Egg Used on Terracotta Warriors

Two European researchers have discovered that the terracotta army of China's first emperor was covered in egg to make paint adhere to its lacquer-coated surfaces.

Discovery News reported on April 18, 2008 that the terracotta army of Chinese Emperor Qin Shihuangdi (r. 221-210 B.C.) was covered with beaten egg before it was painted. The findings of two chemists will be published shortly in the Journal of Cultural Heritage.

Catharina Blaensdorf of the Technical University of Munich and Ilaria Bonaduce of the University of Pisa analyzed samples from the Bronze Age warriors' faces, kneeling archers, swans and paint fragments on the floor of the emperor's mausoleum. According to the researchers, after the figurines were covered in lacquer, egg was used to bind the artists' colorful pigments to the statues' surfaces.

Sources:

• Fong, Wen, et al. The Great Bronze Age of China (exh. cat.). New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980.
• Man, John. The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation. Cambridge: De Capo Press, 2008.
• Portal, Jane. The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army (exh. cat.). London: British Museum Press, 2007.