The Conflict And Integration Of Tradition And Modernity: The Study Of Chinese Painting And Calligraphy Restoration Of "Full Color"

It’s well acknowledged that the retouching skill is one of the four main steps in restoration of Chinese painting and calligraphy,which plays a critical role in the preservation of material and intangible cultural heritage.However,there are some problems do exist in its contemporary development,principally attributing to conflicts and integration of the tradition and the modern,such as why the conflicts came about and how can we strike a balance and so on.To resolve these problems,this paper is supposed to focus on combing the development and transformation process of retouching method step by step with using historical document data and the previous research results,as well as the experiences draw from actual treatment.This study shows that the traditional method of retouching in China has a lot of techniques,which can only learned by observation and experiences due to the traditional apprenticeship training mode.And for a long time,the goal of retouching is to present the viewer with a complete image.So the traditional restorers have always tried their best to reinstate the visual balance.However,from the last century,the modern conservation theory which originated from the west has been introduced into our country and gradually changed the way of retouching.According to the existing materials,the transformation process can be mainly divided into two periods.The first period from 1930s to 1970s witnessed the initial development of modern conservation awareness.And the following period was from 1980s up to date.From then on,the practical treatment has to face more and more challenges because of the increasingly explicit ethics code and modern conservational standards,such as the principle of minimum intervention and the discernibility of restoration and so on.Nowadays,the conservators need to choose a suitable retouching method based on the correct understanding of the traditional method,the modern conservation theory and the relationship between this two.Only in this way can the Chinese retouching method get a sound future.