Textile Painting

Bodhisattva Cotton Painting

Central Asian Buddhist tradition · Buddhist antiquity · Pigment on cotton textile

9 weeks

In the studio

Bodhisattva Cotton Painting — before treatment

Bodhisattva Cotton Painting — after treatment

AfterBefore

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Drag the handle to compare the work as received with the work as returned.

The Story

This cotton banner carried a standing bodhisattva, right hand in vitarka-mudra and left palm opening tenderly toward the viewer, framed by a painted headpiece and side streamers. Its ornament had almost vanished, but the support was sound: a pH reading of 5.5 confirmed it was only slightly acidic and needed no de-acidification.

The problems lay in foxing, worn borders, folded and lost paint, and holes throughout. After colour-fastness testing, cleaning proceeded with alcohol and distilled water at 50:50, while the borders — which would not yield to that — were cleaned with petroleum ether using small muslin-wrapped cotton daps to keep stray fibres off the surface.

Foxing was covered by strip-lining with 21 gsm Japanese tissue and methylcellulose, and the many losses were rebuilt thread by thread: each strand pasted with gluten-free starch, laid under Melinex, burnished with a bone folder, pressed dry, and finally toned down to the base colour. The bodhisattva, long faded, returned to view.

The Damage: A painted cotton banner of a bodhisattva — right hand raised in vitarka-mudra — its ornament almost entirely faded. Loss of area, folded paint layers, completely worn-out borders, foxing stains, and holes of varying size throughout, though the support itself remained stable at a near-neutral pH of 5.5.
The Process: Colour-fastness solvent testing, dry cleaning, and washing with alcohol and distilled water at 50:50 — with petroleum ether reserved for the stubborn borders, applied through muslin-wrapped cotton daps. Strip-lining over the foxing with 21 gsm Japanese tissue and methylcellulose, and thread-by-thread loss compensation with gluten-free starch paste, burnished and toned to the base colour.
The Outcome: Cleaned, consolidated, strip-lined, and structurally reintegrated, the faded bodhisattva became legible once more — the textile stabilised front and back.