X-ray Fluorescence Analysis of Indonesian Shadow Puppets Wayang Kulit at the Haffenreffer Museum: Arsenic in the Collection

Rika Smith, Mellon Conservator

I have conserved forty-four Indonesian shadow puppets known as Wayang Kulit in preparation for the collections’ move to Providence.  The puppets are cut from water buffalo hide with intricate perforated designs, gilded and painted, with articulated arms moved by horn handles or wood rods.  The traditional Wayang performances, dating back to the 10th century, are performed at night with numerous dramatic puppet characters manipulated by puppeteers against a translucent screen lit from behind and set to music with narration and song.

My review of the conservation and technical literature revealed that the historical yellow pigment on the shadow puppets might contain arsenic, and the red paint mercury.  I took special care during examination to use protective gear and appropriate handling procedures, eventually placing each puppet on custom-made padded supports to be stored in individual acid-free boxes.

To test for arsenic and mercury, I used a Bruker Tracer 5i portable X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer recently purchased through a grant from the Annenberg Foundation.  The XRF unit is a non-destructive hand-held analyzer that requires no samples to be removed from the object and identifies 48 elements from fluorine to uranium.  For our first XRF analysis, we chose the shadow puppet of Semar, an indispensable “clown” character in Wayang Kulit who introduces stories and adds comments to the narrative. Though often portrayed as a silly character in the Javanese puppet tradition, Semar is the personification of a deity or guardian spirit, and his comments are essential to the performance.

I selected a yellow area in the figure’s patterned sarong for XRF analysis, and the resulting spectra clearly identified a prominent arsenic peak.  The red regions indicated no mercury present, but there was a trace amount of arsenic, most likely due to particles of the yellow paint dragged across the surface from the yellow to red areas when the puppet was animated.

The project results will inform how the puppet is stored – the box will be tagged for arsenic with cautions for handling.  This year, we will continue with the shadow puppet research project and look forward to additional uses of the Bruker XRF analyzer for other objects in our collections.

Cover photography by Juan Arce