Characterization and analysis of sandstone substrate, mortar layers, gold foils, and paintings of the Avalokitesvara Statues in Dazu County (China)

The Avalokitesvara Statues in Dazu, Chongqing, are famous for their momentum of grand, broad and magnificent spectacular views. As painted and gilded statues carved on the cliff, the structure and material's making-ups of the Avalokitesvara Statues are very complex, which include sandstone substrate, mortar layers, golden plastic paints, gold foils, and paintings. These materials are usually overlapped with each other and synergistically make contributions to the degradation process of the Avalokitesvara Statues, which accelerate obviously with rapid industry development recently. This paper presents comprehensive and detailed materials characterization and analysis for the Avalokitesvara Statues using X-ray detection, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, metallographic microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy.