On our second field trip to the museum, we examined a scroll that was there. The scroll is called the "Orchid Pavilion" scroll. We learned about how the scroll is read, how it is preserved, and the difference from the western culture in how they read the scroll.
How the Scroll is Read
You do not read the whole scroll all at once. You read it one foot at a time. And unlike the western approach it is read from right to left. You unroll a little and then you roll it on to the opposite dowel. Below there is a picture of Mr. Wu with a scroll.
The Storage
The painting is mounted on a silk support and then it is attached to wood dowels at each end. The whole picture can then be rolled up on the dowels. Then it is put in a box which is the put away. To the side is a picture of the scroll box.
The Preservation
If the silk is exposed to too much light it deteriorates and the colors lighten. That is only with certain types of light: mixed lights, like sunlight, iridescent light, and florescent light, which contain ultravoilet rays, will bleach the color out of any object when exposed to too much. There are no windows in the galleries of the museum and there are fixtures on the light to weaken the ultraviolet light. This makes the paintings in the museum last longer. If you use vegetable dyes (dyes made out of plants, like the yellow which is made out of bamboo) then the colors fade. Most of the scrolls use mineral dyes. The changes in temperature, humidity, and the strain of unrolling and rolling the scroll makes the paint crack and have to be put on new silk supports. At the University of Michigan they have an expert, the conservator, do this every time that it is needed.
