T_390
The work as shown. Every value below comes from vae.db, the master database of the Crucible Year.
Recorded
- Date
- 2026.10.16, day 292
- Size
- 97 × 180 cm
- Paper
- S13, Tianxuan Ge Dot Ink Becomes Gold, semi-cooked (self-sized), aged
- Inks
- MB6, MB8, MB9, MB10
- Phase
- P4 S14
- Shown on the site
- yes (V23 rating of 5.0 or higher)
Measured · V23 (v23.8)
- V23 rating
- 7.5
- Form
- 2.6
- Tonal depth
- 2
- Layering
- 3
- Composition
- 2.4
- Material and surface
- 2
- Ink cover
- 80%
- Dark share
- 60%
- Tonal steps
- 4
- Flaws named by the reads
- water stain 5, overwork 1
How the number was made
Read by the Visual Analysis Engine, version 23.8, on 2026.10.16: measured by code, then read 5 times by Claude Opus 5.5 against three reference paintings (R1 to R3), each read independent of the others. How the engine works.
Three views of one sheet.
Left, the photograph. Centre, the tone stretch the model is shown beside it: the darkest 45% of tones spread over the whole range, so flat black, banding and stains show. Right, every pixel as the measuring code classes it: cyan black ink, deep teal translucent grey, stone the palest ink, near black bare paper.
4 families of tone.
Every inked pixel's brightness in 64 bins, smoothed; each circled peak holds at least 4% of the ink. Life inside the black: 0.050 (under 0.045 reads as flat).
Five reads, agreeing on 3 of 5 qualities.
Each quality placed on its ladder by each read, and the mean the engine keeps. Where reads differ, they differ by one rung; close calls resolve down.
READ 1, IN ITS OWN WORDS
“This sheet uses the same radial stepped-arc method as R3, with fluent strokes and legible translucent layering. It is denser and more crowded, and the right black mass is flatter inside, so it sits below R3.”
Each stamped arc stroke follows the brush's rotation about the centre vortex; edges are crisp with dry-brush tails; the right lower mass thickens but its strokes still read.
WEAKEST Dense right mass where stroke ends merge into bulk
STRONGEST Stepped arc strokes spiralling out from central vortex
Left wing shows graded translucent steps and streaked grain; right lower mass reads mostly solid black; interior modulation 0.050 is only just above flat.
WEAKEST Right lower black mass largely uniform inside
STRONGEST Left wing's stepped greys from pale to black
Many translucent passes are stacked in rotational order; overlaps on the left and upper right stay legible and build depth; in the right black mass they compact together.
WEAKEST Right mass overlaps compacted, order harder to read
STRONGEST Translucent overlapping arcs along left wing edges
The two wings swirl around an off-centre vortex and give strong movement; the empty lower centre is shaped, but 80% coverage and a heavy right corner crowd the sheet.
WEAKEST Heavy right-bottom mass crowds the frame edge
STRONGEST Vortex centre pulling both wings into rotation
Ink is controlled and dry-brush edges are used well; small milky, blotchy patches appear in the left mid greys and are minor; no tide lines at the principal masses.
WEAKEST Pale cloudy patches in left-edge greys
STRONGEST Dry-brush tails on the outer arc edges
2 distinct places, 0 major.
Each read must name every flaw and where it is, in a ninth of the sheet. Here the reads named flaws in 2 distinct places, 6 mentions in all across 5 reads; the number in each ninth is how many times a flaw was named there. Reads agreeing on a place strengthen the evidence for one flaw; they do not multiply it.
Tonal depth held at rung 1.
4 steps: not appliedMaterial held at rung 1. Mild waves in the unmounted paper are never a flaw.
none namedThe rating cannot exceed 4.
lowest 2.0A read that breaks the reply format is discarded.
5 of 5 validV23 rating 7.5.
Engine v23.8, 5 reads. Fixed arithmetic, the same for every painting; the constants were set on 24 randomly chosen paintings so the median sheet scores 5. The scale is relative to this archive, not to painting in general, and a difference of less than half a point between two paintings is noise.