours as paints the particles had settled to the bottom, the artist poured
artists had to clean and grind the crude pigments, and the water and the lighter particles still in suspension
then separate several values of colour from each basic into a separate dish. 9 The process could be repeated
mineral. As a rule they had to begin by cleaning the with both the lighter shades and the darker, heavier
minerals by repeated scrubbing and rinsing. To start remains so that from one mineral at least four distinct
with, an artist (or an assistant in charge of preparing shades could be derived, each known by its own name.
colours) poured the material into a container of warm The first, lightest suspension of azurite was known as
water and stirred it briskly. After allowing the mixture sngo si; the next, sky-blue suspension as sngo sang;
to settle for a few moments, he poured off the surface the third, medium blue as mthing shul; and the deep
foam together with the dirty water bearing undesirable azure coarsest suspension as mthing 'bro. Similarly,
dust and earthy impurities in suspension. He then added the four gradations of malachite were, from lightest to
a little glue, and proceeded to knead and rub the earthy darkest, spang si. spang skya. spang and spang smug.
mixture between his hands. Next, he again added warm In Tibet these two minerals were not extremely
water, and having stin:ed it up he allowed it to settle and expensive per unit of weight. But because they were
then poured off the dirty water as before. He would used in great quantities over large areas of sky, meadows
repeat this process until the water poured off was clean, and other parts of the paintings and since they had to be
at which time he could transfer the mineral to the applied in relatively thick coats to produce the deeper
mortar for grinding. colours, they accounted for a large part of the painter's
The mortar (gtun khungJ and pestle (gtun) were expenses. Among the various shades of the two
usually simple implements made from stone, the mortar pigments, the bright green malachite was said to be the
bei~g a shallow stone dish large enough to accommodate most expensive. And in general, nearly twice as much
quantities of mineral pigment, and the pestle a hard malachite as azurite was used.
elongated stone with smooth rounded surfaces. If large
amounts of mineral pigments had to be ground, for Lapis Lazuli (mu men) and Ultramarine
instance while painting the murals of a large temple, ·:'"
the workers sometimes suspended a stone pestle just :,.. . ........:.": ~ ..
~S0'>
above the surface of the mortar by ropes. Due to the O © .'. :._.... ".:..
...
elasticity of the ropes the pestle could be brought to ".. r : -: ~X.1
bear on the surface of the mortar by lightly pressing ~~
down on it, and in this way the workers could grind
pigments for long periods of time with a minimum of ~t '~3:.
~~
exertion. ... ~ ~~ Ei
Azurite and malachite, unlike some other
pigments, were subjected to "wet grinding" (rlon rdul), ~..7D

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