Quantitative analysis of color characteristics for Yangjiabu New Year woodblock paintings based on color science and spectral imaging

The intangible cultural heritage of Yangjiabu New Year woodblock paintings (YNYWPs) has numerous potential cultural, artistic, and economic values. The quantitative color characteristics of YNYWPs, which have always been disregarded, can offer evidence in support of their inheritance and conservation. Utilizing the principles and methods of color science and spectral imaging technology, the color characteristics, including spectral characteristics, colorimetric characteristics, and color combination regularity, were quantitatively investigated by measuring and capturing the representative works. The results show that the spectral reflectances of the seven colors (i.e., red, yellow, green, cyan, violet, black, and paper color) adopted in the selected paintings have no significant structured features and can be accurately described using the first six derived eigenvectors by principal component analysis. The Xuan paper and the yellow color have higher reflectance than the other five colors. Correspondingly, their Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage (CIE) 1964 XYZ stimulus values are also relatively high. The others cover a narrow range in the CIE XYZ system. When transformed into the CIELAB color space, the seven colors can be relatively uniformly distributed in the color space. With regards to the color combination regularity, red, yellow, and cyan tend to occupy a large area in the selected paintings. In contrast, the other colors, especially green, are not frequently used. The resulting data of the color combination regularity quantitatively verify the color combination knack that is transmitted by word of mouth from generation to generation.