ijit] 111! nf fiHiiiiiH^iMilfnuiiiiiiiiTiiiiiifiiHirm , ... .... . S Bt li-y '[-' ilrJll In One Volume, L2mo. with many Woodcuts, piica 7s. afivydaXlvu) /cat tovto aKEva- %ETCtl, 7] KOTCTO\lEVbiV KOI TTLE^OflEVlOV, 7] EIQ vB(t)p '(eOV E/JL^aXXofXEVOJV fXETCL TO KOTrrjvai. CtpflOTTEl TOIQ aVTO~lQ. 7TEpiTTOV ds E^El TO ypr)(jinEVEiv to~iq yjivaovoiv i) kyKaiovan, fypaiVEi te yap, kou ttoXvv yjpovov avviyEi rag ypvaucrEig kcli EynavaEig. " Nucis oleum simi- liter ut amygdalinum praeparatur, nucibus aut tusis et expressis, aut post contusionem in aquam ferventem conjectis. Commodum est in eosdem quoque usus. Insuperque hoc privatim habet quod inaurantibus aut inurentibus conducit. Siccat enim, et ad multum tempus inaurationes ac inustiones continet et adservat." — Ib. THE ANCIENTS. 21 on many accounts. The Greek writer had men- tioned linseed oil in the same page, yet he speaks of nut oil as if it were exclusively employed in the arts. It thus appears that in the fifth century the drying property of linseed oil was either unknown or disregarded : but the passage establishes the fact, that, at that period, oil varnishes were used for gilt ornaments and for pictures. As regards the application on gilt surfaces, the practice is ex- emplified by a reference to subsequent writers. Mordants for gilding, composed of drying oils and other ingredients, appear to have been somewhat late inventions, and are mentioned by Cennini*: but the treatise on various arts published by Muratori from a manuscript at Lucca f, that of'Eraclius J, that of Theophilus§, and the Byzantine manuscript lately edited by MM. Didron and Durand ||, all these speak only of glutinous mordants. The nut oil mentioned by Aetius was therefore used upon gilt ornaments as a varnish, not underneath the gilt as a mordant. Eraclius is distinct on this point also ; * Trattato della Pittura, c. 91. 151. &c. f Antiquitates Italicse medii J£vi, vol. ii. fol. ed. \ De Coloribus et Artibus Romariorum. Published by Raspe, in his Critical Essay on Oil Painting. London, 1781. § Diversarum Artium Schedula. First published, in part, by Raspe ; recently at greater length, with a French translation, by De l'Escalopier, Paris and Leipzig, 184-3 ; and now about to be published entire, from a newly discovered copy, with an English translation and notes, by Mr. Hendrie. || Manuel d'Iconographie Chretienne. Paris, 1845. c 3 22 THE ANCIENTS. he mentions the application of varnish to gildings.* It is therefore clear that an oil varnish, composed either of inspissated nut oil or of nut oil combined with a dissolved resin, was employed on gilt sur- faces and pictures, with a view to preserve them, at least as early as the fifth century. It may be added, that a writer who could then state, as if from his own experience, that" such varnishes had the effect of preserving works u for a long time," can hardly be understood to speak of a new invention. Leonardo da Vinci, writing a thousand years after Aetius, recommends, as a varnish, nut oil thickened in the sun.f After the sixth century, as before observed, the practice of medicine, and that of painting also, remained for a long period almost exclusively in the hands of the monks. The Lucca manuscript above referred to, published by Muratori, is placed by Mabillon in the time of Charlemagne. J That treatise acquires a new interest from the im- portant passage above quoted from Aetius. The * " Quomodo vernicietur aurum ne perdat colorem. — Si aurum super gypsum positum verniciare volueris, non de puro vernicio, sed de illo colore qui efficitur ad aurumpetrum faci- endum, mixto tamen cum oleo modico vernicio, ne sit spissum nimis, vernicietur super aurum." — Erac. De Col. et Art. Rom. Cennini, on the contrary, directs that gilt ornaments are not to be varnished. t Trattato, Roma, 1817, p. 256. \ The emperor died at the age of seventy-one, in 814. The " time of Charlemagne " was therefore chiefly in the eighth century. THE ANCIENTS. 23 monks may be supposed to have had leisure to make experiments with the oils ; and, guided perhaps by the strong expressions of the early Greek medical writers on the siccative quality of linseed, they had now ascertained that the oil which it furnished was at least as drying as the customary nut oil. A varnish, composed of linseed oil (lineleon) * and a needless variety of resins, with which gums even appear to be intermixed, is described in the Lucca document f, while nut * " Lineleon ex semine lini fiet," are the words of the MS. f The orthography, as given by Muratori, is here preserved. *' De Lucide ad lucidas. Super colores quale fieri debet. Lineleon -r- a 4 tereventina -r- 2 galbanum -r- 2 larice -~- 3 libanum -r- 3 murra -4- 3 raastice 3 veronice -r- 1 gumma cerasi -t- 2 flore puppli -j- gumma amygdalina 2 resina sap- pini -T- 2 quae pisande sunt pisa et grilela et cum superius mitte in gabata auricalca. Et mitte in forniculiclo et sine flamma coce ut non exeat foras et post cola cum linteo mun- dum. Et si radaverint, decoque ; et usque dum spissa fiant, et qualibet opera picta aut scarpilata inlucidare super debeas. Et pone ad sole. Desicca illam." Translation. — " Mixture of transparent substances, forming a varnish to be applied to coloured surfaces. Linseed oil 4 parts, turpentine resin 2, galbanum 2, larch resin 3, frankincense 3, myrrh 3, mastic 3, amber or sandarac 1, cherry-tree gum 2, ( ?) 1, almond-tree gum 2, fir resin 2. Pound and sift the dry materials, and put the whole, with the oil above mentioned, in a bronze vessel. Place the vessel on a furnace ; let the fire be without flame, that the ingredients may not boil over. Afterwards strain through linen. If the composition be too a As the sign -r- is common to all the ingredients, any quantity may be assumed. c 4 24 THE ANCIENTS. oil is nowhere mentioned in it. The age of Charle- magne was an era in the arts; and the addition of linseed oil to the materials of the varnisher and decorator may thus, on the above evidence, be assigned to it. From this time, and during many ages, the lin- seed oil varnish, though composed of simpler materials (such as sandarac and mastic resin boiled in the oil) *, alone appears in the recipes hitherto brought to light. An unsuccessful attempt, here- after to be mentioned more particularly, was made in the fourteenth century, to introduce nut oil in painting; but that vehicle, after having been so long discarded, appears to have been first restored to some share of favour by Van Eyck, in the begin- ning of the fifteenth century. Thenceforward the (nut or linseed) oil varnish, as distinguished again from varnishes composed of resins dissolved in essential oils, still continued to be exclusively used till the close of the fifteenth, or beginning of the sixteenth, century; when the Italians, who had already adopted a different ' system from the first improvers of oil painting, began to employ the essential oil varnishes. thin, boil again till it becomes thickened. This mixture is to be employed as a varnish on any work in painting or sculp- ture. Place the work, when varnished, in the sun to dry." Even allowing for the effect of the liquid resins, the proportion of oil is so small in this composition that the varnish, after boiling, must have been of the thickest kind. * Mappae Clavicula, c. 25. THE ANCIENTS. 25 The treatises of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have a peculiar interest ; since they may- be considered to represent the state of the art at the period when Cimabue adopted it from the Greeks : but the same general methods, inherited from Agnolo Gaddi by Cennini, reappear (in the Trattato delta Pittura of the latter), but little altered, as regards oil painting, in the early part of the fifteenth century. This slow progression is only to be explained by the traditional estimation in which tempera was held ; for, if we place ourselves in the situation of the painters of the fourteenth century, it will appear, from the facts that have been adduced, that a fund of experience, greater than has been generally supposed to exist, was then accessible. The vague impression that prevailed, at the revival of letters, respecting the buried know- ledge of antiquity, stimulated inquiries into the writings of classic authors. Van Eyck, according to a contemporary Italian historian*, consulted such authorities with profit ; and the friars who studied medicine applied themselves with fresh ardour to the works of Dioscorides, Galen, and their * Bartolommeo Facio (commonly Latinised into Facius) wrote his work De Viris illustribus, in 1456 ; it appears to have been first published in 1745. Speaking of Van Eyck, he ob- serves : " Putaturque . . . multa de colorum proprietatibus invc- nisse, quae ab antiquis tradita, ex Flinii et aliorum auctorum lectione didicerat." 26 THE ANCIENTS. folio wers. Some experiments and observations applicable to the humbler technicalities of painting, which occur in the works of those writers, may not have escaped notice at a time when inven- tion was everywhere on the alert, and when that spirit was compatible with utmost veneration for the ancients. The following directions for rendering oil colour- less are given by Dioscorides. " Oil is bleached in this manner. Select it of a light colour, and not more than a year old; pour about five gallons into a new earthenware vessel of an open form, place it in the sun, and daily at noon dip and pour back the oil with a ladle, beating up its surface till, by constant agitation, it is thoroughly immixed and made to foam." The oil is to be thus treated for several days; the ingredients afterwards added (macerated Trigonella and resinous pine- wood shavings) are unimportant; but in conclusion it is observed, if " the remainder " of the oil (the aqueous portion being evaporated) " be not sufficiently bleached, place it again in the sun, repeating the above operation, till it becomes colourless."* * "JLXaiov Xevicov. — AevKaiverai sXaiov ovru). \a€wv to rrj Xpoq. jJilv Xevkop, rj/v rjXtKiar de irXiov kviavoiov, tJX e£ Kepafiovv ayyelov irXarvcrrofiov kcuvov, earuxrav Se. fjcirpo) KorvXai p'. eiTa Seiq v/Xtw Seteov avTO. /cat ipyaoTEOV ayjtig ov Xevkov yevrfTai. — Dios. 1. i. c. 32. "Oleum candidum. — Candidum redditur oleum sequenti modo. Sumito album colore nec anniculo vetustius, et in fictile novum lati oris infundito centum heminarum mensura. Dein soli ex- positum quotidie circa meridiem concha refundito, ex alto de- turbans, ut continua motitatione et concussione agitatum mutetur et spumescat. Octava die fcenum Graecum purgatum drach- marum quinquaginta pondere aquaque calida maceratum atque adeo remollitum, aqua interim neutiquam expressa, in supra- dictum oleum conjicito. Insuper addito taedam pineam perquani pinguem et in tenues assulas concisam pari pondere, itaque dies alios octo elabi sinito. His transactis concha oleum denuo con- fundito. Quod superest, si finem assecutum fuerit, in vas novum — defundito ac recondito. Sin autem nondum (candorem con- traxerit) oleum rursus insolandum et opus ipsum repetendum donee candidum evaserit." * Trattato, c. 92. The passage will be given in another chapter ; examples of the same practice in the time of Rubens will also be referred to. 28 THE ANCIENTS. for that of medicine, in consequence of studying Dioscorides.* The efficacy of certain ingredients in accele- rating the drying of oils was also known to the ancients. Information on this subject was open to the early oil painters in the following observations of Galen : " Litharge dries like all the other metal- lic medicinal preparations t ; " and elsewhere, " white lead and litharge are astringent and drying." J A medical writer of the fourth century writes thus. " Place some [olive] oil in a new vessel, and put it over a moderate fire, then add well ground litharge, sprinkling it little by little with the hand; stir constantly till the oil begins to thicken/' § These passages are specimens of many such in ancient medical authors (beginning with Hippocrates) re- lating to the siccative quality of metallic oxides. It is, therefore, surprising that Theophilus, pro- bably residing in Germany, and representing the * Vasari, Vita di Antonio Yeneziano. This painter appears to have been too old to be a scholar of Agnolo Gaddi (Lanzi, v. i. p. 41.), but it is at least certain that he lived about the same time. He was at work in the Campo Santo, at Pisa, in 1387. j" Aidapyvpog ^rjpalvei fxev axnrep Kcii rciXXa 7ravra ra fXETaWiica — tyapficiKa. — De simpl. Med. L ix. c. 3. § 17. \ tyifivQiov yovv koX Xtdapyvpog ffrv P- 76 * E 50 EARLIEST PRACTICE ing. The same materials constantly reappear, but there is no direct allusion to their use, except as regards the process of varnishing. Such pas- sages as the following refer to the commonest operations of this kind : — "To the same [Stephen Le Joigneur] for varnishing two coffers, 8d. To Stephen Ferron, for twenty lb. of white, 2s. To the same, for one gallon of honey, 12c?. Item: for one gallon of white wine, 3d. Item: for small brushes (?) and eggs, Z\d. Item: for yellow, 6 d. Item: for size, 12c?."* Other accounts relating to operations in the same locality include a variety of materials : but the surest indication that some of the work was of a superior kind is the frequent mention of eggs, the proper tempera vehicle for all finer painting. The use of wine in diluting glutinous vehicles was common for a long period : in the quotations already given, from St. Audemar and others, it is frequently mentioned. Vasari relates that the facetious Buffalmacco persuaded some nuns, for whom he painted, to supply him with their choicest wine, ostensibly for the purpose of diluting the colours. f The Northern artists were sometimes content to use beer ; the word (cervisia) is to be met with in early treatises on art ; for example, in Eraclius and Theophilus %: its occurrence may per- * " Willielmo Pictori ct socio suo pro pictura xn. mutarum XX xxxvi. s. Eidem pro — ■ xn. li. de viridi ad idem lxxy. s. vii. mi. d. ob. Stephano Ferroni pro xx. li. albi n. s. Eidem pro i. gallon mellis xn. d. Item, pro i. gallon vini albi in. d. Item, pro bersis et ovis m. d. ob. Item, in croco vi. d. Item, pro coli xn. d." f Vasari, Vita di Buonamico Buffalmacco. J Beer is still commonly used by decorative painters for grain- ing. Its peculiar fitness, as a very weak glutinous medium, 110 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY haps be considered an indication of the transalpine origin of a MS., as it never appears in Italian docu- ments. In the accounts relating to works executed in the chapel of S. Jacopo, at Pistoja, in 1347, certain quantities of wine are mentioned as part of the wages of the painters "pro eorum mercede:"* the quantity furnished to William of Westminster is too small to have been allowed for this purpose. The mention of white wine seems to indicate that the vehicle was intended for light colours. The Strassburg MS. directs red wine to be mixed with a violet colour: in the British Museum MS., quoted in a former chapter, " good and very clear white wine " is preferred for green. f Judging from some existing specimens, it would appear that the early painters of Nuremberg used this honey vehicle. If so, the method, like the cloth-painting of the "frater Theotonicus," might be supposed to have found its way to Venice ; but, with the exception of Gentile da Fabriano, who was in Venice for a considerable time, there is seldom any appearance of a more than ordinary fusion of tints in the early works of that school. The tempera pictures of Crivelli are even remarkable for the laboured treatment before mentioned. It would be for fixing certain preparations before the application of var- nish, is well known. * Ciampi, Notizie inedite della Sagrestia Pistoiese, Firenze, 1810, p. 146. f Le Begue, again, speaks of " tres bon vin blanc " to be used in a mordant for gilding. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Ill desirable to ascertain whether the altar-piece in- scribed "Johannes de Alamania et Antonius de Murano, p. 1445.," now in the public gallery in Venice, exhibits a different execution, as that work was undoubtedly painted, in part, by a German artist. Other English Methods of the same Period. With the exception of the peculiarities in practice that have been described, the technical processes in England during the fourteenth century closely resembled those of Italy. This is apparent, if we compare the records of the works executed at West- minster during that and the preceding age, with early Italian documents and treatises ; the English methods occasionally indicate even greater precau- tions, chiefly with a view to intercept damp. Walls which were to receive paintings of figures appear to have been prepared with cloth glued over the surface* : sometimes leaf-tin was found immediately * Such expressions as " pro veteri panno, panno, eanabi, canevas," and more particularly " Nicholao Chaunfer pro xv. ulnis de canevace emptis pro coopertura ymaginum re- gum depingenda vi. s. vm. d." (1353), seem to refer to this practice. In the documents relating to the Duomo of Orvieto we find : " i. libra et in. den. pro pretio quorundam petiorum panni lini veteris pro angelis impanandis." The date is 1351. {Delia Valle, Storia del Duomo oV Orvieto, Roma, 1791, p. 281.) The method is thus generally alluded to by Sandrart : " As they feared that the walls might crack, they glued linen over them, then laid a ground of gypsum, and painted their pictures in tempera." — Teutsche Acad., part i. p. 66. 112 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY next the wall, even under gilt plaster ornaments.* Wood was generally covered either with parchment, leather, or linen, f Plaster of Paris, the careful preparation of which for the purposes of painting is described by writers earlier than Cennini, was used for grounds. J The common parchment size was employed for tempering the gesso or plaster, and as the ordinary vehicle for painting (with or without the addition of honey) ; the egg medium being reserved for finer work. This agrees with the practice of wall-painting described by Vasari when speaking of the ancient Italian methods. His words are: "Walls, when dry, should receive one or two coats of warm size, the work being then executed entirely with colours tempered with it : and any one wishing to mix the colours with size will find no difficulty, observing the same general rules as in painting with yolk of egg ; nor will the paintings be the worse for being so executed." § The fish-glue, so often mentioned in the Westmin- ster accounts, was employed for carpentry. || * Gage Rokewode's Account, &c. p. 16. f Pownall found parchment under a tempera picture of the time of Richard II. (Archceologia, v. 9.) " Pellis " is mentioned in the Westminster account-rolls. J " In cole, plastro Paris," &c. (1347.) A chapter headed " Ad faciendum gessum subtile " occurs in one of the MSS. of Al- cherius. § Vasari, Introd. c. 20. || " Johanni Lovekyn pro c. greylingsondes emptis pro bordis conjungendis m. s. (1353)." Compare Smith's Antiq. of West- minster, p. 183. 200. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 113 Parchment, as well as " royal paper," was used for certain patterns (not worthy to be called car- toons) which served to transfer designs in the decoration of St. Stephen's Chapel.* A mode of preparing them is described in the Illuminir-Buch of Boltzen, a work which will be more particu- larly referred to in the note at the end of this chapter. The uses of parchment, in the operations of the English painters, explain some terms in a record (in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart.) which is quoted in Gage Rokewode's Account of the Painted Chamber, p. 12. " P skrowys ad inde fac cole t pronnos [patronos] ;"f that is, " for parchments to make size and patterns." The word " scrow " is used as synonymous with parch- ment in an early English manual, called A very proper Treatise, wherein is breefely set forth the Art of Limning. J * " Johanni Lambard pro n. quaternis papiri regalis emptis pro patronis pictorum xx. d. — Eidem [Georgio Cosyn] pro i. quaterna papiri regalis empta pro patronis pictarie [sic] inde faciendis x. d. [1353]." f The date is 1307. \ "Imprinted at London by Thomas Purfoot, 1596." At the end of the book ; " Finished Anno Dom. 1573." See, also, in Johnson's Dictionary, the derivation of the word " scroll." The technical term "size" originally meant a solid compo- sition applied as a ground for gilding. It was chiefly used for raised or " ingrossed " letters : the manuals on illuminating abound with receipts for it. The origin of the term is to be found in the MSS. of Alcherius, where it is called " assisium, Gallice assise ; " that is, a layer, or foundation (for gilding). The older Italian and Spanish writers on art employ the word I 114 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY It is not necessary here to investigate the precise nature of the various colours used in this country, or elsewhere, during the fourteenth century ; but the subject is so far important as the materials may be found to have a connexion with the style of the period : a few observations on certain terms that have occasionally been the subject of inquiry may, also, not be out of place. Among the colours used by the English artists, the words "tin etas" and "teint" often occur. They probably represent the inferior lake made from brazil wood, and called in the Strassburg MS. " roselin varw." The direc- tions for preparing it are among the commonest formulae of the missal-painters. u Bresil" is men- tioned, together with the grain dye extracted from crimson cloth, among the English receipts collected by Theodoric of Flanders, and preserved by Alcherius. Tn another of the MSS. of the latter (Experimenta de Coloribus), the word is written berxilium, berxinum, and versinum, thus show- "sisa"in a like sense (Alessio, Secreti; Pacheco, Arte de Pintura). The " syze " of the early English writers has the same meaning. The Strassburg MS. speaks of " ein gut assis zu golde : " the form is here perhaps an indication of the early date of that manual, or rather of its original. The author of the Proper Treatise uses the expression " to ingross" (applied to raised letters) in the sense of the Italian " sgrossare ; " to reduce or scrape the surface of the " sisa " so as to fit it to re- ceive the gold leaf. Ingrossed letters were thus necessarily gilt letters. At a later period, for example in Shakspeare's time, the term " engrossed " appears to have had reference to the magnitude only of the written character. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 115 ing the origin of the Italian term verzino. It is scarcely necessary to remark that the tree must have given its name to the country, not the country its name to the tree ; if, as is com- monly assumed, there is any connexion between the two. Brazil wood is mentioned in MSS. on painting written some centuries before the discovery of America. # The origin of the term appears to be either the Spanish brasas or the Italian brage (glowing coals), in reference to the colour. Chaucer, in the " Nonnes Preestes Tale," alludes to it thus : — " He looketh as a sparhauk with his eyen, Him nedeth not his colour for to dien With brazil, ne with grain of Portingale." The poet could not want illustrations from the sister art, as he was appointed Clerk of the Works at Westminster, by Richard II., in 1389, with the pay, for that and other duties of the kind, of two shillings a day. It will be observed that the colours noticed by him are the same as those described in the English receipts before mentioned. f The insect * The tree in the eastern hemisphere, which is said to re- semble most nearly the American Cresalpinia Crista or (modern) brazil wood, is the Ceesalpinia Sappan, a native of India. It may have been imported into Europe by the Vene- tians and the Moors. In an early MS. on painting, once in the Library of Montpelier, now in that of the Sorbonne at Paris, we read : " Lignum brasilium nascitur in partibus Alexan- drite et est rubei coloris." ] The extract of brazil, which fades in oil, was esteemed, not without reason, by the illuminators. There are speci- i 2 116 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY called kermes by the Moors furnished the colour and name of crimson (kermesino, cremesino) ; sometimes called grain, from the prepared material. The grain of Portugal was celebrated from the time of Pliny to that of Chaucer.* The word vermi- culus, the older form for vermilion, also refers to this insect in the earlier treatises. In the accounts relating to St. Stephen's Chapel, in the time of Edward III., madder lake appears under the names " cynople," " sinopre." The word must have been originally intended for " sinopis" (strictly, a red earth), f That, in the documents referred to, it meant lake, is proved by various circumstances. In the MSS- of Alcherius we read that " sinopis is a colour redder than vermilion ; it is also called cinobrium and mellana, and is made mens of the tint itself in the Venetian MS. The evidence as to the identity of the colour is somewhat singular. The writer, after describing a mode of preparing a bright red " cholore de grana " with " braxile overo lo verzino," observes that even after it is dry in the shell it may be diluted (with a solution of alum in vinegar) ; and that then, though paler, it is still good for writing. He continues : " the title of this receipt was written with the tint of the second quality, after the first infusion was dry." The title is, " A fare questo cholore e anchora piu bello che none questo : probatu." The other rubrick titles are of a brighter red tint, having, perhaps, been written with the first infusion. * " Granum . . . circa Emeritam Lusitaniae, in maxima laude est." — L. ix. c. 65. " Grana " is noted in a list of colours in the Montpelier MS. f For a description of its varieties, see John, Die Malerei der Alten, p. 123. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 117 from madder."* Again; "sinopis is otherwise composed of madder and the lake above de- scribed,"! viz. a lake prepared from ivy gum. J In the British Museum MS. (fourteenth century) before quoted, sinopis is described as a composition of " lacta " and madder. § In the Proper Treatise " synapour lake " is noticed. Lastly, St. Audemar observes that sinopis is " very costly : " accord- ingly it is the highest-priced colour in the records. The most expensive azure (probably "azurro della Magna") in the accounts now adverted to was ten shillings the lb. ; the best cynople was thirty shillings the lb. || The cheaper kind was perhaps mixed with ivy lake. On one occasion Hugh of St. Alban's pro- cured the cynople of Montpelier (the great manu- factory and emporium of colours for some centuries) * " Sinopis est color magis rubeus quam vermiculus, aliter dicitur cinobrium, aliter mellana, et fit de Varancia." f " Et aliter sinopis fit ex Varancia et lacha superscripta." \ Obtained by making incisions in the branches of ivy " in the month of March." — St. Audemar. § " Si vis facere optimam sinopidem accipe lactam et Waranciam et coque," &c. Elsewhere : " Rubia major, id est, AVaranz [Garance]." The Indian lac lake may be referred to in the following passage (MSS. of Alch.) : " Item ad faciendam lacham tolle unciam unara lache que est quedam gumma dicta lacha," &c. || "Eidem [Johanni Lightgrave] pro in. lb. de asure emptis pro eadem pictura precium lb. x. s. xxx. s. Eidem pro i. lb. de cynople empta pro pictura dicte capelle xxx. s. [1353]." In accounts of Edward the First's time (1294-) the best azure was twenty-six shillings the lb. i 3 118 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY at eight shillings the lb.* A colour called sinopis, which cost four shillings the lb. in the time of Ed- ward I. (1292), may have been of the same inferior quality. The directions for preparing these and other brilliant reds are not more numerous, in the trea- tises of the fourteenth century, than the receipts relating to the favourite green, " viride Graecum" (vert de Grece, verdigris). The term " viride" alone, which also occurs in the Westminster accounts, appears to be intended for it. Green earth is distinguished in the MSS. by the epithet " ter- restre," and sap greens by other designations. The " broun " mentioned in the records was a red earth : the term perhaps comprehended various kinds. The early painters, accustomed to apply the epithet "red" to lake, kermes grain, and vermilion, looked upon red ochres and bole as brown colours : the last-named material was more especially so designated. In a sort of vocabulary prefixed to the MSS. of Alcherius, we read : " Brown I believe to be Armenian bole ; the word is elsewhere used for i dragon's blood,' which is nearly of the colour of bole."* In the Proper Treatise before quoted, all * "Magistro Hugoni de Sancto Albano pro n. lb. de cynopre de Monte Pessalono precium lb. vin. s. xvi. s. [1353]." "I" " Brunus est color quern puto esse bularminium ; alibi ponitur pro sanguine drachonis, qui quasi coloris bularminii est." The adhesive nature of bole, as well as its colour, rendered it an eligible ingredient in the composition of grounds for gilding. The Italian term " brunire," to polish, may perhaps be traced DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 119 ochres are called browns, and the mixture of " white with a good quantity of red " (the colour not being specified) is described as making " a sadde browne." It is to be remembered that the word " sad," ap- plied to colours, meant deep or dark; it is used in this sense by the author last cited : for exam- ple, " two parts azure and one of cereuse, sadded with the same azure " ; again : take " two parts synapour and a third of cerius, and lay it on thy vinets [foliage] # , and when it is dry, sadde it with good synapour." The equivalent term is "to enew " (enough), that is, to saturate : " enewed or sadded with good ochre." These terms agree with the early practice of art ; shadow, with the medieval painters, was equivalent to the deep- ening of the local tint. Coarse and monotonous as the result was, in their hands, such a view of nature was, by the colourists, sometimes made compatible with the largest style of imitation. f The brown of to the burnishing of gold on Armenian bole (or brunus). Com- pare Vasari, Introduzione, c. 28., and Vita di Margaritone. * " Trace all thy letters, and set thy vinets or flowers, and then thy imagery if thou wilt have any." Though written, as it appears, after the middle of the sixteenth century, this Treatise frequently describes the practice of a much earlier age. It was probably copied from an older manual. f From the examples given it is, at the same time, apparent that the term " sad " (employed as above) corresponded with the German " satt " (Latin " sat ") and only resembled the word " shadow " accidentally. In the Strassburg MS. the two ex- pressions appear together, the latter being somewhat disguised by the mode of spelling. " UfF itelm zinober sol man schetwen mit paris rot oder mit sattem roselin." " Pure vermilion should i 4- 120 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY the Westminster artists may have been the Spanish brown, which, if early writers describe it correctly, resembled Indian red.* With this and indigo the darkest shadows were made. " Indebas et broun " sometimes occur together at the end of the list of materials, as if representing the shadow colours. In the Strassburg MS., indigo, broken with other colours, is used for all darks, except in the flesh : in the Proper Treatise it is called " an Indian black." It appears frequently in account-rolls of the time of Edward I. and Edward II. ; but rarely in those of the next reign, when St. Stephen's Chapel was rebuilt and splendidly decorated. This can only be explained by the imperfect state of the existing records, as the colour was universally em- ployed in the fourteenth century, and the " London indigo " (no doubt imported directly from the Levant) was celebrated at a much later period. The synonymes of indigo are curious. In the earlier English accounts relating to operations in painting (1274), this colour is called Indebas; in the MSS. of Alcherius we read, "indicum finum qui cognomine bagadellus vocatur ; " a similar term in the same MS. is explained by the observation be shaded with lake or with deep brazil red." Again : " Miisch dar under enwenig wis weder ze liecht und [noch] ze satt und schetwe daruff mit sattem spangriin." Take green and " mix a little white with it [making a tint] neither too light nor too dark, and shade thereon with deep verdigris." * See the Art of Painting in Oyl, by John Smith, 1687, p. 21. Haslam found a red oxide of iron among the remains of colours in St. Stephen's Chapel. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 121 "c'est a dire baguedel." The Montpelier MS. speaks of "indicum de bagadeo;" the Venetian MS. calls it " indigo bago ; " Cennini mentions it under the name of " indigo baccadeo " (on one occasion, even " maccabeo"). The following note on this colour, in De l'Escalopier's Theophilus, sufficiently explains all these corruptions. " The most esteemed of the indigoes was that of Bagdad ; it was called 4 indigo bagadel.' The tariffs of Mar- seilles speak of it under that name, as early as the year 1228."* Azura, lazura, is the blue copper ore called by the Italians Azurro della Magna (d'Allemagna), and often simply Azurro. In the statutes of the Sienese painters (1355), the artists are enjoined to provide the real colours which, in their contracts, they promise to use ; and not to substitute " Azurro della Magna for Azurro oltramarino, nor biadetto, nor indigo for Azurro." f Biadetto, in the Vene- tian MS. called "bladetus de Inde," is the pale mineral blue which was termed cendre d'azur, and la cendree in the time of Rubens. De Mayerne says, " la cendree is made of the blue stone which comes from India, and which is found in silver mines." Elsewhere he gives its synonyme, "cendre d'azur, beis." J In the Westminster accounts we * Theopliile, &c. p. 298. f Gaye, Carteggio inedito d' Artisti, Firenze, 1839 — 1840, vol. ii. p. 7. J Elsewhere, " la bice des Indes " and " la cendree d'azur 122 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY find Azura and Pura azura distinguished from Bis azura or azura debilis * : the term "bisso," in Cen- nini, may be connected with these designations. As the pigments called brown were by no means dark, it would appear that the painters of the fourteenth century, who restricted them- selves to the materials which have been de- scribed, with their imperfect notions of light and shade, had no means of producing strength of effect but by local colours. The light scale of their flesh tints seems, however, in some instances, to have influenced the treatment of the rest of the work. The picture at Cologne, before referred to, is of this pale character ; the two interesting altar- pieces (formerly in the Chartreuse near Dijon, and now in the Museum of that city,) painted in 1391 for Philip the Bold of Burgundy f have the same delicate tone. Works of this period are rare; but if, as Smith supposed, the wall-paintings of the dite en Anglois bice." De Mayerne, also, states that a similar colour was found in the Ardennes. Compare Field, Chromato- graphy, 1835, p. 113. * In accounts belonging to the time of Edward I. (1294), "bis azura " is four and five shillings the lb. The best " azure" (called "fin," "pura," and "optima"), as before stated, being then twenty-six shillings the lb. In 1353 (Edward III.) "azura debilis" is five, and "azura" ten, shillings the lb. f The prince who, when scarcely fifteen years of age, fought at the side of his father, King John of France, at the battle of Poictiers, and was taken prisoner with him (1356). Those illustrious captives, with many other foreigners of rank, saw the Chapel of St. Stephen in its finished state, and, at that period, could imbibe a love for art in England. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 123 Chapter House at Westminster were executed in the middle of the fourteenth century *, they may be classed among the most interesting specimens of transalpine art of that period extant . The gene- ral character of the colouring in these paintings resembles that of the time ; but the local tints are forcible, and the execution is not without a feeling for roundness. It would be desirable to compare these remains (for portions only are well preserved) with some works executed at Ghent, Ypres, and Cologne, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Certain technical operations, characteristic of the art of the period, which are to be traced in the English decorations, closely correspond with those described in the early writers. The gilding in St. Stephen's Chapel was profuse ; the use of leaf- tin, according to the account-rolls, was equally abundant. Leaf-silver, on the contrary, is rarely mentioned in the later records. This is perhaps explained by the following observation of Cennini. * When some of the presses were removed in 1801, " repre- sentations of angels were discovered to have been painted on the walls, which Mr. Smith minutely examined, and found to resemble those in St. Stephen's Chapel, engraven for this work. From a close comparison of the style of colouring, and from the general character of all of them, Mr. Smith is thoroughly persuaded that the paintings in both buildings were executed by the same artists." — Antiquities of Westminster, p. 226. note. Other portions of the walls, covered with paint- ings, have since been visible : the small and ill executed figures in those compartments appear to be later in date. See the note at the end of Chap. VI. 124 PRACTICE OF PAINTING GENERALLY "Above all, remember to use as little silver as pos- sible; because it does not last, but turns black on walls and on wood, especially on walls. Use, in pre- ference, leaves of tin. Beware, also, of gold that is much alloyed, for it quickly turns black." * All the documents before mentioned, from the Lucca MS. downwards, speak of tin-foil, and of its use, by means of a yellow varnish, to imitate gold. Ves- tiges of this lacker, the auripetrum of Eraclius, were found by Haslam on some fragments from St. Stephen's Chapel, that were submitted to his examination. The gold leaf, he remarks, "was of great purity." f The impressions of patterns on gilt grounds, and the ornaments in relief, observable in early Italian pictures, are frequently referred to in the English accounts. The directions of Cennini, and the terms employed in those records, mutually explain each other. The Italian describes the operation of par- tially roughening or indenting (granare) the gilt field by means of a pattern stamp (rosetta). In the Westminster records (1353), we find "stamps for printing the painting with impressions J ;" with other entries of the same kind. Embossed orna- ments, sometimes gilt, sometimes covered with leaf- tin lackered or variously coloured, studded many * Trattato, cap. 95. f Smith, Antiq. of Westminster, p. 224. J "Pro stupis emptis pro impressionibus picture impri- mendis n. d." The origin of "stupis " is, perhaps, to be sought in the German "stupfel," punchion. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 125 parts of the interior of the chapel. Descriptions of similar methods occur in Cennini (c. 102 — 130.). The mode of preparing the leaf-tin cut into the proper forms, to be applied either on the raised ornaments or alone, is also fully detailed by that writer (c. 97 — 101.). Numerous passages in the Westminster accounts show that the English prac- tice was the same.* The insertion of gems (or imitations of them), Anglice " nouches," in the raised diadems of saints is not omitted by the Italian (c. 124.), and the process is to be re- cognised in some items of earlier accounts belong- ing to the time of Edward I.f Some details respecting the implements described by Cennini, and mentioned in the English records, are given in the note at the end of this chapter. It is thus evident that, with the exception of such modifications in technical processes as the difference of climate required, the habits of the English painters in the fourteenth century closely resembled those of the followers of Giotto. As already remarked, this is easily explained by the bond of union which existed between religious * " Pro vi. duodenis foliorum stanni emptis pro preyntes inde faciendis pro pictura dicte capelle vi. s." Similar entries are frequent. "In cotone empta pro preyntes depictis cubandis. . . . Cubantibus aurum tarn super dictis parietibus quam super posicione preyntorum super columpnis marmoreis." (1353 — 1355.) * "Item in vi. nouchis v. s. . . . In tribus nouchis n. s. vi. d." (1249.) 126 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT establishments, the members of which (as has been seen in many instances) were chiefly active in collecting and communicating information on prac- tical points. In all that belonged to the higher elements of art, in all that the dull descriptions of the monks could not convey, the Italians, during this period, commonly surpassed their transalpine rivals; but in mechanical details they were indebted, in their turn, to the artists of the North. In order to complete the general view of the state of art, technically considered, in the four- teenth century, some particulars respecting the state of fresco painting and wax painting, at that time, are added in the next chapter. NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURO. {Marled A. VI. No. 19.) This manuscript is stated by competent judges to have been written in the fifteenth century, but the methods which it describes, like those in Cennini, the Venetian MS., and other compendiums of the kind, belong for the most part to an earlier period. This is apparent, not only from internal evidence as regards the methods themselves, but from the circumstance of the manual having been avowedly compiled Trom other autho- rities and documents. For example : " This relates to colours [the preparation of] which Meister Heinrich von Liibegge IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 127 taught me." Elsewhere ; " This Meister Andres von Colmar taught me."* From other expressions it is equally clear that certain portions were transcribed from an older MS. The receipts for the preparation of colours used in illuminat- ing resemble those in the treatise of St. Audemar, the Venetian and Montpelier MSS. f, and other early authorities. The nature of the materials sometimes employed in this branch of art need not surprise us when their peculiar application is remembered. The colours, though chiefly extracted from flowers and vegetable substances and too evanescent for general use, were found to last in manuscripts, because light and air were excluded from them. This experience was not lost on the painters of larger works executed with more durable materials, such as altar-pieces ; the ancient custom of enclosing these in shrines undoubtedly tended to preserve them, and was therefore long retained. The colours for illuminating were commonly preserved by steeping small pieces of linen in the tinted extracts, sometimes mixed with alkaline solutions. The process is minutely de- scribed in this MS. ; the dyes so prepared are there called " tiichlein varwen," literally " clothlet colours." The following passage from another compendium, the Venetian MS., gives the result in few words. " When the aforesaid pieces of cloth are dry, put them in a book of cotton paper, and keep the book under your pillow, that it may take no damp ; and, when you wish to use the colours, cut off a small portion [of the cloth], and place it in a shell with a little water, the evening before. In the morning the tint will be ready, the colour being ex- tracted from the linen." | This practice is alluded to by Cennini when he says : " You can shade with colours, and by means of * " Dis ist von varwen die mich lert Meister Heinrich von Liibegge." " Dis lehrt mich Meister Andres von Colmar." j" The latter speaks of "colores qui fiunt de succo herbarum et florum." | " E quando seranno seche le dite pece mitele 1 uno libro de charta bobaxina e tine lo libro soto lo chavezale aco che no pia umiditad e quando ne voi adoverar taiane uno puocho e mitelo amoio la sira I uno chaparaco con uno puocho de aq a la maitina sera fato e lo cholore foro de la peca." 3 28 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT small pieces of cloth, according to the process of the illumina- tors."* The German compiler, speaking of the preparation of a blue colour in this mode, say^ : "If you wish to make a beautiful clothlet blue colour according to the London practice," f &c. : after describing the method of preparing it he adds : " These [pieces of cloth] may be preserved fresh and brilliant, without any change in their tints, for twenty years ; and this colour, in Paris and in London, is called [blue] for missals, and here in this country clothlet blue ; it is a beautiful and valuable colour." J The place denominated Lampten, mentioned together with Paris, can be no other than London. Instances of misspelling, quite as curious, occur in almost every line of this manuscript. But for the clue afforded by this connexion of the two names, representing two prominent schools of missal-painting, the adjective, "lampjschen — lampenschen," (for Londonschen) would have been unintelligible. It occurs thrice. The first instance has been already quoted ; afterwards we read : " If you wish to make a fine violet colour, take London indigo, and twice as much brasil extract," &c. § The third passage is re- markable. " This manual [another of the sources whence the MS. was compiled] teaches how to temper all colours for painting, and also for executing foliage [in illuminating], ac- cording to the practice of London ; likewise [treats] of all transparent colours, red, blue, &c. ; and how to make trans- parent parchment [size] as clear as glass. It teaches also how to prepare three kinds of gold size, and how to compose three kinds of varnish : and in the first place two aqueous vehicles * " Puoi fare ed ombrare di colori e di pezzuole secondo che i miniatori adoperano." — Trattato, cap. ] 0. f " Wellent ir schon fin tiichlinblau var machen nach lamp_t- schen sitten," &c. \ " Man mag sii 20 jar wol behalten frisch und schon das ir varwe niemer verwankt und dise varwe heisset ze paris und ze lampten vor misal und hie im land tiichlin blau und ist Hep und wert." § " Wiltu schon violvarw machen so nim lamptschen endich und zwurent als vil prisilien roter varwe," &c. IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 129 with which all colours may be tempered, and this is the first of such gum waters." * After the receipts for these, — consisting of a solution of gums, with and without the addition of honey and vinegar, — the transparent colours are described ; thus agreeing with the order indicated in the -prefatory statement. Having given these directions, which are somewhat diffuse, the writer ob- serves (in the words before quoted) : " I have now honestly and, to the attentive, amply taught how all colours are to be tempered, according to the Greek practice, with two aqueous vehicles." Whatever may be thought of the ignorance of the compiler, it is apparent that the epithet " Griechische" is here equivalent to the " Londonsche " before used.f The directions which immediately follow relate to the English size and honey vehicle before described. Then follows the preparation of oil for painting and for gold sizes ; lastly, the three varnishes are described ; the catalogue thus strictly agreeing with the pre- vious general statement. The observation respecting the " London practice " might, according to the strict interpretation of the words, relate only to the "two aqueous vehicles" first described ; but, when it is * " Dis buchlin lert wie men all varwen ternpjeren sol ze molen und ouch ze florieren nach lampenschen sitten und ouch von alien durchschinigen varwen rot blau und wie man durschinig bermit sol machen luter als ein glas. Es lert ouch machen drierleige gold grunde und lert ouch drierleige virnis machen und zu dem ersten 2 wasser damit man alle varwe tempiereren mag und ist dis das erst gumi wasser." The expression " zu dem ersten," " in the first place," is a form occurring repeatedly in the MS. It is here equivalent to a longer phrase. " First, then, to take the subjects which I have enumerated in due order, I begin by describing the pro- cesses which I first mentioned : the following are water-colour vehicles for painting and for executing foliage." f This may be explained by supposing that the epithet " Greek" occurred in the original compendium ; and the Ger- man compiler, after saying, in his own person, that the book which he was about to transcribe taught the London practice, may have afterwards copied the language of the original ; the older manual being derived perhaps from a Byzantine source. *K 130 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT found that the methods throughout agree literally with the "London practice," as far as that is recorded, it seems more than probable, that the compendium from which these receipts were borrowed contained a full account of the English methods which were in use during the fourteenth century. As regards the directions for oil painting, however, internal evidence rather warrants the conclusion that they are later than the other notices. After describing the size vehicle, the writer thus proceeds : — " How to temper all oil colours. — Now, I will also here teach how all colours are to be tempered with oil, better and [more] masterly than other painters ; and in the first place how the oil is to be prepared for the purpose, so that it may be limpid and clear, and that it may dry quickly. "How to prepare oil for the colours. — Take the oil of linseed, or of hempseed, or old nut oil, as much as you please, and put therein bones that have been long kept, calcined to whiteness, and an equal quantity of pumice stone ; let them boil in the oil, removing the scum. Then take the oil from the fire, and let it well cool ; and, if it is in quantity about a quart, add to it an ounce of white copperas ; this will diffuse itself in the oil, which will become quite limpid and clear. Afterwards strain the oil through a clean linen cloth into a clean basin, and place it in the sun for four days. Thus it will acquire a thick consistence, and also become as transparent as a fine crystal. And this oil dries very fast, and makes all colours beautifully clear, and glopsy besides. All painters are not acquainted with it : from its excellence it is called oleum preciosum, since half an ounce is well worth a shilling ; and with [this] oil all colours are to be ground and tempered. All colours should be ground stiffly, and then tempered to a half-liquid state, which should be neither too thick nor too thin. " These are the colours which should be tempered with oil. Vermilion, minium, lake, brasil red, blue bice, azure, indigo, and also black, yellow orpiment, red orpiment, ochre, face brown red, verdigris, green bice, and white lead. These are the oil colours and no more. Here observe that these colours are to be well ground in the oil, and at [last] with every colour mix three [that is, a few] drops of varnish, and then place every colour by itself in a clean cup, and paint what you IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 131 please. — With all the above mentioned colours a small quan- tity of calcined bone may be mixed, or a little white copperas about the size of a bean, in order to make the colour dry readily and well." * Then follow rules for the immixture of the colours, and the mode of shading each tint. From the mention of flesh colour, * " Wie man alle ouli varwen tpiere sol. — Nu wil ich ouch hie leren wie man alle varwen mit oli tpier sol bas und meisterlich denn ander moler und zu dem ersten wie man das oli dar zu bereiten sol das es luter und clor werde und dester gern bald troken werde. Wie man das oli zu den farwen bereiten sol. — Man sol nemen linsamen oli oder hanfsamen oli oder alt nus oli als vil man wil und leg darin alt gebrent wis bein und ouch als vil bimses und las das in dem oli erwallen und wirf den schum oben abe von dem oli und setz es ab dem fiire und las es wol erkulen und ist des olis ein mos so leg zwei lot galicen stein dar in in das oli und so zergat er in dem oli und wirt gar luter und ouch klar und dar nach so sige das oli durch ein rein lin tuchlin in ein rein bekin und setz das bekin mit dem oli an die sunne 4 tag so wirt das oli dik und ouch luter als ein schoner cristall und dis oli das troknet gar bald und macht alle varwe schon luter und ouch glantz und umb dis oli wussent nut alle moler und von der guti dis olis so heisset es oleum preciosum wand 1 lot ist wol eines schillinges wert und mit olin sol man alle varwen riben und ouch tpief alle varwen in der diki riben und ouch tpier als ein halber bri der weder ze dik noch ze diinne si. " Dis sint die varwen die man mit oli tpiere sol zu dem ersten zinober nimien paris rot roselin rot liech blau lazur endich und ouch swartz opiment gel ruschelicht verger antlit brunrot spangriin endich griin und ouch bliwis. " Dis sint die oli varwen und nut me hie merke dis varwen sol man alle gar wol riben mit dem oli und ze . . . a so sol man under ieglich varwe drie troph virnis riben und tu denn ie die varw sunder in ein rein geschirr und wiirke do mit was du wilt — under alle dise vorgn. varwe mag man en wenig wises wolge- brentes beines riben oder en wenig wisses galicen steines als gros als ein bone umb das die varwe gern und wol troken werdent." a A word is wanting in the copy, the original having been perhaps illegible. k 2 132 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT "libvar, libvarw," and the directions for painting faces, hands, and undraped portions, "antlit und hende und do das bild nakent ist," it would appear that oil painting was sometimes employed for figures, when the original manual was written ; at the same time it is to be remarked that the primi- tive nature of the mode of painting which is described, indicates a very early date. With respect to the colours above enumerated, Paris rot (Paris red), according to the MS. itself, was lake. As before stated, the treatises of the fourteenth century, particularly those written in France, speak of madder lake under the name of Sinopis, the name which it bears in the Westminster records. Roselin rot is described as a preparation from brasil wood (presilien holtz). The liech blau (licht blau) corresponds with the " azura debilis " of the English records, and both answer to biadetto. Ruschelich, sometimes written riischegel (rauschgelb), is red orpiment or realgar. Orpiment is noted in accounts of the time of Edward L, and appears in the records of Ely. Black * is mentioned among the materials of the Westminster artists, but it seems that it was chiefly used by the glass- painters for drawing their outlines on white boards, which served instead of cartoons. No dryers are named in the accounts ; they may be comprehended in such expressions as " et aliis minutis — coloribus et aliis," &c. The materials may be sup- posed to have been familiar ; calcined bones, in particular, were used in painting as early as the twelfth century. In the Mappce * " Geet and Arnement" (1352), that is, jet and ink(atramen- tum) ; see Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words: Smith, in the Antiquities of Westminster ; explains " arnement " improperly as orpiment. Ink (inchiostro) is mentioned by Cennini as the ordinary material for drawing outlines. The term jet perhaps represented coal black, or rather bistre, called " russ " in the Strassburg MS. From some passages in the accounts these blacks or browns appear to have been, at first, solid substances. " Thome Dadyngton et Roberto Yerdesle molantibus geet et arnementum pro pictura vitri." Elsewhere ; " molantibus get pro pictura vitri." The outlines of the wall-paintings were no doubt sometimes drawn with the same materials. Compare Gage Rokewode, Account, &c. p. 15. IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY, AT STRASSBURG. 133 Clavicula verdigris is directed to be mixed with a white made of calcined stag's .horn (as it cannot be mixed with white lead without changing).* In the British Museum MS. (fourteenth century) before quoted, the following passage occurs. " Grind the white of [calcined] bones like the other colours ; it is parti- cularly necessary to painters, because it may be mixed with orpiment, a colour which can be mixed with no other white." j" As some of the receipts in the Venetian MS. were afterwards printed in collections of Secreti, so many directions in the Strassburg MS. are to be recognised, though somewhat altered in form, in the Uluminir-Buch of Valentine Boltzen.J That author states, in the titlepage of his manual, that part of his communications had never before appeared in print ; and, in the preface, apologises to his professional brethren for publishing their secrets, observing that no useful knowledge should be concealed. Among the receipts, the immixture of honey with vehicles for illuminating frequently occurs ; and hempseed oil is mentioned with the other oils, as in the MS. The mode of preparing and employing the calcined bones, which is more fully described, may be noticed in another chapter. Boltzen appears to consider the drying power of this ingredient quite sufficient, as he omits the white copperas. The omission is to be accounted for in no other way, since that material was the universal dryer in Germany, the Low Countries, and England, from the fifteenth to the eighteenth century. The printed form throws little light on the terms of the MS. ; " ouger " (ochre) is more intelligible than its written equivalent " verger ; " on the other hand, " lamptschen endich " is altered to a form which would defy recognition but for the steps to it which can now be * " Viride Grecum distemperabis cum aceto, incides de nigro matizabis de albo quod fit de cornu cervi." " Mix verdigris with vinegar, shade with black, light up with white made of [calcined] stag's horn." f " Album de ossibus moles sicut ceteros colores est ideo pictoribus necessarium quod cum auripigmento potest misceri que mixtura de albo alio fieri non potest." \ 1566, no place. The second edition, 1589, was published at Frankfort ; the third, 1645, at Hamburg. k 3 134 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT traced. The writer observes : " I ought to write of various kinds of indigo, but I restrict myself to that particular sort which is called Lampartischen indigo ; it is found in apothe- caries' shops." * The word does not occur elsewhere in the treatise, and in three editions it is always the same ; it is only surprising that it did not grow into " Lombardischen." The question respecting the English origin of the mode of preparing oil above described, is to be viewed in connexion with the facts that have been adduced in the foregoing chapters. The preparation of oil in the sun was peculiar to no country : it has been seen that it was universal. Verdigris and calcined bones were early used in Italy ; the latter of those ingredients, white lead, and, it now appears, white copperas, were employed perhaps at a still earlier period in the North. That the use of these various materials, as siccifics, was familiar in this country, if familiar anywhere, there cannot be a doubt. It has been shown that oil painting was prevalent in England, before it was common elsewhere ; and the habitual use of the method for ordinary purposes, in such a climate, is of itself a proof of the early use of dryers. The decoration of St. Stephen's Chapel (after it was rebuilt by Edward III.) in the middle of the fourteenth century was an important event in the history of Northern art. If the talents which the execution of that work called forth — represented by Barneby f, Hugh of St. Alban's, Cotton, Maynard, and others — were not further encouraged, in consequence of Edward's pro- longed wars, and the disorganised state of the country in the succeeding reign ; still, the extent of the operations in and about the chapel may have influenced the practice of the neigh- bouring schools ; and the English methods, in oil painting par- ticularly, may have been adopted in countries where a similar * " Von Endich solt ich vilerley arten schreiben, aber ich wil mich allein zu den gewissen halten den man nents [nennt] Lampartische Endich, den findet mann in den Apoteken." | The name of John Barneby does not appear in the lists of the artists employed in. St. Stephen's Chapel till 1355 ; he received two shillings a day, that is, twice as much as Hugh of St. Albans. IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 135 climate required similar remedies. The intercourse between this country, Germany, and Flanders, at that period, is indi- cated by various circumstances connected with art, to say nothing of political occurrences. The names of the numerous artists employed in the chapel are chiefly English, but we find that glass was furnished by John de Alemayne, gold leaf by William Allemand, and white varnish (mastic) occasionally by Lonyn of Bruges. In the preceding century (1294) Gilectus of Bruges, a painter, received the highest wages next to Master Walter.* The coincidence between that part of the Strassburg MS. which speaks of the " London practice," and the methods and materials of the English artists as they are recorded in the documents of the time, is not to be overlooked. The size and honey vehicle has been described. The " transparent colours " applicable, as is incidentally stated in the MS., to linen, resemble those which were noted by Theodoric of Flanders, and afterwards communicated by him in Italy. The occurrence of some English names of water colours in the MSS. of Alche- rius and elsewhere, further shows that the " London practice," in this respect, had before attracted attention. The directions for preparing oil grounds for gilding, are not less remarkable, and tend even to explain the consumption of oil during the embellishment of St. Stephen's Chapel, profusely decorated as it was with gold. It is important to observe that the dryers mixed with the gold mordant described in the MS. are the same as those before mentioned as entering into the composition of * Indications of the use of oil painting for common purposes are not wanting in Flanders in the fourteenth century, and it happens that they appear at the time when the decorations of St. Stephen's Chapel were in progress. De Bast (Messager des Sciences, &c, Gand, 1824, p. 50.) quotes some accounts, dated 135 1-1352 (found in the archives of Bruges), in which a certain painter engages to decorate the chapel of the Stadt-House at Damme with gold and silver and " all manner of oil colours suitable thereto." "Jan van der Leye den schildere, van der capelle te stoifeerne ten Damme in der steden huus van Brugge, van Goute, van Zelver in alien maniere van olye vaerwe dier toe behoorde," &c. k 4 136 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT the oil vehicle. In this case the employment of such ingre- dients in the fourteenth century need not excite surprise ; for it has been shown that dryers were used in mordants before they were introduced in oil painting. The more ancient mode of gilding was by means of glutinous mordants ; a firmer ground was required in the North ; and the date of the oil gold size, whenever it may have been introduced, may be safely assumed to mark the commencement of the use of dryers for purposes connected with painting.* The preparation of the gold size is thus described : — " Here I will teach how to gild and silver all materials speedily and effectually, so as to produce a splendid effect ; and, in the first place, how to make an excellent varnish colour, on which gold and silver [leaf] may be laid ; dry, beautiful, deli- cate, and lustrous ; and from which the gilding and silvering can never be removed, neither by water nor by wine, whatever be the surface on which you lay this gold colour, whether it be iron, steel, tin, lead, stone, or ivory, with all metal-work, or cloth, or taffeta, all things soever on which this colour is applied. Take two parts of ochre, the third part of Armenian bole, and the fourth part of minium, and grind them together on a stone with linseed oil. Grind them well, and in consistence neither thicker nor thinner than the other oil colours ; and grind also with the colour calcined bone, about the size of half a walnut to a bleeding-cupful j* of colour, and as much white copperas as calcined bone. And after all this is well ground, then add [as much as] half a walnut-shellful of varnish, and mix it tho- roughly with the colour. Then, removing all the colour from the stone, place it in a clean glazed cup, and take a piece of skin from a bladder and cut it so that it shall fit the cup, and smear one side well with oil ; then place the piece of bladder on the colour. You have thus an excellent colour for gilding, on which * It thus appears that the Northern artists led the way in accelerating the drying of oil and in retarding the drying of tempera. Neither of the remedies employed for these objects was adopted to the same extent in Italy. | " Las kechelin (Lasbecken) ;" the expression indicates that the compiler was in some way connected with the healing art. IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 137 gold and silver leaf never loses its brilliancy and lustre. The piece of bladder should be placed on the colour so as to touch its surface every where ; thus the gold colour will not skin ; and all other oil colours should be covered in the same manner. By this contrivance they remain in a fit state for a long time, and do not quickly become hard." * Even the details relating to the operation of gilding are not without interest, from their coincidence with the early English methods. " Here I teach how to gild on this gold colour. In the first place, if you wish to gild on wood, on cloth, or on taffeta, give two or three coats of fresh size beforehand. When the size is dry on the wood, cloth, or silk, pass the gold colour over the size with a soft hog's hair brush, spreading the colour equally * "Hie wil ich leren wie man kurtzentlich und ouch gar niitzlich alle dinge vergiilden und versilbern sol schon und ouch glantz und zu dem ersten wie man sol machen ein edel glas varwe dar uff man gold und silber leit troken schon vin und glantz und das das gold und das silber niemer ab gat weder von wasser noch von win und war uff du dise gold- varwe strichest es sig isen oder stahel oder zin oder bli oder stein oder bein und andre alle gesmide oder tuch oder zendat und sies ander alle dung do man dise varwe uff strichet. Nim zwei teil vergers und das dritteil bol armenici und das vierde teil minien und rib das alles wol under enander uff einen rib stein mit lin 61 und rib es ouch gar wol weder ze dik noch ze dunne als die andren oli varwen und rib ouch als gros wisses gebeines das gebrent si dar under als ein halb bourn nus und ouch ein las kechelin vol der varwen und ouch als vil galicen steines als des beines ist gesin und wenn dis alles wol geriben ist so rib ze hindrest in die varwe ein halb nuschal vol virnis in die varwe und zertrib den virnis gar wol under die varwe und tu die varwe von dem stein gar in ein rein iiberlazurt kachlen und nim phlemlin von einer blattern und schnid das phlemlin sinwel das es recht kome iiber das kechelin und bestrich das phlemlin zu einer sitten gar wol mit oli und das phlemlin leg oben an uff die varwe so hast du ein edel gut gold varwe dar uff man gold und silber leit das es sinen schin und sin glantz niemer verliirt das phlemlin sol man alle wegen under iiber die varwe legen so wachset kein hut iiber die gold varwe und also sol tu alien andern oli varwen tun so belibet si lang lind und werdent nut balde hert." 138 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT and thinly : then let it dry, but not too much ; touch it with your finger, and when it is dry and glossy, but still slightly adhering to the finger, it is in the fit state for gilding. Then cut your gold or silver leaf, and lay the pieces carefully on, one next the other, where the colour is, and press the gold gently on its ground with cotton, till the whole surface is gilt or silvered. Then rub the surface with cotton to remove the superfluous gold from the unprimed places ; it will adhere firmly elsewhere. Here observe that iron, tin, lead, and all metal-work, ivory, and all hard materials, do not require to be coated with size first, although wood and cloth require it. But stone surfaces and walls should be first saturated with oil before the gold colour is applied. And in the aforesaid manner all materials are to be gilt."* The saturating (tranken) of walls with oil before even the gold size was applied is another instance of an application of the oil, besides its employment in painting. The foregoing * " Hie lere ich wie man uff dise goldvarwe vergulden sol zu dem ersten wiltu uff holtz oder uff tuch oder uff zendat vergulden so iiberstrich das holtz vorhin mit frischen lime zwiirent oder dritund das das holtz werde und tu den andern ouch also und wenn der lim truken wirt uff dem holtz oder uff dem tuch oder uff dem stein [der seide ?] so strich die gold varw iiber den lym mit einem weichen biirste bensel und strich die varwe glich und diinne uff und las die gold varwe troken werden und ouch nut ze gar und griff mit dem finger uff die varwe und ist die varwe troken und ouch glantz und hafftet dir der finger enwenig in der varwe so ist si in reenter mos ze vergulden so schnide din gold oder din silber und lege das ordenlich uff nach enandern wo die varwe si und truke das gold senfteklichen wider mit boumwollen uff die varwe untz das es alles gar verleit wirt mit golde oder mit silber und dar nach so ribe das gel iiber all mit wulle so vart das gold abe wo die varwe nut enist. Und belibet das golde vast wo das gold hingestrichen ist. Hie merk isen zin bli und alle andri herti gesmide und bein und senliche herti ding die bedarfent nut das man si vorhin mit lym iiberstriche wenn allem holtz und tuch aber uff steinen und uff muren die sol man vor mit oli trenken eman die golvar uff strichet und zu glicherwise als hie vor gelert ist also sol man ouch andri ding ubergiilden." IN THE PUBLIC LIBRARY AT STRASSBURG. 139 particulars represent, in all probability, the practice of the decorators of St. Stephen's Chapel. As regards the materials, the dryers (or, at all events, some dryers) must, for the reasons before given, of necessity have been used. The colours, the oil and the oil varnish, the earthenware cups for the colours, the cotton for the gilding, are all noted in the accounts.* The circumstance of two sets of colour-grinders being sometimes employed (without reference to glass-painting) might suggest the supposition that one class prepared the colours for the painters (either in tempera or in oil), and the other the gold colour only.f It appears, therefore, that the only difficulty in identifying the formulae of the MS. with the English practice of the four- teenth century is the application of oil painting to figures. When Vasari, in the second edition of his work, alludes to Cennini's description of oil painting, he indirectly defends his * "Pro ollis — prolocatione vasorum — pro parvis ollis terreis emptis ad imponendos diversos colores. Pro cotone empta ad ponendum et cubandum aurum in eadem capella. In i. lb. pili porcorum empta ad pincellas pictorum inde faciendas xn. d. In i. lb. pili porcorum empta pro bruciis pictorum," &c. Besides hog's hair brushes of various forms Cennini (cap. 64. 65.) describes the mode of preparing small brushes (indispensable in gilding) from the tail of the vaio, an animal, according to the Delia Crusca Dictionary, resembling the squirrel ; the hairs were to be inserted in quills of vultures, common fowls, or doves, according to the work required. The English accounts frequently contain such details as the following : " In xxx. pennis pavonum et cignorum et caudis scurrellorum emptis pro pincellis pictorum n. d. ob." De Mayerne speaks of brushes " de queue d'escureuil." Cespedes (quoted by Pacheco, Arte de Pintura, p. 396.) says that the best pencils are made of the hairs of the "vero [vajo] Belgico." The French equivalents for vaio are, vair, petit gris {menu vair being apparently the origin of minever). F. Cuvier, in the Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles (Paris, 1816-1829), remarks thut petit gris is merely the name of the common squirrel in its winter colour. | " n. pictoribus molantibus colores pro dictis operibus utrique ad v. d. per diem. Rogero Wals cum n. sociis suis molantibus colores — capientibus per diem nn. d. ob." The entries occur repeatedly together. 140 NOTE ON A GERMAN MANUSCRIPT. own statement respecting the invention of Van Eyck. He remarks that Cennini treated "of grinding colours in oil to make grounds [for draperies], red, blue, green, and in other modes ; and [also treated of oil] for gold mordants, but not for figures" * It happens, as already seen, that Cennini does treat of painting figures in oil ; but Vasari's statement may be con- sidered to amount to a declaration that he himself knew of no such application of the method having been made before the time of Van Eyck. The historian's opportunities of judging, in regard to this question, in the sixteenth century, were better than ours ; time has, however, confirmed his testimony. It is repeated, no undoubted examples of figures painted in oil during the fourteenth century have hitherto come to light ; nor is there any distinct record of such works having been then commonly executed. If, therefore, the original of that portion of the Strassburg MS. which treats of oil painting was written before the year 1400, the passages describing the application of the method to figures are to be placed in the same category with the similar notices in Cennini and even in Theophilus ; they are to be regarded as directions which were rarely if ever followed. * " Tratto finalmente de musaici, del macinare i colori a olio per far campi rossi, azzurri, verdi, e d' altre maniere, e dei mordenti per mettere d' oro, ma non gia per figure." — Vita cPAgnolo Gaddi. 141 CHAP. VI. FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. Fresco Painting. Among other methods employed in the middle ages, wall-painting with lime, and wax painting, are to be noticed. The first wonld, by its general terms, comprehend fresco painting ; but that pro- cess, as described by Vasari, and as practised by the great Italian masters, does not appear to have been in use till near the close of the fourteenth century. Fresco painting requires, as is well known, to be executed in portions ; the surface of fresh plaster which is laid on when the painter is about to begin his day's work must be covered and com- pleted, as a portion of a picture, before such plaster is dry; and so on, till the whole design is executed. Some ingenuity is necessary to conceal the joinings of the several portions : it is generally contrived that they shall coincide with lines in the composition, or take place in shadows. Their existence is how- ever unavoidable, and these divisions in the patch- work (for such it may be called), of which all works of the kind must consist, are among the tests of fresco painting, properly so called. Whenever the extent of a surface of plaster, without a joining, 142 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING is such that it would be impossible to complete the work contained in it in a day, it may be concluded, even without other indications, though such are seldom wanting, that the mode of execution was not what is called " buon fresco." Walls decorated by the earlier Italian masters exhibit no joinings in the plaster having any refer- ence to the decorations upon them. The paintings must consequently have been added when the entire surface was dry ; and must either have been exe- cuted in tempera, or, if with lime, by means of a process called "secco," (or sometimes "fresco secco," as opposed to "buon fresco,") which is still commonly practised in Italy and in Munich. The method has been thus described. The plastering having been completed, and lime and sand only having been used for the last coat, the whole is allowed to dry thoroughly. It is then rubbed with pumice-stone, and the evening before the painting is to be com- menced, the surface is well wetted with water in which a little lime has been mixed. The wall is again moistened the next morning ; the cartoons are then fastened up, and the outline is pounced. The colours are the same as those used in " buon fresco," and are mixed with water in the same way, lime being used for the white. "Work done in this way will bear to be washed as well as real fresco, and is as durable ; for ornament it is a better method than real fresco, as in the latter art it is quite impossible to make the joinings of the plaster at DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 143 outlines, owing to the complicated forms of orna- ments. The work can be quitted and resumed at any time, as the artist has always the power of preparing the surface by moistening it, as at first. But while the method offers these advantages, and is particularly useful where ornamental painting alone is contemplated, it is, in every important respect, an inferior art to real fresco."* That this method was practised during and before the thirteenth century will be evident from the following passage in Theophilus. " When figures or other objects are drawn on a dry wall, the sur- face should be first sprinkled with water, till it is quite moist. While the wall is in this state, the colours are to be applied, all the tints being mixed with lime, and drying as the wall dries, in order that they may adhere." f In the notes added by Le Begue (1431) to his copy of the MSS. of Alcherius, the following pas- sage occurs. " Portions of walls [intended to be painted] should be rather moist than otherwise, because the colours thus unite and adhere better ; * See a Report on Fresco Painting, by Mr. Wilson, Director of the Government School of Design at Somerset House, in the Second Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, p. 40. | " Cum imagines vel aliarum rerum effigies protrahuntur in muro sicco, statim aspergatur aqua, tain diu donee omnino madidus sit. Et in eodem humore liniantur omnes colores, qui supponendi sunt, qui omnes calce misceantur, et cum ipso muro siccentur ut haereant." — Div. Art. Schedula, 1. i. c. 15. Theophilus nowhere describes the practice of " buon fresco." 144 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING and all colours for walls should be mixed with lime."* The passage in Theophilus (from which this may have been copied) is conclusive as to the early use of " secco," in the sense above explained, for wall-painting. The method, like other processes employed in the middle ages, was probably derived from the ancients; and it may be conjectured that the paintings of Pompeii were, to a certain extent at least, thus executed. Two important facts sup- port this view. First, lime is found in nearly all the colours f; and, secondly, in most of the walls two horizontal joinings only in the plaster are to be detected. J The work in either of the three divisions, but especially in the larger middle divi- sion, is much more than could be executed in a clay. The method therefore could hardly have * "Etdoivent etre murs pans plus moiste que aultre chose pour ce que les couleurs se tiennent mieux ensemble et seront plus fermes, et doivent toutes couleurs pour murs etre mellez [sic] avec chaux vive." f " In every colour, whether employed as the general tint of a compartment, or in the painting of figures and ornaments, a drop of diluted sulphuric acid produced an effervescence, indi- cating the presence of a small, and often invisible, portion of carbonate of lime, even on the surface of the deepest black." — Wiegmann, Die Malerei der Alten, Hannover, 1836, p. 42. The exceptions are where some few portions are executed in tempera ; some colours on walls, vermilion for instance, are protected with a wax varnish ( Vitruv. 1. vii. c. 9.). It was this circumstance which deceived Winkelmann and others, who maintained that the paintings of Pompeii were executed in wax. % lb. p. 38. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 145 been "buon fresco." The peculiar fitness of " secco" for ornamental work (which abounds in Pompeii) has been already noticed.* The use of lime "in all the colours," according to the directions of Theophilus and Le Begue, would necessarily occasion a want of force in the shadows. This was remedied by subsequent paint- ing in tempera. Theophilus, immediately after the passage quoted, speaks of the application of colours mixed with yolk of egg, on the previous preparation, when dry. f The next step to fresco painting (per- haps the ordinary lime painting practised by the ancients) consisted in laying in the design imme- diately after the original plaster was spread on the wall, and while it was moist. This preparation, or * Besides the conclusive evidence afforded by the presence of the lime, many of the walls exhibit indented outlines, some- times, as in the " Casa delle Fontane," indicating the process of tracing. Hence Wiegmann inclines to the opinion that the paintings may have been executed even in " buon fresco," and gets over the difficulty of the quantity of work by supposing that the numerous layers of mortar in the wall kept the surface moist for many days. If so, still the method of " secco " (and it appears even tempera occasionally) may have been employed in finishing. The writer here quoted, who is by far the most rational of those who have considered the subject of the Pompeian decorations, might have been assisted in his inves- tigations by a reference to the wall-painting of the middle ages. f In strict accordance with the description of Pliny : " Pin- gentes sandyce sublita mox ovo inducentes purpurissum, ful- gorem minii faciunt. Si purpuram fecere malunt, coeruleum subliniunt, mox purpurissum ex ovo inducunt." — L. xxxv. c. 26. L 146 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING dead colour, at least established the forms and masses of colour ; and, when dry, the work could be finished either in "secco" or in tempera: the moderns pre- ferred the latter. The method adopted by the fol- lowers of Giotto in this partial fresco painting was somewhat singular. The first rougher coat of lime and sand having been allowed to dry, the painter sketched his composition upon it with a red colour in outline, sometimes adding the shadows. The design was copied from a small drawing, in the usual mode, by means of squares. Then the into- naco, or thin coat of lime and sand, on which the painting itself was to be executed, was added, either at once, or in greater or less portions (accordingly as the chief work was intended to be in fresco or in tempera) ; and on this intonaco the design was repeated. Thus the drawing underneath was des- tined, from the first, to be covered. It was probably traced before the lime was spread over it, as the forms could then be reproduced in the same places, the tracing being fitted by means of the ends of the squared lines underneath. In thus making a design which was to be obliterated, the object could only have been to judge of the effect of the composition in its place. In the Campo Santo, at Pisa, a half- decayed fresco, representing the Coronation of the Virgin (painted in 1391, by Pietro d' Orvieto), shows, where the intonaco has fallen off, the first design drawn, and even shaded, on the plaster un- derneath. Yasari, describing an unfinished work at DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 147 Assisi, by Lippo Memmi, states that the outline was drawn with the brush in red, on the first coat of plaster; " which mode of proceeding," he ob- serves, " might be called the cartoon which the early masters prepared before painting a fresco, in order to shorten the work." He adds that several unfinished and decayed wall-paintings exhibited the same preparation.* The method was retained even after the improved system was introduced. It is described by Cennini. (Trattato, c. 67.) The earliest work in "buon fresco" is probably that painted by Pietro d' Orvieto, in the Campo Santo, at Pisa, about 1390, representing some sub- jects from Genesis, f In this instance the joinings of the plaster are frequent, as compared with earlier wall-paintings, and the amount of work in each portion may have been, and to all appearance was, finished at once. The earlier mode of employing tempera as the complement of fresco was, however, long retained. The works of Pinturicchio, executed at Siena, in 1503, are completed in tempera, and exhibit colours (such as lake) which are incom- patible with mere lime painting. J The mixed method was even common at a later period in the sixteenth century, if not at Florence, at least * Vasari, Vita di Sinione e Lippo Memmi. | Ernst Forster, Beitrage zur neuern Kunstgeschichte, Leip- zig, 1835, p. 220. J See " Observations on Fresco Painting," by Mr. Dyce, in the Sixth Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, p. 11. L 2 148 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING in other Italian schools. Thus Yasari states that Girolamo da Cotignola executed certain works at S. Michele in Bosco, in Bologna, which were laid in in fresco, and finished in tempera." * The same writer speaking of a series of paintings by Ercole da Ferrara, in a chapel at Bologna, says : " It is reported that Ercole employed twelve years on these works, seven in preparing them in fresco, and five in retouching them." f As the seven years may be supposed to comprehend the exe- cution of the designs and cartoons, together with the first painting on the walls, the quantity of work in tempera was at least equal to that in fresco. It should be remembered that the expression " a secco " is usually employed by Yasari for retouch- ings in tempera, and it is not to be confounded with the " secco," or lime painting, on dry walls described by Theophilus. The former term is also used by Italian writers in speaking of repainting or glazing on oil pictures when dry. Examples of u secco," or lime painting, perhaps exist in this country, but the rude representations sometimes to be met with on the walls of chapels are commonly retouched in size. * " A fresco imposte ed a secco lavorate." — Vasari, Vita di Bartolommeo da Bagnacavallo. •f " Dicono che Ercole mise nel lavoro di questa opera dodici anni, sette in condurla a fresco e cinque in ritoccarla a secco. . Id., Vita di Ercole pittore Ferrarese. \ DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 149 Wax Painting. The art of using colours prepared with wax, and of fixing pictures so executed by the aid of fire, was inherited from the ancients by the early Christian painters. The term " encaustic " which was long appropriated to this method, strictly means " burning in," an expression which, as Caylus remarked, is scarcely applicable to the mere melting of wax colours. The process, according to the words of Pliny, was not originally restricted to wax painting, but comprehended the engraving by means of encaustic, of outlines on ivory and other substances, with a metal point.* In this instance again the expression need not be taken literally ; forms burnt on ivory could not have been very delicate works of art. It may rather be supposed that the outlines first drawn on waxed * "Encausto pingendi duo fuisse antiquitus genera constat, cera, et in ebore, cestro, id est, vinculo, donee classes pingi ccepere. Hoc tertium accessit, resolutis igni ceris penecillo utendi, quae pictura in navibus nec sole, nec sale, ventisque corrumpitur." — L.xxxv. c. 41. " Anciently there were two modes of paint- ing in encaustic, [one] with wax, and [the other] on ivory, by means of the cestrum or graver, till ships began to be painted. This was the third mode introduced, in which the brush was used, the wax [colours] being dissolved by fire." The metal instrument was therefore employed in both the first modes. The cestrum {Kearpov a kivtIlo) was a pointed graver, but it must have been formed like the stylus, flat at one end and sharp at the other ; since designs in wax, executed with the point, could only have resembled the sgraffiti on ivory, and there can be no doubt that the early wax pictures were much more finished. i. 3 150 FJRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING ivory, (for the facility of correcting them where necessary,) were afterwards engraved in the sub- stance ; and that the finished and shadowed design was filled in with one or more colours ; being ulti- mately covered with a wax varnish by the aid of heat.* Works so produced must have resembled the nielli, or, on a small scale, the sgraffiti of the Italians, and were no doubt quite as excellent. With the later pagan and early Christian painters, the word " encaustic " was confined to wax painting (with the brush) by means of fire. The prevalence of the method at a subsequent period accounts for the gradual application of the term to all kinds of painting, an application which, in the later vicis- situdes of art, may be said to have survived the process itself. Thus a Greek philologist, writing at the close of the fifteenth century, explains a term equivalent to encaustic by the synonj^me " painted, because artists who paint on walls are called * See the sensible observations of John, Die Malerei der Alten, Berlin, 1836, p. 206. An antique specimen of this art, formerly in the possession of Monsignore Casali, in Rome, is referred to by Haus, Sulla Pittura alV Encausto, p. 76., quoted by Raoul-Rochette, Pein- tures Inedites, &c., Paris, 1836, p. 378. A description of a method somewhat similar, and perhaps originally Greek, occurs in the Venetian MS. After directing the preparation of a blue tint with tempera, the writer continues: — "Spread it on the foil, and, when it is dry, draw on the foil with a sharp point whatever you wish, and afterwards give it a coat of liquid var- nish. It will have a good effect." "E mitelo sopra el stagnolo e qii sra secho desegnali como uno steco aguto quelo che voy e poy dali la vernixe liquida de sopra. Sra vaga cossa." DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 151 encautai." * Other modes of painting, and even illuminating, were sometimes included. The purple and vermilion, used for the imperial sig- natures and in calligraphy, received the name of encaustic, f By degrees the more ordinary material of writing acquired the designation ; the " incaus- tum " of Theophilus and other medieval writers is, in substance as well as in name, the " inchiostro " of the Italians, and the source of the English " ink." The more ancient modes of wax painting men- tioned by Pliny were of two kinds : one, above described, was a sort of intaglio filled in with tints ; the other more resembled painting, yet rather in its results than in its process. A heated metal instrument was used instead of the brush. The variously coloured wax pigments were rather mo- delled than painted into shape. The process, in its commencement at least, and before the tints were blended, must have resembled mosaic ; while its elaborate nature confined the artist to small dimensions. The difficulties of the method were, nevertheless, overcome by some celebrated Greek * 'EyK£fcai>jueVr7, t^ioypa^rj/uLevr], t-irel lyKavral [tyKauorat] \iyovrai oi £wypa0oi ol ^laypacjxn'reg rovg roiyovQ. " Encausta, picta ; quia Encausta3 dicuntur pictores qui muros pingunt. Etymol. Magnum, voc. 'EyKeKavpevri" — Emeric-David, Discours Historiques sur la Peinturc Moderne, Paris, 1812, p. 180. See also Letronne, Lettres d'un Antiquaire a un Artiste, Paris, 1840, p. 412. The Lexicon here quoted (the work of Caloergos) was edited byMusurus, Venice, 1499. ■f See Panciroli, Rerum memorabilium sive deperditarum, &c. Francof. 1660, p. 10. L 4 152 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING painters ; and, at a later period, the small encaustic pictures of Pausias, executed in this style, were proverbially objects of admiration in the eyes of Eoman collectors.* The peculiarity of the third and later mode, encaustic painting chiefly so called, which was practised by the ancients and in the first centuries of the Christian era, consisted in the regulated fusion of the surface of the picture by fire, when the work was completed ; the wax with which the colours had been mixed having been dissolved in the first instance, so as to render the pigments fit to be applied with the brush. " To paint with wax [colours], and to burn in the picture f " when finished, were the conditions of the art. The inustion, or burning in, supposes a sufficient quan- tity of wax (whatever may have been the other ingredients) to promote the general fusion and to produce an apparently enamelled surface. The instrument employed to effect this was called the cauterium. This, whether a pan of coals ( Vitruv. L vii. c. 9.), a heater, or whatever it may have been, was the characteristic implement of the encaustic painter ; who, as we have seen, represented, for a considerable period, the painter generally. Hence Tertullian, writing against the dissolute heretic * "Pausiaca torpes, insane, tabella." Hor. Sat. ii. 7. "Parvas pingebat tabulas Hoc gemuli eum interpretabantur facere, quoniam tarda picture ratio esset ilia." — Plin. 1. xxxv. c. 40. j- " Ceris pingcre ac picturam inurere." — lb. c. 39 DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 153 Hermogenes, who happened to be a votary of art, says he was " doubly a perverter of truth, with his cauterium and his stylus*;" an expression equivalent to the modern phrase " with his pencil and his pen." In the intaglio encaustic the pointed instrument which was used was called cestrum or vinculum (veruculum) ; the substances which were engraved and tinted were various. f A female artist, Lala of Cyzicum, is mentioned as having excelled in portraits, sometimes executed in this mode on ivory. J In the second style before mentioned, the heated instrument with which the wax tints were blended was called rhabdion § : it was probably flat at one end (like one extremity of the stylus) ; its forms and sizes, indeed, may have been as varied as those of brushes now. The encaustic painter who used the rhabdion or cestrum (for the terms are employed sometimes indiscriminately) was pro- vided with a box with compartments in which the variously tinted cakes or sticks of wax colours were kept.|| The cauterium was not necessary; * "Bis falsarius, et cauterio et stylo." — Tertull. adv. Hermog. Pict. c. 1. Quoted by Emeric-David, Discours I list. p. 182. f Plin. 1. ii. c. 45. 1. xxxv. c. 41. | "Lala Cyzicena . . . et penecillo pinxit, et cestro in ebore, imagines mulierum maxime . . . suam quoque imaginein ad speculum." — Plin. 1. xxxv. c. 40. § Literally, a small rod ; the term appears to have been also a synonyme for the pencil. See Letronne, Lettres d'un Antiq. p. 388. |' "Pausias et ca'teri pictores ejusdem generis loculatas magnas 154 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING the rhabdion, heated in a small furnace kept at hand, supplied its place.* The artist painted on (small) panels. The implements of the encaustic painter in the third style were, brushes, the cau- terium, and pots of more or less liquid wax colours, instead of, or in addition to, wax crayons or cakes. f The artist painted on wood, and, when habent arculas, ubi discolores sunt cerse." — Varro, De Re Rus- tica, 1. iii. c. 17. A mode of applying colours with a similar ingredient, by means of heat, is exemplified in the Venetian MS. Colours are directed to be mixed with turpentine resin, first boiled to a concrete state ; sticks of this material, variously tinted, on being applied to heated glass, melt as required, and the design is thus coloured. The writer quaintly says : " As soon as they feel the warmth, they will adhere and melt like wax ; this work is proof against water, and shows on all sides." " Como sentirano el caldo se apicarano e desfarasse como cira e questo no temera aqua e parera da ogni lato." The receipt is headed : " A fare stichi da lavorare I vedro." Among modern methods, the fusion of paintings or rather drawings executed with wax crayons, as proposed by Tomaselli (Delia Cerogrqfia, Verona, 1785), is somewhat analogous. * "II faut distinguer le cauterion d'avec le rabdion; le premier etoit employe dans l'encaustique-au-pinceau, le second dans l'encaustique-au-cestre." — Emeric-David, Disc. Hist. p. 174. note. Compare Letronne, Lettres, &c. p. 493., on a picture by Philiscus, representing " officinam pictoris, ignem conflanti puero." | " Instrumento legato pictoris colores, penecilli, cauteria et temperandorum colorum vasa debebantur." — Julius Paulus, Recept. Sent. lib. iii. tit. 6. § 63., quoted by Letronne, Lett, p. 390. "Pictoris instrumento legato, cerse, colores, similiaque horum, legato cedunt ; item peniculi, cauteria et conchas." — Digest, de Fundo instruct. § 17. (Martianus, lib. xvii.), quoted by Wiegmann, Die Mai. der Alten, p. 165. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 155 the method was more generally adopted, sometimes on walls. Those who painted in the second style generally practised the third also.* As regards the mere process, no difficulty presents itself in the two first modes ; in the third, the method is not so clear. The ancient mode of bleaching wax so as to render it (while in contact with air) unchangeably white and fit to be mixed with all colours, is minutely described by Dioscoridesf, and, after him, by Pliny.J The material being thus pre- pared, the important question remains : How was the wax softened and dissolved, so as to fit it as a vehicle for colours applicable with the brush ? for wax alone, merely melted by heat (though it may be so used as a varnish with subsequent friction), cools too rapidly for the operations of painting. It is remarkable that, as yet, no passage has been found in a classic author which clearly describes this process. The omission may be allowed to * " Pausias autem fecit et grandes tabulas." — Plin. 1. xxxv. c. 40. " Nicias [an encaustic painter] . . . fecit et grandes pictu- ras." — lb. Large works by both masters were to be seen in the Portico of Pompey, at Rome, in Pliny's time. "Lala . . . et penecillo pinxit et cestro in ebore." — lb. " Penecillo pingere" generally meant, to paint in tempera. Pliny uses the expression in this sense, when he speaks of the restoration, undertaken by Pausias, of a picture by Polygnotus. The trial of Pausias was unsuccessful, "quoniam non suo genere certasset." — lb. This is easily explained by the circumstance of the colour drying much more rapidly in tempera than in the pencil-encaustic. \ L. ii. c. 105. % L. xxi. c. 49* 156 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING prove that it was familiar; but the doubt thus existing has been a fruitful source of theories, experiments, and controversies. It has been as- sumed by many, reasonably enough, that as the moderns, in speaking of oil painting, rarely men- tion other fluids which are known to be commonly used with the oil ; so the wax, which Pliny and others name as the vehicle of the colours in en- caustic painting, may have been one only of the ingredients of such vehicle. It was however the chief ingredient ; not necessarily in regard to quantity, but inasmuch as it was indispensable to the fusion of the surface in the final inustion. The possible methods which have been proposed by the moderns may be reduced to three. 1. The solution of wax by a lixivium, or, in more general terms, by any means which will allow of the pig- ment being mixed with water. 2. The solution by means of heat in a fixed oil. 3. The solution by means of an essential oil. Eequeno states that wax, when melted with mastic resin and immersed in cold water, forms a brittle compound which can be ground with colours in water ; and that a picture executed with such colours (having been previously varnished with melted wax) can be blended and fixed by heat.* Astori is said to have mixed wax with * Saggi sul Ristabilimento dell' antica Arte de' Greci, &c. Parma, 1787, vol. i. p. 288. 292. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 157 honey and gum water with equal success.* But the mode of softening wax, which, however objec- tionable, appears to have had the greatest number of partisans in the last century, was by means of alkaline reagents ; the material being thus con- verted into a kind of soap.t The evidence in ancient authors respecting the solution of wax by a lixivium is scanty and in- direct. An expression employed by Julius Pollux (a writer of the second century) has been supposed to point to the solution of wax by maceration, rather than to its liquefaction by fire. J Columella observes that the sediment in oil-vessels should not be cleansed with boiling lie- wash lest the wax (and resin with which the vessels were lined) should be dissolved. § A medical writer of the second or third century remarks that the lixivium * Delia Pittura colla Cera all' Encausto ; Mcmoria del Sign. Giammaria Astori. Venezia, 1786. For an account of various other writers on this subject and, of their methods, see Fiorillo, Kleine Schriften artistischen Inhalts. Gottingen, 1803, vol. ii. p. 153. f Bachelier, Lorgna, and Walter were the chief advocates of this system. It was ridiculed, together with the rival methods of Caylus and Majault, in a satire by Rouquet, entitled, "L'Art nouveau de la Peinture en Fromage, ou en Ramequin, inventee pour suivre le louable Projet de trouver graduellement des Facons de peindre inferieures a celles qui existent." Marolles, 1755. J K-qpbv Ttfiaadai. — Onomasticon, 1. vii. c. 28. See Grund, Die Malerey der Griechen, Dresden, 1811, vol. ii. p. 448. § De Re Rustica, 1. xii. Grund, ib. p. 447. 158 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING of wood ashes dissolves wax.* To these notices may now be added the following two descriptions relating to the wax painting of the middle ages. The first is from the Byzantine MS. " Mode of painting in order to give a shining surface. — Take size, a strong solution of potass, and white wax, in equal quantities ; mix together and place them on the fire to dissolve. Add colour to this mixture ; dilute the tint well and paint with a brush. Let the colour dry, and then you can give it a polish [by friction]. Gilding, if you use any, will become very brilliant ; it is use- less to add varnish." f The direction to use a brush might almost in- duce a supposition that this is the remains of an ancient formula relating to the penecillum encaustic, * " Tunc lixivia cinis ceras dissolvit." — Quintus Serenus Sammonicus, c. 42. Grund, ib. p. 448. f " Comment il faut faire la peinture pour donner du lustre. — Prenez de la colle, de l'eau forte a , et de la cire blanche en egale quantite ; melez-les ensemble et placez-les sur le feu pour les faire fondre. Ajoutez la couleur dans ce melange ; delayez-la bien, et peignez ce que vous voudrez avec un pinceau. Laissez d'abord cette couleur secher, et ensuite vous pourrez la rendre brillante. L'or, si vous en mettez, deviendra tres-brillant ; il est inutile de mettre du vernis." — Didron et Durand, Manuel, &c. p. 44. Wax, which yielded to the nail, was found by Branchi under gilding, in one of the paintings ascribed to Buffalmacco, in the Campo Santo, at Pisa. Ciampi, Notizie, &c, Append, p. 19. a In M. Didron's preface, p. 34., it is explained that " l'eau forte n'est pas l'acide nitrique, mais l'eau seconde de potasse." DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 159 as opposed to that which was executed with the cestrum ; but the omission of the cauterium, not to mention the little promise of durability in the method indicated, betrays the modern character of this receipt. Thick varnishes were applied with a sponge or with the hand, and the use of the brush is here merely opposed to such modes. The ob- servation respecting the inexpediency of varnish is just ; and perhaps the term " encaustic," applied by Aetius to pictures which were varnished with nut oil in his time, is not to be taken in its strict sense, but as meaning paintings generally, or rather those which commonly required varnish. The method above described is still practised by the monks of Mount Athos. The other description occurs in the notes ap- pended by Le Begue to his copy of older MSS. In those older documents there is no allusion to wax painting ; it may therefore be concluded that the use of the vehicle in question was confined to few. The passage is as follows : — " If you wish to prepare a liquid fit to temper all colours, take one lb. of lime and twelve of Flanders [size]. Put them together in hot water and boil them well. After suffering the mixture to settle, strain well through a cloth. Take four lb. of this water and heat it well ; take about two oz. of white wax and let it boil in this water. Then take about an oz. of isinglass and let it remain in water till it is softened and almost dissolved : manipulate it till 1G0 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING it becomes like paste. Put it into the water with the wax and boil all together. Then drop a little of this fluid on a knife or on iron, in order to see whether it is sufficiently boiled, and whether it is like glue. [If it have the proper consistence] strain it, while hot or tepid, through a. piece of linen into a clean vessel ; let it rest and cover it well. With this fluid you can temper all manner of colours." * The second general process before adverted to, that of the solution of wax in a fixed oil, was so far practised by the ancients that walls were some- times varnished and polished (by means of heat) with such ingredients ; the polish being promoted by again waxing the surface and rubbing it with linen cloths. The oil in this case was olive oil ; for, as before observed, whenever the word "oleum" * " Si vous voulez faire eaue conoscite a destremper toutes couleurs prenez une livre de chaux et douze de Flandres, puis prenez eaue bouillante et mettez tout ensemble et les faites assez bouillir, puis le laissez bien reposer : puis le coulez parmy un drapel, et de cette eaue prenez livres quatre et la faites bien ardoir. Puis prenez cire blanche environ deux onces et la mettez bouillir avec l'eaue, puis prenez cole de poisson environ une once, puis la mettez en eaue et l'y laissez tant qu'elle soit bien amolie et si comme fondue ; puis la maniez tant qu'elle soit comme paste, puis la mettez en l'eaue avec la cire et la faites ensemble bouillir, puis prenez de cette eaue et mettez sur un coustel ou sur fer pour savoir s'il est bien cuit et s'il est comme glue. Puis adonc coulez cette eaue chaude ou tiede parmy un drap linge en un vaissel net et laissez reposer et la couvrez bien; et de cette eaue pouvez destramper toutes manieres de couleurs." DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 161 alone occurs in ancient authors of the classic period, olive oil is always to be understood. Vi- truvius, in describing the above process, which, he observes, was the same as that adopted for polishing statues, expressly directs that " a little " oil only should be used. The same ingredients are some- times employed for polishing furniture now. The composition was thus merely a cerate, and could never have been fit for the purposes of paint- ing: it was applied on coloured walls as an al- most colourless varnish, the friction with cloths removing the superfluous oil.* The solution of wax in a drying oil (proposed and practised by Tau- benheim and others) is not mentioned by classic writers, nor in the treatises of the middle ages.f * Vitruv. 1. vii. c. 9. In all operations connected with art, where wax was subjected to the action of heat, its application seems to have been considered a species of (i encaustic." Thus the above mode of polishing walls w r as denominated kausis, and the varnishers of statues were called encaustai. Such methods were very ancient, but they related to varnishing, and are not to be confounded with encaustic painting. That art, accord- ing to Pliny, and judging from the date of the painters who excelled in it, was not common till the age of Alexander. The doubt expressed by Pliny as to the antiquity of the method is to be explained by the ancient use of the somewhat similar process above described. ■f The following is a modern example of this vehicle. " Pre- pare the clearest raw linseed oil with litharge, in the usual way, for about six weeks. Add to the oil an equal quantity of mastic varnish ; add to both a little scraped wax (about an eighth). Place the ingredients in an oven for a short time, till the wax is dissolved. A clear and almost colourless meguilp is the result." M 162 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING As Vitruvius, in the passage above quoted, speaks of polishing walls " cum candelis linteisque puris," some doubts may exist respecting the use of candles noted in account-rolls of the fourteenth century. On two occasions we find, in the lists of materials used in St. Stephen's Chapel, the entry " in una libra candele albe ; " the usual memorandum, " in candelis emptis," is frequent.* The important epithet " cereis " is, however, wanting, and the item may perhaps be explained by a fuller entry in the records of the Duomo of Orvieto : " Item pro x. libr. candelarum sepi pro lumine fiendo pictorib. pingentibus in Tribuna maj. Eccle ii. libras defi." The date is 1373.f The third hypothesis, that wax was dissolved by the ancient encaustic painters in an essential oil, has been supposed to be partly proved by chemical investigation. Fabbroni, in analysing the colours of a mummy cloth, found that they had been mixed with pure wax. He concluded that a volatile oil, probably naphtha, had held it in solution. J Dios- corides mentions the immixture of wax and naphtha (with other substances) for medicinal purposes. § The expression " pharmaka," which occurs in a list of the materials of a painter ||, is often used by * 1294. 22d Edward I. f Delia Valle, Storia del Duomo di Orvieto, Roma, 1791, p. 286. note. J Antichita, Vantaggi e Metodo della Pittura Encausta, &c. Roma, 1797. § L. i. c. 101. || Julius Pollux, Onom. 1. vii. c. 28. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 163 Greek writers merely as a synonyme for colours : but it may be allowed to comprehend both resins and naphtha, especially as the last is mentioned by Suidas in explaining the various meanings of the word " pharmakon." As regards medieval art, some light is afforded by the experiments of Pro- fessor Branchi, who analysed the colours on some fragments of early Pisan and Florentine pictures. His investigations warranted the inference that the wax, which was clearly ascertained to have been used, at least as a varnish, had been dissolved in an essential oil, apparently spirit of turpentine, as a slight resinous residuum was detected. The expe- rienced chemist remarked further, that the earlier works, those for example of the time of Giunta Pisano (who lived in the first half of the thirteenth century), had the plainest evidence of having been executed, or at least varnished, with wax ; and that soon after the middle of the fourteenth century wax ceased to be used by the Tuscan artists for the purposes of painting.* Such is the general nature of the evidence in support of the different opinions that have been expressed on this question. In the revival of wax painting (with and without the final inustion) which has taken place of late * Morrona, Pisa Illustrata, Livorno, 1821, vol. ii. p. 165. Morrona, after quoting the report of Branchi, speaking of his own experiments, states that he never detected wax in the substance of the colours ; and that when it was found under the mere surface, it was evident that it had penetrated through the cracks of the picture. Ib. p. 168. m 2 164 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING years in France and Germany, the principle of dis- solving the wax in an essential oil has been adopted ; the vehicle being consolidated by the addition of resins. Montabert was chiefly instrumental in in- troducing this art : an account of his theory and experiments will be found in his voluminous work on painting.* The process which he recommends does not appear to have been preferred in reference to any hypothesis respecting the methods of anti- quity ; in some applications of the ancient encaustic, however, a resinous ingredient was used. The fol- lowing details may give some idea of the later cerography of the Greeks. A composition of resin and wax was the ordinary material employed by the ancients to render sur- faces waterproof. Among other purposes, this coarse varnish, sometimes in appearance like mere pitch, was used for ships. It is described, as so used, by Dioscorides, as follows. " Some give the name of zopissa to a compound of resin and wax which is scraped from ships ; it is by some called apochyma, being in its nature solvent, because it is imbued with salt water. Others give the name [zopissa] to the pine resin." f The distinction be- * Traite complet de la Peinture, Paris, 1829, vol. viii. "j* Tjomiaaav elirov ol fiev tivai tt}v ek t&v ttXoiojp Zvofievrjv pr\rivy]v jitera rov Krjpov, Ka\ov/j,epr}v vtt kviu)v cnro-^vfia, ovcrav dia-^yriicriy diet to kv rr\ SaXacrffrj fipiyjtaQac ol tie rr\v iziTv'iv^v pr)rLvr]v ovtu)q ajpo/jao-ay. " Zopissam alii clicunt esse resinam cum cera navibus derasam, a nonnullis apochyma vocatam, quas dissipandi vim habet, quia aqua marina est macerata. Alii pineam resinam sic appellant." — Diosc. ed, cur. Klihn. 1. i. c. 98. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 165 tween pitch and (nearly colourless) resin was familiar to Dioscorides, as he describes both * ; and, from his here using the latter term, it is evident that the zopissa was not in itself black, though, when employed for the coarser purposes of ship- varnishing, it was no doubt made so. The varnish of wax and resin is alluded to incidentally by Pliny, in describing the different compositions used by the bees in constructing their habitations. After speaking of the first layer he says : " Upon this comes a cero-picine mixture, in the mode of pitch- varnishers, being wax in a more diluted form." f Here again, the substance which the naturalist calls " pissoceros " is rather a cero-resinous than a cero- picine composition ; it only acquires a brown colour by age. That the Greeks did not always connect the idea of pitch with the word which they strictly used for it, may be further exemplified by the cir- cumstance that common resin is still called by the Italians " Greek pitch " (pece Greca). For the rest, the expression " picantium modo, ceu dilutior cera," indicates the mode in which the solution of wax was effected. The cero-resinous zopissa of Dioscorides, when first applied with the brush, was necessarily fluid. The resinous ingredient may have been either naturally liquid, or, if concrete, it was probably * L. i. c. 91. 94. 97. &c. f " Pissoceros super earn venit, picantium modo, ceu dilutior cera." — L. xi. c. 6. M 3 166 FRESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING dissolved by the addition of that essential oil which the liquid resins and balsams already contain. In either case an essential oil could be added to dilute the composition * ; in either case heat would be necessary to effect or to assist the solution and im- mixture of the wax, and to render the preparation more drying. Such was the nature of the coarse varnish applied to ships : no care was necessary to prevent the zopissa from becoming black ; it was probably to all appearance a pitch ; but the original ingredient mixed with the wax was, according to Dioscorides, not a pitch but a resin. We now come to ship -painting. Pliny states that wax painting with the brush, the third or later style of encaustic before described, was first adopted for ships ; that, so employed, it was " proof against the sun's heat, the salt of the sea, and the winds." The effect of wax when mixed with soft resins is to check their tendency to flow when exposed even to the highest natural tempera- ture, and to prevent their cracking on the surface.f * Besides naphtha, the ancients, though ignorant of the progress of distillation, were acquainted with the essential oil of turpentine. The mode of collecting it was by spreading clean fleeces above the open vessels in which pitch was con- cocted, and then wringing out the volatile oil. See Diosc. 1. i. c. 95., Plin. 1. xv. c. 7. ■f One of the objections to asphaltum in painting is its tendency to flow, and to dry only on the surface. The first defect is remedied by a due admixture of wax ; the second can only be corrected by dryers. Wax itself has no tendency to crack ; but, as it long remains soft, it is easily made to crack if varnished with quickly drying resins. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 167 The vehicle used for painting had, thus, the same qualities, the same promise of durability, which re- commended the common ship varnish, and was no doubt the identical zopissa, only prepared with more care, so as to be almost colourless.* The application of painting was thus secondary and accidental, and its character, from first to last, must have been humble enough ; yet such embel- lishments, among the art-loving Greeks, are not to be estimated by modern works of the kind. Two distinguished painters, Protogenes and Heraclides, began as ship decorators. f Sucli being the vehicle, the colours were not mixed for momentary occasions, but, as in modern fresco and tempera, pots of tints were prepared from the first. J The final inustion had the effect of * The term zopissa may have had reference to the supposed medicinal virtues of the coarser substance which was scraped from ships, and which, being used as a medicine, could not, like the painting vehicle, have been previously mixed with colours. But the expression may have originated in the use of the cero-resinous material for painting figures ; as the word zophorus (the frieze), in architecture, was appropriated to that part of the entablature where figures (£wa) were placed. "(" " Quidam et naves pinxisse [Protogenem] usque ad annum quinquagesimum [putant]." — PlinA. xxxv. c. 36. "Estnomen et Heraclidi Macedoni. Initio naves pinxit." — lb. c. 38. They therefore began as wax painters ; but the works by which they acquired their fame were chiefly, if not altogether, in tempera. Pliny's expression, before quoted, " till ships began to be painted," may be understood to mean, painted in a very ornate manner ; as we read of painted ships in Homer's time. J Pliny always uses the plural form, " cerse tinguntur," "ceris pingere," whether speaking of the pencil or cestrum encaustic. M 4 168 FKESCO PAINTING AND WAX PAINTING producing an apparently vitrified surface ; hence the paintings could be cleaned and polished, from time to time, as required.* A process of painting thus arising from mere utility, and at first employed in the coarsest deco- rations, was at length admitted among the styles of refined art. The qualities for which it was originally valued, — durability, and resistance to moisture and ordinary heat, to which may be added the facility of cleaning the surface, — were likely to be remembered in its subsequent applications. Accordingly, the first distinguished wax painter, though accustomed to the cestrum encaustic, was also the first to apply the larger style to ceilings f ; and, at a later period, the same method was adopted by Agrippa, even for the walls of baths. J Its powerful scale of effect, as compared with tempera * The modern mode of cleaning wax paintings (with a slight change in the materials) may exemplify the process at all times. " Si (la peinture) est lustree, on devra l'epousseter d'abord, puis laver la surface avec de l'eau alcoolisee, et y passer de l'eau pure a la suite : on laissera secher, et Ton retablira le lustre par un leger frottement. S'il s'agit d'une peinture vernie a la cire, on operera comme pour la peinture lustree, en ob- servant que Ton pourroit aj outer une nouvelle couche de cire dans le cas ou Ton jugerait la premiere insuffisante." — Durosiez, Manuel du Peintre a la Cire, Paris, 1844, p. 28. On the effect of the inustion, see a paper by Mr. Linton, in the Sixth Eeport of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, p. 24. \ " Idem (Pausias) et lacunaria primus pingere instituit." — Plin. L xxxv. c. 40. \ lb. 1. xxxvi. c. 64. DURING THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 169 and secco, was a more general recommendation * : it was employed for pictures on wood, which divided the palm with the works of the great artists in the established method. In the first centuries of the Christian era, it appears to have superseded all other processes except mosaic ; the durability and brilliancy (and perhaps mechanical nature) of which recommended it, in its turn, more and more.f The Lucca MS. (eighth century) treats more fully of mosaic than of wax painting; of the latter it is merely observed that colours mixed with wax were used on walls and on wood. J The art is scarcely alluded to in the treatises of the twelfth, thir- teenth, and fourteenth centuries ; and the only evi- dence relating to it (at present known) which can be said to belong to medieval art, consists of three notices. Two of these, from the Byzantine MS., * The two most celebrated encaustic painters, Pausias and Nicias, excelled in chiaroscuro. The former contrived to give relief to black objects even when foreshortened. (See Pliny's well understood description of the picture by this artist in the portico of Pompey, 1. xxxv. c. 40.) The latter was also re- markable for gradation and roundness. Ib. f The mechanical nature of the final inustion in encaustic, a process which obliterated the unskilful traces of the pencil, may also have been one of the recommendations of that art in barbarous times. An expression employed by St. Chrysostom seems to imply that he amused himself with the practice of encaustic. 'Eyw Kal T))v KrjpoyyTov yponjb norf) mebtctine. a Gonft/ eer, m\tytyt, mafyt, rijcffyertf groot 36 ongfyefpaert, al£ comt be Soot. £ubred)t oan (Spcf n?a6 icf gfyenant, 9tu fpiife ber wormen/ t>oormael$ befant 2>n ©djitberije feer fyoogfye gfyeeert : G>ort6 na wag pet in ntete oerfcert. 3n 't jaer beg £erren, beS jijt gfyeweS/ Supfent, trier fyonbert, tnuntid) en [eg/ 3n be maenbt (September, acfytfyien bagfyen ml, JDat icf met pijnen ©obt gaf mijn jtel. S3ibt @obt soor mt), bie G>onft minnen, ©at id §ijn ctenjtcfyt moet gfyenrinnen, (5n oliebt §onbe, f eert u ten beflen : SGant gfyp mp t>olgf)en moet ten leften. j- For the communications of De Bast see the Messager des Sciences et des Arts, G-hent, 1824, p. 49. &c, and the Kunst- Blatt, 1826, No. 78. &c. For those of Director Passavant see his Kunstreise durch England und Belgien, p. 369. ; and Kunst- a 3id) fpicgelen, "to look in a mirror," is still idiomatic Dutch and Flemish for " to take warning." With a slight alteration in the spelling, aU t6 art fcfytjne might be translated " all is illusion." SD^p ne fyatp raebt is ill spelt and obscure. Medicine, being named together with art, appears here to represent one of the qualifications of the painter. Chemistry and medicine were, in the middle ages, often used as synony- mous terms. Geber, the Arabian (eighth century), calls alche- my " medicine of the third class." OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 187 The result may be shortly given as follows. The portrait of John Van Eyck, above referred to, may represent a man of about thirty-five.* By the concurrent testimony of historians also, he was much younger than his brother. That he died, not at an advanced age, as Yasari and others assert, but in the vigour of life, and about the year 1445, is proved by various circumstances. In a register (preserved in the archives of Bruges) of a lottery which was drawn February 24. 1445, the following memorandum occurs: " the widow of John Van Eyck two pounds." f A picture by the artist, Blatt, 1841, No. 3. &c, and 1843, No. 54. &c. On the works of the Van Eycks compare Dr. Waagen Ueber Hubert und Johann van Eyck, Breslau, 1822 ; Schnaase, Niederliindische Brief e, Stuttgard und Tubingen, 1834 ; Hotho, Geschichte der deutschen und niederliindischen Malerei, Berlin, 1842-43, zweiter Band ; and Alfred Michiels, Histoire de la Peinture Flamande et Hollandaise, Bruxelles, 1845 — 46. The fourth and concluding volume of this work is not yet published. * The apparent age of this figure is estimated differently, according to the different hypotheses of writers respecting the period of the painter's birth. Hotho, who assumes that John Van Eyck was more than thirty years younger than Hubert, and who, with others, supposes that the portraits were painted in 1427, sees a man of the age of thirty in the figure in question. Michiels, who is desirous that John, and not Hubert, should be considered the inventor of oil painting, places the birth of the former in 1386 (ten years earlier than Hotho). In his eyes, therefore, the portrait must represent a man of about forty. A middle course may be nearer the truth. The claims of Hubert, as the inventor of the improved oil painting, rest on other evidence about to be noticed. f " De wed Jans van Eyck ij. pont." — De Bast, Kunst-Blatt. 188 VASARI'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF originally in the church of St. Martin, at Ypres, was left unfinished in 1444.* Flemish authors who preceded Van Mander state that Yan Eyck died " early," f and (with reference to his powers and activity) "young. "J A passage in his epitaph appears to refer to the same circumstance. Yan Mander himself, who in one passage follows the Italian biographer in regard to the painter's age, in another remarks that " Johannes did not live so long, by many years, as Yasari states." § John Yan Eyck was probably born within the years The document gives the above date; but as the year was then reckoned to begin at Easter, this was the beginning of 1446 according to the present style. Passavant (ib. 1843, No. 55.) assumes that John Van Eyck died in July, 1445, on the ground that a mass was said for the painter yearly in July, in the church of St. Donatus, at Bruges, till near the close of the last century. * Passavant, Kunstreise, p. 367. | " This noble flower departed early from this world." "Van deser weerelt vroegh dees edel bloeme schiedt." This passage occurs in a poem by Lucas de Heere (the painter), and is quoted by his scholar Van Mander (Schilder-Boeck, p. 201-2.). The latter, in a marginal note, hesitates to admit the statement ; but his objections are founded on Vasari's account. J " Johannes died young ; could he have lived longer, he would (as is said of Athemon) easily have surpassed all the painters of the world." " Johannus is jonc overleden, hadde hy noch mogen leven, hy hadde (alsoomen van Athemon seyde) lichtelyk alle schilders der werelt te boven ghe-gaen." — Markus van Vaer- newyck, Historie van Belgis, Ghendt, 1565. De Bast. "Athe- mon " may be intended for the Artemon of Pliny. § " En weet oock dat Joannes soo langhe niet en leefde, op veel jaren, als Vasari den tijt stelt." — Schilder-Boeck, p. 200. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 189 1390 and 1395.* Supposing the portraits above mentioned to have been painted soon after the death of Hubert (for they are unquestionably by the hand of John), this would make the latter about thirty-five, the apparent age of his own* portrait, when they were executed, and about fifty -four at his death. A Latin epitaph on John Yan Eyck was once to be seen on a pillar in the church of St. Donatus, at Bruges, where he was buried. The church itself no longer exists ; the inscription is given by Van Mander, and is in sub- stance as follows : — " Here lies Johannes, who was celebrated for his surpassing skill, and whose felicity in painting ex- cited wonder. He painted breathing forms and the earth's surface covered with flowery vegetation, completing each work to the life. Hence Phidias and Apelles must give place to him, and Polycletus be considered his inferior in art. Call, therefore, the Fates most cruel, who have snatched from us such a man. Yet cease to weep, for destiny is immutable; pray only now to God that he may live in heaven." f It is not to be supposed from the classic hyper- boles (conveyed in no very classic form) in this * Compare Rathgeber, Annalen der Niederlandischen Malerei, Gotha, 1844, p. 30. f " Hie jacet eximia clarus virtute Joannes, In quo picturae gratia mira fuit ; Spirantes formas et humum florentibus herbis Pinxit, et ad virum quodlibet egit opus. 190 VASARl's ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF inscription, that John Van Eyck was particularly conversant in sculpture : the allusion to his treat- ment of landscape is more characteristic. All writers agree that (the improved) oil paint- ing was first introduced about the year 1410. The earliest work extant, painted in the method, is in the possession of Director Passavant, at Frankfort. It is by Peter Christophsen (called by Yasari, Pietro Crista), a scholar of Hubert Van Eyck, and has the date 1417. The invention can, therefore, hardly be placed later than 1410. At that time John Van Eyck, according to the above chro- nology, was not twenty years old. It would thus appear that Hubert was the real inventor. The great, if not superior, merit of the younger brother, who survived the elder nearly twenty years, and the fact that the works of the former only were known in Italy, account for his having there superseded all other claims.* Antonello Quippe illi Phidias et cedere debet Apelles ; Arte illi inferior ac Policretus [sic] erat. Crudeles igitur, crudeles dicite Parcas, Quae talem nobis eripuere virum. Actum sit lachrymis, incommutabile fatum, Vivat ut in coelis jam deprecare Deum." Van Mander, Schild. p. 202. Delepierre (Gal, d'Art. Brug. p. 11.) observes that this inscription was destroyed during the wars of the iconoclasts. * Among the masterworks of Hubert Van Eyck may be mentioned the principal large figures in the Ghent altar- piece. Fuseli, who saw those works while they were in the OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 191 da Messina, who communicated the Flemish pro- cess to the Italians, had known John Yan Eyck only ; Hubert he had never seen. Vasari, in the original edition of his work, does not even mention Hubert ; the name appears for the first time in the account (inserted in the second edition) of various Flemish artists, — an account which, as the author tells us, was in a great measure supplied by Flemish authorities. The passage in question, taken literally, ascribes the honour to Hubert ; but the words are brief, and the older and more important narrative, about to be examined, remained unaltered.* The opinion that the chief credit of the invention is due to Hubert receives additional confirmation from the fact, that the bones of the arm and hand Louvre, speaks of them as follows. " The pictures here ex- hibited as the works of Hemmelinck, Metsis, Lucas of Holland, A. Durer, and even Holbein, are inferior to those ascribed to Eyck in colour, execution, and taste. The draperies of the three on a gold ground, especially that of the middle figure, could not be improved in simplicity or elegance by the taste of Raphael himself. The three heads . . . are not inferior in roundness, force, or sweetness, to the heads of L. da Vinci, and possess a more positive principle of colour." — Knoivles's Life of Fuseli ; quoted by Sir E. Head, in his notes to the trans- lation of Kugler's Handbook of Painting, vol. ii. p. 60. * " Lasciando adunque da parte Martino d' Olanda, Giovanni Eick da Bruggia, ed Huberto suo fratello, che nel 1510 [1410] mise in luce 1' invenzione e modo di colorire a olio, come altrove s' e detto," &c. " Mise " strictly refers to Hubert alone. The blunder in the date is treated with undue severity by Van Mander, as in this case it could only have been an oversight of the transcriber or printer. 192 VASAKl's ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF of that painter were still preserved and exhibited to view, in the sixteenth century, near the church in which he had been buried f ; as if that hand was regarded as the instrument which had prepared the way for the excellence and fame of the greatest artists. The allusion to his skill in medicine (chemistry) in his sepulchral inscription, if that passage has been rightly interpreted, is not un- important. This merit also seems to have been afterwards transferred to the younger brother. Among the events in John Van Eyck's life which can now be recorded on documentary evidence, may be mentioned his visit to Portugal, for the purpose of taking the portrait of the Infanta Eliza- beth, daughter of John L, before her marriage with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. The embassy, accompanied by the artist, left Flanders in October, 1428, and returned on Christmas day, 1429, bring- ing the bride herself, the portrait having preceded her some months.* We now come to Antonello da Messina, the artist who had the good fortune (for his merit was not otherwise extraordinary) to introduce oil painting into Italy. Here, again, the chronology of Vasari requires to be amended, although his account, in * M. Van Vaernewyck, quoted by Rathgeber, Annalen, p. 5. f Gachard, Collection de Documens inedits concernant l'Histoire de la Belgique, t. ii. p. 63. ; quoted by Passavant, Kunst-Blatt, 1841, No. 3. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 193 the main, may be shown to be historically true. Without anticipating that account in other respects, it is to be observed that the fact of Antonello having studied for a time with John Van Eyck is supported by the peculiar character of his works, which bear a close resemblance to the style of the Netherlands, as distinguished from that of the contemporary Italian painters. * That he was the first to communicate the improved oil painting south of the Alps is sufficiently established by the universal testimony of Italian writers : other circumstances, hereafter to be noticed, are not wanting to confirm the fact. It appears that he remained some years in Flanders after the death of Van Eyck.f On his return to Italy, probably about 1455 J, he made a short stay in Venice, com- * A portrait in the Berlin Gallery, by this artist, inscribed " AntonellusMessaneus me pinxit, 1445," must have been painted in the Netherlands. His picture of the Crucifixion, formerly in the Ertborn collection, now in the Academy at Antwerp, was at one time the subject of a lively controversy ; not as to its originality (of which there was never any question), but its inscribed date, which was by many read 1445. There can be no doubt that it is now 1475. If it was originally so written (for there is reason to suppose that it was partly effaced in cleaning), the picture must have been painted in Italy, and probably at Venice. The inscription is, " Antonellus Mes- saneus me o° [oleo] pinxt." ■f See an extract from a MS. given by De Bast in his observations before quoted. J Lanzi supposes about 1450; but there is no evidence of oil pictures having been painted in Italy (by Italians) till after O 194 VASARl'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF municating his secret to a painter who carried it to Florence. Antonello soon after revisited his native place (Messina). There, it seems, he re- mained, not some months, as Vasari states, but several years. Returning to the North of Italy, he fixed himself, for a time, at Milan*, but finally removed to Venice, where he painted several pic- tures, the date of the earliest being 1474. f He died in Venice, certainly not before 1493. His visit to Flanders may have been undertaken when he was about the age of thirty. J Vasari is not the earliest Italian writer who has spoken in praise of Van Eyck, but he is the first who has given an account of the invention of oil painting. The period when he wrote, as compared with the date of the Flemish artist, and the oppor- tunities which were available for him in collecting the information thus communicated, remain to be considered. Vasari was born in 1512: his cele- brated work, The Lives of the Architects, Painters, 1455. The first works of the kind which attracted attention were executed in Florence, between that period and 1460. * " Mediolani quoque fuit percelebris." — Maurolico, Hist. Sican., quoted by Hackert, Memorie de Pittori Messinesi. Na- poli, 1792. Compare Lanzi, Storia, vol. ii. p. 242. •f It is a portrait of a young man, and is inscribed "Antonius Messaneus me pinxit anno 1474." The picture, once in the Casa Martinengo at Bologna, is now said to be in the collec- tion of Count Portalis. Passavant, Kunst-Blatt, 1841, No. 5. Compare Lanzi, Storia Pitt. vol. iii. p. 27. | See Memorie Istorico-critiche di Antonello degli Antonj Pittore Messinese, compilate dal Cav. Tommaso Puccini. Firenze, 1809. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 195 and Sculptors, was completed and given to a friar to transcribe in 1547*, and was first published in 1550.f It had occupied him for some years ; but, in any view of the subject, nearly a century from the time of (John) Van Eyck's death must have elapsed, before the Florentine biographer can be supposed to have obtained the account which he has trans- mitted us respecting that painter. The sources whence the historian derived his information are adverted to by himself. In the second edition of his work, in which he gives his own life, Vasari states that he had from early youth been in the habit of collecting notes relating to the history of art. He elsewhere observes that he had been personally acquainted with the greater part of the Flemish artists who, in his time, had visited Italy. J He mentions, more particularly, that in 1532 he knew Michael Coxcis (who afterwards copied the celebrated altar-piece, before mentioned, by the Van Eycks, at Ghent, when, as Van Mander relates, Titian supplied him with a valuable blue colour for the drapery of the Virgin §); that two * Descrizione delle Opere di Giorgio Vasari. His own life, inserted in the second edition, is so entitled. On the authorities consulted by Vasari generally, see Fiorillo's Kleine Schriften artistischen Inhalts, vol. i. p. 83. •f Firenze, Lorenzo Torrentino. \ An additional notice of the Flemish artists in the second edition is headed " Di Diversi in later republications, " Di diversi Artisti Fiamminghi." § Van Mander states that the colour was found in the o 2 196 VASARI'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF celebrated Flemish glass-painters had copied from his own designs ; that he was intimate with John Calcar (van Kalcker) and others.* The additional notices on the German and Flemish artists, given in his second edition, were furnished, he observes, by Stradanus ( Van Straet) of Bruges, who was his scholar for ten years; by John of Bologna, born at Douay; and, further, by Lampsonius of Liege (originally of Bruges), who corresponded with him, and who says, in a letter quoted by Vasari, that he had read and re-read the Lives of the Painters.^ It is important to observe that the account of Van Eyck's invention appears in the second edition of Vasari, nearly in the same form as in the first. It may hence be inferred that the Flemish friends of the biographer, who, like Lampsonius, had atten- tively read the first edition (or at all events the passages relating to the artists of their own coun- try), had found but little which their knowledge enabled them to amend, in the narrative relating to Van Eyck. At the same time it should be noticed, that Vasari, in some instances, omitted to make full use of the corrections with which he was fur- nished. Thus, when he speaks of oil painting as mountains of Hungary, and was easily obtained before the Turks had possession of the country ; but that, at the period in question, it was extremely dear. It appears to have been " Azzurro della Magna," not ultramarine. * Vasari, Di div. Art. t ib. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 197 the invention of Hubert Van Eyck, he adds, "as is elsewhere related;" thus showing, either that he had intended to correct, in this particular, other passages in his work, or that he fancied his history to be more consistent than it is. Numerous as his correspondents and contributors were, it must also be admitted that they were not all qualified to give him accurate information. Lampsonius, for exam- ple, who had written poetical eulogies on the artists of the Netherlands, and who might therefore be supposed to be well versed in their history, is among those who attribute the invention of oil painting, in the literal sense, to John Van Eyck.* The real authorities of the historian must therefore be sought among those who were accessible to him at an earlier period. Lampsonius, Van Straet, and others, (though useful in communicating intelligence respecting the Flemish artists of their own time,) were only known to Vasari after his first edition was published, and therefore were not responsible * His inscription under the portrait of John Van Eyck (quasi ipse loquens) begins : — " Ble ego, qui laetos oleo de semine lini Expresso docui princeps miscere colores," &c. See his Elogia in Effigies Pictorum celebrium Germaniae inferioris. Antv. 1572. Lampsonius was also the author of a life of Lambert Lombard, painter and architect, of Liege. His general qualifications may be estimated by the fact that he was for some years the companion of Cardinal Pole in England, and afterwards secretary to three successive bishops of Liege. o 3 198 VASARl'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF either for the merits or defects of the original narrative. Among the authorities accessible to the historian at an earlier period, the safest were perhaps to be met with in Venice. There Antonello da Messina died, after having freely communicated the result of his Flemish studies, near the close of the fifteenth century. Vasari was first in Venice in 1542*, and may have corresponded with Venetian artists much earlier. In his address " Agli Artefici ed a' Lettori," at the end of the first edition, he states that he had employed ten years, in various parts of Italy, in collecting materials for his biographies ; and that he was always careful to consult the oldest artists, and persons most worthy of credit. It may therefore be presumed that his journey to Venice, before the completion of his work, was undertaken partly with a view to render his intended publication as correct as possible. In Venice he could converse with some " oldest artists," who may have heard from Antonello da Messina himself the narrative of that painter's journey to Flanders, and the description of the method which Van Eyck had taught him. Among other evidences which the biographer says he had been careful to collect, were sepulchral inscriptions. Unfortunately, this appears to have been less for the purpose of establishing facts, than to preserve the commonplace tributes of praise * See Vasari's account of his own life and works. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 199 which distinguished artists had received from their fellow-citizens. The epitaph on Antonello is copied by him as usual. It is not clear from Yasari's statement, whether that inscription existed in a church in Venice, or whether it was a temporary- mark of respect on the occasion of the Sicilian artist's funeral. It matters not which, provided it was then written ; and indeed it cannot be supposed that Yasari would presume to invent such a docu- ment, at a time when the fraud could have been so easily detected. The tenour of that inscription corroborates his account of Antonello as the earliest Italian oil painter. Sansovino, without mentioning the epitaph, remarks even that Antonello was the inventor of the process.* This, though untenable in itself, confirms the tradition that he was the first' who practised it in Italy. It should not be omitted, that, although Yasari speaks of Italian artists who had made attempts to improve the methods of painting which existed before Yan Eyck's time, he acknowledges that they had failed. Subsequent writers have endeavoured to show that painters of almost every Italian school had known and practised oil painting before 1400 (which, in a certain sense, is quite possible) ; but Yasari, who was sufficiently jealous of the honour of Italy, gives * Venetia descritta, 1604; quoted by Puccini, Memorie, &c. p. 23. The same assertion appears in two other writers, quoted by Fiorillo, Kleine Schriften, &c. vol. i. p. 196. o 4 200 VASARfs ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF the credit of the invention, whatever it was, un- hesitatingly to Van Eyck. The inference is that he had satisfactory evidence of the truth of his statement. Such are among the grounds on which it appears reasonable to conclude that Vasari's account of the method of oil painting, introduced by Van Eyck, was derived from good authority ; and that having passed through some critical ordeal, and having been reprinted, after an interval of eighteen years*, without material change, it was by competent judges acknowledged to be generally correct. Van Man- der, who may be considered in some sense the Yasari of the Netherlands, and who was himself a painter, in his account of Yan Eyck copied almost verbatim 'the statement of the Florentine relative to the invention of oil painting. A nearer approach to truth on such a question is still desirable, and is fortunately not unattainable. Errors in chronology can, in most instances, be rectified in Yasari's narrative. Certain contradic- tions and ambiguities will be explained, where explanation is possible, in due order. It may be generally observed that the historian's chief diffi- culty was of his own making. He chose to assume that Yan Eyck's method was that which " all the painters of the world," to use his own words, had sought for ; and which, once found, had been every In Fiorenza, appresso i Giunti, 1568. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 201 where permanently adopted. The incongruities in his statement arise, in a great measure, from this cause. Long before he visited Venice, perhaps even before Antonello had ceased to exist, the great artists who founded the Venetian school had taken the system of oil painting into their own hands, and had modified it considerably. The same degree of change, though of a different kind, had taken place in Florence and in Milan. It is indeed apparent from Vasari's narrative, that he is, as it were uncon- sciously, describing a method different from any commonly practised in Italy in his time. His occasional attempts to reconcile this contradiction are the chief causes of the ambiguities referred to. Vasari's most circumstantial account of the in- vention attributed to Van Eyck is introduced in the life of Antonello da Messina. It will be desira- ble to give this short history as nearly as possible in the biographer's own words. The investigations which some statements contained in it may suggest, bearing on the general inquiry proposed, will then be resumed. "Life of Antonello da Messina. " When I consider the many valuable qualities with which different masters, followers of this second manner *, had enriched the art of painting, * The " second manner," in the language of Vasari, means the chief direction of Italian art during the fifteenth century ; its limits may be defined by the respective dates of Masaccio and 202 VASARI'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF I cannot but acknowledge the importance of their labours, and give them all credit for their zeal and industry ; for their sole object was the improve- ment of the art, in aiming at which they were regardless of trouble or cost, or of their own per- sonal advantage. " The mode of painting in tempera, which had been adopted by Cimabue from the Greeks about the year 1250*, was followed by Giotto, and those succeeding masters who have hitherto occupied our attention ; and it still continued to be the only method in use for paintings on wood and on cloth. The artists were, nevertheless, aware that pictures so executed were deficient in a certain softness, and in vivacity ; and felt that, if a proper method could be discovered which would admit of blending the tints with greater facility, their works would be improved both in form and colour; the earlier practice having always been, to produce the requi- site union of the tints by hatching with the point of the brush. But, although many had tried inge- nious experiments with a view to such improvement, none had invented a satisfactory process; neither by using liquid varnish or other kinds of colours, mixed with the tempera vehicles, t Luca Signorelli. It is opposed to the manner of the Giotteschi on the one hand, and to that of Leonardo da Vinci on the other. * According to Vasari himself, Cimabue was born in 1240. f "Ne usando vernice liquida o altra sorte di colori mescolati nelle tempere." OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 203 " Among those who had in vain tried these or similar methods were Alesso Baldovinetti, Pesello, and many others : but no works produced by them possessed the pleasing effect, and improved qualities which they sought ; and, even if those artists had succeeded in their immediate object, they would still have been unable to give the same stability to paintings on wood which those executed on walls possessed. They could not, by such methods, render pictures proof against wet, so as to allow of their being washed without danger of removing the colour ; nor was the surface so firm as to resist sudden shocks when the works were handled. These matters were often the subject of fruitless discussion when artists met together ; and the same objects were proposed by many eminent painters in other countries besides Italy, in France, Spain, Germany, and elsewhere. " While things were in this state, it happened that Giovanni of Bruges, pursuing the art in Flanders, where he was much esteemed on account of the skill which he had acquired, began to try experi- ments with different kinds of colours, and, being fond of alchemy [chemistry], to prepare various First edition. "Ne con vernice liquida, ne con altra sorte di olii mescolati nella tempera." The word " colours," in the later edition, is unmeaning ; but Vasari appears to have substituted it for " oils," to suit the views of those, such as Lampsonius, who attributed the actual invention of oil painting to Van Eyck. 204 VASARl'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF oils for the composition of varnishes, and other things *; researches which ingenious men, such as he was, are wont to make. Having on one occa- sion, among others, taken great pains in executing a picture on panel, and having finished it with especial care, he varnished it, and placed it in the sun to dryf , as is the custom : but, either because the heat was too great, or perhaps because the panel was ill put together, or the wood not suffi- ciently seasoned, it unfortunately split open at the joinings. Giovanni, seeing the damage which the heat of the sun had occasioned to the picture, deter- mined to have recourse to some expedient or other to prevent the same cause from ever so injuring his works again ; and, being not less dissatisfied with the varnish than with the process of tempera * " Si mise ... a provare diverse sorti di colori, e come quelle- che si dilettava dell' archimia, a far di molti olii, per far ver- nici, ed altre cose." First edition : "e cercava di trovare diverse sorti di colori, dilettandosi forte della archimia, e stillando con- tinovamente olii per far vernice e varie sorti di cose." The word " stillare " is used by Italian writers in various senses, besides the chief meaning, " to distil ; " but Vasari, either from his own judgment, or at the suggestion of his Flemish friends, removed the expression in his later edition, lest it should be supposed that Van Eyck distilled the (fixed) oils. The practice was not uncommon in Vasari's time, but is quite opposed to that of Van Eyck. The above is the most important of the few corrections which the biographer thought it necessary to make in the reprint of this portion of his work. ■f . . ." le diede la vernice, e la mise a seccarsi al sole, come si costuma." First edition : . . . " le volse dare la vernice al sole, come si costuma alle tavole." OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 205 painting, he began to devise means for preparing a kind of varnish which should dry in the shade, so as to avoid [the danger incurred by] placing his pictures in the sun. Having made experiments with many things, both pure and mixed together, he at last found that linseed oil and nut oil, among the many which he had tested, were more drying than all the rest. These, therefore, boiled with other mixtures of his, made him the varnish which he, nay, which all the painters of the world, had long desired. Continuing his experiments with many other things, he saw that the immixture of the colours with these kinds of oils gave them a very firm consistence, which, when dry, was proof against wet ; and, moreover, that the vehicle lit up the colours so powerfully, that it gave a gloss of itself without varnish ; and that which appeared to him still more admirable was, that it allowed of blend- ing [the colours] infinitely better than tempera.* * " Onde poi che ebbe molte cose sperimentate, e pure, e mes- colate insieme, alia fine trovo, che 1' Olio di Seme di Lino, e quello delle Noci, fra tanti che n' haveva provati, erano piu. seccativi di tutti gl' altri. Questi dunque, bolliti con altre sue misture, gli fecero la vernice, che egli, anzi tutti i pittori del mondo havevano lungamente desiderato. Do, o fatto sperienza di molte altre cose, vide che il mescolare i colori con queste sorti d' olii dava loro una tempera molto forte ; e che secca non solo non temeva 1' acqua altrimenti, ma accendeva il colore tanto forte, che gli dava lustro da per se senza vernice. Et quello che piu gli parve mirabile, fu che si univa meglio che la tempera infinitamente." This well known and remarkable passage is the same in both 206 VASARl's ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF Giovanni, rejoicing in this invention, and being a person of discernment, began many works, and filled all the neighbouring provinces with them, giving the greatest satisfaction, and deriving no small benefit from his labours ; while, daily assisted by experience, he went on still producing greater and better things. " The fame of Giovanni's invention being soon after spread, not only in Flanders, but throughout Italy and many other parts of the world, the greatest curiosity prevailed among the artists to know by what means he rendered his productions so perfect. Those artists, however, seeing the works, and not knowing what [materials] he had employed, could only extol his merit, and give him the homage of their praise, while at the same time they were inspired with emulation ; the more so, because, for a time, he would suffer no one to see him at work ; nor would he consent to teach any person his secret.* But, having become old, he editions ; some slight verbal alterations making none what- ever in the sense. The words, " anzi che tutti i pittori del mondo," are an addition and an unimportant one. The state- ment respecting the experiments with the oils relates only to the testing of their relative drying qualities. Vasari well knew that the varnish which Van Eyck and others had been in the habit of using (and which had been used for centuries) was partly composed of linseed oil. This subject will be further considered in the next chapter. It will be observed that Vasari, in this passage, uses the word tempera first in a general, and then in a particular, sense. * This statement is incorrect ; Hubert Van Eyck must have OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 207 made a favour of imparting it at last to Ruggieri [Roger] of Bruges, his scholar. Ruggieri com- municated it to Ausse *, who studied under him, and to others who have been mentioned in the introduction, where, in treating of the practice of art generally, oil painting is described. " Notwithstanding all this, although merchants made these works an object of train ck, and sent them to all parts, for sovereigns and distinguished persons, to their own great profit, the art did not find its way out of Flanders ; and, although the pictures thus sent had that pungent smell which the immixture of colours with the oils gave them, especially when the works were new, so that it appeared possible to detect the ingredients, yet the discovery was not made during many years. But some Florentines, who trafficked in Flanders and in Naples, having sent to Alphonso I. of Naples a picture on panel, with many figures painted by Giovanni in oil, a work which, on account of the communicated the process freely to his scholars. Among these were Peter Christophsen, Gerard van der Meire, and pro- bably Justus van Ghent (called by Vasari, Giusto da Guanto) ; the first has been already mentioned as the author of an oil picture, dated 1417. Gerard van der Meire is supposed to have assisted in painting the Ghent altar-piece. (Kunst- Blatt, 1826, No. 81. 1833, No. 82—85.) De Bast also quotes some contracts, dated 1419, 1434, in which certain artists engage to repair or execute pictures with " good oil colours." (Ib. 1826, No. 81. ; 1843, No. 55.) * Ausse was probably a misprint for Ansse, Hans [Memling] ; but it is uncorrected in the second edition. 208 VASARl's ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF beauty of the figures, and the new invention in colouring, was greatly valued by that monarch *, all the painters of the kingdom went to see it, and it was by all highly extolled. "At this time, one Antonello of Messina, a person of an intelligent active spirit, and very sagacious, moreover not unskilled in his profession, having studied drawing for many years in Eome, had established himself at first in Palermo (where he had been employed for some time), and ultimately in Messina, his native place ; in which city he had, * Alphonso V. of Arragon (or I. of Naples) expelled Rene of Anjou from Naples, and made himself master of the king- dom in 1442. Three years remain (between that period and the death of Van Eyck) for the picture in question to arrive, and for Antonello da Messina to proceed to Flanders to learn the method of oil painting. De Bast supposes, however, that Vasari may have been misinformed on this point, and that pictures by Van Eyck were more likely to be sent to Rene of Anjou, who himself painted according to the Flemish method, and who might have recommended Antonello to the Flemish artist. In that case the period in which Antonello may have proceeded to Bruges would be within the years 1438 and 1442, the duration of Rene's sovereignty in Naples. (Kunst-Blatt, 1826, No. 84.) Facius, the historian (or rather one of the historians) of Alphonso, describes a picture by Van Eyck, in the possession of that monarch. "Ejus est tabula insignis in penetralibus Alphonsi regis." It was a triptych ; the principal subject was the Annunciation, the others St. John the Baptist, and St. Jerome ; on the outside were the portraits of Lomellinus and his wife. Lomellinus was probably the merchant for whom the picture was painted. There can be little doubt that this was the work which Antonello da Messina saw. {Facius de Viris lllustribus > p. 46.; OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 209 by his works, confirmed the good opinion there entertained of him as to his ability in painting. This person, happening to go to Naples on some affairs, heard that the above-mentioned picture by Giovanni of Bruges had been received from Flanders by the King Alfonso ; that it was painted in oil, in such a manner that it could be washed [with safety] ; that its surface was in no danger from any shock ; and that it was, besides, a very perfect work. Antonello, having made interest to see it, was so struck with the vivacity of the colours and the beauty and harmony of that painting, that, putting aside every other avocation and thought, he at once set out for Flanders. Arrived in Bruges, he assiduously cultivated the friendship of Giovanni, presenting many drawings to him executed in the Italian style, and other things; so that Giovanni, in return for these attentions, and also because he found himself already old, was content that Anto- nello should see the method of his colouring in oil. The latter, in consequence, did not quit Flanders till he had thoroughly learned that process — the great object of his wishes. Giovanni dying soon after, Antonello left Flanders, to revisit his native place and to communicate to Italy so valuable a secret. After remaining a few months in Mes- sina, he proceeded to Venice, where, being addicted to pleasure, he determined to reside and end his days, having found a mode of life which suited his inclinations. There, resuming his occupation, he p 210 VASARI'S ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF painted several pictures in oil, according to the method which he had learned in Flanders. These pictures are spread among the houses of the Vene- tian nobility, and, from the new mode in which they were executed, they were much prized. Many other works of his were sent to various places. At length, having acquired considerable reputation in Venice, he was commissioned to paint a picture (on wood) for S. Cassiano, a parish of that city.* He executed the work with all the ability he possessed, sparing no time to render it complete. When it was finished, it was greatly commended from the novelty of that style of colouring and the beauty of the figures, which were well drawn; and, as it was then understood that he had been the means of introducing the new secret to Venice from Flanders, he was esteemed and treated with attention by the most distin- guished inhabitants, as long as he lived. " Among the painters who were then in repute in Venice, a certain Maestro Domenico was considered very excellent. On the arrival of Antonello in Venice, this person treated him with the greatest attention, such as bespeaks a warm friendship. Antonello, not willing to be outdone in kindness by * Morelli (Notizie cT Opere di Disegno, Bassano, 1800, p. 189.) proves that this picture, mentioned by various writers with praise, was still in the church of S. Cassiano at the close of the sixteenth century. In Ridolfi's time (1646) it had disappeared. OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 211 Maestro Domenico, after a few months taught him the secret and method of colouring in oil. No courtesy or kindness soever could be more accepta- ble to Domenico than this; since it was the means, as he had hoped it would be, of establishing his reputation in his native place. And certainly those persons err greatly who are avaricious of that which costs them nothing, while they imagine that, merely for their own sake, they themselves are to be served by every body. The attentions of Maestro Dome- nico had the effect of winning from Antonello that which he had gained for himself with so much assiduity and labour, and which perhaps he would have given to no other for a large sum of money. But I shall speak of Maestro Domenico in due time, of the works which he executed in Florence, and of him* to whom he liberally imparted what he him- self owed to the kindness of another. " Antonello, after having painted the altar-piece of S. Cassiano, executed many pictures and portraits for various Venetian noblemen; and M. Bernardo Vecchietti, a Florentine, has by him, two very beautiful figures of S. Francesco and S. Domenico, represented in the same picture, f Afterwards, at * Andrea dal Castagno, who, according to Vasari, murdered Domenico after having gained his secret. f This picture is now in the possession of Messrs. Wood- burn. It contains two heads only, one representing a Fran- ciscan friar, the other a canon of St. JohnLateran; it is described by Borghini, II Riposo, Milan, 1807, vol. ii. p. 104. See also the last Florence edition of Vasari, Vita di Ant. da Messina. p 2 212 VASARl's ACCOUNT OF THE METHOD OF the time when the Signoria [Venetian government] commissioned him to paint some subjects in the ducal palace — subjects which they had refused to give to Francesco Monsignore, of Verona* (though that painter was warmly recommended by the Duke of Mantua) — Antonellowas attacked with a pleurisy, and died at the age of forty -nine f, before he had begun the work. The painters evinced their respect for his memory at his funeral, in consideration of the gift which he had made to art in the new mode of colouring, as this epitaph testifies : — 4 DEO OPTIMO, MAXIMO. Antonio the Painter, the chief ornament of his native Messina, and of all Sicily, is buried in this spot. He is not only honoured with the lasting respect of his profession on account of the singular skill and grace which his pictures exhibit, but also * Vasari speaks of Monsignore in the Life of Fra Giocondo, and observes that he first entered the service of the Duke of Mantua in 1487. f The ducal palace was partly destroyed by fire in 1483. The new building was completed in 1493 ; after which period, therefore, Antonello must have prepared to execute his com- mission. His death may have happened in the same year or later, but not before. Supposing him to have been about thirty when he first visited Flanders, he would have been about seventy -nine in 1493. Puccini (Memorie, p. 61.) supposes Vasari's 49 to be a misprint for 79 ; but the Roman numerals xxxxix. in the first edition render this supposition improbable. Among the later works of Antonello, Ridolfi (Le Meraviglie dell' Arte, Ven. 1648, vol. i. p. 48.) mentions a fresco at Treviso, painted in 1490* OIL PAINTING INTRODUCED BY VAN EYCK. 213 because he was the first who conferred splendour and durability on Italian painting, by the immix- ture of colours with oil.' * " The death of Antonello was regretted by many of his friends, and particularly by Andrea Ricciof, the sculptor, who executed the two statues of Adam and Eve in the court of the Palazzo della Signoria, and which are considered beautiful works. Such was the end of Antonello, to whom certainly our artists are not less indebted for having introduced the mode of colouring in oil into Italy, than to Giovanni of Bruges for having first invented it in Flanders; both having been the means of enriching and benefiting the art : for by means of this inven- tion painters have attained such excellence that * " D. o. M. Antonius pictor, praecipuum Messanae suae et Sicilian totius orn amentum, hac humo contegitur. Non solum suis picturis, in quibus singulare artificium et venustas fuit, sed et quod coloribus oleo miscendis splendorem et perpetuitatem primus Italicae picturae contulit, summo semper artificum studio cele- bratus." ■f Andrea Riccio was born in 1470. (Scardeonio de Antiq. Patav. 1. iii. p. 375., quoted by Puccini.) Vasari may have intended to speak of Antonio Rizzo, whose name is inscribed on the statue of Eve above mentioned ; that artist was living and in full activity in 1496. {Puccini, ib.) Thus the supposition that Antonello may have died after 1493 is invalidated by no circumstance. On the contrary, the anonymous author of the Memorie de' Pittori Messinesi, Mess. 1821, p. 19., quotes a picture by Antonello, inscribed 1497, and even refers to writers who prolong his life to 1501. Gallo {Annali di Messina), with more probability, states that he died in 1496. r 3 214 NOTE ON THE INTRODUCTION they have almost made their figures living. The method deserves to be the more esteemed, in as much as no writer attributes this mode of colour- ing to the ancients. If it could be ascertained that the process was really unknown to them, that circumstance would of itself give a pre-eminence to the art of this century over the excellence of the antique. But since nothing is said which has not been said before, so perhaps nothing is done which has not been before done.* I therefore leave the question to its own merits, and, always giving highest praise to those who still add some quality to the art besides drawing, I proceed to write of others.' ' NOTE ON THE INTRODUCTION OF OIL PAINTING INTO ITALY. It has been already stated that the first Italian oil paintings of which we have any distinct notice were executed at Florence between the years 1455 and 1460. The nature of those works, the character of the artists employed, and the traditions of their process, will be considered at large in the second volume of this work. A few circumstances may be noticed here respecting the introduction of oil painting in other parts of Italy, and particularly in Naples. A letter (quoted by Puccini and Lanzi), dated 20th March, 1524, and addressed by a Neapolitan, Sum- * Lampsonius (perhaps copying Vasari), in his eulogy on John Van Eyck, expresses the same doubt : — "Atque ipsi igno- tum quondam fortassis Apelli." OF OIL PAINTING INTO ITALY. 215 monzio, to a Venetian writer, Marcantonio Michele, contains the following passage : — "From that period [1386 — 1414] we have had no one till the time of Maestro Colantonio, our Neapolitan, with so much inclination for painting ; and, if he had not died young, he might have done great things. It was the fault only of the times in which he lived, that Colantonio did not attain to the perfect drawing which we see in the antique, and which was possessed [in a greater degree] by his scholar, Antonello da Messina, a man who, I understand, is known among you [Venetians]. The taste of Colantonio was, according to the fashion of the time, entirely in favour of Flemish execution and colouring. He was so devoted to that kind of art, that he had thoughts of going to Flanders; but King Rene induced him to remain here, undertaking himself to show him the method and vehicle employed in the Flemish colouring." — " Da questo tempo [del Re Ladislao] non havemo havuto fino a Maestro Colantonio nostro Napolitano persona tanto dis- posta all' arte della pictura, che se non moriva iovene era par fare cose grandi. Costui non arrivo per colpa de' tempi alia perfettione del disegno delle cose antique, si come ci arrivo il suo discepolo Antonello da Messina, homo secondo intendo noto appresso Voi. La professione di Colantonio tutta era si come portava quel tempo in lavoro di Fiandra, e lo colorire di quel paese, al che era tanto dedito che haveva deliberato andarvi. Ma il Re Raniero lo ritenne qui con mostrarli ipso la pratica e la tempera di tal colorito," &c. The early date of this letter gives it a more than common importance. The assumption that Antonello da Messina was a scholar of Colantonio del Fiore may be passed over, as at once unsupported and inconclusive. On the other hand, it is cer- tain that Colantonio painted latterly in the Flemish taste ; his St. Jerome, now in the Museum at Naples, compared with earlier works attributed to him in S. Maria la Nuova and else- where, proves this. (See Passavant, Kunst-Blatt, 1843, No. 57.) But, Neapolitan writers excepted, none who have examined that work, have ventured to say that it is painted in oil. If it bears the date 1436, as Dominici ( Vite de' Pittori Napoletani, vol. i. p. 105.) and Piacenza (Baldinucci, vol. v. p. 146.) assert, that circumstance, according to Summonzio's p 4 216 NOTE ON THE INTRODUCTION statement, sufficiently accounts for its not being painted in oil, as King Rene's arrival in Naples was later by two years. But supposing that these writers were mistaken (as more recent authorities give no such date), or that later works of the same kind by Colantonio exist, painted while Rene occupied the throne of Naples, the doubtful appearance of such works may, perhaps, be explained by a reference to the pictures of the royal artist. Several examples are preserved ; the latest and best is in the cathedral at Aix, and all are more or less in the style of theVanEycks — a taste which Rene may have acquired during his three years' captivity at Dijon and Bracon, between the years 1431 and 1436.* Passavant (Kunst-Blatt, ib.), speaking of one of these examples, at Villeneuve, near Avignon, says that " it is painted in tempera, over which varnish colours are glazed." King Rene's chief practice was in illuminating, and it seems that his larger pictures are hatched with the point of the brush, in the manner of the early Italian tempera painters. The royal artist's mode of painting was thus an approach only to the improved system of the VanEycks, and his partial adop- tion of their process is explained by his being unable to divest himself of the habits of miniature and missal painting.^ The communication of such a method to Colantonio, already far ad- vanced in years (according to the chronology of Dominici), was therefore hardly calculated to give an idea of the new process ; and the arrival of Van Eyck's picture, whether sent to Rene or Alphonso, might still have been the immediate cause of Antonello da Messina's visit to Flanders. Summonzio's allusion to the estimation in which Antonello was held by the Venetians, establishes the truth of Vasari's statement in regard to that point, and there can be little doubt that the Sicilian was the first to communicate the Flemish * He was allowed to quit his imprisontnent on parole, for the settlement of the affairs of his kingdom, between 1432 and 1434. •f See CEuvres completes du Roi Rene, avec une biographic, et des notices par M. le Comte de Quatrebarbes, et un grand nombre de dessins et ornements d'apres les tableaux et manu- scrits originaux par M. Hawke. 4 tomes. Angers, 1845-^46. OF OIL PAINTING INTO ITALY, 217 method of oil painting in Italy. But it is not to be overlooked that some Flemish artists, scholars or followers of Van Eyck, were in Italy, and executed pictures there, about the middle of the fifteenth century. Among these were Roger of Bruges *, Memling, and Justus van Ghent. Facius speaks of the first as having seen and admired a work by Gentile da Fabriano, in Rome, during the year of the jubilee (1450 ; see Muratori, Annali d'ltalia), and mentions several works by the Flemish artist in Genoa, Ferrara, and Naples. The portrait of Roger of Bruges, with the date 1462, and another picture by the same artist, were seen in Venice by the anonymous traveller whose notes were published by Morelli (Notizie, Sec. p. 78. 81.); and Lanzi inclines to the opinion that the altar-piece in Venice, inscribed " sumus Ruggerii manus," was also painted by him during his stay in that city. Memling's visit to Italy is rendered probable by the intro- duction of well-known Italian buildings in pictures executed by him after he was settled at Bruges. He appears to have accom- panied his master, Roger of Bruges, on the occasion of the jubilee, when, as Muratori states, the concourse of people from all parts of Europe was so great, that the principal roads of Italy resembled fairs. Several works by Memling existed in Venice and Florence in the fifteenth century. Justus van Ghent entered into a contract (dated 1465) to paint an altar-piece at Urbino (Passavant, Rafael von U rbino, vol. i. p. 429.) The picture is still preserved there. A fresco at Genoa, inscribed "Justus de Alemania pinxit, 1451," if by the same artist, would prove that he was in Italy as early as Roger * Those who have undertaken to correct Vasari and the early historians of art, for confounding (as they have supposed) Roger of Bruges and Roger van der Weyden, are to be cor- rected in their turn. The researches of M. Wauters (Messager des Sciences historiques, 1846, quoted by Michiels, Histoire de la Peinture Flamande et Hollandaise, vol. iii. p. 392.), have proved that Van der Weyden was the family name of Van Eyck's scholar. His son, Goswyn, was also a painter. This fact, and the circumstance of the father having called himself Roger of Bruges, may have led Van Mander and others to consider the latter a distinct person from Roger van der Weyden. 218 INTRODUCTION OF OIL PAINTING INTO ITALY. of Bruges. On the whole, therefore, it may be concluded that specimens of the Flemish method were not only imported to Italy, but were actually painted there, before the return of Antonello da Messina from Flanders. The inference is, that the Flemish artists who were thus employed contrived to keep the secret of their process. This may be the more readily believed, from the fact that although Justus van Ghent resided for some years at Urbino, and painted works in oil there, the native artists, such as Giovanni Santi (the father of Raphael), continued to paint in tempera, not having been favoured, as it would seem, by a communication of the method in which Justus wrought. Accordingly, Giovanni Santi, taking occasion to mention the distinguished painters of his day, including John Van Eyck and Roger of Bruges, in a poem which is still extant {Passavant, ib. vol. i. p. 444.), appears to resent the illiberality of Justus by omitting his name. While noticing the introduction of Flemish works into the South of Europe, it may be remarked that in consequence of John Van Eyck's visit to Portugal, and the subsequent relations which subsisted between that country and Flanders, the influ- ence of the Flemish style is very apparent in early works executed by Portuguese artists, which are still preserved in the Academy at Lisbon and elsewhere. This influence has been traced and exemplified by an enlightened amateur, in a series of letters, accompanied with documents {Les Arts en Portugal, par le Comte A. Raczynski, Paris, 1846). The author remarks that all pictures executed in Portugal till the middle of the sixteenth century (and in the instance of the pictures of Gran Vasco, even later) are painted in this style. " Assurement dans tous ces tableaux c'est l'influence allemande et flamande qui predomine ; j'ose meme dire qu'elle y regne presque exclusive- ment." (p. 146.) Together with this general style, there can be no doubt that the technical methods of the Flemish school were also adopted. The same may be observed of the Spanish schools, especially that of Seville, which, in the technical habits of its best period, was more allied to the Flemish than to the Italian practice. 219 CHAP. VIII. EXAMINATION OF VASARl'S STATEMENTS RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. In the preceding narrative Vasari prepares the reader for the excellence of oil painting, by dwelling on the inconveniences of tempera. He exaggerates the defects of that method, and the disgust of the artists who practised it. He omits to speak of those exceptional cases in which, as before remarked, a satisfactory union of tints was effected * ; and he appears to forget that, after the novel method was * Examples like those before adduced were less rare after the middle of the fifteenth century. The paintings of Filippo Lippi, at once finished and free, indicate the use of a medium which did not dry rapidly. This requisite in the tempera vehicle may have been secured, not merely by the immixture of honey, ac- cording to the early Anglo-German process, but by the com- bination of wax with glutinous ingredients as exemplified in Le Begue's receipt before quoted. Another mode, in which even the combination of oil with glutinous vehicles was tried by a Florentine artist, will be noticed in this chapter. As regards the addition of wax, there is no direct evidence that it was commonly employed at the period in question ; but, at a time when various efforts were made to improve the practice of tempera, it is by no means improbable that the partial use of wax may have been revived. 220 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS introduced, the Italian artists, instead of eagerly adopting it, long remained faithful to their earlier habits. For it was not till the essential qualities of oil painting had been in part developed in Florence, Milan, and Venice, by Perugino, Leonardo da Vinci, and Giovanni Bellini, that the new art was gene- rally followed. Some circumstances connected with its intro- duction may have operated, in addition to the causes before noticed, to prejudice a certain class of the Florentine masters against it. It was repre- sented in Italy, at first, by Flemish pictures. These, though not without influence (independently of the method in which they were executed), from their fascinating treatment of accessories, appear to have been more admired by Italian collectors than by Italian painters. The specimens of Van Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Memling, and others, which the Florentines had seen * , may have appeared, in * A St. Jerome, by Van Eyck, was in the possession of Lorenzo de' Medici, and may have been in Italy at an earlier period. (Vasari, Introd. c. 21.) The Bath, with numerous figures, was, in the time of Facius (1456), in the possession of Cardinal Ottaviano degl' Ottaviani : this appears to be the same picture which Vasari (ibid.) mentions as belonging, after- wards, to the Duke of Urbino. The specimens of Van Eyck, which were to be seen in Naples, Milan, and Venice, (see Morelli, Notizie d'Opere di Disegno, p. 14. 45. 116.) may have been known to many Tuscan painters. Hugo van der Goes had painted the altar-piece (a triptych) for the Portinari Chapel in S. Maria Nuova, at Florence. ( Vasari, Introd. ibid.) The picture, now divided and not in its original place, is still in RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 221 the eyes of some severe judges (for example, those who daily studied the frescoes of Masaccio * ), to indicate a certain connexion between oil painting and minuteness, if not always of size, yet of style. The method, by its very finish and the possible completeness of its gradations, must have seemed well calculated to exhibit numerous objects on a small scale. That this was really the impression produced, at a later period, on one who represented the highest style of design, has been lately proved by means of an interesting document in which the opinions of Michael Angelo on the character of Flemish pictures are recorded by a contemporary artist, f that church. (Passavant, Kunst-Blatt, 1841, No. 5.) A work by this artist, executed at the same time, is now in the Pitti Palace. A picture by Memling was also in S. Maria Nuova ; another belonged to the Medici. ( Vasari, Introd. ib.) That Justus van Ghent, Roger of Bruges, and probably Mem- ling, the scholar of the latter, were all in Italy, has been shown in the note appended to the last chapter. The influence of the style of the Flemish painters in Italy, at this time, is acknowledged by Rumohr (Italienische Forschungen, vol. ii. p. 263.). Ciriaco d' Ancona, in a fragment of a letter preserved in Colucci's Antichita Picene, torn. xv. p. 143. (compare Lanzi, vol. i. p. 276.), speaks of a Sienese painter, Angelo Par- rasio, whom he had known at Ferrara in 1449, and who, he remarks, had imitated Van Eyck and Roger of Bruges in a picture executed at Ferrara. * Vasari, Vita di Masaccio. f Les Arts en Portugal, par le Comte A. Raczynski. Paris, 1846. This work, before noticed, opens with some extracts from a manuscript by " Francois de Hollande, architecte et 222 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS The Italian masters above named succeeded, however, in adapting oil painting to large dimen- sions, in many cases with corresponding breadth of manner ; and their immediate followers carried its practice to perfection. Vasari, to whom exam- enlumineur." The principal part, which appears to be a con- fused history of ancient and modern art, was completed at Lisbon in 1548. Francisco was most employed during the reign of John III. (1521 — 1557). The most interesting part of the MS., translated by the editor, consists of various conversations, apparently recorded as they occurred in Rome. The opinion of Michael Angelo on Flemish art was elicited by the Marchioness of Pescara, Vittoria Colonna, who observed that the Flemish pictures appeared to her to be treated with a more devout feeling than the works of the Italians. The great artist replies : " La peinture flamande plaira generalement a, tout devot plus qu'aucune dTtalie .... En Flandre, on peint de preference, pour tromper la vue exteri- eure, ou des objets qui vous charment ou des objets dont vous ne puissiez dire du mal, tels que des saints et prophetes. D'or- dinaire ce sont des chiffons, des masures, des champs tres verts ombrages d'arbres, des rivieres et des ponts, ce que Ton appelle paysages, et beaucoup de figures par-ci par-la; quoique cela fasse bon effet a certains yeux, en verite il n'y a la ni raison ni art, point de symetrie, point de proportions, nul soin dans le choix, nulle grandeur .... Si je dis tant de mal de la peinture fla- mande, ce n'est pas qu'elle soit entierement mauvaise, mais elle veut rendre avec perfection tant de choses, dont une seule suffirait par son importance, qu'elle n'en fait aucune d'une maniere satisfaisante. ...La bonne peinture est noble et devote par elle-meme, car chez les sages rien n'eleve plus Tame et ne la porte davantage a la devotion que la difficulte de la perfection," &c. A native of Holland might have had some reluctance in recording so severe a judgment on the style of the Netherlands, but Francisco de Ollanda was born in Lisbon ; his father, An- tonio, having settled there. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 223 pies of that perfection were familiar, appears to have contrasted them, in imagination, with the most timid specimens of tempera. The biographer next proceeds to speak of certain attempts made by Alesso Baldovinetti, and others, before oil painting was introduced (as he appears to assume), to unite richness and depth of effect with fresco, by employing unctuous ingredients in re- touching frescoes, and perhaps for painting gene- rally. In the life of Baldovinetti, he describes the vehicle employed by that artist more particularly. It consisted, he says, of " vernice liquida" and yolk of eggs : he adds that, where the colour so mixed was applied too thickly, it cracked and peeled off. This defect accounts for his dwelling on the supe- rior firmness and consistence of Van Eyck's pic- tures, the surface of which, he observes, was in no danger of being detached, even by sudden shocks. To painters of the present day, such accidents to newly painted pictures may appear almost impos- sible ; yet the use of heterogeneous vehicles may, without due care, lead to such results. Northcote, in his life of Reynolds, relates that a newly finished picture by Sir Joshua, having been accidentally overturned, was found on examination to have shaken off " a considerable part of the face and neck. " * So, when Yasari states that Yan Eyck's pictures would bear washing, he probably referred, * Vol. ii. p. 160. 224 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS not to tempera, which, when varnished, was proof against wet, but to such pictures as those of Bal- dovinetti, the surface of which, if cracked, would admit the moisture, and might then be easily detached. From the manner in which Yasari speaks of the (supposed) invention of Baldovinetti, it is evident that he considered his countryman as one who was foremost in endeavouring to remedy the defects of tempera. A reference to the date of this Floren- tine painter (of which the biographer appears to have been ignorant ) will, therefore, not be unim- portant. He was born about 1425* , and died near the close of the century. The period when he began to practice his method was therefore, in all probability, scarcely anterior even to the introduc- tion of oil painting into Florence. Moreover, the composition which Baldovinetti employed, far from being an invention of his, was used in Venice in the peculiar glass-painting already described, before he was born. This is apparent from the follow- ing passage in the oldest portion of the Venetian MS. : " Take yolks of eggs and 1 vernice liquida/ equal quantities, incorporate them well, and apply the mixture, as a coating, with the brush. It is * See the documents quoted by G-aye, Carteggio ined. d' Ar- tisti, vol. i. p. 224. Compare the notes to Baldinucci (Milan, 1811), vol. v. p. 317.; and the notes to the last Florence edition of Vasari (1832—1838), Vitadi A. Baldovinetti. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 225 proof against water and every thing else."* Thus used, the ingredients may have been less liable to crack than when mixed with solid colour. But, without staying to examine further the claims of Alesso Baldovinetti, we proceed to a more impor- tant question, viz. the nature of " vernice liquida." Vasari uses the term as an ordinary and fami- liar one, in his account of the invention of oil painting and in the life of Baldovinetti. The ex- pression frequently occurs in the Venetian MS., in the MSS. of Alcherius, in the compendium of St. Audemar, and in the notes of Le Begue, and is to be met with in all early treatises on painting. Cennini mentions "vernice liquida" no less than nine times f, and speaks of no other varnish. On one or two other occasions, where the epithet "liquida" is omitted, apparently to avoid repetition, it is still clear that the same composition is meant. The pro- cess of varnishing, as already shown, generally took place in the sun ; the sun's heat was, at all events, afterwards necessary to dry the surface. Cennini * " Toy torli de ove e vTiixe liquida egualmente e icorpora molto bn isieme e de questa tale cola darai p copta como el penelo la qual colla no teme aqua ne cossa che sia." The yolk of egg contains a small proportion of oil, but not enough to arrest the drying of the substance ; to increase the oily ingre- dient was therefore an obvious remedy. The method of Bal- dovinetti was not perhaps the only attempt to combine oily and glutinous materials, so as to render tempera more manageable ; for this, according to Vasari, was the great object. t Trattato, c. 101—161. Q 226 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS intimates that the practice was not without risk (as panels are apt to warp and split in the sun), but recommends boiling the varnish well when it was intended that the picture should dry in the shade.* Tambroni, the editor of Cennini, observes, with reference to a passage in the chapter here quoted, that " the silence of Cennini as to the nature of this varnish is truly to be deplored." The com- mentator estimated the importance of the desired knowledge justly ; at the same time it is surprising that he should have made no attempt to clear up this difficulty, or to satisfy himself and others on the point in question. It is plain from Cennini's account (and it will be proved from other sources) that this was the universal varnish for tempera pictures. Van Eyck, in consequence of the split- ting of a panel in the sun, proceeded, first, to pre- pare his varnish so that it might dry in the shade ; and, secondly (which was his chief improvement), to mix the colours partly with this drying medium. Tambroni may therefore have supposed, and not without reason, that a description of the varnish, even with its original defects, which was com- monly used by the early tempera painters, might throw some light on the Flemish improvement in oil painting. * " Se volessi che la vernice asciugasse senza sole, cuocila bene in prima ; che la tavola V ha molto per bene a non essere troppo sforzata dal sole." — lb. c. 155. ^RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 227 It will be remarked that there is a close coinci- dence between Cennini's observation respecting the inconvenience of exposing panels in the sun, and the accident which, according to the narrative, actually occurred to Van Eyck. There is a further coinci- dence between Cennini's recommendation that the varnish should be well boiled if the picture was not to be dried in the sun, and the corresponding precaution actually taken by Van Eyck. But this need not suggest the inference, either that Cennini had heard the story afterwards told by Vasari, or that Vasari had contrived his narrative to suit the directions of Cennini. Any writer might have stated that panels warp in the sun ; and any painter, at a time when all were acquainted with mechanical processes, might have known that var- nishes long boiled become more drying, though at the same time they become darker in colour. But that which was the chief novelty, the immixture of the colours with such a medium (more carefully prepared), is not noticed by Cennini with reference to painting *, and, which is remarkable, the method was already almost obsolete in Italy in Vasari's time ; so that the biographer extolled an invention which he and most of his countrymen no longer sanctioned by their practice. This is the strongest proof that Yasari's account was derived from Flem- * The mixture of " vernice liquida " with colours (for some purposes) was not unknown to Cennini. (IVattato, c. 161.) Q 2 228 EXAMINATION OF VASAEl's STATEMENTS ish authorities, and, therefore, likely to be, in the main, correct. The silence of Cennini respecting the customary varnish need not have been " deplored " by Tarn- broni. The composition is fully described by many other writers. Two passages, where Cennini men- tions " vernice liquida," employed as a varnish, are first to be examined. Speaking of a mordant, he says : "It would not be proof against wet or mois- ture in churches, where [though] the walls might be faced with brick ; but it is fit for the surface of wood or iron, or any substance intended to be var- nished with " vernice liquida. "* In c. 145., the chapter to which Tambroni's note is appended, Cennini says : " Take then your 4 vernice liquida ? as clear and as light in colour as you can procure it." -f" In this case, the adjective " liquida," without a comparison with other passages in the book, and particularly the last quoted, might be taken for an ordinary epithet like the " clear " and " light " which accompany it, especially as there are two conjunctions. J The punctuation, supplied, as it ap- * " Questo tal mordente non si difenderebbe ne da acqua ne da umido mai in chiese, dove fusse coperti in mura di mattoni ; ma la sua natura e in tavola e in ferro, o dove fusse cosa avessi a vernicare con vernice liquida." — lb. c. 153. t " Adunque togli la tua vernice liquida e lucida, e chiara la piu. che possi trovare." J This Latinism is quite consistent with the genius of the Italian language, and, if the comma were placed after liquida, would give emphasis. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 229 pears, by Tambroni, shows that he thus understood it. The passage would then read : " Take then your f vernice ' as liquid, clear, and light in colour as you can procure it." Cennini, however, proceeds to direct that the varnish should be applied with the hand or with a sponge, thus showing that the com- position was thick in consistence. To say that it should be used in as liquid a state as it could be procured would therefore be a contradiction, as it might be of any degree of fluidity. But the am- biguity which Tambroni's punctuation occasions is entirely removed by a reference to the two MSS. of Cennini preserved in the Laurentian and Riccar- dian libraries in Florence. In the Laurentian MS. the passage is : " Adoncli togli latua vernicie liquida bella, e chiara la piucn possi trovare." In the Ric- cardian MS. : ..." latua vernicie liquida. t: lucida ecchiara," &c. In both these examples, and especially in the last, the words " vernice liquida " cannot be separated. It is therefore apparent that the expression " ver- nice liquida," in the passage referred to, is the ordinary term used by early writers, to desig- nate the varnish for tempera pictures. It remains to inquire what was the nature of the composition so called. In order to answer this question clearly, and to avoid future digression, it will first be neces- sary to consider the subject with reference to a re- moter period. The evidence respecting the nature of the more ancient varnishes is partly philological ; q 3 230 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS but the history of terms is, in this case, closely connected with that of technical processes, and, from the light which it affords, is here indispensable. Eustathius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his commentary on Homer, states that the Greeks of his day called amber (rjXsxrpov) Veronice (^epowxTj).* Salmasius, quoting from a Greek medical MS. of the same period, writes it Verenice (0spsi/ij«j).f In the Lucca MS. (8th century) the word Veronica more than once occurs among the ingredients of varnishes, and it is remarkable that in the copies of the same recipes in the Mappce Clavicula (12th century) the word is spelt, in the genitive, Verenicis and Vernicis. This is probably the earliest instance of the use of the Latinised word nearly in its modern form ; the original nominative vernice being after- wards changed to vernix. Veronice or Verenice, as a designation for amber, must have been common at an earlier period than the date of the Lucca MS., since it there occurs as a term in ordinary use. It is scarcely neces- sary to remark that the letter 0 was sounded v by the medieval Greeks, as it is by their present descendants. Even during the classic ages of Greece 0 represented <$> in certain dialects. The name Berenice or Beronice, borne by more than one daughter of the Ptolemies, would be more cor- * if de tGjv ldi(OTu>v yXuxraa fiepovUrjv XeyEt to r}\eKTpor. (Od. «.) f Salmasius, Exercitationes de Homonymis Hyles Iatricse, Traj. ad Rhen. 1689, c. 101. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 231 rectly written Pherenice or Pheronice. * The literal coincidence of this name and its modifica- tions with the Vernice of the middle ages, might almost warrant the supposition that amber, which by the best ancient authorities was considered a mineral f, may, at an early period, have been dis- tinguished by the name of a constellation, the constellation of Berenice's (golden) hair. J The comparison of golden tresses with amber was not uncommon with the ancients : Nero, who some- times affected to be a poet, applied the epithet " succineus " to the hair of his empress Poppcea ; in consequence of which, observes Pliny, amber- coloured hair became fashionable. § The emperor had been anticipated by Ovid || , perhaps by others. * Literally " bringing victory ; " the same materials formed the name Nicephorus. The alteration of $ to (3 was usual in the Macedonian dialect and its varieties, according to which Philippus was written Bilippus, &c. f Theophrastus de Lapidibus, § 63. : compare the notes in Hill's translation. J " Devotae flavi verticis exuviae." Catull. Coma Berenices, lin. 62. The poem of Catullus is supposed to be a version of that of Callimachus, now lost, on the same subject. Foscolo, in the notes to his Italian translation (Milan, 1803, p. 119.), ob- serves : " Diro qui della testa bionda di Berenice ; in Egitto dovea essere per la sua rarita di maggior merito che in ogni altro paese." Berenice II., the princess thus celebrated by the astronomer Conon, and by the contemporary poet Callimachus, died about 216, or according to others, 221, B. C. § L. xxx vii. c. 12. " Electro similes faciunt auroque capillos." Metam. lib. xv. lin. 316. q 4 232 EXAMINATION OF VASAEl's STATEMENTS Whatever may have suggested the application of the name Bernice to amber, it is clear from the authorities quoted, that the word was so appro- priated long before the revival of painting in Italy. At the same time, it does not appear that either the physicians or the painters of the middle ages had very accurate notions respecting the substance. The Oriental names, some of which were adopted into the ancient and modern languages of the West, indicate this ambiguity ; while the ancient descrip- tions of the nature and origin of amber would often serve as well for very different substances. The materials with which it was confounded, and which gradually either served as substitutes for it or en- tirely superseded it, will require to be specially considered. First, with regard to sandarac : this resin flows from the Thuja articulata (African arbor vitas), a dwarf tree somewhat resembling the juniper, which abounds in Barbary on the sides of Mount Atlas *, and is also found in various parts of the East. The fluctuating significations of the word sandarac show how generally this resin was confounded with amber, which it resembles in appearance. In the best Persian lexicon (the Borltani Kdti) " sandar " or " sandarah," is explained as " the name of a certain yellow gum resembling amber." f In Shak- * Dictionnaire des Sciences naturelles, Paris, 1816-29, art. Thuya. Miller's Gardener's and Botanist's Dictionary, 1807, art. Thuja. f For these and other references of the kind the author is ndebted to an eminent Oriental scholar. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 233 spear's Hindoostanee dictionary, "sandaros" (Arabic and Persian) is " a resin supposed to be produced by the Juniperus communis, but now proved to exude from a species of Thuja." In the Bengali dictionary, amber is rendered by the word " chan- darus." In the Borhdni Kdti again, " sandarus, the same as sandar," is said to be distinguished from amber by its smell when burnt. The smell is offensive; yet, from the outward resemblance of the resin to frankincense ( " thus"), the tree which bears it has the name " thuia." The term " thy - eum" applied by an ancient authority to amber, and the mention of Numidia as the country where amber was found *, point, in like manner, to san- darac. Salmasius, in the treatise before quoted, remarks that the Arabian writers frequently con- founded sandarac and amber, and instances Avi- cenna, who employs almost the same words to describe the qualities of both. Tor the rest, the Arabic word " ambar," whence our own is derived, appears to have been originally appropriated to ambergris f . The Arabic and Persian term for the real substance is " Karabe." Next, as regards copal: in Shakspears diction- ary before quoted, copal is rendered " chandaras — a corruption from the Sanskrit." The Sanskrit compound " chanda-rasa " (literally moon-juice) J, * Pliny, L xxxvii. c. 11. f " Leo Africanus balaenam hambara dici scribit ab incolis Marochi et Fez." — Salmasius, Exercit. ib. % Conrad Gessner de Rerum fossilium, &c. (p. 50.) observes : 234 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS compared with the Bengali word already given, may thus represent either copal or amber, while the mere sound still connects it with sandarac. The researches of a late French writer on varnishes tend to prove that the South- African copal is the finest in quality, and that the best samples, which sometimes reach Europe from India, are originally procured from Africa. * If he is correct, nothing is American, in the choicer specimens of this resin, but the name. The difference between amber and Oriental (or African) copal, in the ancient receipts, is thus scarcely to be traced ; and as both substances, em- ployed in varnishes, have the same recommendations and nearly the same defects, the distinction is of little importance. Local facilities in obtaining one or the other may, however, be worthy of consider- ation. Thus, amber was always considered the German varnish ; and, on the other hand, when the Byzantines refer to amber under its Oriental names, they may sometimes mean copal. There is a more palpable difference between sandarac and the other two substances ; yet sandarac was, at an early period, " Succinum quod Groeci Electrum vocitant afnnitatem quandam habere cum luna putant aliqui." He mentions the affinity, at least in name, of the " lac lunare " or " mondmilch," a species of agate found in the Alps. * Tripier-Deveaux, Traite theorique et pratique sur l'Art de faire les Vernis, Paris, 1845, p. 40. See also Guibourt (His- toire abregee des Drogues simples, Paris, 1836, vol. ii. p. 526.) on the copal of Madagascar. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 235 commonly substituted for amber. This practice throws considerable light on the ancient receipts for the preparation of varnishes. Those receipts often appear in two forms, and it will be shown that, in general, the one relates to sandarac, the other to amber (or copal) ; the first being an ordi- nary, the second a superior, varnish. The test of amber — its attractive power after friction — to judge from some of its names, was as familiar to the ancients as to the moderns. Those names have a remarkable coincidence in meaning. The old Greek designation, "HAsxrpoy, is supposed to be derived from sAxoj, traho*, as amber draws or attracts small light objects, such as straws, &c. Pliny observes that it was called " Harpaga " (ap7ra£a>, rapio) for the same reason. f In some compound Sanskrit terms for amber the word straw is introduced, and is first in order, as "Tri- na-grahin," straw-seizing; " Trina-mani," straw- gem. The Persian equivalent " Kah-ruba," straw- stealing, is the source of pur Karabe. Buttman states that the word Rav or Raf, to seize, is appro- priated to this substance in the North of Ger- many. J It remains to observe that the term Sandaracha, with the Greeks and Romans, meant * Buttman, Mythologus, vol. ii. p. 362. f . . . " et vocare harpaga, quia folia et paleas, vestiumque fimbrias rapiat." — L. xxxvii. c. 11. The term " tire-paille " is a familiar French synonyrne of amber. J Mythologus, ib. 236 EXAMINATION OF VASAlll's STATEMENTS a red pigment (in Dioscorides, red orpiment). In the Persian dictionary before mentioned we read " this word (sandarus) also denotes a red colour, probably from the resemblance of red to its own hue ; " that is, the colour of the resin, which deepens with age. In the Westminster accounts (13th and 14th centuries) the " vernisium ru- beum," so often mentioned, is unquestionably sandarac. The early medical writers distinguish the resin from the pigment by calling the former the sandarac of the Arabs, meaning the Arabian physicians. The greater facility of dissolving sandarac in oil, and above all its cheapness as compared with amber, rendered it fitter for ordinary use. It became, perhaps even with the ancients, the com- mon representative of the more costly substance ; in the middle ages the word " vernix " was applied to both, and, by degrees, to sandarac alone. In this stage of the philological inquiry the more modern dictionaries afford full information. They refer to times when the original application was lost, and when " vernix " was the equivalent for sandarac. Pasini's Italian and Latin dictionary translates vernix, sandaracha, with the common, but absurd, derivation "quod verno tempore fluat." Littleton's dictionary has the same meaning and derivation. The Delia Crusca gives " sandaracha " as the Latin equivalent of " vendee," and " san- daracha illinere " for " vernicare. " The word RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 237 Verenice (0efsv/;«j), to use the words of Sal- masiuSj degenerated to vernix, which was again applied to another substance ; it was appropriated to the resin of the juniper (read Thuja), on account of the resemblance of that resin to amber.* Accordingly, in the early Italian and other recipes for varnishes, the word " vernice " is a com- mon synonyme for sandarac resin. Before this is understood, it is somewhat perplexing to find " vernice " among the ingredients for making a varnish. When Walpole triumphantly adduced the mandate of Henry III. respecting oil and varnish, it was not likely to occur to him that the word " vernix " meant a resin only ; and that when dissolved in the oil, and not before, it formed a varnish in the modern sense of the word. It has been already shown that whenever the word "vernix" (sometimes written " vernisium " and "verniz") occurs in the English accounts, the quantity is given in weight, showing that it was a dry substance ; the oil, in the same accounts, being always noted by measure. When the " vernix " or dry sandarac was dis- solved by heat in linseed oil, it was consistently called liquid vernix, and, by the Italians, " ver- nice liquida." As this brings us to Cennini, to * " Ex quo fieperUriQ vocabulo iidem barbari vernicem suum depravarunt, quod et pro alio genere gummi usurparunt ; ita enim vocarunt gummi Juniperi ob similitudinem quam habet cum succino." — Exercitat. &c. c. 101. 238 EXAMINATION OF VASARl'S STATEMENTS the varnish of the tempera painters, and to Van Eyck, the statement will require to be confirmed by satisfactory evidence. Authorities are nume- rous, and a selection only can be made from them ; it is to be remembered that the early writers put the juniper for the Thuja articulata. Cardanus : "The juice which flows from the juniper is called vernix. — From dry vernix and linseed oil, liquid vernix is made : this is calculated to resist all effects of the atmosphere, and there- fore is applied to pictures."* Matthioli: "The juniper produces a resin similar to mastic, called (though improperly) sandarac. — This, when fresh, is light in colour and trans- parent, but, as it acquires age, it becomes red. — With this resin and linseed oil is prepared the liquid vernix which is used for giving lustre to pictures, and for varnishing iron. The dry vernix, that is, the resin of the juniper . . . " f then follow the medical uses. * " Juniperi lachryma vernix vocatur. — E sicca vernice et lini oleo fit liquida vernix, ad omnes coeli impetus coercendos aptissima : unde picturis addi solet." — Hieron. Cardani de Subtilitate, &c. Basileae, 1554, lib. viii. | " Produce il ginepro la gomma simile al mastice e chiamasi questa gomma (ancora che male) sandaraca. — Questa, quando e fresca, e lucida bianca e trasparente, ma invecchiandosi rosseg- gia. — Fassi di questa e d' olio di seme di lino artificialmente la vernice liquida che s' adopera per far lustre le pitture e per inverniciare il ferro. La secca, cio e la gomma del ginepro conferisce,'' &c. — // Dioscoride delV eccellente Dottor medico M. P. Andrea Matthioli) Mantova, 1549, lib. i. c. 84. EESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 239 Caneparius : " It is prepared from the sandarac of the Arabs (as the juniper resin is termed in laboratories) ; this is called dry vernix. From this and linseed oil is made the dark liquid vernix, so well adapted for giving lustre to pictures and statues ; it even adds splendour to iron and pre- serves it from rust." Elsewhere : " The sandarac of the Arabs is, then, a juice flowing from the juniper which hardens to a resin. This, while fresh, is white and transparent ; but, as it acquires age, it inclines to a red colour." * Schroder : " Juniper : its resin is the sandarac of the Arabs ; dry vernix. Liquid vernix is an arti- ficial preparation composed of this sandarac resin dissolved in linseed oil. The sandarac of the Greeks is orpiment.f Castello : " Vernisium, the same as vernix ; * " Componitur ex sandaracha Arab urn, haec est gummi juni- peri officinis recepta voce, vernix dicitur arida, ex hac igitur, et oleo lini fit vernix liquida atra, quse tantum pra3stat ad tabulas depictas illustrandas, atque imagines, cum etiam ferro nitorem inducat et a rubigine ipsum tueatur." " Sandaracha Arabum igitur est lachryma emanans a junipero, et in gummi concrescit, quod dum recens est album, lucidum, atque transparens, cum veterascit autem ad rufum colorem inclinat." — Petri Marice Caneparii de Atramentis, Yen. 1619, Quinta Descript. c. 26. t " Juniperus : gummi (Arab, sandaracha, vernix) truckener firniss. Vernix liquidus factitius est liquor ex gummi hoc i. e. Sandaracha in oleo lini soluta. Sandaracha Grnecorum est auripigmentum." — Pharmacopoeia Mcdico-chymica, &c, auct. Joanne Schrddero, Ulm. Suev. 1685, lib. iv. c. 179. 240 EXAMINATION OF VASARl'S STATEMENTS otherwise called sandarac or juniper resin, and thus dry vernix; also the fluid composition pre- pared from this resin, then called liquid vernix." * The term " vernice " alone is frequently used by early Italian writers for " vernice liquida : " the context then shows that the dry resin is not intended. But whenever " gomma di vernice " occurs, it distinctly means dry sandarac resin. The application of the word " vernice " to varnishes generally was more gradual ; indeed, it is necessary to bear in mind that, in most early treatises on painting, the wider application was figurative, the strict meaning being sometimes resumed. After the sixteenth century the general meaning con- nected with the word varnish prevailed, while the restricted application of the term, as a synonyme of sandarac, by degrees became obsolete. For the present it is essential to preserve the associations of an earlier period, and we proceed to consider the double receipts before noticed, relating to san- darac and amber. In the Secreti of Timotheo Eossello the follow- ing examples occur : they are not quoted as the most perfect modes of preparing the varnishes, but as descriptions which throw light on obscurer formulaB of the kind. * " Vernisium, idem quod vernix, Sandaracha alias vocatur, vel gummi Juniperinum et ita vernix siccus ; vel liquor ex hoc gummi paratus estque vernix humidus." — Bartholomcei Ca- stelli Lexicon Medicum, &c. Genevan, 1746. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OE VAN EYCK. 241 " To make Yernice liquida. — Take one lb. of sandarac resin and four lb. of linseed oil : place [the latter] on the fire to boil : take another vessel [for the resin], adding three oz. of oil, little by little : stir continually with a spatula, and let the oil continue to boil till the whole is transferred to [the vessel containing] the varnish*: keep up a good fire for the said varnish : and, in order to know when the mixture has boiled enough, place a little on a knife, and if it remain thick, and some- what firm, the varnish is made. Then instantly remove it from the fire and strain through a wet cloth." f "To make a superior Yernice liquida. — Take three lb. of linseed oil, one lb. of yellow amber, and six oz. of pulverised brick. J Make a furnace with two orifices below, each orifice having bellows adapted to it. The fire, which should be of charcoal, re- quires to be great. Let there be an opening above : * This passage in the original is not very clear ; but another receipt (p. 251.), from the Venetian MS., explains it. f "A far Yernice liquida — Piglia lib. i. de goma de vernice, e lib. iiii. d' oglio de linosa, e poni al fuoco e fa bollire, e piglia un altro vaso e poni oz. iii. d' oglio a poco a poco, e senipre mescola con una spatula, e seinpre farai bollire V oglio insino che sara tutto in vernice, e sempre farai fuoco bono alia detta ver- nice, e se vorrai sapere quando sara cotta metti della detta ver- nice un poco sopra un cortello, e se rimaneni viscosa e un poco dura sara cotta e subito leva detta vernice dal fuoco e cola in un canevaccio bagnato in acqua." — Delia Summa de Sccreti univi r- sali, Sj-cdi Don Timotheo Rossello, in Venetia, 1.575, v.ii. p. 127. J The pulverised brick was used merely to assist the clarifi- cation of the varnish. li 242 EXAMINATION OF VASARl'S STATEMENTS in this fit a glazed vessel which is to be luted to the opening so that the fire may not penetrate ; for if it were to do so, the ingredients would presently be in a flame. Place your amber in the vessel with as much of the oil as will cover it: then blow with the bellows and make a great fire till the amber dissolves. As there is great danger of fire, have a wooden trencher ready, wrapped round with a wet cloth, and, if the varnish should catch fire, cover the vessel with the trencher. Meanwhile, boil, in another vessel, the remainder of the oil, making a moderate fire with charcoal, but still taking care that the flame does not ascend. Let this oil con- tinue to boil till it be reduced one third. Then, when the amber is dissolved in the small quantity of oil first mixed with it, as above described, throw in the remaining oil which you have heated to ebullition, and mix together for the space of two misereres [about five minutes], so as to in- corporate all well. Then remove the vessel from the fire, and throw in the pulverised brick above mentioned. Stir again a little ; then cover the vessel ; let the contents settle, and the varnish is made." * * " A far Vernice liquida e gentile. — Piglia libre iii. d' oglio de linosa e lib. i. de ambro giallo, e oz. sei de polvere de qua- drello ; poi fa un fornelletto che habbia due bocche e ogni bocca habbia il suo mantesetto che soppia come apparent disotto ed il fnoco sia de carboni e vole essere gran fuoco ed habbia un pertuso dove stia la pignatta che sia vitriata et ben turrata circa il buso del fornello accio il fuoco non venghi a la pignatta RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 243 These receipts present, in juxta-position, the ordinary representative " Vernix," and the original Greek " Berenice." They appear together else- where. In the Byzantine MS. " santaloze " and " sandarac " (the latter being stated " not to be the best") point to this difference. In the treatise of St. Audemar " vernix " in one receipt is opposed to " glassa " in a second.* In the Montpelier MS. the distinction is remarkable: the resinous substance in the first recipe is called " fernix vel grassa ; " in the second, " glassa vel fernix gna [Germana]." Grasa or grassa is the Spanish term for sandarac. Thus Pacheco, in his receipt for the ordinary impero che arde volontiera e metti il tuo ambro nella detta pi- gnatta e 1' una parte dell' oglio predetto e tanto solo che sia a pena coperto e cosi con quelli mantesi soffia e fali gran fuoco insino che 1' ambro si disfa, e perche e gran pericolo di fuoco habbi apparecchiato un tagliero el quale sia coperto di panno bagnato e quando vi saltasse il fuoco coprilo con quello tagliero. Ma prima cocerai 1' oglio che ti avanza in una pignatta su quel medemo modo e falli lento fuoco de carboni, e guarda no vada di sopra, e fa che scemi quasi il terzo, e questo serba, e come ho detto disfatto che sia 1' ambro con quel poco d' oglio prima gettali dentro quest' altro oglio che hai fatto bollire, e mescola sempre per spatio di dui miserere per ben incorporarlo, dipoi piglialo levandolo dal fuoco e gettali dentro la polvere sopra- detta del quadrello, e mescola bene alquanto, dipoi coprilo e las- cialo alquanto riposare e sara fatto." — lb. * " Oleum de lini semine et picem [pece Greca] uno pondere mixt. et eamdem mensuram de vernix pone in ollam et fac bullire bene," &c. " Oleum lineum . . . mitte in ollam novam ac fac bullire super carbones vel claro igne paulatim, deinde munda glassam tuam quantum volueris, et pone in alteram ollam. et aluminis quasi mediam partem," &c. r 2 244 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS varnish, says : " Add four oz. of pulverised grassa, which is the juniper resin, called by the Arabs sandarac."* Glessum (glas), according to Tacitus f and Pliny J, was the ancient German name for amber. It is by no means improbable, from the ■fluctuating forms of words meaning similar things, that " grassa " may have been a corruption from it § : but there can be no doubt that the two re- cipes in the Montpelier MS. refer to the same materials as the more accurate descriptions of Ros- sello. The often commented two directions of Theophilus are to be explained in the same man- ner ; for if they were intended to be identical in meaning, as is commonly assumed, the name of the vernix need not have been varied. The first of the two receipts in Theophilus clearly relates to san- darac. In the second, the word " glassa " occurs || ; and, as in Rossello, there are preparations for a greater fire, and more effectual precautions are taken to prevent accidents : the oil is heated sepa- * " Echale quatro onzas de grassa molida en polvo (que es la goma del enebro que los Arabes llaman Sandaraca)," &c. — Arte de Pintura su Antiguedad y Grandezas, por Fr. Pancheco, Se- villa, 1649, p. 410. f De Moribus Germanorum, c. xlv. \ L. xxxvii. c. 1 1. § In the Strassburg MS. common " glas " is synonymous with sandarac. " Zu dem ersten nim des gemeinen virnis glas ein phunt." " In the first place take of common vernix glas one pound." The inference is, that the superior kind of " glas/' used as a varnish, was amber. || Theophili Divers. Art. Schedula, 1. i. c. 21. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 245 rately ; the consistence of the varnish is tried, and the vessel is covered when the operation is com- pleted ; all circumstances, no matter whether in themselves important or not, which correspond with the clearer directions of the Italian. That Theophilus should appear to identify " glassa " with the " gummi fornis " (fiirniss) before mentioned by him, is to be explained by his em- ploying the term in its general sense, and as the equivalent of " varnish." The example of Rossello is, in this point also, quite parallel, as he still calls his amber varnish " vernice liquida," adding only the epithet " gentile." The direction of Theophilus, not to suffer the varnish to boil, is incorrect, even as regards the sandarac, and is therefore of no weight. His recipe is otherwise objectionable ; for, as Merimee observes, two parts of oil to one of resin would make much too thick a varnish for ordinary purposes.* It will be observed that Rossello's proportions, though still calculated to make a very thick composition, are better. That the words " glassa " and " vernix " meant two distinct substances, is further apparent from the mode in which those words are used in the Paris copy of the manuscript of Eraclius. After speaking of linseed oil and other ingredients, the writer says : " Add vernix to them, and heat the composition on a charcoal fire ; but if you have no * Dela Peinture a l'Huile, Paris, 1830, p. 75. B 3 246 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS vernix, take glassa," &c* In the Strassburg MS. the term " (common) glas " is applied to sandarac ; and, in the instance now quoted, it would appear that the two significations are interchanged, w glassa " meaning the common substance, and " vernix " (as originally) amber : Le Begue also uses " glasse " for sandarac. The clue to this labyrinth is easily supplied: glessum and berenice were the Latin and Greek terms appropriated at an early period to amber. The word berenice (vernix), even before the thirteenth century, became the usual designation for sandarac ; and the word gles- sum (glas) was sometimes, though rarely, also used to denote that substance. Where both terms ap- pear together, they mean distinct things ; and the context can alone show which of the two meanings each conveys ; but in general glas means amber, and vernix sandarac. The formulas of Rossello, the terms of which are not to be mistaken, may be considered good repre- sentatives of the earliest modes of preparing sandarac and amber varnishes ; and, whether of Byzantine or of German origin, they were proba- bly derived, mediately or immediately, from the same ancient source whence Theophilus, the author of the Montpelier MS., and others had drawn their information. It does not appear that the amber varnish was * " Vernix cum eis pones et super carbones calefacies ; si autera vernix non habueris accipies glassam," &c. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 247 used at an early period in England. The two resins mentioned in the Westminster accounts are sandarac and mastic, or red and white varnish. The two resins mentioned in a receipt for an oil varnish in the Mappce Clavicula, headed " Collam Graecam facere," are sandarac and mastic. There is some ground for supposing that this MS. is of English origin : the circumstance of the English names of plants (whence colours were manufactured) being given, favours this view. The three materials for varnishes mentioned in the Strassburg MS. (the probable connexion of which with English practice has already been considered) are sandarac, mastic, and turpentine resin ; the latter was sometimes called " glorie," from the gloss which it produced.* As this turpentine (in a concrete state) was also called white resin in later times f, it is not im- possible that the term " vernisium album" in the English records may have comprehended it. From those accounts it appears that, in the 13th century, the red varnish (sandarac) was 3d. and Ad. the lb. ; the white lOd. the lb. J ; the * It is so named in Boltzen's Illuniinir-Buch and in the Ma- yerne MS. In the Strassburg MS. it is called " gloriat." t See Dreme, Der Firniss- u. Kittraacher, oder Anleitung zu vortheilhafter Bereitung der besten Lack- u. Oel-Firnisse, ec. Briinn, 1821. The white resin was also called ' ; encens blanc." — Pomet, Histoire Generate des Drogues, Paris, 1735, t. ii. p. 65. J " Item in v. lb. rubei vernicii xv. d. In quinque libris de wernys xv. d. In n. li. vernisii rubei vn. d. In i. lb. rubei r 4 248 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS latter Avas no doubt mastic. In 1353 the red varnish was 4d. the lb. ; at this time, Lonyn of Bruges provided 6 lb. of white varnish, at 9d. the lb. ; while another dealer in such materials furnished 136 lb. of white varnish at 4|erto oyle of lynsed also mochel as it nedes," &c. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 249 time to the action of the fire. Accordingly, some receipts for " vernice liquida " include this ingre- dient, called " pece Greca"and "pegola." The slowness in drying of the unctuous semi-liquid tur- pentine in its natural state, rendered a previous treatment necessary to fit it for immixture with varnishes. The old mode of preparing the sub- stance, with this view, is given in the Byzantine MS. as follows. " Take fir resin in the quantity required ; place it in a copper vessel (which it should only half fill), and set it on the fire. Take care that it does not run over; if you see it rise, remove it from the fire, and blow on it with a reed, or place the vessel in another that is full of cold water ; this instantly stops the tumefaction. Replace it on the fire, and repeat the operation several times, till the resin ceases to swell. Thus pegola is prepared. Remove it from the fire, and pour it into a copper vessel full of water, ready for the purpose. Afterwards gather up the pegola and preserve it." * * " Comment il faut faire la Pegoula. — Prenez de la resine de sapin, autant d'ocques que vous voudrez ; mettez-la dans un vase de cuivre d'une capacite double du poids de la resine, et placez- la sur le feu pour la faire cuire. Ayez soin de Pempecher de deborder ; si vous la voyez monter, retirez-la du feu et soufflez dessus avec un chalumeau, ou placez la chaudiere dans un autre vase rempli d'eau froide, ce qui arrete sur-le-champ le deborde- ment. Remettez-la ensuite sur le feu, et recommencez ainsi a plusieurs reprises, jusqu'a ce que la resine cesse de deborder. C'est ainsi que se prepare la pegoula. Retirez-la du feu et versez- la dans un vase de cuivre plein d'eau, que vous aurez prepare 250 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS The most effectual contrivances were no doubt gradually employed to reduce this ingredient to the fit state for mixing ivith varnishes ; the following process, though modern, may be added as one of the best examples of the kind : — " Place the resin in a glazed vessel which it should only half fill; add a perfectly pure and filtered solution of potass (one part potass in four of water), and boil all together for an hour on a charcoal fire. Then, removing the vessel from the fire, pour in cold water, so as to cause the turpen- tine to consolidate itself at the bottom of the vessel. The alkaline solution is then to be poured off, and more cold water is to be added to the turpentine. Boil again for an hour. Eemove the vessel from the fire, and, by the addition of cold water, reduce the turpentine to a solid state as before. Again pour off the water and add fresh. The operation should be repeated four or five times. The resin is at last to be carefully decanted, free from all sediment, into pour cela. Recueillez ensuite la pegoula et conservez-la." — Manuel, &c. p. 40. The mode of preparing the varnish composed of this concrete turpentine and inspissated oil is thus described. " Take of peseri [a drying oil] which has been baked in the sun four parts, of pegola three parts. Put them in a vessel on the fire to melt them together. Strain this varnish, and, in using it, expose the picture to the sun. Take care to let the first coat be as thin as possible, to avoid bubbles. If the mixture be too thick, so as to be difficult to spread, add napthaor raw peseri. If you have a good stock of mastic, take two parts of pegola and one of mastic [instead of three of pegola]. This mixture will give you a very good brilliant varnish." — lb. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 251 another vessel. In this mode it is as pure as pos- sible ; it has parted with its oleaginous or unctuous elements, and has acquired perfect whiteness." * The resin is said to be permanently colourless in varnishes only when it is prepared in this way. The following recipes from the Venetian MS. are examples of " vernice liquida" with and with- out the concrete turpentine. " To make Painters' A^arnish. — Take of linseed oil four oz., boil it in a copper vessel, removing the scum as long as it forms any ; then take an oz. and half of sandarac in grain, and put it in another vessel, with a little of the aforesaid boiled oil in the bottom. Let it boil, and continue to add the oil, little by little, till you have poured in all. Let the ingredients still boil, for the more they boil the better [the varnish will be] ; and take care that the fire does not reach the oil. This is a good varnish for varnishing whatever you please." f In another receipt, pul- verised sandarac is added by degrees to the boiled oil; concrete turpentine (pece Greca), in the pro- portion of two thirds to the quantity of oil, is also * Dreme, Der Firniss- und Kittmacher, &c. p. 56. "f " A fare la Vernixe de i Depinturi. — To ollio de selnte de lino oz. 4 e mitelo a choxe l una pignata de ramo e scliiumalo bn tanto eke 1 no geti piu scliiuraa e po toi oz. 1 -^-de vernixe I grana e mitelo I una altra pignata e mitege uno puocho del sovra dito olio choto i lo fondo e lassala coxere e chusi va azunzendo a pocho a pocho entro p fina tanto che tugai raeso dentro el dito olio e lassalo anchora buire e questo piu buie e miore e guardati che el fogo noge intra dentro. Quest' e fina vnixe da Ivnigre 90 che tu voi." 252 EXAMINATION OF VASARl'S STATEMENTS mentioned. A third receipt in the same MS. likewise includes the turpentine. " To make 4 A^ernice liquida. — Take of sandarac not pulverised one lb., linseed oil three lb., concrete turpentine three lb. ; this will be good for varnishing cross-bows." * The gloss which the turpentine imparted was especially de- sired for implements and furniture ; and, in the North, not less so for pictures. The longer such a composition is suffered to boil, the thicker, and, in general, the more drying, the varnish will be ; but it acquires, at the same time, a very dark colour. This the earlier tempera painters do not seem to have considered an objec- tion. The old Byzantine varnishes are extremely dark, and may represent the practice of still re- moter times, when the word " atramentum," applied to such compositions, was understood literally. f The pale Italian tempera pictures of the fourteenth century may have been improved by such brown glazings, and it is not impossible that the lighter style of colouring introduced by Giotto may have been intended by him to coun- teract the effects of this varnish, the appearance of * "A fare Vernixe liquida. — To vernixe salda lb. 1., olio de se- mente de line lb. 3., pece grega lb. 3. ; e sara bona da Ivernicare balestre." f Mancini, the author of a MS. history of painting (to which Lanzi refers), written in the first half of the seventeenth cen- tury, speaking of the Byzantine pictures, observes that the varnish upon them was so dark (partly, no doubt, from the effects of time) as to render the figures almost invisible. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 253 which in the Greek pictures he could not fail to observe. Another peculiarity in the works of the painters of the time referred to, particularly those of the Florentine and Sienese schools, is the greenish tone of their colouring in the flesh ; produced by the mode in which they often prepared their works, viz. by a green under-painting. The appearance was neutralised by the red sandarac varnish, and pictures executed in the manner described must have looked better before it was removed. The later tempera painters ventured to think a paler varnish desirable. Cennini (c. 155.) directs that it should be procured as light in colour as possible, but the expression was relative, as a sandarac oil varnish can never be very light. Such then was " vernice liquida," common and "gentile;" with and without concrete turpentine. In its most ancient form, it professed to be com- posed of amber and linseed oil ; but it has been seen that there never was a time when amber and sandarac, as ingredients of varnishes, Avere very clearly distinguished. The ordinary " vernice liquida " was composed of three parts linseed oil to one of sandarac. It was sold in Cennini's time ready prepared ; at that period it was still the cus- tomary varnish for tempera pictures, and served for various other purposes. When the white resin, or concrete turpentine, was added, the proportions of the oil and sandarac were not therefore altered. It appears that this last varnish was used in Venice, 254 EXAMINATION OF VASAlll'S STATEMENTS but not at an early period in Florence ; it was also common in the North : this may be explained by the greater facility with which the material, (turpentine) was procured in the Alps and in the neighbourhood of the Khine.* The addition of mastic in " vernice liquida" was rare ; it was occa- sionally used as a substitute for the sandarac, but not often as an ingredient with it. The traditional estimation in which the sandarac varnish was held by the medieval painters, next leads us to ask, What were its practical recommenda- tions ? It will be remembered that the question can relate only to fixed-oil varnishes ; even the Italians, not to speak of the painters of the North, were scarcely acquainted with essential-oil varnishes, as applicable to pictures, till the close of the fifteenth or commencement of the sixteenth century. f The ordinary sandarac varnish, or " vernice liquida," was thick in consistence, dark in colour, and slow in drying. Sandarac, dissolved in spike oil, or in alcohol, is not durable ; but boiled with a fixed oil it is extremely so. All compositions of the kind are, however, affected by the air sooner or later ; and * The " poix blanche de Bourgogne," as prepared at Strass- burg, was long in repute. — JPomet, Histoire Generate des Drogues, t. ii. p. 67. j* Varnishes composed of resins and essential oils are not to be confounded with the essential oils alone, which appear to have been used for various purposes at a very early period, and, in the improved oil painting, may have been employed as diluents. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 255 most tempera pictures of the fourteenth and fif- teenth centuries now look as if they had never been varnished. In Mr. Warner Ottley's interesting col- lection of early Florentine pictures, the remains of the red " vernice liquida " are to be seen on a few only.* The process of the decay which takes place in the thick oleo-resinous coating is plainly to be traced. The varnish cracks, in general without af- fecting the tempera underneath ; a proof that the former had been added when the work was quite dry and firm f : the spaces between the cracks in- crease, till, by degrees, the resinous layer is reduced to islands. In some tempera pictures large spaces may be observed to be quite free from the brown varnish, while it remains in detached spots on other parts. A picture in such a state is generally freed by the cleaner from the remaining crust (being then generally re-varnished with an essential-oil var- nish) ; but the vestiges of the older coating, if left to pulverise, would in time disappear, the painting itself often remaining in a solid and uninjured state. The amber and copal varnishes, when made with- out care, are also extremely dark in colour ; if unas- sisted by siccative ingredients, they dry even more * These pictures were collected by the late William Young Ottley towards the close of the last century, and are interesting even in a technical point of view, from the circumstance of their having never been retouched. ■f Cennini (e. 155.) recommends that, if possible, the varnish should not be applied to (tempera) pictures till some years after they are painted ; at all events, not till after one year. 256 EXAMINATION OF VASAEl'S STATEMENTS slowly than the ordinary "vernix" or sandarac, but they are much more durable : hence it may be concluded that brown varnishes of great age, if en- tire, were composed of one or other of those sub- stances. The ancient varnishes had thus nothing but their durability to recommend them. Their great defects were, the darkness of their colour, and their slowness in drying. We now return to Vasari and Yan Eyck. The varnish which required the sun's heat to dry it, so that the panel split, may be safely pronounced to have been the customary sandarac oil varnish, made no doubt with care, but still defective. * When Van Eyck undertook to prepare a varnish which was to dry in the shade, his first step, according to the narrative, was to ascertain whether the oil which was commonly used was really the most drying. His experiments confirmed the received opinion ; for, although he pronounced both for linseed and nut oil, it does not appear that either was preferred * Baldinucci (apparently following Pacheco, Arte de Pintura, p. 370.) states that before the accident of the splitting of the panel, Van Eyck had improved the varnish for tempera pic- tures, which is by no means improbable. The historian, how- ever, adds that the varnish was still very slow in drying : " era difficile e pericolosa a seccarsi." (Notizie de' Professori, &c. vol. v. p. 94.) These and similar statements may be considered gratuitous, and as inferences only from the main facts recorded by Vasari. They are however important, in as much as they represent the opinions of artists and writers on art at a time when the traditions of an earlier practice were not entirely forgotten. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 257 to the other.* " These, then," says the biographer, " boiled with other ingredients of his, produced the varnish which he, nay, which all the painters of the world, had long desired." The object so u long desired" was, above all, to make the varnish drying, and at the same time as colourless as possible. There was the greater rea- son for endeavouring to secure the latter quality, because the picture was no longer to be placed in the sun, and the bleaching action of strong light was now not to be reckoned on. In later times, as will be shown, pictures were again placed in the sun, at intervals, in order to remove yellowness, and to prepare them for varnishing ; even panels were, with due precaution, so exposed, and, if the picture happened to be executed on cloth, the prac- tice was quite safe. But, at the period and under the circumstances in question, it was an especial object to avoid so exposing the picture, on ac- count of the accident that had occurred. Cennini (c. 155.) desired precisely what Van Eyck desired : viz. a varnish that would dry in the shade. He knew that boiling it long would render it more drying, but at the same time inconveniently dark * It has been sometimes assumed that Van Eyck was the first to employ nut oil : this, as the facts before adduced prove, is a mistaken notion. He may, at most, have restored it to favour. His having occasionally used it shows that lightness of colour in a vehicle was an object with him. He may afterwards have found that this oil yellows in time nearly as much as linseed oil. S 258 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS in colour. The general nature of Van Eyck's var- nish is, therefore, explained by his success ; it was drying, without being dark. Among the " other ingredients " there can thus scarcely be a doubt that a dryer was used ; for by this means the primary object was attained, without the long boiling which Cennini thought essential. For the rest, the actual state of Van Eyck's pic- tures becomes an important part of the evidence to be considered. From the appearance of those works competent judges have concluded that a very firm resin was used ; and hence it appears probable that the enterprising artist may have gradually perfected the methods of dissolving amber or copal in oil ; the improvement consisting in the lighter colour of the solution. The early traditions of the neighbouring schools, which immediately affect this question, will be examined hereafter. It is to be remembered, that up to a certain stage of his experiments Van Eyck had aimed only at preparing a better varnish for tempera pictures ; and the composition, according to cus- tom, was no doubt still thick in consistence. The next step was to mix this varnish with the colours. It is in the description of this process that the words employed by Vasari are ambiguous ; as if contrived to suit, on the one hand, the true account of the Flemish method, which he had re- ceived ; and, on the other, the altered practice of his own school, and the views of those who imagined RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 259 that Van Eyck had literally invented the drying oils and oil painting. The biographer says : " Having tried many things, both pure and mixed together, he (Van Eyck) at last found that linseed oil and nut oil, among the many which he had tested, were more drying than all the rest. These, therefore, boiled with other mixtures of his, made him the varnish &c. . . . After having made trial of many other things, he saw that the immixture of the colours with these kinds of oils gave them a very firm consistence (tempera), which when dry was not only proof against water, but lit up the colour so powerfully that it gave a gloss of itself without varnish." * The expression, " these kinds of oils," strictly refers to the oils boiled with other mixtures or ingredients; but it may also refer to the two " kinds of oils " before mentioned, unmixed with resins. The latter sense would favour the opinions of those who believed that Van Eyck was the first to mix colours with oil. But the sense intended by Vasari (not to lay any undue stress on his syntax) can be best arrived at by ascertaining what he could not mean. He speaks of " vernice liquida" as having been employed by Italian painters who sought to remedy the defects of tempera before the Flemish method of oil painting was practised in Italy. As a painter he must have known what other writers of his time, such as Cardanus and Matthioli, knew, * See the original passage quoted p. 204. s 2 260 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS viz. that " vernice liquida" was partly composed of linseed oil, and that it was the ancient and customary varnish for tempera pictures. In the life of Agnolo Gaddi, he says that Cennini taught the application of oil colours for various purposes, " but not for figures." It is, therefore, impossible that Vasari, knowing what he did, could intend to state either that Van Eyck had invented linseed oil, or that he was the first to mix oil with colours. What the biographer really meant is apparent from the context. He proceeds to state that the colours mixed with Van Eyck's vehicle were proof against water. This cannot be said of all colours mixed with unprepared oil, as every painter knows ; examples of pigments applied with oil, but which may be easily removed, when dry, by water, are given by Leonardo da Yinci *, and by a Spanish writer, f Vasari states further, that the immixture of the colours with the medium used by Van Eyck alone sufficed to give them a gloss, so that they required no varnish. This, too, cannot be said of * " II verde fatto dal rame, ancorche tal colore sia messo a olio, . . . se egli sara lavato con una spugna bagnata di sem- plice acqua comune, si levera dalla sua tavola, dove e dipinto, e massimamente se il tempo sara umido : e questo nasce perche tal verderame e fatto per forza di sale, il qual sale con facilita si risolve ne' tempi piovosi, e massimamente essendo bagnato e lavato con la predetta spugna." — Trattato, Roma, 1817, p. 124. "f" " Si se lava un quadro despues de seis anos, se ha de ir a pasear la laca [el carmin]." — Palomino, El Museo Pictorico, &c, en Madrid, 1715-24, 1. v. c. 4. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 261 mere oils, unless they are thickened to a state which would render them unfit for precision and sharp- ness of execution. It may here be observed, that if the word " tempera," as used in the above passage by Vasari, is to be taken in the sense of "medium " (which however is not assumed), the expression, "gave them a very strong tempera," is most applic- able to an oleo-resinous vehicle. Cennini observes that " vernice liquida," mixed with colours, " is the strongest tempera there is." * Again, Baldinucci, who, as an Italian and a writer on art, may be considered a competent judge of Vasari' s language, and who, as a biographer of Flemish as well as other painters, was likely to consult his Flemish contemporaries on all technical points relating to their school, paraphrases the passage in question as follows. " He [Van Eyck] tried and retried many oils, resins, and other natural and artificial things ; and at last clearly ascertained that linseed oil and nut oil dried more readily than any other [oils]. With these he boiled other substances till he in- vented this beautiful and useful method, resisting water and every shock, which renders the colours more lively," &c.f Baldinucci thus seems to have * . . . " vernice liquida, la quale e piii forte tempera che sia." — Trattato, c. 161. f " Provo e riprovo molti olj, rage, et altre naturali e artificiali cose : e finalmente venne in chiara cognizione che 1' olio del lino e quello delle noci eran quelli che piii d' ogni altra cosa da per se stessi seccavano. Con essi faceva bollire altre materie, finche venne a ritrovare questo bello e util modo resistente all' acqua s 3 262 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS understood that the drying varnish, not mere oil, was mixed with the colours. A reference to cer- tain technical considerations will perhaps remove all further difficulty on this point. It is to be re- marked, that most colours require to be first ground in oils alone (without resinous ingredients), the oleo-resinous varnish being more conveniently added to each tint afterwards. This may afford a satisfactory defence and explanation both of Vasari's words and meaning ; since his expression, " the e a ogni colpo, che rende i colori assai piu vivi," &c. — Notizie, vol. v. p. 95. Having rested on Vasari's statement as the earliest, and, indeed, the only, account of Van Eyck's method ( for all later descriptions are borrowed from that account), it has been con- sidered essential to adhere to the biographer's words, and endea- vour to interpret them correctly. But it may now be added, that the appearance of Van Eyck's pictures led a modern inves- tigator to the same conclusion which has been arrived at in the explanation of the above passage. Merimee, in his treatise De la Peinture a VHuile (p. 7.), observes, speaking of Van Eyck : "L'objet de ses recherches n'eut ete qu'imparfaitement rem- pli, si les couleurs, preparees comme les notres, egalement sus- ceptibles de s'emboire, eussent exige l'application ulterieure d'un vernis pour en faire ressortir la transparence et l'eclat. Quelque probable que cette supposition paraisse, ce n'est pas sur une pareille base que mon opinion pouvait s'etablir : elle est le resultat d'un examen approfondi des anciennes peintures al'huile. Cet examen, entrepris pour connaitre les procedes primitifs, m'a demontre* que, dans les tableaux de Van Eyck et des peintres qui suivirent sa methode, les couleurs n'ont pas ete delayees sim- plement avec une huile plus ou moins siccative ; mais qu'on y melait des vernis auxquels on doit attribuer l'etonnante conser- vation de plusieurs des plus anciennes peintures dont l'eclat surpasse celui de la plupart de celles du sieele dernier." RESPECTING THE INVENTION. OF VAN EYCK. 263 immixture of the colours with these kinds of oils," embraces both conditions. The method here alluded to will be further explained by some examples of early German or Flemish processes in the next chapter. The varnish of Van Eyck was, therefore, oleo- resinous; and its immixture with the colours supposes that it was previously rendered nearly colourless. Still, this result, by whatever means effected, may not have been attained at once ; the first inventor, Hubert, may have been content with a darker medium, and it has been observed (with- out reference to this question) that his pictures and those of his scholars are, not unfrequently, really browner in tone than those of John Van Eyck. * The improvement, indeed, is likely to have been gradual in all respects, and Vasari was quite safe in asserting that it was so. For the same reason, the extent to which tempera was em- ployed in the first experiments may have been far greater than in the later works of these painters. The thickness of the vehicle, in its less perfect state, rendered it fit only for flat glazing tints: till that defect was remedied (and it must have been remedied early) pictures executed in the new process could have been little more than tempera preparations, tinted with transparent var- nish colours. This method happens to be exein- * Passavant, Kunst-Blatt, 1833, No. 82. Ib. 1841, No. 5. s 4 264 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS plified in a picture before mentioned, by King Rene of Anjou, which is now preserved at Ville- neuve, near Avignon. The imperfect execution, in this instance, is partly to be explained by the pecu- liar habits of the royal artist, and his predilection for missal-painting and illuminating ; for, at the period when he may have corresponded with J ohn Van Eyck, that painter had attained the zenith of his practice. But the habits of an individual here represent those of a period ; the adoption of the oleo-iesinous mode of painting by one who com- monly practised tempera exemplifies the transition which the first efforts of Hubert Van Eyck must have exhibited. In the further consideration of the subject it will be shown that the assumed origin of the Flemish system of oil painting affords a satisfactory explanation even of some peculiar me- thods of the school. It is, indeed, already apparent that there is nothing in Vasari's account of Yan Eyck's process which is at variance with the habits of the time and country where that process was perfected : on the contrary, the reasons before given for placing faith in the bio- grapher's statement have rather been confirmed by the examination of the statement itself. The oc- casional ambiguities in Vasari's language, and his errors in dates, leave the main facts unimpaired. That he was not ignorant of the extent to which oil painting had been practised before the time of the Van Eycks is certain ; but, as the art of EESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 265 painting in oil, properly so called, really began with them, he may be excused for omitting any notice of earlier and far inferior attempts. Assuming, then, his account to be generally correct, and viewing it in connexion with the technical details that have been traced, not forgetting the actual ap- pearance of the Flemish artists' works, it may be concluded that Van Eyck's vehicle was composed either of linseed or nut oil, and resinous ingredients of a durable kind ; that it was drying ; that, being intended to be mixed with the colours, it was es- sential that it should be, itself, nearly colourless ; and, lastly, that it was of a consistence (though no doubt varied in this respect as occasion required) which allowed of the most delicate execution. Thus much is to be deduced from the evidence hitherto examined. The nature of the resinous ingredient, of the dryer, and of the diluent which may have been used, together with the mode of preparing and purifying the oil, will be considered in the next chapters. It may now be expected that some opinion should be expressed as to Van Eyck's claims to the fame of an inventor. With former writers on the origin of oil painting this has been the favourite question ** * Those who have set out with the impression that Van Eyck discovered something, and that the "secret" is now lost, have each thought it necessary to advance some hypothesis ; and various absurd conjectures have been the result. Of the writers whose conclusions have been based on facts and the careful examination 266 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS it is here comparatively unimportant. The techni- cal improvements which Yan Eyck introduced were unquestionably great ; but the mere materials em- ployed by him may have differed little, if at all, from those which had been long familiar. The application of oil painting to figures and such other objects as (with rare exceptions) had before been executed only in tempera, was a consequence of the improvement in the vehicle. Still, if we ask in what the chief novelty of his practice consisted, we shall at once recognise it in an amount of general excellence before unknown. At all times, from Van Eyck's day to the present, whenever nature has been surprisingly well imitated in pic- tures, the first and last question with the ignorant has been — What materials did the artist use ? The superior mechanical secret is always supposed to be in the hands of the greatest genius, and an early example of sudden perfection in art, like the fame of the heroes of antiquity, was likely to monopolise and represent the claims of many. It is apparent that much has been attributed to John Van Eyck which was really the invention of Hubert ; and both may have been indebted to earlier painters for the elements of their improved process. It would be useless now to attempt to divide these claims ; and, although some important discoveries of the of pictures, Merimee may be considered the most rational. His treatise, already quoted, was translated into English by W. B. Sarsfield Taylor, 1839. RESPECTING THE INVENTION OF VAN EYCK. 267 elder brother may be ascribed to the younger, it may be safely concluded that much was also due to the investigations and intelligence of the latter. The works of John Van Eyck show that he was endowed with an extraordinary capacity for seeing nature ; thus gifted, and aided by the example and instructions of Hubert, a world was opened to him, which his predecessors had not attempted to represent. The same mind which was capable of receiving such impressions was also likely to devise suitable means to embody them, and to extend the language of imitation. That the most scrupulous operations of the laboratory should be carried on together with the most devoted practice of art, is quite consistent with the habits of the early pain- ters ; but with Van Eyck there was a controlling judgment which kept the end steadily in view, and which gave utmost efficacy to well chosen mate- rials by a process which, in every stage, was calcu- lated for brilliancy of effect and durability. This process will be described and exemplified where facts or documents afford the materials for so doing. The traditions respecting the oleo-resinous vehicles used at an early period in Germany and Flanders will require to be first examined. Additional Note (see p. 231.). Some medical writers quoted by Salmasius (Exe?-citat. Pli- niance, c. lii.) speak of a kind of red nitre called (3eprtt;dpiov. He supposes that this substance received its name from the 268 EXAMINATION OF VASARl's STATEMENTS. colour of amber (fiepeviKrj), as the common amber varnish had a red hue ; and refuses to admit the conjecture of those who derive the name from the Egyptian or Ethiopian locality, the city Berenice, where the nitre may have abounded, or where it may have been chiefly imported. " Ab ea beronice electro genus nitri dictum est jjepviKapiov, quod esset simile fulvo succino. Neophytus : fiepviicapiov, to nvppbv vlrpov. Nicomedes : fiepviicapiov, vlrpov epvdpov, ot he. rjXeKrpov, oi he joepoviKrjv. Hujus nitri mentio apud Myrepsium, quod perperam ab urbe JEthiopiae Berenice dictum autumat Fuchsius. Immo ab electri colore, ut ne mireris et vernicem inde nominatum." The great critic does not seem to have been aware that Galen twice uses the word fiepeviKiov as a synonyme for a species of nitre (De Methodo medendi, lib. viii. c. 4. ; De Composit. Medi- camentor. per Genera, lib. iii. c. 1 1.). If, therefore, the term was so appropriated from the resemblance of the colour of the said nitre to amber, it would follow that the word (3epevticr), as a synonyme for the latter, must have been in use before Galen's time. The term appears, however, in no writer so ancient. The probability, therefore, is, that the nitre was named from the place where it was found. The date of the word fitpevtKrj, as a designation for amber, has not yet been traced beyond the eighth century ; though its origin is probably much earlier. The supposition (see p. 231.) that it may have had reference to Berenice's golden hair receives some confirmation from an opinion expressed by H. Stephanus (Thesaurus, in voc). In giving two words from Hesychius, — fiepovidheg, certain sandals worn by women, and fiepoviKiov, a kind of herb, — he observes of the first, " procul dubio a Beronice regina, cujus nXoKafiov quoque dicit [Hesychius] inter astra relatum fuisse ;" and of the second, "a Beronice regina denominatum fuisse verisimile est." It should be observed that the modern Greek writer Agapius, quoted by Ducange with reference to the word joepeviKr) (as a synonyme for sandarac), cannot be considered an authority of weight as regards the early use of the term, since he lived in the seventeenth century. See Fabricius, Bibl. Graee. Hamb. 1802, vol. viii. p. 24. 269 CHAP. IX. OLEORESINOUS VEHICLES. The use of resinous solutions, combined in various proportions with oil, as a medium or vehicle for the colours, was an early technical characteristic of the Northern schools, and merits attention here accord- ingly. An account of the principal materials which have been so employed, from the commencement of the fifteenth century, would be manifestly incomplete without a description of the methods adopted at different periods for purifying and preparing the oil, the chief ingredient in such compositions. Those methods will, therefore, require to be specially con- sidered ; but it will be more consistent with the order hitherto followed to begin by examining the nature of the resinous substances which were in use among the early Flemish painters ; the modes of purifying the oils having been common both to the Northern and Italian schools. In the preceding chapter it has been shown that the varnishes which were first employed were far from being light in colour. The early painters, however attentive to use a colourless oil when it was to be mixed with pigments, were by no means 270 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. solicitous that the varnish applied to tempera pic- tures should be equally light. In preferring a browner hue for the oleo-resinous compound which they spread over their works, they may not only have been influenced by the traditional practice of the Byzantines, but their researches into the ac- counts of ancient painting may have led them to conclude that the varnish of the best artists of Greece was of a similar description.* The ordi- nary composition of sandarac and linseed oil, as already stated, inclined to a red colour ; and the medieval painters were so accustomed to this appearance in varnishes, and considered it so in- dispensable, that they even supplied the tint when it did not exist. Thus Cardanus observes that when white of eggs was used as a varnish, it was customary to tinge it with red lead.f This taste had already declined even in Cennini's time, before the introduction of the Flemish system of oil painting into Italy J ; and, as soon as a var- nish for tempera pictures began to be used as a vehicle for pigments, the same reasons which had * Pliny, 1. xxxv. c. 36. f . . . "ovi albo ac sandice factitio . . . utebantur." — De Sttb- tilitate, Basilise, 1554, p. 271. That Cardanus understood "sandix" to mean red lead is apparent from the following passage in the same work: "E cerussa sandix fit coloris ru- bicundi venustissimi." — lb. p. 172. X " Adunque togli la tua vernice . . . chiara la piu che possi trovare." — Tratt. c. 155. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 271 recommended colourless oils for such a purpose dictated a corresponding change in the nature of the varnish, which was now required to be as light as possible, so as not to alter the tints with which it was mixed. In order to trace this change, it will be necessary to remember the habits of the tem- pera painters during the fourteenth century. A tempera picture, when it had been kept long enough after its completion to acquire due hard- ness of surface, received a brown-red coating of thick " vernice liquida," which was spread with the hand or with a sponge ; the painting being exposed to the sun during, or immediately after, the opera- tion, till the varnish so applied was dry. The paleness or freshness of the tempera may have been sometimes calculated for this brown glaz- ing (for such it was in effect), and when this was the case, the picture was, strictly speaking, unfinished without its varnish. It is, therefore, quite conceivable that a painter, averse to mere mechanical operations, would, in this final process, still have an eye to the harmony of his work, and, seeing that the tint of his varnish was more or less adapted to display the hues over which it was spread, would vary that tint, so as to heighten the effect of the picture. The practice of tinging varnishes was not even new, as the example given by Cardanus proves.* The next step to this would * As the varnish for figures was reddened, so the varnish 272 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. be to treat the tempera picture still more as a pre- paration, and to calculate still further on the varnish, by modifying and adapting its colour to a greater extent. A work so completed must have nearly approached the appearance of an oil picture. This was perhaps the moment when the new method opened itself to the mind of Hubert Van Eyck ; and, making allowance for the inexpertness of a far inferior painter, this is the stage of the art which King Rene's picture at Yilleneuve ex- hibits. The next change necessarily consisted in using opaque as well as transparent colours; the former being applied over the light, the latter over the darker, portions of the picture ; while the work in tempera was now reduced to a light chiaroscuro preparation. The ultimate modifications of this practice, as exemplified in some paintings by John spread over white metals to imitate gold, or sometimes even over gilding itself, was yellow. It is remarkable that this gold lacker, perhaps the most ancient of the tinted varnishes, should also have remained longest in use, not for its original purpose only, but to give richness to certain colours with which it was mixed. The English treatises of the seventeenth century may generally be considered to represent the Dutch or Flemish practice of that period. In The Art of Painting in Oyl, published in 1687 under the name of Smith, we find the follow- ing passage. "If you steep Ornoto (annotto) in clear well sunned linseed oyl, or oyl of wallnuts, it will tinge the oyl of a delicate golden colour ; which oyl so tinged exceeds all others for the laying on of vermilion, red lead, orpiment and masticot ; to all which colours it gives an excellent lustre/' A less fugitive dye may be supposed to have been substituted for annotto in important operations. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 273 Van Eyck and his followers, will be considered in another chapter. It was now that the hue of the original varnish be- came an objection, for, as a medium, it required to be itself colourless : but, although a considerable im- provement was possible in this respect, perfection was unattainable, and the difficulty was only to be met by adapting the methods of the art to the con- ditions with which it had to deal. The alteration or yellowing of the colours in oil painting, by means of the vehicle with which they are mixed, is an objection applicable not only to the amber, copal, and sandarac varnishes, but, in a certain degree, to all others. Even the bleached oil pre- pared according to the directions of Cennini, or according to other more perfect processes, would, without due precautions (to be noticed hereafter), become yellow in a short time.* The mode in which the tint of the varnish adopted by the first oil painters may have been lightened is explained by the operations of later schools. When a speedily * The advocates of other methods of painting, and especially of the encaustic process, have not failed to point out this unavoidable defect in the chief material of oil painting. Montabert, one of the most enthusiastic eulogists of encaustic, assumes that the ancients were not unacquainted with oil painting, but rejected it for the method which he extols. The same writer, with Rubens's Luxembourg Gallery before his eyes, makes the following observation. " Si Ton eut propose a Apelle d'essayer les procedes de Van Eyck, Apelle eut souri de pHie." — Traite complet de la Peinture y Paris, 1829, vol. ix. p. 5. f 274 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. drying varnish was employed, it was usual, and indeed on every account advisable, to thin it for the lighter colours, which dried readily without such assistance, and which required the lightest and most unchangeable medium. Cennini remarks that " vernice liquida " is the strongest of all vehicles *, and if the term be supposed to include amber, called by Rossello " vernice liquida gentile," there can be no doubt that it is so. The degree of strength in that varnish, as it was originally prepared, was more than requisite in its new application as a binding medium for colours ; it consequently admitted of being diluted, and was thus, at the same time, rendered lighter in colour. The tempera painters had already thinned their varnishes, even while used as such, by increasing the proportion of oil ; they had also sometimes lightened them by the admixture of " white resin " (though this was chiefly intended to produce a greater gloss) ; and, when the " liquid vernix " was used as a vehicle, its quantity in proportion to pure oil, though varied according to the nature of the colours, was still further diminished. By this economy in the use of the varnish, the yellowing of the lights was, in a great measure, prevented, while the speedy drying and trans- parency of the dark tints were at the same time secured : the quantity of the resinous medium every- * Trattato, c. 16L OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES* 275 where used was still sufficient to maintain an equal gloss, so that the work required no additional var- nish at last. But besides this mode of gradually- diluting the darker varnish, it also appears that the resinous ingredient itself was varied for different purposes ; indeed certain colours, as will hereafter be shown, had their particular vehicles. To what- ever uses the mastic oil- varnish, or the weaker tur- pentine dissolved in oil, was applied, it is clear that both were in demand at an early period, and we find a Flemish painter, Lonyn of Bruges, furnish- ing the " white varnish " on one occasion to the painters of St. Stephen's Chapel.* These circum- stances are not to be overlooked in examining the earliest records of the vehicles used in Flanders subsequently. Instead, therefore, of supposing that the first oil painters had achieved impossibilities by invent- ing a permanently colourless varnish, it may rather be concluded that they had the sagacity to adapt their processes to their materials; knowing that the most carefully prepared vehicle (and that which they employed was doubtless of the purest kind) may, without due precautions, still affect the tone of a picture disadvantageously. How- ever simple the Flemish system of oil painting may have been, and however lasting its general tradition, its methods were considerably modi- * M Lonyn de Bruges pro vi. lb. di. de verniz blank," &c. The passage has been before quoted. T 2 276 OLEO-KESINOUS VEHICLES. fied even by the first scholars of the Van Eycks ; proving (if any proof be necessary) that what is called " the secret " was of little use with- out intelligence to employ it as circumstances required. Antonello da Messina, to judge from some of his productions, used a dark, oleo-resinous, and flowing vehicle too indiscriminately; Peter Christophsen has the brown shadows of Hubert Yan Eyck; Hugo Van der Goes is sometimes yellow in his flesh ; while Gerard Yan der Meire scarcely overcomes the pale hues of the tempera painters. The Flemish inheritors of Yan Eyck's method, who may be said to come nearest to his technical excellencies, are Koger of Bruges and Memling. The foregoing observations, founded on the now well-known habits of the early tempera painters, furnish an explanation of the peculiar methods of the first oil painters, by supposing that a com- position which had been originally used as a varnish was, as it were imperceptibly, adopted as a vehicle for the colours ; the resinous ingredient being subsequently reduced in quantity, and even varied in kind, as required. This explanation agrees with the account of the method which Yasari gives (that writer's story of the panel splitting in the sun — a not improbable accident — being left to its own merits) : it agrees also with the appearance of existing works by Yan Eyck. It remains to show that it fully coincides with the OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 277 evidence to be gathered from the oldest documents relating to the Flemish practice : these are now to be examined. The scanty but precious traditions which belong to the fifteenth century first invite our attention. The materials as yet found exist in two treatises, or rather collections of receipts, — a manuscript (already noticed) which is in the public library at Strassburg, and a manuscript in the British Mu- seum. In the passage which has been quoted (p. 130.) from the former, describing the prepara- tion of a drying vehicle, the writer states that " all painters were not acquainted with this oil." This expression is to be regarded as part of that in- ternal evidence which, it was observed, rather warrants the inference that the receipt in question is not older than Van Eyck's time. Whatever may have been its original date, it was certainly re- corded in its present form within the century when the Flemish system of oil painting was in- vented ; and, in all probability, comprehends the chief improvements which were introduced with that system. It possesses the general requisites which were defined in the last chapter from an examination of Vasari's statements as compared with other evidence ; indeed it might serve as the text for Vasari's description : at the same time show- ing that such conditions may be fulfilled in various modes. Referring to the passage before quoted from the MS. it will be seen that drying ingredients T 3 278 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. are first boiled with the oil, not with the varnish ; the colours are ground in this oil, and the varnish is subsequently incorporated with them ; an addi- tional quantity of the dryer is then mixed with such colours as require it. The passage, wherein the immixture of the varnish with each tint is described, is as follows : — " Here observe that all these colours are to be well ground in the oil, and, at last, with every colour mix three [that is, a few] drops of varnish, and then place every colour by itself in a clean cup, &c."* A definite quantity is here put for an indefinite one, which would necessarily vary according to the * . . . " hie merke dis varwen sol man alle gar wol riben rait dem oli und ze so sol man under ieglich varwe drie troph virnis riben und tu denn ie die varw sunder in ein rein geschirr," &c. The missing word " hindrest " (effaced or illegible in the MS.) fortunately occurs in a parallel passage, before given (p. 137.), describing a gold size : " Und wenn dis alles wol geriben ist so rib ze hindrest in die varwe ein halb nuschal vol virnis," &c. It appears that this manuscript came originally from a monastery. The compiler, probably a monk, practised the healing art and painting, and, as an amateur designer, was not likely to exceed the dimensions to which the best artists in Germany and Flanders commonly restricted themselves. His figures being small, the quantity of colour and of varnish mixed in each tint would be minute in proportion. In a de- scription of a drying oil communicated to De Mayerne by a Flemish painter (17th century) we read: " Laissez rasseoir et guardez pour en mesler une goutte ou deux sur la palette avec vos couleurs broyees." — MS, p. 96. 0LE0-RESIN0US VEHICLES. 279 nature as well as the quantity of the colour ; the (oil) varnish, as will be seen, was so thick that it could only be added in small quantities to some tints. The resinous materials are sandarac, mastic, and " gloriat " or turpentine. They are described as forming, with oil, three separate compositions ; and it may be inferred that each was to be mixed with the colours according to the lightness or dark- ness of the colour and the varnish. " Here I will teach how to make a good varnish of three materials — a good and superior varnish out of each of the materials separately. In the first place take 1 lb. of sandarac or of mastic, whichever you please, and pulverise it in a clean mortar. Then take 3 lb. of linseed oil, or hemp- seed oil, or old nut oil, and boil this in a clean vessel, skimming it and taking care, above all, that it does not run over. After it has boiled and has been skimmed [throw in and] stir the powdered resin little by little in the boiling oil: thus the powder dissolves in the oil. When it is quite dis- solved let the varnish seethe gently with a moderate heat, stirring it continually that it may not burn ; and when you find that the composition has become thick, like melted honey, take a drop of the varnish on a knife, and, after suffering it to cool a little, touch it and draw your finger slowly off; if the varnish strings it is well boiled, but if not, boil it better till it strings. Then take it from the fire and suffer it to cool; strain it through a strong T 4 280 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. piece of linen, wringing it through the cloth into a clean glazed vessel, and keep it well covered for use. Thus you have an excellent and clear varnish of the best kind. " And if you wish to make another good varnish, as clear and lustrous as crystal, get 1 lb. of ' gloriat ' from the apothecaries' shops and [add] twice the quantity of oil. Let them boil together, and prepare this in all respects like the former varnish ; as soon as it strings it is sufficiently boiled, and is in the right state." * * " Hie wil ich leren gut virtiis machen von drierley materien do usser ie der materie sonderlich ein gut edler virnis. Zu dem ersten nim des gemeinen virnis glas ein phunt gewegen oder mastik ein lib. und stosse der eins weders du wilt in einen reinen morsel ze bulver und nim darzu drie phunt lin olis oder hanf olis oder alt nus oli und las das siden in einem reinen kesselin und schum das oli und hut vor alien dingen das es nut iiberlouffe und wen das erwallen ist und geschumet ist so rer das virnis bulver langsam nach enander in das heiss oli so zergat das bulver in dem olin und wenn das bulver gar zergangen ist so las den virnis sieden gar senfteklich mit kleiner hitze und rur den virnis ie ze stunt das es nut anbriinne und wenn du siehest das der virnis gerattet dikelecht werden als zerlassen honig so nim ein troph des virnis uff ein messer und lass den troph einwenig kalt w r erden und griff mit einem finger uff den troph ziieh den finger langsam uff und lat der virnis ein fedemlin mit dem finger uff ziechen so ist der virnis und ouch wol gesotten und lat er aber des fademes mit so slide in bas untz er den faden wol gewinnet und sol in von dem fiire und las in erkiilen und sich denn den virnis dur ein stark linen tuchlin und ringe den virnis gar dur das tuch in ein rein glaziirt hafen und behalt den virnis wol bedeket untz man sin bedarfft so hast du guten edelen Intern virnis den besten. i( Wiltu aber ein andren guten virnis machen der luter und OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 281 The sandarac resin, which would form the darkest of these varnishes, is here called " gemeiner virnis glas," an expression which was before explained to be equivalent to " common amber," that is, san- darac, the substitute for amber. In another receipt (for a gold lacker) in the same MS. the term " vir- nis glas" occurs without the epithet "common," and the context shows that amber is meant. " If you wish to make another gold colour with which silver, tin, or lead, may be [in appearance] gilt, so that the surface on which the composition is applied will look like fine gold, prepare the colour in this mode. In the first place take amber, pulverise and sift it ; take also 1 lb. of oil, and having first boiled and skimmed it, stir the powder by degrees in the hot oil; continue stirring them together till the amber is well dissolved : then let it dulv seethe at a great heat, and stir it unceasingly that it may not burn. And when it has become thick," &c. # Then glantz ist als ein cristalle so nim gloriat in der appenteken i. phunt und zwiirent als vil olis und las das ouch under enander sieden und tu im mit alien dingen als dem ersten und wenne er ouch einen faden gewinnet als der erste so ist er ouch genug gesotten und ist ouch gerecht." * " Wiltu aber ein ander gold varwe machen domit man mag silber zin bli vergiilden wo man si dar iiber strichet so schinet si als schon fin gold dise varwe mache alsus zu dem ersten nim aber virnis glas und stos das zu bulver und ruters durch ein sib und ein phunt olis und las das oli vorhin erwallen und schuni es und rur das virnis bulver langsam in das heiss oli und rur es under enander untz das virnis glas wol zergangen si und las es denn wol senftekliche siden an grosse hitze und rur es 282 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. follow the materials for tinging the varnish (the ancient " auripetrum ") with a gold colour. The writer intimates that this composition was very valuable, and concludes : " This colour is to be preserved clean like the varnish, and whatever substance it is spread over, whether silver, tin, or lead, will become of a fine gold colour. It [the metal so varnished] is then to be placed in the sun till it dries : it will thus be beautifully clear and lustrous, and no moisture can injure it," * The greater heat required and the costliness of the varnish show that amber was here meant, and that the omission of the epithet " common " was not accidental. The cost was, no doubt, the chief rea- son why sandarac was generally used instead ; but those who were willing to incur the expense, for the sake of having a choicer and still more durable var- nish, would naturally employ the finer material. The British Museum manuscript f, above men- tioned, was written in the latter half of the fifteenth century : a former possessor of the volume men- tions De Ketham as the author. The portion on painting is bound up with various other treatises, je bi der wile das es nut anbrounne und wenn es gerattet dikelecht werden" &c. * ..." Und dise varwe sol man rein behalten als den virnis und was man mit diser varwe iiber strichet es si silber zin oder bli das wirt schon vin gold var das sol man an der sunne lan wol trocken werden so ist es schon clor und ouch glantz und mag in kein wasser nut geschaden." t SloaneMSS. 345. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 283 some of which were written about the year 1500. De Ketham was a physician, known by at least one published work* ; his language, in the MS. in ques- tion, is Flemish, but in one of his printed treatises he is styled "Alemannus," a term (like that of "Tedesco" with the Italians) which often compre- hended the natives of the Low Countries. It will be remarked that the now familiar composition mentioned in the following receipt is described not as a mere varnish, but as a vehicle for the colours ; thus again corroborating Vasari's state- ment : — " To make a composition which serves for all colours. — Take lib. of linseed oil and boil it one hour ; then take 4 oz. of pulverised amber and put it into an earthen vessel, and pour on it as much of the aforesaid linseed oil as will cover it. Let it boil till the amber is melted, the solution must then be strained through a cloth and added to the first oil. Let it boil, and try on a slate whether it be strong enough. If it be so, add to it 1 lb. of resin [concrete turpentine], again suffering it to * Fasciculum Medicinoe et alia quasdam scripsit, Venet. 149o, See Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Grceca, Hamb. 1726, vol. xiii. p. 259. The Fasciculus Medicince to which De Ketham was the chief contributor, was several times re- printed ; the earliest edition bears the date 1491. It is remarkable as being the first anatomical work with illustra- tions ; the woodcuts appear to be by B. Montagna. Compare Rudolph Weigel's Kunstlager-Catalog, Leipzig, 1843, 13ten Abtheilung, p. 26. 284 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. boil a little. Then take it off, and it is ready."* This composition, though u serving for all colours," was necessarily mixed in different proportions with them after they were ground in oil. Some of the Flemish physician's receipts, as usual in such com- pendiums, relate to ordinary and mechanical pro- cesses, such as the preparation of gold sizes, and the printing of cloth with varnish colours ; but, even in these, the materials and directions indicate the habits of the time. The chief dryer, as in the Strassburg MS., is [white] copperas; colours are first ground in water, and, when perfectly dry, in oil; the varnish (with which the copperas is sometimes boiled) is then added ; and, when the colours do not dry readily, more copperas is mixed with them.f * " Substancie tmaken daer alle wve indin. — R. i. lb. lyn olys end sid een ure end dan nemt viii. loet bernsteen ghepulvirt end doen dy yn een erden poot ende ghiten dar op lyn oly di voer gesad is dat di wynstey bedowe ys myt den oly end laten dat syden also langhe dat de bernsteen gesmout ys dy bernstee soe sal met syghen doer een doeck eh doent toste irst oly end latet sid end pruvet op ey leye of het sterck genoch sy. End yst steerck genoch soe doet dan. pont spigelhars yn end latent syd een liittel end dan so settet af end dan ys bereyt." The mode of dissolving the amber in a small quantity of oil, before the rest is added, is not to be recommended, as the solution is thus much more deeply coloured in consequence of the carbonisation of the oil. The solution of the amber alone, according to the directions of Theophilus (c. xxi. second receipt), answers better ; but neither method is calculated to prevent the varnish from becoming very dark. The pale yellow vinous colour of the best amber explains the synonyme " wynsteyn." f The following receipt, though relating only to a composi- tion for printing cloth, throws some light on the general OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 285 Thus it appears that, in the early Flemish prac- tice, the stronger kind of varnish, which was mixed Flemish practice of the fifteenth century. " To temper all colours. — Take one lb. of linseed oil or nut oil, the older the better, half an oz. of mastic, half an oz. of copperas, two drams of frankincense, one oz. of [white] resin, two oz. of pale red lead of 160 ; a these being pulverised, mix all together. The oil should be first placed on the fire and suffered to boil, then the above-mentioned substances are to be added and stirred continually with a stick to which some cloth is affixed ; this stirring and boiling should last two hours ; and, in order to try the mixture with black or any other colour, take two parts of linseed oil and the third part from the ingredients above mentioned out of the vessel, with or without measure ; and if the cloth [to be printed] be old or thin, add more of the com- position from the vessel, otherwise the colour would run : but if the cloth be new and thick the proportion indicated is sufficient. You can then fill your prints with it if you think the colour black enough ; but if the burnt black [which you have mixed with it] should not be deep enough, you can take vine branches and burn them in a pot till they are charred ; then grind them with water and place them on a piece of chalk to dry. Add a sufficient quantity of this to the burnt black to make the impressions distinct. And all other colours, green or red, yellow or blue, are, in like manner, to be first ground with water only and suffered to dry ; then they are to be tempered with oil and with the ingredients from the vessel above mentioned. And in winter, when the colour will not dry in well, grind a little copperas with it, then it will dry thoroughly. Item, cloth should be glazed with a glazing stone ; all cloth intended to be tinted should be so prepared. " Alle werven thoe teperiren. — R. i. pont lyn oly of noet oly a The word ochre is sometimes used by the early writers as an adjective, in the Greek sense &xpog, pallidus. Thus Carda- nus, in the passage on red lead before quoted, " ochra id est pallida." " Menie oker van clx." may therefore mean white lead roasted to a certain degree of heat. 286 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. with the colours (previously ground in oil), was amber. In the preceding chapter it was explained that this substance was frequently confounded with copal ; but, as the former was at all times more easily procured in the North, it may be con- cluded that in Germany and Flanders, at least, the term was correctly applied.* hoe ouder hoe beet, i. loet mastic i. loet coperoet, i. wirdel lots wirock al gepulverizirt end ir. loet spiegelhars menie oker van CLX. mi. loet ghepulverizirt end dit machmen al thoe same. End men sal den oly irst opt fuer setten dat hy sydende wort. Soe salmen dan dese verse? substanc dar in doen end roret altoes myt eyn stock d'thoe ow loken aen gesteken. End dit roren end dit siden sal duren n. uren. End alst men pruven wyl myt zuarte of ander alrehande werve, so sel men nemen IL deel lynsaet oly end dat darden deel wtter wersc substancie wt den pot met cler maten of sondermaten. End ys dat cleet olt ofte diinne so doet dar meer hoe wtten pot of het sonde vloyen. Mer is dat cleet nyc end dicke soe en yst gheennoet. Soe magdi dy printe dar mede wullen. Soe dat w dune dathet zwart genoch is. End ist sache dat het nyt genoch enhevet van gebranden zwarte so machmen nemen wyrancke end bernen dy yn een pot alte kalen end wriven sy myt water end doen sy op eyn kryt steyn end latent drogen end doent totten gebrande zwarte alsoe wele dat het wel van den printe gaet. End alle ander werve het sy groen of roet gheel of blaeu. End dy machmen yrst werven wrieven mytten water end latense drogen. End temperense myt olye end myt substancie wt der poot verse. End wynterdaghes alst nyt weel drogen een so vriv dar wat coperoet yn het sal theet droge. Item men sal dat laken licken myt een lick steen dat suldi doen alien laken dy ghy werven wilt." Another receipt directs that a gold size, if too thick, should be diluted with the oil of amber. " End is dy matery tho sterck so nem ey weinhg van bernsteen oly end menghet dar mede." * It is, however, to be remembered, that during the opulent OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 287 The employment of these materials has its technical inconveniences : amber, especially, has a tendency to flow, and this may have been partly the reason why it was used in small quantities, and for particular purposes. Another objection to both, perhaps more applicable to copal, is their tendency to yellow. This seems to have been guarded against by using the var- nish sparingly and much diluted in the lights; or even by substituting for it, in such cases, a lighter resinous solution. With regard to the methods of preparing the amber varnish, so as to be as light in colour as possible, it may be assumed that the best processes of the kind were known to Van Eyck. On the other hand, it is not to be sup- posed that modern chemists would have any great difficulty in obtaining results as successful ; nor is it imagined that there was any particular secret in the operation which has been lost, or for which, if lost, an equivalent could not be found : but, in order to pursue the subject historically, some ac- count will here be given of the ordinary modes in use, from the earliest to the later ages of oil painting, for preparing the amber varnish. The evidences of the abundance of the substance days of Bruges almost every Oriental produce sought in Europe found its way to that city, as the central mart of the North. See Beaucourt de Noortvelde, Geschiedenis van den Brugschen Koophandel, quoted by Michiels, Histoire de la Peinture Flamande et Hollandaise. 288 OLEORESINOUS VEHICLES* itself, in the North of Europe, may be first reca- pitulated. The best-informed ancient writers considered the North of Germany as the chief country of amber. The word "glessum" (glas, glas), appro- priated to that substance, according to Tacitus and Pliny, by the Germans, had evidently reference to its transparency. In what precise part of the shores of the Baltic we are to look for the Gles- sarian island of Pliny * we need not stay to inquire : amber is now found on the coast and under the soil of Prussia, and the chief marts for it are Dantzic and Konigsberg.f In the Montpelier MS. "glassa" is called the German vernix (fernix gna). A medical writer of the sixteenth century, speaking of amber, says that when it is dissolved in oil it forms the vernix of the Germans, other ingredients being added J ; and some authors even derive the whole family of words belonging to vernix, not excepting the medieval Greek terms, from the German bernstein (amber, literally " burn- stone")^ * L. xxxvii. c. 11. f See Hartmann, Succincta Succini Prussici Historia. Frank. 1677. Fernbach, Die Enkaustische Malerei, Miinchen, 1845, p. 139. $ "Ad magisterium succini pertinet etiam vernix Germano rum quandoin oleo solvitur additis nonnullis." — Andr, Libavii Singularia, Franc. 1599, pars iii a , p. 406. § Buttman, Mythologus, vol. ii. p. 362. Libavius, Singu- laria, ib. p. 594. OLEO-KESINOUS VEHICLES. 289 Pliny states that amber found its way from the North into Italy, chiefly by way of Venice ; that it was therefore common in the plains of Lombardy, whence, in his opinion, the origin of the fable that " trees weep amber on the banks of Po." There, he adds, it was very generally worn in the form of necklaces, by women, for its supposed medicinal virtues, as well as for ornament.* The medical authorities of the middle ages inherited most of the prejudices of the ancients, and amber occupied an important place in their materials ; its solution, by means of alcohol or volatile oils, in order to obtain what was called the " magisterium succini," was a favourite problem, and such experiments by medical investigators may have indirectly assisted the labours of Hubert Van Eyck. The substance itself was not less important as an ac- credited specific in the form of amulets : the virtues of the necklace long survived ; the light golden colour being, for this use, preferred.f A specimen of such an ornament, as worn by the women of Bruges in the beginning of the fifteenth century, may be seen in the picture by Van Eyck in the National Gallery ; it is suspended next the mirror in the background, and, as usual with the * L. xxxvii. c. 11. f See Libavius De Medicinis Succini externis, Singularity pars iii a , p. 649. ; and, among various writers on the medicinal virtues of amber, Vesti, Dissert, de Succino physice et medice considerate. Erfordise, 1702. U 290 OLEO -RESINOUS VEHICLES. accessories introduced by this artist, is exquisitely painted.* The amber used by the Romans might have been obtained, in part at least, from Sicily, and even from some localities in Italy ; the epithet Falernian seems, however, to have been applied to an admired German species, so called on account of its (pale yellow) vinous colour.*)* From the above circumstances it will not appear extraordinary that the use of amber varnishes should have been general in the North at an early period. The facility of procuring the material was not the only reason for this : the requisites calcu- lated to insure durability in a varnish (whether employed to protect furniture or other objects) are, hardness combined with toughness, resistance to humidity, and that lasting smoothness of surface, affording no minute receptacles for dust or mois- ture, which is indicated by a perfect gloss. The amber varnish (like that of copal), when duly pre- pared, possesses these recommendations, and a mechanical perfection, as usual in the infancy of art, was at first the chief object proposed. But such qualities were also especially adapted for a * It is not quite clear whether this is a necklace or a co- rona (beads for counting prayers). On the amber beads, see Libavius De populari Usu Succini, Singul. pars iii a , p. 644. &c. •f "Falernum et chryselectrum eandem speciem esse con- jicimus." — lb. p. 676. " Succinum falernum : Weinklarer Ag- stein, oder Bornstein." — Bulandus, Lexicon Alchym. Franc. 1661, voc. Succinum. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 291 humid climate; and thus the technical charac- teristics of the early Flemish painters (such characteristics, at least, as were compatible with higher aims in art) became habitual, and are to be recognised even in some of the highest ex- amples of the school. In the ancient mode of dissolving amber for varnishes, no precautions whatever were taken to prevent the composition from becoming dark. The process sufficed at all times for ordinary purposes, and hence it often reappears with little change. The following example is given by Libavius (six- teenth century). "Take three lb. of linseed oil; of burnt alum, purified turpentine, and garlic, each half an oz. Mix these in the oil and boil it till it ceases to froth. Then take one lb. of amber, place it in a vessel, the cover of which has an opening about the size of the little finger. Pour in a little oil. Melt the amber on a tripod and stir it with an iron rod inserted through the opening in the cover, to assist the liquefaction. When dissolved, mix it with the oil before prepared, and boil to the consistence of a varnish." * The resemblance of * " Olei lini libras tres, aluminis usti, resinas depuratoe, allii, singulas semiuncias, misce et coque donee cesset spuma. Cape postea succini libram, pone in ollam cujus operculum liabeat fo- ramen amplitudini digiti minoris quem auric ularem vocant. Affunde parum olei, coque super tripode et ferreo bacillo per foramen inserto move ut eliquescat. Cum delicuit solutumque est affunde oleo ante prceparato ut dictum est et coque ad con- sistentiamvernicis." — Libavius, Singularia, Franc. 1599 — 1601, pars iii a , p. 648. u 2 292- OLEO -RESINOUS VEHICLES. this receipt, in many respects, to that of Theophilus, is sufficiently apparent. The burnt alum, which is clarifying, and the purified turpentine may be considered improvements ; garlic and similar in- gredients are still sometimes used in the prepar- ation of drying oils, chiefly in order to furnish moisture for evaporation. The more obvious improvements of which this direct mode of solution is susceptible are indi- cated in the Strassburg MS. ; such as first carefully preparing the oil (on which the clearness and lightness of varnishes much depends), then throw- ing in the finely pulverised amber by degrees, and stirring the oil unceasingly, while exposed to heat, to prevent its carbonisation. The modes in which the solution was promoted by peculiar agents may be represented by various modern practices, such as steeping the pulverised substance in oil of rose- mary before exposing it to the action of the fire ; grinding it in alcohol ; and then moistening it, when dry, in the oil of turpentine. The oil of amber itself has been employed with effect in the same way.* An effectual but laborious method consists in grinding the substance very finely in Venice turpentine diluted with the oil of turpen- tine : the amber then dissolves readily with the aid of heat, and is scarcely, if at all, discoloured. But the principal change (for, as originally practised, * De Mayerne records a successful experiment of his own, by such means. MS. p. 48. OLEO-KESINOUS VEHICLES. 293 it was scarcely an improvement) which took place in the ancient process was, to dissolve the amber twice ; by which means it was not so long exposed to a fierce heat, the second operation being easily accom- plished. " Dissolve one lb. of pulverised amber in an earthen vessel on a charcoal fire. As soon as it is melted, pour it on an iron plate, and again reduce it to powder ; then place it in an earthen vessel, first adding linseed oil, already boiled and prepared, with litharge ; the solution is completed by the addition of oil of turpentine." * Again : "In Germany they first melted the amber, then poured it on iron plates and pulverised it : to this powder, placed in a vessel, linseed oil already prepared with litharge was added : lastly, they poured in oil of turpentine till all was dissolved." f As the discoloration of the amber (which still takes place in this process) is the consequence of its continued exposure to great heat, various con- * " R. succini pulverisati lb. i. qua in tegillo fictili convenient carbonum igne colliquatur et haec liquida massa in laminam fer- ream infunditur ; rursus comminuitur in pulverem atque in te- gillo fictili addito primum oleo lini quod cum lithargirio prius coctum et praeparatum fuit et postea spiritu terebintinae totum dissolvitur." — Dissert, de Succino a Michaeli Alberti, Halce Magdeburg. 1750, p. 18. f " In Deutschland schmeltzen sie zuerst den Bernstein gossen ihn also geschmolzen auf eiserne Bleche aus u. denn piilverten sie ihn ; dieses Pulver thatten sie in einen Tiegel und hierzu Leinol so vorher mit Glatte zugerichtet worden, endlich gossen sie aueh Terpentin-oel dazu, bis alles aufgeloset sey." — Zedler, Grosses Vollstand. Lexicon, art. Verniss. u 3 294 OLEORESINOUS VEHICLES. trivances have at different times been adopted, by means of which the portions that are first melted instantly pass off, and are thus not sub- jected to the action of the fire a moment longer than necessary ; the following is an example. " Procure a pear-shaped vessel of copper, measuring about a foot high and six and a half inches in its widest diameter ; the narrow end or neck (occupy- ing three or four inches of the former dimension) should be nearly three inches in diameter at its truncated end. This opening should be furnished with a movable cover or stopper, pierced with holes about the size of a pea. The neck should be perforated here and there in the same manner. Fill the neck of the vessel with pieces of the lightest-coloured amber, and fasten the stopper well. Procure an iron tripod, the pan of which, being perforated in the centre, admits the inverted copper vessel, so that the neck only passes below it. Lute the vessel to the pan. Charcoal already well ignited is then placed in the pan round the sides and almost to the top of the vessel ; the fire is kept up with fresh charcoal. The escape of gases, evolved by the heated amber, through the orifices of the neck, precedes the solution. The amber, as it flows down through the openings, is received in a vessel of water placed underneath. The drops, consolidating as they fall, are taken out of the water at once ; the portion which flows from the upper orifices in the neck is the least OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 295 discoloured, and the purest drops are afterwards collected. This operation, like most others adopted for the preparation of varnishes and oils by means of fire, is dangerous from the inflammable nature of the gases which escape. If the pan is per- forated with holes to create a draft, it is necessary to surround the neck of the copper vessel under- neath with a guard of tin, so as in some measure to cut off the communication between the gases and the fire." * The amber thus dissolved is as light in colour as it can be when prepared by means of heat alone. But in this mode, as in the method before described, that of pouring the melted amber on iron plates, the substance is greatly altered by the process : it has become brittle, and when reduced to powder is easily dissolved in the essential oil of turpentine with very little heat ; it consequently requires the addition of a fixed oil to restore to it the requisite degree of toughness. Recent investigators have found that amber and copal pulverised, and exposed to the air in that state for some time, are, in like manner, easy of solution. The change, in this case, being produced, as is supposed, by the effects of oxygen. f The easy solution of the substance is an indication that * Fernbach, Die enkaustische Malerei, Miinchen, 1845, p. 141. See, also, Tripier-Deveaux, Traite, &c., p. 60. Com- pare Secrets des Arts et Metiers, Paris, 1790, torn ii. p. 733. ; and Bonanni, Trattato sopra la Vernice, Bologna, 1786, p. 51. f See Tripier-Deveaux, Traite, &c. p. 68. u 4 296 OLEO-KESINOUS VEHICLES. its hardness and tenacity are more or less im- paired ; but this may be considered a uniform result of partial decomposition, by whatever means effected. In the ordinary process of dissolving amber in linseed oil, for example, the original substance is reduced to half its weight by the abstraction of the succinic acid, volatile oil, and gases, which are evolved by heat * ; and, as in this case a fixed oil is simultaneously supplied, the sufficient tenacity of the varnish is at once se- cured. But whether the oil be added at first or subsequently, it is evident that the question of alteration can be one of degree only ; to prevent it altogether, when heat is the chief agent, is im- possible ; it may therefore be supposed that the resinous portion of amber alone (the separation of which can be effected by alcohol or by essential oils) will still form, with a fixed oil, a firmer var- nish than any prepared with the ordinary resins, and it can thus be made as light in colour. Such products have some analogy with the " magisterium succini," one of the secrets of the medieval iatro-chemists. Records of this method may perhaps be found in very early writers ; it is not even necessary to assume that its use was sub- sequent to the practice of distillation (the dis- covery or introduction of which is attributed to Arnaldus de Villa Nova, in the thirteenth century), as the same result may be obtained with naphtha. * Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. OLEO -RESINOUS VEHICLES. 297 Baptista Porta, a well known writer of the six- teenth century, describes the magisterium as fol- lows. " 1 here add the method by which I am accustomed to extract it ; the followers of Para- celsus either conceal it or are ignorant of it.* Let the amber be finely pulverised, sprinkle the powder gradually into alcohol, to be dissolved. Pour off the [partial] solution, and add more alcohol, till the remainder of the amber is dissolved, leaving the spirit to act for a month at a time. Place the different solutions in one vessel, and dissolve by [moderate] heat in the open air. The heavy oil which remains at the bottom is the magisterium of amber." f A similar process is recorded in an English * Libavius (Singularia, pars iii a , p. 587.) remarks that An - dernacus (Gonthier) had published this before Porta. j " Apponimus modum nos quo extrahere soliti sumus ; Para*- celsici aut celant aut ignorant : quicquid erit ostendimus. Tun- datur succinum minutissime, tusum in aquam vitae inspergito, ut illud solvat ; solutum transfunde et novum injice quousque quod solveri potest solvatur, per mensem immorando : aquis omnibus in vas unum collatis, igni solvantur in auras. In fundo reses oleum magisterium est suecini." — Jo. Bapt. Porta Neapolitani *Magice Naturalis, lib. xx. Neap. 1588, lib. x. c. 14. Libavius (Singularia, pars iii a , p. 593.) quotes a similar method recorded by the celebrated Tycho de Brahe. " Ex Cameratianis excepimus Tychonis de Brahe modum qui sequi- tur. Pollinem suecini albi in cucurbita perfunde vini spiritu exsiccato. Clauso vase in cineribus calidis per dies quatuor digere moderato calore. Deinde destilla in balneo lento igni ne ascendat materia. In fundo erit liquor melleus suavissimus. Si augere vis, abstractum spiritum novae materice infunde et age ut prius : postea junge utrumque liquorem." 298 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. medical MS. in the British Museum, written in the first half of the seventeenth century. " Hang a broad and shallow linen bagg in a great glass body of three or four gallons (whose mouth is not cut off) by three strong threads. Convey into your bagg, after it is spread and hangeth orderly, the finely scraped powder of amber at the mouth of the long pipe. Let the bagg hang almost to the bottom of the glass. Then pour into your glass three pints of well rectified spirit of wine, or as much as will in a manner cover the amber on the outside. Stop your glass well and set it on a dunghill, or in a gentle balneo for seven days and seven nights. Then shall you have a heavy oyle of Balsome that will issue out of the bagg and fall to the bottom of the spirit of wine ; and other most clear, and excellent, and light oyle will float on topp of the spirit, which, with the spirit to- gether, you must pour away by declination, leaving the heavy oyle behind. Then, with a fire of small heat, distill the spirit from the oyle ; soe you have a most precious and valuable oyle wherewith Sir Walter Rawleigh had cured twelve persons of dead, paulseys." * De Mayerne employs a method similar to that of Porta in preparing a varnish. " Procure the clearest and whitest amber that can be found : the * Liber N. Birche Pharmacopoei Norwicensis, &c, Sloane MSS. 3505. p. 203. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 299 tincture or soluble portion should be extracted with highly rectified spirit of wine, by several in- fusions, in a sand bath. Throw the solution into rain-water ; let it remain some days ; then pour oif the clear fluid, or remove it by strips of felt acting as siphons. Dry the powder which remains on white blotting paper or on chalk, and keep it in a dry place. This powder dissolves quite well in spike oil, and in due proportion makes an excellent varnish, which can be easily spread, dries quickly, and shines splendidly. The solution can be ef- fected by means of a ladle or pan, according to the quantity, on a very moderate fire, taking care that the fire does not reach it, and always stirring with a clean iron rod. I added a little linseed oil ; it is desirable that the oil should be drying, such as that which is purified in the sun with white lead, or light litharge, or that which is boiled with cal- cined white copperas : but with the spike oil alone the varnish answers very well." * Elsewhere, * " II fault avec du tres pur esprit de vin extraire la teincture ou partie dissoluble de l'ambre la plus claire et blanche qu'on pourra trouver, et ce par plusieurs infusions au sable. Precipitez dans l'eau de pluye, ou simple tres pure, ou, pour quelques ouvrages de prix, distillee. Laissez rasseoir par quelques jours, versez vostre liqueur claire par inclination ou bien la separez d'avec l'ambre par des languettes de feultre et laissez seicher la poudre qui restera sur du papier blanc qui boive, ou bien sur la craye et la guardez en lieu sec. Cette poudre se dissoult fort bien en huyle d'aspic et en deue quantite faict un vernix excellent qui s'estend et se couche avec le pinceau, se seiche fort bien et reluit glorieusement. La dissolution se faict dans 300 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. however, as will be seen, he observes that the ad- dition of a fixed oil is always to be recommended. He might have added, that the fixed oils thinned by distillation, which were sometimes employed by the Italians, are unfit for the firm compositions re- quired in humid climates. The opinion of Rubens on the imperfections of essential- oil varnishes will be quoted in another place. As these methods mav be traced even in the j modern preparation of varnishes, there seems no reason to doubt that they were employed at a time when the study of iatro-chemistry included various processes directly applicable to the arts ; and it is thus intelligible how the painters who, for example, could extract the magisterium of amber, were said to study " medicine." A mode of dissolving copal (and the same method is appli- cable to amber) which is given by one of the best modern writers on varnishes, may be compared with the foregoing receipts. The improvement consists in exposing the substance to the vapours either of the essential oil of turpentine or spirit of une cueillere ou poelon, selon la quantity sur un fort petit feu, prenant soigneusement garde que le feu ne s'y mette, et re- muant continuellement avec un pilon de fer bien net. J'y ai adjouste un peu d'huyle de lin, et fera fort bien si l'huyle est sic- cative, comme celle qui est depuree au soleil avec blanc de plomb ou celle de lytharge claire, ou celle qui est cuitte avec couperose blanche calcinee. Mais avec l'huile d'aspic seule le vernix faict fort bien." From a marginal note, it appears that this receipt was obtained from a German. De Mayerne adds, " Feci Londini Sept. 1638." (MS. p. 162.) OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 301 wine. The resin, reduced to pieces about the size of a pea, is placed in a bag of very fine texture. This is suspended within a long-necked matrass, so as to be at the distance of about an inch from the fluid. The mouth of the matrass is closed with a moist skin perforated in the centre : the vessel is then exposed to heat in a sand or water- bath. In this process spirit of wine should not boil ; on the other hand, the essential oil of tur- pentine will be even more effectual in operation (and the operation is slow) if heated to ebullition.* Libavius alludes to methods known to painters and others, by which amber was entirely dissolved in the oil of turpentine or in naphtha, f The mode was probably the same as that which the moderns have sometimes adopted with success for the solu- tion of copal. It consists in using well rectified oil of turpentine which has been kept for at least a twelvemonth ; the fluid, has then the power of dis- solving a considerable quantity of copal at a moderate heat, and, as the subsequent admixture of oil at the same temperature is always possible, the varnish is quite light. J The above are specimens of the various modes of * Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. p. 65. t "Resolvitur et totum oleo terebinthinse albo, quern spi- ritum vocamus, aut petroleo in vase clauso incoctum; idque notse artis est apud scriniarios, pictores, librarios." — Libav. Singul. pars iii a , p. 586. % See a paper by Mr. Linton in the Appendix to the Sixth Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts. 302 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. dissolving amber (and they are also applicable to copal) from a remote period downwards. A longer list might have been given, but the principal methods are represented by some or other of the above formula?. They have been detailed, it is repeated, rather to complete a historical view than for the purpose of supplying any important information, as, in these processes, the moderns have generally improved on the traditionary methods.* From the numerous notes on this subject, chiefly derived from Flemish painters, which appear in the May erne MS., there can be no doubt that amber still merited the title of the " Yernix Germana" in the seventeenth century. It has been seen that this varnish was used in the Netherlands at an early period, to a certain extent as a vehicle for the colours ; being thinned with oil as required.f That * For examples of the best English modes in use for pre- paring these and other varnishes, see a valuable treatise by J. Wilson Neil, Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xlix. part ii. ■f Amber and copal, however fit as ingredients for vehicles, cannot be recommended for picture varnishes. It was chiefly as a vehicle that one or the other substance was used in the Northern schools. Many persons now living remember Fairfield, a landscape painter who had studied with Jacob van Strij. The latter, as is well known, was a successful imitator of Cuyp, and, though born more than half a century later, he appears to have been well acquainted with that master's technical methods. Fairfield used copal as a vehicle. He derived the practice from Van Strij, who assured him that such had been Cuyp's ordinary medium. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 303 this was rather a Northern than an Italian habit has been already apparent, and it will be more dis- tinctly exemplified hereafter, in treating of the Italian practice. But it is to be remembered that the method had been originally introduced into Italy from Flanders, and it is therefore occasionally to be traced even in the practice of some of the later Italians. De Mayerne states that " the amber varnish of Venice" was that commonly used for lutes and musical instruments. Though prepared in the German mode, by a twofold solution, it seems that it was by no means light in colour : The amber, re-dissolved in a powerful drying oil, was at first turbid, but it could be clarified with pulverised brick (as recommended by Kossello), and, when duly prepared, it was kept in Italy by all vendors of colours.* The same writer observes that a similar drying varnish, thinned with clear oil, was used by Orazio Gentileschi and others ; it was sparingly mixed with the colours already ground in oil, causing them to flow more or less, and giving them a remarkable gloss. It was also used The tradition agrees with the usual hardness of surface for which Cuyp's works are remarkable. * " Chez touts les vendeurs descouleurs en Italie on vend unc huyle espaisse qu'ils appellent Huyle d'ambre de Venise. Elle est fort trouble mais ils ont un artifice ou avec des briques pilees ou avec de la crouste de pain de l'esclaircir et blanchir. Cette huile meslee sur la palette avec les couleurs deja broyees a Fordinaire avec l'huile de lin ou de noix les faict couler et empeche qu'elles n'entrent et s'emboyvent et les rend lustres comme verre d'un esclat excellent." — MS. p. 147. verso. 304 OLEOIIESINOUS VEHICLES. to " oil out " a dry surface, thereby greatly pro- moting the drying of the superadded colours and giving them the same qualities.* Gentileschi, when very aged, was invited to the court of Charles I., and died in England. His daughter, Artemisia Gentileschi (an artist of whom Fuseli speaks in terms of high praise), was also much employed in this country. De May erne observes that she communicated the mode of preparing and * " M. Gentileschi, excellent peintre Florentin,adjouste sur la palette une goutte seulement devernix d'ambrevenant de Venise, dont on vernit les luths, principalement a la charneure, et ce pour faire estendre le blanc et l'adoucir facilement, et faire aussi qu'il se seiche plus tost. Par ce moyen il travaille quancl il veult sans attendre que les couleurs seichent tout a fait ; et le vernix, quoique rouge, ne guaste point le blanc/' — MS. p. 10. " Ayant depuis moymesme demande au dit M. La Nirel'usage de ce vernix, il m'a dit qu'il fault mesler deux parties d'huyle de noix fort claire avec un part du dit vernix d'ambre, et les faire bien incorporer ensemble a une chaleur fort lente ; que pour s'en servir'il fault passer legerement avec une esponge fort doulce iinbibee du dit vernix sur les couleurs niortes, et inconti- nent peindre dessus, que cela faict couler les couleurs et faict qu'elles s'entremeslent parfaitement, de sorte que quand la be- sogne est seiche en la refrottant du vernix le travail est aise, a quelques heures que Ton s'y met. II dit avoir appris cecy et en avoir eu la recepte de Signora Artemisia, fille de Gentileschi, qui peint extremement bien, de qui j'ai vu plusieurs grands ta- bleaux." — lb. p. 154. Laniere had also communicated the description of this varnish to Mrs. Carlisle; from her De May erne first obtained it. According to that receipt three parts of purified and bleached nut oil were to be added to one of the varnish. (MS. p. 15 1, verso.) For a notice of Anne Carlisle see Walpole, vol. ii. p. 300. OLEORESINOUS VEHICLES. 305 using the varnish to M. Lanire (Laniere) *, from whom the physician received it. The varnish, as above stated, was the ordinary German prepara- tion. The practice of Gentileschi, considered inde- pendently of his style, thus corresponded in a great degree with the early Flemish tradition. But it is not necessary to suppose that this amber varnish, however carefully prepared, was the only material of the kind employed even in the primitive method ; and that method was by degrees variously modified in various schools. The Italians of the sixteenth century more commonly used (as an auxiliary medium) the lighter oil varnish prepared from mastic; and some of the later Flemish painters adopted a similar practice. With respect to the original process, the Strassburg MS. perhaps contains the most satis- factory explanation of the different vehicles em- ployed. The writer or compiler of that treatise first directs that varnish (the particular kind not being named) should be mixed with all the colours : in afterwards treating of varnishes he mentions three kinds, sandarac (or amber), mastic, and purified turpentine, dissolved in hempseed oil, linseed oil, or nut oil. The oils * De Mayerne speaks of him as an excellent musician as well as a painter. Compare Dalla way's Walpole, vol. ii. p. 270. For an account of the Gentileschi and their paintings in England, see the same work, ib. p. 267. X 306 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. appear to have been used indiscriminately ; but, as regards the varnishes, it may be inferred that the clearest vehicles were mixed with the light colours, and the darker medium (which also imparted the most durable gloss and was thicker in substance) with the transparent shadows. The appearance of existing works of art agrees with these conditions : in most of the specimens of the early Flemish school the shadows are more raised than the lights, indicating the use of a thicker medium with the transparent colours ; the lights have not yellowed beyond the point of an agreeable warmth, while the shadows are sometimes embrowned. The in- discriminate use of a varnish which causes the colours to flow is not to be imagined in the case of Van Eyck, as such a vehicle would not be com- patible with the sharpness of his execution. At the same time it is to be remembered that the traditional amber varnish, when prepared or after- wards mixed with siccative oils, as in the practice of Gentileschi, was used as a dryer, and that this drying quality corrects in a great measure the tendency to flow. The mastic oil- varnish, to which purified turpen- tine was sometimes added, was much employed by the later Flemish painters, and (as usual with their more modern processes) was introduced by them into this country. The necessity of employing the oleo-resinous medium in such climates as those of England and Holland was thus still recognised, OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 307 and, as will be shown hereafter, a proportion of oil was recommended even in varnishes for finished pictures. The following receipts exemplify the use of the oleo-resinous medium during the 17th century. They appear in a modern manuscript without a name. The writer states that he copied them from a collection of memorandums containing successive accounts of the methods of painters who had practised in England from the time of Vandyck to that of Kneller ; but as he adds that he had lost sight of the original MS., and as the name even of the transcriber himself is unknown, the description must rest on its own merits. " To make Vandyck's drying oil. — Take an oz. and half, or two oz. is better, of white lead, and a pint of nut oil ; set the oil upon the fire in a large earthen vessel ; put in the lead by degrees, as the oil simmers very slowly over the fire till the whole is dissolved [diffused]." The oil was then clarified by straining and by repose. The writer adds: " This oil should be used fresh. Vandyck . . . always had it prepared in his own house, and never kept it by him more than a month; after that time it begins to lose its good qualities : it is believed that Cornelius Jansen, as well as Vandyck, used this drying oil." The next extract is : "To make Vandyck's mastic varnish. — Take 1 lb. of gum mastic, carefully picked; powder it and set x 2 308 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. it in an earthen vessel with 2 lb. of spirit of turpen- tine. Set this in a sand heat, or any other heat that is less than will make the spirit boil: let it remain (shaking it well continually) till the gum is dissolved. Take it from the fire and let it stand till the contents are cold. The varnish is then to be poured out, and separated from any little foul- ness it may contain. The best way is to make a quantity of this varnish at a time, and keep it in bottles closely stopped, exposed as much as possible to the heat of the sun. This will make it clear, and improve the colours in proportion to the length of time it is kept. Take 1 lb. of this varnish and half a pint of the drying oil ; shake them well together ; put them, in a bottle, to simmer on the fire for a quarter of an hour, when the mixture will be complete. But if it should curdle as it cooks, it must be set on the fire again, and simmered until, when cooling, it does not curdle, but appears like a white jelly." Elsewhere : " He [Vandyck] kept all his colours dry, except white, which was ground with nut oil, and kept under water. His colours were tempered as he used them with the oil and varnish [above described]." Of Sir Peter Lely it is related that "his colours, like Yandyck's, were ground in water and kept dry, except the white, which was ground first in water, then with nut oil, and kept in water for use." The transcriber fur- ther observes : " It was mentioned in the same manuscript that [Daniel] Seghers, the flower- OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 309 painter, used the true Strassburg turpentine boiled with nut oil for his vehicle."* None of the above circumstances, nor any others purporting to be quoted from the lost manuscript, are at all improbable ; on the contrary, they are generally borne out by the known practice of the Continental schools during the corresponding period, f De May erne frequently records the di- rections of painters that varnishes were " to be mixed on the palette with the colours." J The numerous Flemish and Dutch painters who crossed the Alps imported from time to time the methods of the Italians, and combined them with their own. As the merit of Van Eyck had recom- mended his process to all, so the excellence of the great Italian masters led, in turn, to the adoption of theirs. This reaction began early. Luigi Guicciardini (perhaps copying Vasari) remarks that Schoreel had introduced in Antwerp some of the Italian methods. There are, indeed, numerous * The author obtained the MS. referred to from Mr. H. Bohn, of York Street, who purchased it at a sale at Messrs. Sotheby's in May, 1845. j* A document to be given hereafter differs slightly from the above account in respect to the oil used by Vandyck ; but his predilections in such particulars may have varied at different times. J " Alors vostre vernix sera faict, que guarderez soigneuse- ment ; et pour vernir, et pour mesler sur la palette avec lcs couleurs." — MS. p. 152. The description is headed "Vernix fort blanc de M. Feltz. Decemb. 1641." x 3 310 OLEO-HESINOUS VEHICLES. examples of Flemish and Dutch pictures which are national only in their taste, since their technical methods correspond with those of some one or other of the Italian schools. It would be a mis- take, however, to suppose that the delicate execu- tion of the artists of the Netherlands is incompatible with an oleo-resinous vehicle. Their most minute finish, as such, is not superior to Van Eyck's ; and with respect to the possibility of combining the sharpest precision with the employment of such a medium, it is sufficient to remark that Wilkie's Blind Fiddler was painted throughout with meguilp (or drying oil and mastic varnish), as many can attest who saw the progress of that perfect pro- duction. The works of some living artists who have uniformly painted with copal oil-varnish will likewise be remembered. The dryer most commonly used in the Flemish school was white copperas. Two documents of the fifteenth century, relating to that school, which have been quoted, are conclusive as to the early use of this ingredient. The following extracts from the May erne MS. show that it was still as common in the seventeenth century. " Colours which do not [of themselves] dry, will dry by adding to them verdigris, white copperas, or crystalline glass*, prepared by extinction in cold water and then very * The use of a certain kind of glass, in a finely pulverised state, as a dryer, was common in Italy. The mode of preparing it will be more fully described in the second volume. OLEO-HESINOUS VEHICLES. 311 finely ground."* Elsewhere: "Drying oil more siccative than any other. — Burn white copperas on a redhot shovel, till, after being melted, it dries and becomes a powder. To one lb. of linseed oil add two oz. of this 'calcined copperas. Boil on a slow fire for an hour, always stirring; then strain. Thus prepared, the oil is not so dark as it would be with litharge, and dries in two or three hours." f Again: " Communication from a Flemish painter at Lord Newport's, 16th Sept, 1633. A powerful drying oil. — -Dry or half-calcine white copperas on a fire shovel, and put a small quantity of this with linseed oil. Boil, strain, and keep for use. The painter told me that this oil will dry in two hours, and that there is nothing better for drying lake quickly : the colour becomes very brilliant, and does not fade. The same oil may even be mixed with any other colours that are slow of drying." J Else- * "Les couleursqui ne seichent point le feront en y adjoustant le vert de gris, ou la couperose blanche, ou du verre chrystalline pulverise impalpablenient, ou calcine par extinction dans l'eau froide, seiche, et broye en poudre tres subtile." — MS p. 18. f " Huile plus siccative que toutes les aultres. - R. couperose blanche tant que vous voudrez, bruslez-la sur une poisle rouge tant qu'apres avoir este fondue et avoir boulli elle se seiche et se divise en poudre. R, huyle de lin lb. j. couperose ainsi cal- cinee gij. cuisezalent feu environ une heure remuant tousjours, coulez votre huyle qui n'est pas si noire qu' avec la lytharge et seiche promptement en deux ou trois heures." — lb. p. 21. J " Discours d'un peintre Flamand chez my Lord Newport, 16 Sept. 1633. Huyle fort siccative. — Faitea bouillir dn blanc 0 desseiche ou a demy calcine sur un poesle de feu et d'iceluy mettez une petite quantite dans l'huyle de lin. Faites boullir et x 4 312 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. where : " The oils fit for making varnishes are nut oil and linseed oil. These are rendered drying with litharge, or, which is better, with calcined white copperas," &c* The use of this material prepared in the same manner is recommended in Smith's Art of Painting in Oyl, published at a time (1687) f when Flemish methods were much adopted in this country. Copperas is rarer in Italian formula?, and in the following instance it is alluded to as a German material. "To render oil very drying, some are accustomed to boil with it, together with litharge, a mineral or species of vitriol found in Germany, called copperas, reduced to a very fine powder." J It is to be observed, that the use of lead, in the form of white lead, is the most ancient of the recorded dryers, since it coulez ; guardez. . . . Le peintre m'a dit que cette huyle seiche en deux heures, et que pour faire seicher la lacque vistement il n'y a rien de meilleur. La couleur se rend plus vive et ne se guaste nullement. De mesme elle se peult mesler sur la palette avec toutes les aultres couleurs qui seichent malaisement." — M S. p. 1 6 1 . * "Les huyles propres a faire vernix sontceulx de noix et de lin, lesquels, seules rendues siccatives avec le litharge ou (qui mieux est) avec la couperose blanche calcinee, se seichent sur la besogne et peuvent endurer quelque eau que ce soit. Si la dissolution des resines est faicte avec ces huyles les vernix en seront plus beaux et auront plus de corps." — lb. p. 47. verso. ■f The first edition has the date 1676. J " Per ottenere anche olio molto seccante sogliono alcuni farvi bollire ridotto in sottilissinia polvere insieme con il litar- girio un minerale o specie di vitriolo che nasce in Germania chiamato chuperosa," &c. — L' Epitome Cosmografica del Padre Vine. Coronelli, Colonia, 1693, p. 99. OLEORESINOUS VEHICLES. 313 occurs in a copy of Eraclius transcribed probably not later than the year 1400. The circumstance of white copperas being recommended in the Strass- burgMS., and in that of De Ketham, in the fifteenth century, therefore renders it probable that the use of the latter dryer was one of Van Eyck's improve- ments. This subject will be further illustrated in another chapter. The diluents employed with varnishes and vehi- cles were, naphtha, the essential oil of turpentine, and spike oil. Each of these has been incidentally mentioned in the foregoing extracts ; their use immediately after the date of the improved oil painting, when thick vehicles were still employed, is perhaps to be inferred from the extreme precision of execution in the works of Van Eyck and his followers. There is no approach to this in the partial oil painting sometimes observable in the works of the tempera painters : in such examples the vehicle is undiluted, and the [decorative] forms executed with it are always blunt at the edges. The drying property of the essential oils is in pro- portion to their rectification * ; and the lasting purity of their tint may partly depend on the same * De Mayerne observes of the essential oil of turpentine : " tant plus elle est distillee tant plus elle est siccative et claire comme eau de roche." Dreme suggests that the rectification of this oil may be tested by mixing it with white already ground in linseed oil. If, after half an hour, the essential oil rises above the diluted pigment, it is duly rectified ; if it mixes, it is not sufficiently pure. 314 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. circumstance. De Saussure, whose careful experi- ments with the oils are well known, speaking of their coloration, says : " It is to be observed that oxygen produced two opposite effects ; it deprived the fixed oils of colour and coloured the volatile oils." He states that the oil of turpentine acquired a brown hue after having been long exposed to the air ; and that spike oil began to change even after a few days.* This observation need not create any distrust respecting the useful diluents in ques- tion. They have been employed by the best painters ; and evaporating as they do, when well rectified, the greater or less time in which they become discoloured by the absorption of oxygen can be of little consequence. Those, however, who are desirous of employing the purest and most unchangeable essential oil can easily procure recti- fied naphtha, which happens to have been the earliest in use for the purposes of painting.f In diluting thick oleo-resinous compositions with essential oils, it is found that the rapid evaporation of the volatile ingredient, when carefully prepared, requires that it should be frequently renewed ; hence the object proposed may have been assisted, * Annales de Chimie, vol. xlix. p. 231. j- "Lenaphte rectifie d'Amiano a sur l'air une action beaucoup plus faible, que toutes les huiles precedentes. . . . Le naphte avait, apres 1' absorption [-an bout de six ans], toute sa trans- parence et sa blancheur ; mais il avait depose sur les parois du recipient un leger enduit solide de couleur jaune." — lb. p. 238. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 315 as the Byzantine MS. directs, by the addition of a purified, but unboiled, fixed oil. The foregoing details and references may serve to clear up some of the uncertainty which has existed respecting the early practice of oil painting. It cannot be supposed that the records of contem- porary methods in Flanders and its neighbourhood were altogether different from those of the scholars and followers of Yan Eyck ; it may be more reason- ably concluded that the practice introduced by them must have been eagerly learned by many, as soon as it was known to a few. Even those writers who (erroneously) assume that the process was long kept secret still admit that it was unreserv- edly communicated at last ; and there must have been a time, before the details of the method were partially changed to suit another climate and other tastes, when the mere materials and general mode were universally familiar. Perhaps various German or Flemish manuscripts on oil painting (belonging to the middle or latter half of the fifteenth century), yet to be brought to light, describe some portion or other of the method of Yan Eyck. Two docu- ments only of this kind, from which extracts have been given, have hitherto been found ; but, sup- ported as they are by corroborating evidence, they are conclusive as to the chief materials employed, and even as to the leading peculiarities of the pro- cess. They sufficiently establish the fact that an oil varnish was mixed in varied proportions with all the colours. 316 OLEOllESINOUS VEHICLES. The use of oleo-resinous vehicles by the early Flemish painters having been sufficiently proved by records, by the appearance of the works of those painters, by the testimony of the historians of art, and by the subsequent practice of the school, it was desirable to ascertain what were the principal resinous ingredients employed : (for the question respecting the oils relates less to their varieties, which are very limited, than to the modes of puri- fying the oils themselves). In consulting any modern treatise on the technical part of painting, the multitude of substances — for example, under the head of resins — which are necessarily brought to view and described, might seem to render it hopeless to determine what materials of the kind were chiefly in use among the Flemish painters. A comparison of documents extending through several centuries enables us, however, to define the principal substances of this description which were employed in oil varnishes by the painters of the North. These substances consisted of amber, and perhaps copal, sandarac (the ordinary represent- ative of both), mastic, and purified turpentine; the latter being sometimes reduced to a brittle state by a process before described. Thus they might still be classed (as some of these materials were, in the English records of the 13th and 14th centuries) under the general designation of " red and white varnish ; " the former serving for the dark colours and shadows, the latter for brighter tints. Purified turpentine — the white resin, properly OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 317 so called — was commonly employed both as an auxiliary solvent, and for the purpose of adding gloss to varnishes ; but it was also sometimes used as the chief basis of a light oleo-resinous vehicle. The comparative durability of resinous sub- stances when dissolved in essential oils, is scarcely a criterion of their solidity when those substances are dissolved in a fixed oil. They then acquire a firmness far greater than unprepared oil alone, or a resinous solution in essences can possess, and communicate that firmness to the pigments with which they are, in due proportions, mixed.* * From the facility with which it is dissolved, the concrete tur- pentine is considered the weakest of the resins; yet this substance, if well incorporated with a drying oil, is extremely durable, even in the open air. The following account of such a varnish (com- posed of the ordinary materials for common purposes), in the first edition of Smith's Art of Painting, 1676, p. 79., is not exag- gerated. " Some improvements in painting, to resist weather and preserve timber or wooden works from rotting. — Take the hardest rosin you can get, clarifie it well, to which rosin add linseed oyl so much as you find by experience to be sufficient. Let them be well melted and incorporated together on the fire. Then take either umber or red lead (these being extraordinary drying colours) first ground fine, which put into the oyl and rosin. This is a most excellent thing to preserve timber ; it lyeth like the China varnish, and will endure ten times as long as other painting (if rightly wrought). This is a most excellent way to preserve the border boards in gardens and any other thing that we would have last long in wet and moisture. The best way to make the varnish (or colour) for this purpose is to put no more oyl to the rosin than what shall just serve to toughen it. . . . The best way to lay this colour on is to heat it hot before you work it, which will make it close the firmer to the wood." 318 OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. The inspissated or half-resinous oil which was described in a former chapter, thinned or not, as required, may also be considered to represent an oleo-resinous vehicle, and is even well adapted for some purposes.* The principal methods that have been adopted since the time of Yan Eyck, for purifying the oils used in painting, will now be described. * " This fat drying oyl shall not only make your colours dry sooner than plain oyl, but it shall also add a beauty and lustre to the colour ; so that they shall dry with a gloss, as if they had been varnished over." — Smith, Art of Painting, 1687, p. 39. It has been before observed, that this thickened oil was some- times used by the Flemish landscape-painters in shadows. ADDITIONAL NOTE. Hoffman (Observationum physico-chymicarum selectiorum Libri III, Hal. 1722, p. 223.) gives the following description of an experiment with amber. " I put some pulverised amber in a glass vessel, pouring on it two parts of almond oil ; I then placed the vessel in a Papin's digester, carefully constructed, which was one third full of water. Having fastened on the cover very closely, I exposed this for an hour and more to a moderate fire. When the digester was cooled I found the amber dissolved to a gelatinous and pellucid mass (in gelatini- formem et pellucidam massam colliquatum), with a little oil floating above it. From this experiment we clearly learn that expressed oils have a peculiar power on the texture and cohe- siveness of amber," &c. OLEO-RESINOUS VEHICLES. 319 The effect of oil, at a certain temperature, in penetrating " the minute pores of the amber " (as Hoffman elsewhere writes), is still more strikingly exemplified in an invention, or perhaps an old method revived, by Christian Porschinen of Konigsberg, at the close of the seventeenth century (June, 1691). He succeeded in rendering amber colourless, so as to employ it as a substitute for magnifying glasses. Zedler {Grosses vollstan- diges Univ. Lexicon, art. Bernsteinerner Brenn-Spiegel) de- scribes the process. The manufacturer placed the amber, already formed and polished for the intended use, in linseed oil exposed to a moderate fire, and sufferd it to remain till it had entirely lost its yellow colour, and had become quite clear and transparent. Zedler states that lenses so prepared are more powerful than those made of glass in igniting gunpowder (welche viel schneller in Brennen und Pulver-anzunden sind als die gliisernen). The same process was afterwards adopted for clarifying amber beads, so as to render them transparent like glass. The method is probably most successful when the substance is not very thick. For a further account of this invention Zedler refers to Hen. von Sanden, Disp. de Succino Electricorum principe, Konigsberg, 1714. Dreme (Der Virniss-und Kitt- macher) alludes to similar methods. " Amber boiled in linseed oil is softened so that it may be bent and compressed : opaque or clouded amber by this process becomes light and transparent. The oil should be heated gradually, otherwise the pieces of amber are liable to crack." Such modes of clarifying amber might be employed with effect, preparatory to its solution by some of the means before indicated. CHAP. X. PREPARATION OF OILS. The perfection of varnishes of the description referred to in the last chapter greatly depends on the preparation of the oils in which the resins are dissolved ; and the best oil for a varnish, or for an oleo-resinous vehicle, is also generally the fittest for using alone as a medium for painting. On this account, the line of separation which has been hitherto observed between the Flemish and Italian practice may here be set aside, since the most care- fully prepared oils are required in every case. Ex- amples will therefore be taken, as they may appear worthy of notice, from either school. In conformity with the plan hitherto adopted, scientific descrip- tions will be quoted as little as possible, the chief object being to present a view of the processes which were common in the best periods of art. The drying oils mentioned in the records of painting during those periods are, linseed, hemp- seed, walnut, and poppy oils. Hempseed oil appears rarely ; and poppy oil, as a vehicle for painting, was introduced latest. PREPARATION OF OILS. 321 The common mode of expressing linseed oil, after the seed has undergone a certain preparation by heat (in order to obtain a more copious ole- aginous extract), was in use some centuries before the time of Van Eyck*; but in periods of a more refined practice in art the oil was " cold drawn," chiefly with a view to avoid its discoloration, f The extreme care with which nut oil was sometimes extracted is apparent from Leonardo da Vinci's description of his own method : a similar practice seems to have been familiar in the Northern schools during the seventeenth century. Leonardo observes : " Walnuts are covered with a husk or rind ; if you do not remove this when you extract oil from them, [the colouring matter of] this skin becomes separated from the oil and rises to the surface of the picture, and this is what causes the alteration of pictures." J It is not * See Theophilus, 1. i. c. 20. f Birelli (Secreti, Firenze, 1601, p. 541.) begins a receipt: "R. Olio di lino (sine igne) una parte," &c. De Mayerne, speak- ing of nut oil, says : " Si elle est tiree sans feu elle sera beaucoup meilleur." (MS. p. 151. verso.) In the Venetian IMS. we read: " R. dello seme de chanapa e fane quantitad e secca al sol- ombra," &c. % " Le noci sono fasciate da una certa bucciolina che tiene della natura del mallo : se tu non le spogli quando ne fai l'olio, quel mallo si parte dall' olio, e viene in sulla superficie della pittura, e questo e quello che la fa cambiare." — Amoretti, Memorie storiche, fyc, di Leonardo da Vinci, Milano, 1804, p. 149. Y 322 PREPARATION OP OILS. necessary to adopt this explanation of the yellow- ing of oils even from so high an authority, but we have here a plain proof that the first oil painters were by no means indifferent to this defect in the vehicle. Modern writers have sometimes expressed the opinion, that, as the alteration of oils is unavoid- able, it is better to use them at first in the coloured state which they must ultimately attain. That this was not the opinion of earlier investigators will be abundantly proved in this chapter. The best painters seem to have left nothing undone to render oils as colourless as possible before they were used, and to prevent their rising in pictures and form- ing what is called a horny surface. Leonardo da Vinci elsewhere gives directions for preparing nut oil : — " Select the finest walnuts: take them from their shell ; soak them in a glass vessel, in clear water, till you can remove the rind. Then replace the sub- stance of the nut in clear water, changing the latter as often as it becomes turbid, six, or even eight times. After some time the nuts, on being stirred, separate, and become decomposed of them- selves, forming a solution like milk. Expose this in plates in the open air ; the oil will float on the the surface. In order to separate it in a perfectly pure state, take cotton wicks," &c. Then follow directions to use these as siphons, in the well known mode. " All oils," he concludes, " are, in PREPARATION OF OILS. 323 themselves, clear; it is the mode of extraction which alters them." * The following note occurs in the MS. of De May erne. " M. Lanyre [Laniere] has caused some old, but not rancid, walnuts to be freed from their yellow rind with much trouble ; from the nut, so prepared, he has had some very light and clear oil extracted. I believe that by soaking the nuts in tepid or warm water the pellicle could be easily removed," &c.f * " Scegli le noci piii belle, cavale del guscio, mettile a molle nell' acqua limpida in vaso di vetro, sinche possi levarne la buccia : remettile quindi in acqua pura, e cangiala ogni volta che la vedi intorbidarsi, per sei e anche otto volte. Dopo qualche tempo le noci, movendole, si disfanno e stempransi formando quasi una lattata. Mettile in piatti all' aria aperta ; e vedrai Y olio galleggiare alia superficie. Per cavarlo puris- simo e netto prendi stoppini di bambagia che da un capo stiano nell' olio, e dall' altro pendano fuori del piatto, ed entrino in una caraffa, due dita sotto la superficie dell' olio ch' e nel piatto. A poco a poco T olio filtrandosi per lo stoppino cadra limpidis- simo nella caraffa, e la feccia restera nel piatto. Tutti gli olj in se stessi son limpidi, ma gli altera la maniera d'estrarli." — Amoretti, Memorie, &c. p. 149. Compare J. B. Venturi, Essai sur les Ouvrages Physico-Mathematiques de Leonard de Vinci, Paris, 1797, p. 30. "f "M. Lanyre a f'aict esplucher des noix vieilles, non ranches pourtant, et en oster toute la peau jaune avec beaucoup de peine, et de la noix a faict exprimer de l'huile tres belle, tres blanche, et tres claire. Je crois qu'en trempant les noix dans de l'eau tiede ou un peu plus, ceste pellicule s'enlevera aisement apres quoy seichez les noix au four apres le pain oste ou dans l'estuve, et exprimez l'huile." — MS. p. 138. verso. The method of peeling is still occasionally practised in Italy. y 2 324 PREPARATION OF OILS, In Leonardo's method the oil was at once cleansed from extraneous matter, so that scarcely any subsequent treatment was necessary. In general, however, a further purification is re- quired. No oil is fit for a varnish or for a vehicle, intended to be durably brilliant or durably light, which has not been thoroughly freed from its mucilage. Those who have advocated other methods of painting (such as encaustic painting), on account of the darkening of oils, have hinted that the presence of mucilage (to which that effect is partly attributable) may be essential either to the durability or the sic- cative quality of the oil.* That this is a mistake may be concluded from the fact that painters, from first to last, have been careful to obtain a vehicle effectually purified from such ingredients. One of the modes in which oil may be deprived of its mucilage is by mere repose ; but the complete defecation by this means requires considerable time. The vessel in which the oil is kept should be care- fully stopped, to prevent the thickening of the fluid (unless that quality be desired), and the result will be accelerated by moderate warmth. Eeynolds looked upon a present of some very old nut oil as a valuable gift.f Lodovico Carracci, in thanking a * Montabert, Traite complet, &c. tome ix. p. 96. Compare Fabbroni, Antichita, Vantaggi, &c, della Pittura Encausta. Roma, 1797. f Northeote's Life of Reynolds, vol. i. p. 118. PREPARATION OF OILS. 325 friend who had sent him some " precious oil,"* probably alluded to the purity which it had acquired by age. De Ketham, in the MS. before quoted, recommends " linseed or nut oil, the older the better." The Strassburg MS. speaks of old nut and hempseed oil. Valentine Boltzen mentions " pure old hempseed oil." De Mayerne, after quoting the somewhat singular opinion of Abra- ham Latombe, that nut oil dries better than that of linseed, quaintly adds, in a marginal note, "tant plus vieille, tant meilleur;" and Scheffer, speaking of linseed oil, observes, in equivalent words, " quanto vetustius, tanto solet esse melius." f This effect of time on the quality of oils may be anticipated in a few months, or even weeks. The directions for accomplishing the purification are in- numerable, and it will only be possible to refer to them in classes, giving fuller details of those which appear to be the most innocent and effectual. The quantity of mucilage always abounding in newly expressed oils may vary in different kinds of oils. As regards its effect, it is to be observed, that its presence tends to augment the discolor- ation of oils when subjected to great heat. Other tests are no less conclusive. If a small quantity of concentrated sulphuric acid be introduced, drop * Raccolta di Lettere sulla Pitture, &c, Milano, 1822, vol. i. p. 276. f Graphice, Norimb. 1669, p. 179. y 3 326 PREPARATION OF OILS. by drop, into a phial of unclarified oil (in the proportion of 2 parts to 100 of oil), the phial being well shaken, the mucilage soon becomes car- bonised: the blackish particles subside, and the oil remains perfectly clear and fluid. Warm water shaken with it assists, for some hours, the separa- tion of the heterogeneous particles, and the excess of acid in the oil combines with the water. An oil so purified, though quite unfit for the purposes of painting, is in the best state for burning in lamps. In its natural condition it produces a turbid flame and thick smoke ; when deprived of its mucilage it burns clearly and without the least smoke.* Dios- corides (whose writings were familiar to the early painters or to their teachers), in a passage before quoted, observes that poppy oil, when deprived of its mucilage by exposure to the sun, burns with a clear flame. Thus, if it be true that the action of heat, or of violent agents that are equivalent to it, represents the ultimate effects of atmospheric influ- ences, a mucilaginous oil is more likely to become dark than a purified one.f Of the more direct methods employed by the * Dreme, DerVirniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. p. 19. Compare Annales des Arts et Manuf. torn. ix. p. 267., torn. vi. p. 68., torn. v. p. 273. f " It is indeed some sort of criterion of the durability and changes of colour in pigments, that time and fire produce similar effects thereon : thus if fire deepen any colour, so will time," &c. — Field, Chromatography, London, 1835, p. 44. PREPARATION OF OILS. 327 early painters to effect this separation, the most ancient is that of exposing the oil to the sun ; the mucilaginous parts, which are more or less aqueous, are thus either precipitated or evaporated, while the oil becomes nearly colourless : examples have been already given. The other modes which have been recorded may be generally classed as follows : washing, filtration, and the admixture of ingre- dients mechanically and chemically purifying. As these means have often been employed together, it will not be possible to exemplify them in distinct order; nor is this of much importance. The method of washing, which is undoubtedly the best, though the most tedious, is at once the earliest in the history of modern art, and the most approved by recent authorities. In the first chapter of this work a mode of puri- fying oil was noticed as having been taught by the Gesuati, the friends of Perugino. In the com- pendium of the " Padre Gesuato " before quoted, the method is thus described. " Take fine clear linseed oil of a golden colour in the quantity required; put it in a horn or in a horn-shaped [cone-shaped] glass, having an orifice with a stopper at the point below. Add water, and with a stick stir and mix the oil and water effectually ; then, after allowing the fluids to settle, unstop the orifice and let the water run off. Add more, and repeat the operation seven or eight times, or till you find that the water, at its exit, is as clear as when Y 4 328 PREPARATION OP OILS. it was poured in : thus the oil is purified. It is then to be kept in glass bottles for use Ob- serve that, whenever you find oil mentioned, this purified oil is meant."* This mode of cleansing oil is described by a Portuguese writer. It was shown in a former chapter, that the early Portuguese school of paint- ing was long influenced by that of Flanders, and the process here noticed may have been derived from Flemish authorities. A similar method, it will appear, was in use in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century. As it was taught by the monks at an early period, its adoption in all schools is easily accounted for. * " Piglia oglio fatto di semelino bello e chiaro del color croceo cio e color d' oro e quella quantita che a te pare e mettilo in un corno di vetro over di bue, e che habbia un buclietto in fondo, e metteci sopra acqua fresca, e con un legnetto lavalo bene mesticandolo sottosopra; poi lassalo alquanto posare et apri il buco di sotto e lassa andar via V acqua, e a questo modo farvi per sette o otto volte, overo tante volte che V acqua venghi fuora chiara si come tu ce la metti, et a questo modo si purifica il detto oglio ; poi conservalo in ampolla di vetro alii tuoi bisogni. . . . Nota che quando tu sentirai nominare oglio intendi di questo purificato." — Segreti aggiunti et non mai posti in luce per fino a qui havuti da un reverendo Padre Jesuato pratico ed eccellente. Printed at the end of the Seer eti di Don Alessio. Lucca, 1557. In the above operation, several hours are required for the fluids to separate. The oil is directed to be kept in a glass vessel, in order that light and warmth may tend further to bleach it and promote the evaporation of the aqueous particles. PREPARATION OF OILS. 329 " To purify Linseed Oil for White and Blues. — Take a vessel having an orifice at the bottom, which may be stopped and unstopped. Throw in the oil mixed with spring water, and, after stir- ring well, let the mixture settle, till the oil re- mains uppermost : then gently remove the stopper, letting out the water, and, as soon as the oil begins to come out, stop the orifice. Do this three or four times ; the oil will be very clear and fit for use."* In a recent French work on varnishes a similar method on a large scale is described, and, without reference to the old practice, is recommended on chemical principles. The author observes : u By thus removing the fermentable particles which the oil contained, its affinity for oxygen has been reduced ; a longer duration, a longer resistance to the atmosphere, is secured for it."f The method adverted to is commonly employed by the manu- facturers of choice varnishes, but, as it may not be familiar to painters, a description of a complete * " Para purificar olio de linhaca pera o Aluayade et Azuis. — Tomay hum vazo que seja furado por baixo com hum torno delicado que se possa tapar et destapar, botailhe o olio com agoa da fonte, et batey isto muito bem et deixay asentar o olio que fique por cima como azeite, depois levemente tiray o torno que saya a agoa, et tanto que comessar a sayr o olio fechay, et isto fazey tres ou quatro vezes et ficara o olio muito purificado, et que se possa uzar muito bem." — Philippe Nunez, Arte da Pin- tura, em Lisboa, anno 1615, p. 58. f Tripier-Deveaux, Traite, &c. p. 134. 330 PREPARATION OF OILS. process of the kind is here given from another source.* In this instance again, the writer pro- fesses to be guided by chemical principles only; the accidental coincidence with the early practice, therefore, doubly recommends the method. In this process wooden vessels or churns are used, each having in the centre a vertical axis with paddles: this is made to revolve rapidly. The oil and water, to which a little common salt is added, are thus incorporated. After an hour the mixed fluids are poured into a trough where they are suffered to remain twenty-four hours. The separated oil is then drawn off by an opening in the side ; a sufficient quantity of water being always provided in the trough to raise the oil to the proper level. The first mentioned vessel or churn is, meanwhile, cleansed with warm water, which, mixed with the remainder of the oil, is also thrown into the trough, and is to be allowed for as regards the level. The oil, as it is drawn off, is transferred to the churn, when the first operation is repeated with fresh water. A considerable sedi- ment is found in the trough : the small quantity of oil remaining with it is carefully taken up and thrown into the churn. The newly mixed oil and water are again thrown into the clean trough, and, after the same lapse of time as before, the oil is again removed to the churn. The washing is re- * Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. PREPARATION OF OILS. 331 peated three or four times ; a very impure oil may- require to be thus washed six times. The process on a small scale is thus described by the same writer. Half fill a glass bottle with pure rain water : add half the quantity of oil, some well- washed and sifted sand, and some torrefied common salt. The bottle being stopped, the whole is to be shaken for a quarter of an hour, and then suffered to settle. As soon as the oil is separated from the water the ingredients should be again agitated, and again allowed to separate. This is to be repeated till the oil has entirely lost its dark colour. It should then be separated from the water by means of a siphon or other contrivance, and poured into another bottle. Fresh sand and water, in the same quantities as before, are to be added ; the whole being shaken and allowed to settle as before, six times. The oil is then again to be transferred to another bottle. This series of operations should be repeated at least four times. Every time, a quan- tity of mucilage separates itself, subsiding in the bottle together with the sand. In the separation of the oil from the water during this purification it is not necessary to be very exact, as the oil is to be mixed with water afresh ; but in the last operation it requires to be separated more carefully, and the salt should be omitted in the last washing. The author adds : " No method is fitter than this for refining oil. The most turbid oil is thus reduced to the greatest degree of purity; all mucilage is 332 PREPARATION OF OILS. separated from it, and its colour becomes so light and clear that it is fit for the manufacture of a varnish of the choicest kind."* Experience shows that the addition of white sand and saltf accelerates the effect here described, but the washing with water alone is sufficient, in due time, to produce the same result. That the method of the Gesuati, practised as it was in various schools, was that of the early oil painters generally, there can hardly be a question : the expression in the receipt before quoted, " whenever you find oil mentioned, this purified oil is meant," may be con- sidered conclusive on this point. The oil thus prepared is in a perfectly fluid state ; its drying quality, far from being impaired, is rather increased by the operation ; and, when entirely freed from water (by exposure to the sun or by other means), it may be used with advantage as a vehicle for painting. But, in order to render it fit for the preparation of a varnish, it is necessary that it should itself acquire, to a certain extent, the nature of a varnish. The following is a description of the careful method practised and recommended by the author before quoted : — The oil, purified by means of water in the * Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. p. 23. ■f "La solution aqueuse de sel marin est un des moyens les plus anciennement employes ; il agit en donnant a l'eau une gravite qui determine plus facilement sa separation d'avec l'huile." — Annales des Arts et Manuf. torn. ix. p. 267. PREPARATION OF OILS. 333 manner above explained, was poured into glass troughs placed in the sun. Each was filled to one third of its capacity with water ; another third was occupied by the oil; a similar space remained between the oil and a glass cover, the cover effec- tually excluding dust but admitting air. Not- withstanding the previous purification, the clean water, after a few days, became turbid, and a sediment again was formed. After a week the oil was removed, the vessel was cleansed, and the operation was repeated. The more serene the weather, the more perceptible was the sediment in the vessel. The same process was repeated, from week to week, six times ; sometimes longer, accord- ing to the state of the oil. After the third week it was generally observed that the oil was gradually changing to the state of a varnish : the change in the consistence of the fluid then rapidly increased. When the oil had attained a certain consistence, the separation of the mucilage ceased. In removing the oil from the water for the last time, great care was taken that no water should be taken up with it. The oil that remained was separated by sub- sidence, in bottles ; precautions were observed that no rain should penetrate into the bottles ; to pre- vent this they were protected with funnel-shaped covers. " Thus," says the writer from whom this de- scription is taken, " I obtained a varnish [a thick- ened oil] colourless as water, and brighter than 334 PREPARATION OF OILS. the oils which are boiled. I have also observed that it undergoes no change. I very much doubt," he continues, " whether it is possible, in any other way, to prepare a better varnish, or one that is fitter for the solution of resins ; not only because an oil so prepared communicates no colour to them, but because it is fluid to such a degree, that a varnish composed with it may be easily spread; whereas, with the boiled oils, the resin becomes more or less coloured, and, when spread as a var- nish, leaves inequalities which are difficult to remove." * Such processes are worthy of the patience of the old painters, and, whether recommendable or not in all their refinements, deserve to be recorded. It is stated that the same results were obtained in winter by suspending bottles, filled with the puri- fied (washed) oil, in ovens moderately heated, the bottles being changed and cleansed as before. Such are the oils in which copal and amber should be dissolved ; the varnishes will then be as little coloured as possible. It has been shown that the washing process was familiar at a very early period. In like manner, the ingredients of salt and sand, recommended in the foregoing extracts, also occur in descriptions of processes derived from good authorities in the Flemish school, at the period when that school * Dreme, p. 71. PREPARATION OF OILS. 335 was in its most flourishing state. The addition of salt, for example, is mentioned in a receipt obtained by De Mayerne from " M. Soreau, en Allemand Sorg" (probably the scholar of David Teniers).* Salt might be chemically injurious to some colours, but, as all traces of it may be ultimately removed from the fluid by washing, there appears to be no risk whatever in its use : Sorg, it will be observed, adds other cleansing ingredients. " Linseed or nut oil bleached, and ivell cleansed. — Take rain water and dissolve salt in it : mix this with your oil, and wash the oil by shaking it for a considerable time, and frequently, during two or three days. A glass bottle with a stopper below is best adapted for the operation. [After the oil is separated from the water] draw off the salt water, and add more ; repeating the process five or six times. Afterwards wash the oil three or four times with fresh rain water. In order to cleanse it well, bread crumbs should be added : this ingredient, * The date of this particular notice in the physician's MS. is August, 1637 : at that time Hendrik Martenz, called Zorgh or Sorg (a surname which he inherited from his father), was but sixteen years old according to the biographers, who place his birth in 1621. Houbraken, who gives his portrait, says it was taken in 1645, when Sorg was thirty-four. But the same writer afterwards states that this painter died in his 61st year, in 1682. Thus, according to the portrait he was born in 1611 ; according to the latter statement in 1621. The portrait represents a man of about thirty-five. The question is so far interesting as the method of purifying oil above described may have been derived from David Teniers. 336 PREPARATION OF OILS. passing through the oil, forms a sediment, carrying with it whatever impurities may remain. After- wards separate your oil, and keep it in a well stopped bottle : it will be as clear as water." * Another Flemish painter, " M. Adam, demeurant a Coolman street," was in the habit of purify- ing his oil with the last named ingredient and water only. " Procure a wide-mouthed vessel in which put water and linseed oil, the latter being already well clarified by repose. Shake them to- gether, and, when the oil is again separated, take stale bread crumbs well dried, and sprinkle them upon it. The bread passing through the oil car- ries with it all impurities. Shake together once daily : let the vessel remain in the shade, well covered, on a table in your room, at any season. Within about a month the oil will be bleached, and as clear as water," f * " Huile de lin ou de noix fort blanche et bien degraissee. — Prenez eau de pluye et faittes y dissoudre du sel. Meslez avec votre huyle et lavez en agitant longuement par plusieurs fois deux ou trois jours. Cela se peult faire dans une bouteille avec un feuilet au bas et la meilleur chose sera en agitant la bouteille de verre, tirez vostre eau salee et y en remettez de nouvelle faisant comme dessus par v. ou vi. fois. Apres lavez la trois ou quatre fois avec eau doulce de pluye. Pour la bien des- graisser il y fault adj ouster de la mie de pain, que passant par l'huile tombera a fonds et emportera quand y soit toute la crasse. Separez vostre huile et la gardez dans une phiole bien bouchee : elle sera claire comme eau." — MS. p. 143. t " Ayez un vaisseau a gueule assez large dans lequel vous mettez eau et huile de lin bien depuree par residence ; battez PREPARATION OF OILS. 337 The use of sand, in the mode recommended by Dreme, is at least as old as the time of Kubens. It has sometimes reappeared, like many of the early methods, as a supposed modern discovery. In Meusel's Miscettaneen, for example, it is commu- nicated as if for the first time. A painter, Suhrland, having accidentally spilt some poppy oil on white sand, gathered up what he could mixed with the sand, and observed that in a few days the oil became less coloured, and more fluid.* The method is recorded by De Mayerne as a communication from Mytens, painter to Charles I., before the arrival of Vandyck. Coming from such a source, it may be classed among the processes which were familiar to the Flemish and Dutch painters. " Colourless and thin linseed oil. — Mix the oil with water and white sand in a glass bottle ; shake it three or four times a day till the contents appear like milk, and leave it constantly exposed to the sun in the month of March. In a month the oil will be as clear as water ; and every time [after bien ensemble et laissez revenir l'huile en dessus. Ayez de la mie de pain de froment rassis bien essuyee (le blanc est bon mais M. Adam s'est tousjours servy du bis) repandez le en saupoudrant avec les doigts dessus 1'huyle a travers laquelle le pain passant il en eniporte toutte la sallete. Battez fort ensem- ble tous les jours une fois et laissez vostre vaisseau a l'ombre bien couvert sur une tablette en vostre chambre en toutte saison. Dedans un mois ou environ vostre huyle se blanchira et sera aussi elaire que de l'eau." — MS. 141. * Meusel's Miscell. 1782, 14ter Heft, s. 116. Z 338 PREPARATION OF OILS. the vessel is shaken], the warmth of the sun, sepa- rating the oil from the water, purifies it, and at last bleaches it perfectly." * On the authority of Van Somer, a painter of the same school, the writer adds : " It is the oil which causes the alteration of colours, but, when it is properly prepared, they will remain unchanged by it. The month of March is preferable, because the sun is then less powerful ; in other [warmer] sea- sons the oil soon becomes thick, and is good for nothing." f The following mode of filtering is also dictated by Van Somer. " Take linseed oil in the quantity required ; procure a vessel pierced at the bottom with holes, over which place a piece of linen ; fill the vessel with perfectly dry sand, and pass your oil through it into a large pan of water, place this uncovered in the sun, in serene weather, for three weeks ; leave it exposed day and night ; * "Huile blanche et tenue (^subtil) ou fort liquide de lin. — Meslez l'huile avec de l'eau et y adjoustez du sable blanc dans une phiole (bassin ou terrine) battez la trois ou quatre fois le jour tant qu'elle deviendra comme laict, et la laissez continu- ellement au soleil de Mars. Dans un mois elle se fera claire comme eau et a chaque fois la chaleur du soleil la separant d'avec l'eau la depurera et la blanchira a la fin parfaittement. Le soleil de Mars vault mieux que tout le reste de l'annee car estant tempere il n'espaissit pas." — MS. p. 94. \ " Ce qui tue les couleurs c'est l'huyle, laquelle estant bien preparee chaque couleur que ce soit ne meurt point. II la fault faire au mois de Mars lorsque le soleil est moings chaud aultrement elle s'engraisse incontinent et ne vault rien." — lb. p. 95. PREPARATION OF OILS. 339 the oil will become as clear as water. Remove it before it becomes thick, and keep it for use."* De Mayerne was also favoured with a receipt from Vandyck for purifying linseed oil. The directions, which are in bad Italian, are afterwards repeated, in a better form (supplied by Adam), in French ; the substance of the two is as follows. " To bleach linseed oil in the shade. — Mix the yolks of two eggs in half a pint of aqua vitas (not spirit of wine as it immediately coagulates yolk of egg) ; put this mixture with a quart of oil in- a glass bottle in the shade. Shake the ingredients often, incorporating them with a quill split in four ; then stop the bottle and let the contents settle. The oil becomes bleached in a few days ; separate it from the sediment, and keep for use." f * " R. de l'huile de lin tant que vous voudrez ; ayez un pot perce au fonds : mettez un linomps sur les trous. Emplissez de sable bien sec et passez vostre huyle dedans une grande terrine ou bassin ou il y ait de l'eau. Mettez au soleil a descouvert et au serain, jour et nuit, trois semaines ou ung mois : elle s'esclaircira comme de l'eau. Ostez la devant qu'elle s'en- graisse et vous en servez." — MS. p. 95. f "Rta. Per inciarire [ischiarire] 1' olio di lino del S or . Cav 1 . Antonio Vandyck. — Se piglia di due ova il rosso et se la batte bene una quarta parte d' un boccale d' aquavita comune mescolandolo con d t0 . rosso d' ova il clie si mettra int' un fiasco giungendo un boceale d' olio di lino ; et movendo d to . olio con 1' ingredienti a tanto clie il tutto diventi turbido il che si fara con penna squartata. Se cerra [serra] la bocca del fiasco et lasciandole quietare diventi ciariss mo . in brevi giorni."— Ib. p. 138. "Pour blanchir l'huyle de lin a l'ombre. — Meslez de l'eau de z 2 340 PREPARATION OF OILS. Once purified and bleached (and it will be re- membered that the colourless state is more likely to be durable when the mucilage is abstracted), the next object was to free the oil from the watery particles which may remain after the washing.* Exposure in glass bottles to the sun, or to a mode- vie avec des jaulnes d'oeufs ; je dis eau de vie commune, non esprit de vin lequel cuit et endurcit incontinent les noyaux d'oeufs et mettez cette mixtion avec vostre huyle dans une phiole a l'ombre agitant souvent vfe vaisseau. Laissez jusques a tant que l'huile estant blanchie vous la couliez et la se- pariez du reste pour vous en servir. Adam m'a dit qu'il prend l'eau de vie commune et qu'il ne fault sinon laisser la phiole sur une tablette a l'ombre et que dedans trois semaines ou un mois au plus l'huile se blanchit parfaittement." — MS. p. 141. Two other methods are here added. The first is recorded by De Mayerne, as a communication from Sorg. " Pour blanchir l'huile de lin ou de noix dans un mois. — Battez l'huile fort longtemps avec de l'alum, adjoustez y de l'eau ; mettez au soleil et battez tous les jours vre dicte huile tant qu'elle blanchisse en battant ; puis la remettez au soleil continuant jusqu'a tant qu'elle devienne blanche, claire et transparente." The following method is now occasionally practised. Fill a glass bottle two thirds full of linseed oil ; fill up the remaining space with pure sifted snow ; cork loosely, but so as to effectually exclude dust. In six months the oil is clarified. * For the manufacture of bright oil varnishes, it is necessary that every particle of water should be previously abstracted from the oil ; and it is scarcely less desirable that oils intended for painting should be equally free from aqueous particles. The tenacious slimy state in which colours are sometimes found is not unfrequently the consequence of their having been ground, and long kept with some portion of water mixed with the oil ; in this state they are slow in drying. See Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, &c, Munchen, 1843, p. 75. PREPARATION OF OILS. 341 rate artificial warmth, is the usual mode of effecting this. Air should not be entirely excluded during the process ; the vessels might be covered with some porous material fit to imbibe the moisture which may be evaporated.* When the oil is freed from water, the bottles should be well stopped, otherwise the action of the air would gradually thicken the fluid, and generate or increase the oleic acid. The oils and varnishes used by the Dutch painters were kept where the warmth of the sun could occasion- ally act upon them, and still promote their clari- fication : various pictures, representing Dutch artists in their painting-rooms, indicate their tech- nical habits in these particulars. While the oil is in this state of rest, certain in- gredients may be added tending to absorb any aqueous particles that may remain in it. Among such ingredients may be named burnt alum and calcined borax : the first is often mentioned in early receipts, and is even recommended to be intro- duced into varnishes for the purpose of clarifying them. These, or similar substances, may be suffered to remain in the oil for any length of time, f * Oil is soonest freed from watery particles, and more quickly bleached, by being exposed to the sun in shallow vessels ; these should be covered with glass or with gauze, or with prepared bladder, through which the aqueous particles may exude, and which may be contrived to admit air. f Calcined white copperas, in a perfectly dry state, and sifted to a fine powder, is not only the best and most innocent dryer, as a metallic oxide, but is a powerful absorbent, thus further z 3 342 PREPARATION OF OILS. Some modes of purifying oil, besides having the effect of removing mucilage, operate as absorbent dryers or as alkaline correctives. Calcined bones, chalk, lime, magnesia, and other substances, either contrived to perform the office of filters in the ordi- nary mode, or, when mixed with the oil, tending to purify it by subsidence, have been tried with more or less satisfactory results ; but exposure to the sun or sufficient rest is still necessary to complete the process. The modes of rendering oil clear and drying with calcined bones have also been sometimes pub- lished as modern inventions. A process similar to the comparatively recent method of Grandi is given by De Mayerne, who, again, appears to copy Bolt- zen. Calcined bones, as already shown, are men- tioned by still earlier writers : they are noticed not only as ingredients in the preparation of a drying oil, and as an occasional substitute for white lead, but, when finely pulverised, as a means of removing grease : thus employed, the powder has been found useful in thoroughly cleansing the surface of a promoting the siccative tendency and clearness of oils and var- nishes. " From its astringent quality it immediately seizes on any aqueous particles, whether from the oil, gum, or turpentine, if a sufficient quantity is used. Such is its astringent and ab- sorbent quality, that if even water were mixed with the varnish the copperas would seize upon and carry it down to the bot- tom ; neither will it ever combine with the oil as calces of lead do." — J. Wilson Neil on Varnishes: Transactions of the Society of Arts, vol. xlix. part 2. p. 56. PREPARATION OF OILS. 343 picture from oily exudations before varnishing it. * In the treatise of Valentine Boltzen, which cor- responds in many particulars with the Strassburg MS., the ingredient in question is described as a powerful dryer ; for example : "If you wish your varnish to dry quickly, take sheep's bones, place them in a new earthenware vessel and lute the cover close. Set this in a strong fire for two hours ; after which remove it and let it cool. Pound the bones like fine flour ; sift the powder through a hair sieve, and stir a portion about the size of a walnut in the boiling varnish ; the fluid will then dry readily on any surface. If you cannot procure linseed oil, take, instead, old nut oil or hempseed oil of the clearest and best kind."t * The Venetian MS. contains a receipt for the removal of grease by means of finely pulverised calcined bones with the aid of heat, in the ordinary way. The early Italian painters prepared drawing-tablets and drawing-paper with calcined bones of fowls reduced to a very fine powder. It was on this paper that they drew with a silver point — " la ponta d' argento supra la mistura d'osso brusato." (Carteggio d' Artisti, torn. iii. p. 175.) Cennini (c. 7.) observes that the bones might be col- lected from " under the table." The Spanish painters, to this day, preserve bones after their meals for the preparation of ivory black (negro de hueso). f "Hie merck allwcgen, wenn du den Yirniss haben wilt, dass es bald truckne, so nim schaf beyn, thue die in einn neuwen hafen, und verkleybe mit leymen den deckel oben gar wol, setzs in einstarck fewer ii. stundt, darnaeh thu den hafen herab, lass es erkalten. Nimm des beyns uii stoss es wie reyn meel, dz er gar nit ranch sey. Beutels durch ein bar sib, und riir es einer nuss gross in dem heissen firniss, dz es darmit z 4 344 PREPARATION OF OILS. The use of pumice stone, together with calcined bones (as in the Strassburg MS.), is also recom- mended by Boltzen . " Take old and clear hempseed oil, place it in a vessel on the fire, carefully skim- ming it as it boils. Take white pumice stone and calcined sheep's bones, pound them well and sift the powder : stir this gradually in the hot oil. Should the oil froth again, skim as before and let it boil well. Then take it from the fire, and place it for two days in the warm sun. If you wish to make it strong, take two ounces of mastic, pound it very fine, and stir it gradually in the oil while it is hot." * This preparation with mastic, it will erwallet, so truckenet es gar baldt warauff du in streichcst. Magst du nit allwegen ankommen Leinsatole so nim dafiir alt niissol, oder hanffol das gar lauter un schon sey, allwegen in dem gewicht oder mensur wie obstehet." — Ilhcminir-Buch, kunstlich alle Farben zu machen, Sfc, durch V alentinum Boltzen von Bufach, 1566, p. 4. * " Nimm alt lauter hanffol thu es inn ein Kesselein, machs heiss und schaums sauber, nimm weissen Bimsteyn und gebraiit Schaffbeyn das stoss und beutels gar reyn, riir es gar sittiglich under das heyss ole. Schaumet es dann wider, so schaume es ab, und lass es einn guten wall thun. Darnach hebe es ab, und stells zwey tag an die warm Son. Wiltu nun starcken haben, so nim vier loth Mastix, stoss es zu reinem pulver, und riir es if] das heiss 61 sittiglichen." — Illuminir-Buch, p. 5. In an extract from the Strassburg MS. before given (p. 131.), it will be seen that the powder of calcined bones was also mixed with the colours as a dryer. With reference to the use of this material and of pumice stone by the early painters, it may here be stated, that in 1844, Mr.W.Marris Dinsdale, at the author's request, undertook to analyse a fragment of a picture by Cariani of Bergamo (a contemporary and scholar or imitator of Gior- PREPARATION OF OILS. 345 be observed, is not dissimilar from the vehicle ascribed to Vandyck in a receipt before quoted. Of the above mentioned materials, some would have the effect of freeing oil from its acid as well as from its aqueous particles. The earliest known mode of the kind appears in the Paris copy of Eraclius ; a small quantity of lime is there directed to be added to the oil, together with white lead. The painters of the seventeenth century sometimes purified their oil in this way ; for example : "Lin- seed oil becomes bleached in a very few days, if to a pound of the oil you add one quarter [?] of lime in powder, in a long-necked bottle. Shake daily ; the oil becomes bleached, and does not thicken." * This gione). Mr. Dinsdale observes of the gesso ground, that it was " interspersed by grains resembling pumice." Speaking of the pigments, he adds : " Crude white of lead, with calcareous matter, very general throughout the picture : with ochres, and I believe, cinnabar. No trace of animal or vegetable matter, save resin, with a general tendency to blacken by heat, which the use of pumice or a sulphuret would account for. Inclined to run, but doubtfully, before the blowpipe, with the exception of one portion which ran fairly into the vitrified state. Hypo- thetically, I should say, had burned bones in it. Crude car- bonate of copper very conspicuous in the drapery round one arm." &c. Octob. 12th, 1844. Mr. Dinsdale at the same time observed: "Every colour mixed with phosphate of lime (calcined bones) vitrifies when exposed to strong heat ; as Venetian pigments vitrify, might not phosphate of lime have been used as a dryer." * "L'huile de lin se blanchit dans fort peu de jours si a une livre d'iceluy vous adjoustez un quarteron de chaux vive mise en poudre subtile, dedans un matras ou phiole ii col long ; 316 PREPARATION OF OILS. receipt, given by De Mayerne, appears under the name of Sorg ; a similar process is noted elsewhere in the same MS. It appears to have been not uncommon in Holland. An English student in the university of Leyden, in the seventeenth century, records a method there taught for preparing dry- ing oils, whence it appears that lime and chalk were introduced while the oil was on the fire, for the purpose of " neutralising its acid." * Wood ashes have also been used. " To make a thick but clear and very drying oil, fit to mix with colours that have no body, and serving to sustain them so that they shall not sink in the oil. — Take clean warm oak ashes, in quantity about a fourth part of the oil to be used : pour on them a pint of nut oil ; leave it for week or fortnight; you will obtain your object." f agitez assez longtemps touts les jours. L'huile blancliit et ne s'espaissit pas." — MS. p. 148. * " Praeparatio ol. lini et ca3t m . aliorura oleorum pro ver- nicibus. — R. ol. lini q. s. coquatur super ignem. Dein injice frustum panis ut illico fermentationem seu effervescentiam quandam faciet, exhalantibus particulis aquosis. Deinde injici- atur aliquod alcali, ut creta, calx, et di versa? calces plumbi ut acidum ejus infringatur. Oleum illud postquam pulveres subsiderint per subsidentiam vel per decantionem clarificetur. Huic ita prreparato et denuo igni exposito injiciantur pulveres convenientes scilicet succini praeparati, aspalathi, sandarachos," &c. — Collectanea Chymica Leydensia. Christophorus Love Morley, M.D. Anglus. Lugd. Batav. 1680. j" "Pour faire une liuile espaisse, claire pourtant, fort siccative, propre a mesler les couleurs qui manquent de corps PREPARATION OF OILS. 347 In these last methods (though it appears they were not uncommon at a period when much atten- tion was paid to materials) there is some danger of saponifying the oil by the immixture of the strong alkaline ingredients : the use of magnesia, which answers the chief end proposed, may be considered less objectionable. Place the oil on the fire, and suffer it to boil gently for three or four hours ; re- move the scum as long as it forms any. Then add, by degrees, calcined magnesia, in the proportion of a quarter of an ounce to a gallon of oil. Boil well for another hour. When removed from the fire, the covered vessel should be left undisturbed for three months. The magnesia, subsiding, absorbs all acid and mucilage, leaving the oil light and transparent.* Among the approved modes of freeing oil from its acid, and otherwise purifying it, may be men- tioned the use of spirit of wine. Pacheco, a Spanish writer, recommends 3 oz. to be mixed with a lb. of linseed oil (other ingredients which he names are unimportant) : the bottle should be placed in the sun for a month, and shaken three times a day. Pacheco observes that the oil so purified may be afin de leur en dormer, pour nc tombcr a fonds de 1'huile. — Iv. cendres de chesne nettes, chaudes, ime poignee, revenant a la quatrieheme partie de la quantite de 1'huile. Versez dessus ime pinte d'huile de noix. Laissez ensemble 8 ou 14 jours: vous aurez vostre intention." — MS. p. 16. * J. Wilson Neil on the Manufacture of Varnishes: Trans, of Soc. of Arts, vol. xlix. part 2. p. 43. 348 PKEPARATION OP OILS. safely used with blues, whites, and flesh-tints.* A modern writer gives a similar receipt- " A simple process for rendering oil light and pure is, to mix two oz. of poppy oil with an oz. and half of spirit of wine, placing the bottle in the sun or in a mode- rately warm oven. In about a fortnight the oil will be clear and nearly colourless."*)" The ordinary modes of rendering oil drying by means of metallic oxides remain to be considered. In this instance, again, the methods of the fifteenth century — methods probably introduced by Van Eyck — happen to correspond with those which have been most approved by modern writers. The use of white copperas, as recommended from first to last in the Flemish school, has been already no- ticed. Another mode of employing this ingredient is here added from a modern writer. " Into four pints of pure soft water put two oz. of foreign [German] white copperas ; warm the water in a clean copper pan or glazed earthen jar, until the copperas is dissolved ; pour the mixture into a clean glass or stone bottle, large enough to contain three gallons ; then add to the solution of copperas one gallon and a half of poppy oil ; cork and agitate * Arte de Pintura, &c. p. 398. f Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, &c. p. 70. With regard to the oleic acid, it may be observed that the ingredient, even in excess, can only affect some delicate vegetable colours ; thus, it reddens vegetables blues. (See Brande, Manual of Chemistry, p. 1128.) Other remedies for this supposed evil are therefore omitted. PREPARATION OF OILS. 349 the bottle regularly and smartly for at least two hours; then pour out the contents into a wide earthenware dish ; leave it at rest for eight days, when the oil will be clear and brilliant on the surface, and may be taken off with a spoon or flat skimmer, and put up in a glass bottle and exposed to the light, which, in a few weeks, renders the oil exceed- ingly limpid and colourless."* On the whole, per- haps, no better method of preparing a drying oil can be recommended than that described in the Strassburg MS., if the oil be not suffered to become too thick. White copperas being unquestionably the safest metallic dryer, it may appear useless to give any accounts of other materials and methods ; but, as it is certain that preparations of lead were early in use, and that they were also common in the Flemish school during the time of Rubens, they cannot be passed over in a history of processes, f * J. Wilson Neil, Trans, of Soc. of Arts, vol. 1. p. 34. The operation may be performed with the aid of heat as follows. "Dissolve an oz. of white copperas in three lb. of pure water ; add two lb. of poppy or other oil, and place the whole on the fire. When the water is reduced about a half or two thirds, pour the remaining contents into a glazed earthen- ware vessel, and let them remain till the oil has become clear. It is then to be separated from the water, and allowed to remain undisturbed for a few weeks longer ; it then becomes as clear as water." — Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, &c. p. 7. f It is to be remembered, that Avhite copperas requires to be well dried, if not calcined, before it is used; its immixture in oils without this precaution would be injurious. (See J.Wilson Neil, Transactions, &c. vol. xlix. part 2. p. 56). Sugar of lead, also, requires to be dried. " All sugar of 350 PREPARATION OF OILS. With regard to the exaggerated objections to this ingredient, it should first be observed, that the quan- tity of lead which oils can dissolve, without the aid of heat, cannot possibly affect colours so much as the immixture of white lead, which, as a pigment, enters largely into the solid portions of every picture. To avoid combinations of lead with the oil which is necessarily mixed with white lead, therefore appears to be a useless precaution. On the other hand, it is to be remembered that the colours which would be injured by the immixture of white lead would also be affected by oils prepared with that mineral in any form. This appears to be the chief ground of the caution often given with respect to drying oils. The use of acetate or sugar of lead is further dangerous, on account of its tendency to re-crystallise, thereby rendering the transparent colours dull ; the extreme case of its visible efflorescence can only occur when it is used in unnecessary abundance. The objections to drying oils on account of their darkness need not exist, as the oils can be rendered nearly colourless in the modes before described. lead contains about 14*2 per cent of the water of crystal- lisation, so that to use it in that state is very injurious to the varnish, as its water prevents that complete union of the particles of gum, oil, and lead, which ought to combine and form a whole." (Ib. p. 55.) This substance, if mixed with colours, should be dried only, not calcined ; as, in the latter state, its opaque whiteness destroys the transparency of the dark colours. PREPARATION OF OILS. 351 Among the early examples of drying oils pre- pared with white lead, the method recorded in the Paris copy of Eraclius (perhaps anterior to the time of Van Eyck) is not to be forgotten. Minium, as has been shown, occurs more than once in receipts of the fifteenth century, and both ingredients re- appear in the succeeding age. A peculiar kind of Venetian glass, used, when pulverised, as a dryer, contained a considerable portion of lead ; and, if it acted chemically, may have derived its siccative quality from that ingredient. The following are examples of the use of lead in the beginning of the seventeenth century. Sorg. " Put linseed or nut oil on the fire in a glazed earthenware vessel. Suffer it not to boil, but when it simmers remove it, and throw in litharge which has been previously well washed and dried : stir with a spatula or stick, afterwards cover the vessel and let it remain fifteen or twenty days. The oil will become colourless and very drying."* My tens. " Boil linseed oil with litharge and minium on a slow fire, without suffering the fluid * " Huile de lytharge fort claire et blanche. — Mettez vostre huile de lin ou de noix sur le feu dans un pot de terre neuf vernisse faittes la chauffer non qu'elle bouille mais qu'clle com- mence a fremir. Tirez la du feu et jettez dedans vostre lytharge bien lavee et bien seichee remuant assez longtcmps avec un spatule ou baston. Couvrez vostre pot et laissez reposer quinze ou vingt jours. Vostre huile se blanchira en perfection et sera fort siccative." — MS. p. 143. 352 PREPARATION OF OILS. to foam over ; it will become like a syrup. Place it in the sun, in the month of March, in bottles. Leave it till it becomes clear, and in appearance like Canary wine."* " Dieterich Keuss, a painter of Hamburg, bleaches oil in two modes. 1. Put white lead well ground in oil in a wide-mouthed vessel ; pour purified lin- seed oil on it. Place it on the fire and heat it well for about an hour without suffering it to boil ; stir with an iron or silver spatula ; take it from the fire and let it settle. The following day your oil will be nearly colourless. 2. Pieces or shavings of a certain porous white wood are to be obtained in Germany which serve as tinder for guns: place your oil on pieces of this touchwood in a proper vessel and leave it for a considerable time. The wood attracts all the colouring ingredients of the oil and bleaches it."f * "18. Septemb. 1629. M. Mitens peintre tresexcellent. Huile siccative. — Faittes bouillir l'liuile cle lin avec de la lytliarge et de la mine et ce a lent feu sans qu'il esponde ; il deviendra comme mi syrop. Mettez la au soleil de Mars dans diverses phioles [De Mayerne inserts " voyez en vaisseau ouvert"] et la laissez jusqu'a tant qu'il esclaircisse et demeure aussi beau que du vin de Canarie." The writer adds : " Possible fault il plus long soleil que celuy de Mars ; essayez. Mais tant plus l'huile a de chaleur tant plus elle s'espaissit." — MS. p. 94. verso. | " Dieterich Keuss, peintre de Hambourg, blanchit l'huile de lin en deux facons. 1. En un vaisseau large mettez du blanc de plomb bien broye avec huyle et versez vostre huyle, bien depuree par residence, dessus. Mettez sur le feu et faittez chauffer a PEEPARATION OF OILS. 353 Van Somer. " Pour nut oil on well pulverised litharge : place the vessel on the fire and stir con- stantly. When it begins to boil, remove it; the ebullition past, place it again on the fire ; repeat this five or six times. Let it settle, and keep for use. A drop or two should be mixed with the colours, already ground, on the palette: this oil becomes clear and colourless." * In all these instances, where the oil is exposed to heat, it is to be supposed that it had been previously washed ; and it will be observed that great care is taken to prevent its carbonisation. A modern writer, before quoted, recommends drying oil to be pre- pared thus. " A glass bottle containing the puri- fied (washed) oil is placed in a water- bath, which is heated to ebullition. The bottle should have a wide opening, in order that a considerable surface of oil may be exposed to the action of the air. If bon escient environ une heure sans que vostre huile bouille, remuant avec une spatule de fer ou d'argent. Ostez de dessus le feu et laissez reposer. Des le lendemain vostre huyle est blanche. 2. En Allemagne on a des couperons ou rabotteures d'un bois blanc dont on se sert pour amorce de fusil ; mettez sur iceulx vostre huile dans un tonnelet, et laissez longtemps. Le bois attire toute la jaulneure de l'huyle et la blanchit." — MS. p. 137. verso. * " R. lytharge d'or, silberglette, bien pulverisee ; mettez de l'huyle de noix dessus ou de lin, et remuez sur le feu ; quand il commencera a bouillir l'ostez du feu et le bouillon passe remettez sur le feu et ce cinq ou six fois. Laissez rasseoir et guardez pour en mesler une goutte ou deux sur la palette avec vos couleurs broyees. Ceste huile s'esclaircit tres bien et devient blanche." — Ib. p. 96. A A 354 PREPARATION OF OILS. metallic oxides, such as litharge, white lead, or white copperas, are used, they are first enclosed in a small bag, and are suspended in the oil from the mouth of the bottle. White lead alone may be used in the proportion of 1 oz. to 4, 5, or 6 oz. of oil, according as the oil is to be more or less drying. The oxide of zinc or calcined white copperas (which makes a lighter drying oil) may be used in greater quantity. The boiling in the water-bath should continue at least sixteen hours. After twelve hours, the contents of the bag are mixed with the oil. The oil should afterwards remain for a week or fortnight, either exposed to the sun or placed near an oven ; the drying materials subside entirely, leaving the oil clear."* Thus prepared, it retains its natural colour; as white lead does not leave it ultimately turbid, so red lead and litharge subside in time, scarcely tinging the oil if it has been previously freed from its mucilage. In large operations the water-bath is not used, but the same result is obtained by placing in the vessel a quantity of water equal to half the quantity of the oil : the contents are then less likely to become carbonised, f * Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kittmacher, &c. p. 30. •f A portion of water may be added, even when the process is conducted on a small scale. An eminent painter, lately deceased, was in the habit of boiling two quarts of linseed oil with a quarter of a pint of water together with white lead and litharge, for one hour, according to a Flemish receipt. He states that the oil he used was twenty-eight years old. PKEPAKATION OF OILS. 355 Other metallic oxides have been sometimes em- ployed ; of these, verdigris, though among the earliest, cannot be recommended. The following modern receipt is less objectionable. "To a lb. of poppy oil, from two to three oz. of red precipitate (oxide of mercury) were added. The vessel was placed in the sun. After a time — from four to six weeks — a slimy sediment of a grey colour was formed. The mercury had parted with its oxygen, the oil being thereby rendered thicker, more resin- ous and drying ; while the metal remained in its original state in small grains." * Lead, in its natural state, was not unfrequently used for the same purpose in the seventeenth cen- tury. The more modern practice has been to throw small shot or lead filings into the oil.f Some writers have supposed that this ingredient promotes the deposit of mucilage, as a considerable whitish sedi- ment soon appears. J This seems to be an erro- neous view : on examining the shot afterwards, it will be found that they have lost their polish and have been slightly decomposed. The sediment, * Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, &c. p. 69. f From the following receipt in the Venetian MS. it may be inferred that this ingredient, although, in the instance quoted, serving to thicken common oil, may have been used in the fifteenth century as a dryer for the oils employed in painting, " A conservare le armi lugenti. — R. piombo limato e mitelo I lolio p spacio de 9 zorni e poi di questa roba unzi le armi." J SeeVerri, Saggio elementare sul Disegno, &c, Milano, 1814, p. 110. A A 2 356 PREPARATION OF OILS. therefore, more probably consists of lead combined with the acid of the oil : the fluid is undoubtedly rendered clearer as well as more drying by the process. In the older method, the oil was placed in small lead troughs and exposed to the air ; thus treated, it soon becomes drying and nearly colourless, and, if such a result were desired, it would, in process of time, thickening more and more, attain its maximum of solidification. Cennini (c. 92.) speaks of exposing oil to the sun in " a bronze or copper vessel, or in a basin : " by the latter, he may have meant the pewter basins, such as are still in common use instead of earthenware, for washing, in remote districts in Italy. The follow- ing observation is derived from Mytens. " Poppy oil bleaches and becomes more drying, if exposed to the sun for three or four days in a shallow pewter plate covered with a plate or basin of glass."* Another Flemish authority describes a still more effectual mode. " Grind white lead in pure water ; make pastilles with it and dry them on chalk in the sun, or on a clean tile. Put your pastilles in a [shallow] leaden vessel, and pour nut oil on them, so that it may cover them. Place the vessel in the sun, and leave it till the oil acquires * " L'huile de pavot se blanchit et se rend plus siccatif si on la met dans un plat d'estain couvert d'une lame ou bassin de verre au soleil treschaut par trois ou quatre jours au plus." — Mayerne MS. p. 20. verso. PREPARATION OF OILS. 357 the consistence you wish, and becomes as clear as water. You may render it so thick, by leaving it long thus exposed, that it will rope, or may even be cut."* The solidification of drying oils, as is well known, may take place without the aid of metallic oxides, and solely by combination with oxygen derived from the air ; the experiments of De Saussure on this subject are familiar.f Bou- vier found that poppy oil became slightly thickened only while it was kept on water in a well-stopped bottle ; but a portion being separated from the * " R. du blanc de plomb ; broyez le tres bien avec l'eau pure, puis en faites des pastilles que ferez seicher sur la craye et au soleil, ou sur une tuile bien nette. Arrangez vos pastilles sur un bacquet de plomb et versez dessus de l'huyle de noix tant qu'il surnage ; mettez au soleil et l'y laissez jusques a tant qu'il espaissit autant que voudrez et qu'il esclaircisse comme eau. Vous la pouvez rendre si espaisse en la laissant fort long temps au soleil qu'elle file et se coupe." — MS. p. 20. Mr. Andrew Wilson, who, during his long residence in Italy, has been enabled to detect remains of the older technical processes, has communicated a similar experiment ; the white lead only is omitted. " The leaden trough being placed in the sun, the oil [in this case, linseed or nut oil, as the Italians never appear to have used poppy oil] should be occasionally stirred, till this can be no longer done, from its becoming like a piece of India rubber. It may be cut out of the trough with a knife. In this state it is put into an earthen pot, and dissolved in spirit of turpentine over a moderate fire, taking care that the varnish does not become brown. Afterwards strain and closely stop." The lead trough is also mentioned in the Ency- clopedic Methodique, Beaux Arts, torn. ii. p. 656. f See Annales de Chimie, torn. xlix. p. 231. A A 3 358 PREPARATION OF OILS. water (in a bottle which admitted air) solidified in a few days.* It was observed that poppy oil, as a medium for painting, was introduced latest. The observations respecting it in the Mayerne MS. show that its general qualities were still a matter of specula- tion in the beginning of the 17th century. The following statement appears under the name of My tens. " Mancop oly f is a very white oil which is used by the painters of the Netherlands, who execute delicate works requiring lively colours, such as the vases of flowers of De GheinJ and similar productions. This oil does not dry of itself easily, but it is usually ground with Venetian glass, and then exposed to the sun in a glass bottle. This should be shaken every four days, for three or four weeks ; it should then be carefully decanted for use, leaving the sediment * Manuel des jeunes Artistes et Amateurs, seconde edition, a Paris, 1832, p. 185. Bouvier remarks in a note: "This fact proves that oil thus washed not only becomes very white, but acquires at the same time a drying quality." It had derived oxygen from the water. t Maancop olie. Maancop (moon-head) the poppy. Van Mander, perhaps the earliest writer who mentions poppy oil with reference to painting, calls it Heulsaeds oly : both terms are still in use. J Jacob de Gheyn, the elder, was born in 1565, and died in 1615. His son had the same name. Both appear to have painted flowers and fruit, and both were also engravers. The portrait of the elder De Gheyn, with a vase of flowers and a bottle of oil among the accessories introduced, is engraved by Hondius ; the date is 1610. PREPARATION OF OILS. 359 with the glass."* The mode of rendering it dry- ing, by exposing it to the sun in a pewter vessel, has been already described. De Mayerne adds: " M. Vannegre, a Walloon painter, states that the oil thus prepared dries sufficiently well." De Mayerne himself, speaking of different oils, ob- serves : "If these oils (linseed and nut oil) cannot be procured, hempseed oil may be used, although it rather inclines to a green colour ; or if you happen to be in a convenient district, for example, in the neighbourhood of Orleans, the oil expressed from the seed of the white poppy is very excellent and very drying [and may be used accordingly]." f He, however, adds, in a mar- ginal note : " It is not drying, unless it is rendered so by artificial means." Elsewhere he again ob- * "Mancop oly est une huyle fort blanche dont se servent aux Pays-Bas les peintres qui travaillent en ouvrages delicats qui requierent des couleurs vives comme aux pots de fleurs de Ghein et semblables. Ceste huyle ne se seiche pas aisenient d'elle mesme mais on la broye avec du verre de Venise et puis on les met ensemble au soleil dans une phiole qui doibt estre agitee de quatre en quatre jours par quelque trois ou quatre semaines. Fault verser le clair par inclination quand on s'en voudra servir et laisser le reste sur le verre." — 31 S. p. 21. f " Au deffault de ces huyles en cas de necessite on peult user de Phuile de la graine de chanvre encore qu'elle ait quelque verdeur ; ou si on est en lieu commode, comme au pays de Gatinois, l'huyle de pavot blanc est tres cxcellente et tres siccative estant faicte de la semence par expression. " Elle n'est pas siccative si vous ne la rendez telle par artifice." — Ib. p. 47. verso. a a 4 360 PREPARATION OF OILS. serves : " The oil expressed from the seed of the white poppy is very light and drying ; it forms a skin [in drying]. A painter caused a considerable quantity to be prepared for M. Laniere, and said that it did not injure the colours. Nut oil is bet- ter than linseed oil."* Again: "To prepare oil for painting white, blue, and similar colours, so that they shall not yellow. Take the grain of the poppy, extract the oil, and mix this with the colours."*)* In another place he also recommends it for air-tints and blue. At the same time, he remarks that pictures painted with linseed oil bleach better in the sun than those which are executed either with nut or poppy oil. J The ex- perience of the moderns in regard to this question is rather in favour of poppy oil, which is said to bleach in ordinary light. * " L'huile de semence de pavot blanc est fort claire et siccative, puis elle faict une peau au dessus. Un peintre en faisoit faire beaucoup a [pour] M. Lanyre et disoit quelle ne gaste point les couleurs. L'huile de noix vault mieux que celle de lin." — MS. p. 97. t " Pour faire huile a peindre sur le blanc, azur et toute aultre sorte de couleur qui ne jaunit point. — E. la graine de pavot blanche et en tirez l'huile et la meslez avec vos couleurs." — Ib. p. 113. J "La meilleure [huile] est l'huyle de lin laquelle si en la peinture devient jaulne en mettant le tableau au soleil les couleurs se vont toujours esclaircissant, ce qui n'arrive pas en l'huyle de noix ni en celuy de semence de pavot. N. (aultres prefer ent l'huyle de noix.) L'huyle de pavot est bon pour le bleu, quand on fait le ciel, Pair," &c. — Ib. p. 7. PREPARATION OF OILS. 361 That the Dutch painters gradually preferred poppy oil for some purposes may be gathered from the treatise of Willem Beurs (the scholar of Dril- lenburg), who lived in the latter half of the seven- teenth century.* He observes : " When they [certain materials for white pigments] are dry enough, they are ground in the very best poppy oil, which is better than nut oil, linseed oil, or other known oils." Elsewhere he directs that various colours are to be ground in linseed oil, " the whiter the better." Later writers noticing the practice of the Northern schools, and deriving their receipts from Flemish and Dutch authorities, commonly recommend that delicate colours should be ground in poppy oil.f The Spanish and Portuguese writers, on the other * De groote Waerelt in 't kleen geschildert. Amsterd. 1692. (See Houbraken, iii. Deel, p. 355.) In the German translation (Amsterd. 1693), the passages quoted occur in p. 9. 16. Houbraken was himself a scholar of Drillenburg. f " II y a des peintres qui ont employe de l'huile tiree de la graine de pavots blancs, parcequ'elle est beaucoup plus blanche et plus claire que l'huile de noix, et qu'elle a d'ailleurs la feaeme qualite d'etre siccative : mais ce raffinement n'est bon que pour de tres-petits ouvrages ou Ton recherche tout ce qui peut con- tribuer a la beaute et a, la vivacite des couleurs." — De Piles, E'lemens de Peinture, Paris, 1776, p. 138. He also recom- mends the zinc dryer : " la couperose blanche fondue et sechce sur une platine de fer." On the subject of poppy oil compare the Encyclopedic Methodique {Beaux Arts, 1791, torn. ii. p. 437. art. Huile) ; Bardwell, Practice of Painting, &c. 1756, p. 7, &c. 362 PREPARATION OF OILS. hand, do not mention it, and some even recommend the use of linseed oil, their ordinary vehicle, for all colours. Pacheco boasts that some Italians sup- posed he had used ultramarine when he had em- ployed a common blue ; and states, as a subject of greater wonder, that his blues and whites were never painted with the universally extolled nut oil (which, he says, he was not in the habit of using), but with that of linseed ; " although," he adds, " some say that blue and white should never see this oil."* His method of employing it will be noticed hereafter. Nunez also proposes modes of using linseed oil, so as to render it a substitute for nut oil.f Palomino does not speak of poppy oil, but mentions the oil extracted from the seed of the pine tree as fit, like nut oil, for white and blues. J * " I en esta parte algunos Italianos que an visto mis Azules se an persuadido que son ultramarinos procurando ver con que secreto los gastava : i lo que mas admira, que no ven mis Azules ni mis blancos, el Azeite de nuezes, tan riverenciado de todos, porque nuca lo uso, 6 mui pocas vezes. El de linaza no me quele mal ; aunque ai quien diga que no a de ver el Azul ni el bianco este Azeite." — Arte de Pi?itura, Sevilla, 1649, p. 392. j* " Quando quizerdes fazer Aluyalde que se possa uzar como com olio de nozes, moieo Aluyalde na pedra muito bem com agoa et depois che botay o olio de Linhaca, et vereis, que indo moendo, a agoa se vay saindo para fora, et fica Aluyalde so com o olio que parece purificado." — Arte de Pintura, em Lisboa, anno 1615, p. 50. J " Otro aceyte hay en vez del de nueces para azules y blancos, que es el de pinones, dexandolos enranciar algun tiempo despues de quebrantados y descascarados," &c. — El Museo Pictorico, tomo segundo (1724), p. 55. PREPARATION OF OILS. 363 It will have been seen that De Mayerne omitted no opportunity of consulting persons of practical knowledge on the subject of oils and pigments ; and it seems that he was equally ready to communicate the result of his own experience to those who needed his assistance. An interesting letter written by Joseph Petitot of Geneva, the brother of the cele- brated enameller, is bound up with the physician's notes.* The writer gives an account of his mode of rendering cloth waterproof; and, in thanking De Mayerne for his former instructions, submits further questions to him. He states that he had tried the calcined bones and pumice stone to make a siccative oil, but found that umber, his ordinary dryer, was quite as effectual. It will be remembered that, for the object intended, the colour of the oil was unimportant; it was even reduced to a thick consistence by being burnt. Another manufacturer of such materials (WolfFen) states that, having tried litharge and minium, he found that the oil, with the latter ingredient especially, dried hard, and that the stuff on which it was spread was consequently apt to crack. He found that burning the oil for a time, without any siccative ingredient, rendered it sufficiently drying. On the oils, generally, he observes : " The two best oils are linseed and nut oil. There is this dif- ference between them : linseed oil dries at first on its surface and forms a skin ; what is underneath is * It is dated Geneva, 1 Ith January, 1644. 364 PREPARATION OF OILS. long in drying, though it dries at last ; but nut oil dries entirely and [throughout its substance] in a shorter time, for example, in three or four days ; much better in the air and sun than in the shade."* De Mayerne suggests that the oil, without being set on fire, might, by long boiling, be thickened sufficiently for the purpose required, and, at the same time, be rendered drying. The mere boiling of oils in this way, with a view to obviate the use of metallic oxides, is recommended by the anony- mous author of a useful treatise quoted in the Encydopedie Methodique ; he suggests that nut oil should be boiled in a water-bath for an hour, f * " Les deux meilleures huiles sont celle de lin et de noix : avec ceste difference, que celle de lin seiche premierement en sa superficie et faict une peau, le reste estant plus long a seicher encor qu'il la face a la longueur. Mais celle de noix se seiche entierement et en ruoins de temps, come en trois ou quatre jours, beaucoup mieux a Pair et au soleil qu'a Pombre." The date of this memorandum is 2. January, 1640. De Mayerne adds in the margin : " Ex ipsius ore." ■f " Le moyen d'avoir une huile qui seche bien, c'est de faire concentrer un peu celle de noix, en la faisant bouillir une heure au bain-marie. On peut encore en essayer d'autres. Je me contenterai d'indiquer celle de copahu : nette, limpide, odori- ferante, cette huile m'a paru secher tres-vite, meme avec les couleurs les moins siccatives ; on pourroit y meler un peu d'huile de noix ou de lin." — Encycl. Method., Beaux Arts, torn. ii. p. 437. The treatise here referred to, and which is often quoted in the same work, is entitled : " Traite de la Peinture au Pastel, &c. par M. P. R. de C. C. a P. de L. Paris, chez Defer de Maisonneuve, 1788." The writer is mistaken PREPARATION OF OILS. 365 An eminent foreign professor, writing to the author of the present work on the subject of oils, observes: " The rapid drying of the oil seems to me to be a chief condition, not only for the hardness and com- pactness of pigments, but also for their purity and durability. Cennini, in his 91st chapter, says 4 the more slowly you allow it to boil, the better it will be.' Pure linseed oil, without any addition of sugar of lead or litharge, acquires, by prolonged and gentle boiling [langsames kochen], the power of ^drying in a night, and renders the linseed oil varnish and all such siccatives unnecessary. It remains long unchanged in consistence and thinly flowing : at this time [1845] I am using an oil of the kind, which I prepared in 1838." The opinion of Yandyck on the relative fitness of the oils used in painting will be given in another chapter. in objecting to white copperas because it contains sulphuric acid. Sulphate of zinc (purified by being dissolved and re- crystallised), when calcined, loses the sulphuric acid, and is converted to the oxide of zinc. ADDITIONAL NOTES. The usual mode of increasing the siccative quality of oils, while exposed to strong heat, by the addition of metallic oxides, may afford a test of the relative fitness of the dryers so 366 PREPARATION OF OILS. used. The following remarks by practical writers are worthy of notice : — " The oil quickly absorbs the oxygen of the metallic sub- stance, which latter is then partly soluble in the fluid. Linseed oil [with the aid of heat] can disolve the fourth part of its weight of litharge, and the mixture when cold solidifies in a mass similar to caoutchouc. This substance, again dissolved and applied with the brush, forms an elastic varnish impermeable to water, and which, in many cases [but better on inflexible surfaces], may be used as a substitute for caoutchouc. The oxides of iron are, in like manner, easily dissolved in oil. The oxides of zinc, on the contrary, are difficult of solution in oil, even with the aid of heat ; nevertheless, they yield a con- siderable quantity of oxygen." — Dreme, Der Virniss- u. Kitt- macker, &c. p. 15. The same writer elsewhere remarks : " The oil acquires a resinous quality by means of the oxide of zinc sooner than with the other metallic substances above mentioned, since the former parts with its oxygen, during the boiling, in greater quantity." — lb. p. 26. The following experiments, by another investigator, on the relative solubility, in oil, of zinc and lead dryers, corroborate the above observations : — " Experiment 8. That [white] copperas does not combine with varnish, but only hardens it. — Three lb. of very fine African copal, one gallon of clarified oil, and two oz. of dried copperas were mixed off with two gallons of [essential oil of] turpentine, which, after being strained, had been put by in an open- mouthed jar for eight months. I then poured off all the varnish, not quite to the bottoms. I afterwards well washed the sedi- ment left at the bottom of the jar with two quarts of warm turpentine, which I filtered through some very fine cambric muslin, and afterwards dried the copperas in the sun ; it still weighed two oz. and appeared like what it nearly was, powder of zinc. " Experiment 9. That sugar of lead does combine with varnish. — With the same quantity and quality of gum, oil, and turpentine, I made three gallons of copal varnish, introducing two oz. of dried sugar of lead during the boiling. I put it in ajar for eight months. I then poured off all the varnish, and PREPARATION OF OILS. 367 washed out the sediment with half a gallon of warm turpentine, filtered as before. I dried the residuum left on the muslin, which only weighed seven drachms, and appeared of a pearly lead colour ; so that the varnish had abstracted the remainder." — J. Wilson Neil, on the Manfacture of Varnishes : Trans- actions of the Society of Arts, vol. xlix. part ii. p. 76. These statements acquire a new interest from the fact (esta- blished by documents which have been adduced), that the method which such experiments warrant was really adopted in Flanders in the fifteenth century. As the use of oxides of lead, for dryers, was then familiar, there can be little doubt that the preference given to (dried or calcined) white copperas was not accidental, but rather the result of accurate experiments, such as Hubert van Eyck was qualified to undertake. It is unnecessary to enter into the questions, on the one hand, whether such preference was a needless refinement ; or, on the other, whether any siccative ingredient is necessary : it is sufficient to have shown that the least objectionable me- tallic oxide was used as a dryer by the earliest oil painters. It has been stated on the authority of a modern writer*, and experience confirms the observation, that oil colours, if intimately mixed with aqueous particles, are slow in drying. The early oil painters did not put their colours in water; and the later Flemish artists kept white lead only in this way, finding that its colour was improved by it, and that it was slow to imbibe moisture. In such habits climate, no doubt, had its influence. The aqueous particles quickly evaporate in a warm atmosphere, when not thoroughly incorporated with the oil.f Nunez, indeed, recommends grinding white lead with * Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, p. 74. ■f It has been seen that, under certain circumstances, water may be brought in contact with boiling oil with good results. In some cases the water is decomposed in the operation. Thus, when it is desired to give the oil a resinous quality as soon as possible during the boiling, it is not unusual to sprinkle hot water (which is more divisible and lighter than cold) on the heated fluid. The water coming in contact 368 PREPARATION OF OILS. linseed oil and water together, chiefly with a view to bleach the oil : the passage has been already quoted (p. 362.). The Italian and Spanish painters commonly kept their colours under water. In the Treviso document before quoted we read of " small cups and a large vessel for the painters." * Cespedes explains the use of the latter.j" Palomino, on the other hand, mentions four colours only — white, ochres, light red, and umber — which should be placed in water. The others, he remarks, " abhor water, as they part with oil and become hard in it ; " (he might have included the ochres in the pro- hibited list, as they easily imbibe moisture). He recommends that such colours should be kept in small cups, covered with oiled paper ; as was the practice with the Flemish painters in the fifteenth century.^ The Bolognese painters were not so particular ; they even placed their palettes with the colours on them under water. Malvasia relates that Alessandro Tiarini, having permitted a scholar to put his palette and colours into the same vessel of water with his own, was not a little provoked at finding that the tints had become mixed. § with the boiling oil in minute quantities becomes instantly decomposed; its oxygen combining with the oil, thereby rendering it more resinous, its hydrogen burning with a bright flame. # "Per scudellini per li depentori, L. 1. s. 16. Per un cadin per depentori, L. 1. s." | " Un ancho vaso de metal sonoro, De frescas ondas transparentes lleno ; Do molidos a olio en blando frio Del calor los defienda i del estio." Quoted by Pacheco, Arte de Pintura, p. 396. J El Museo Pictorico, tomo segundo, p. 54. Compare the passage before quoted from the Strassburg MS. § Felsina Pittrice, Bologna, 1678, vol. ii. p. 209. 369 CHAP. XL METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL CONSIDERED GENERALLY. The habits of the Flemish painters in regard to the choice and preparation of vehicles having been traced in the two preceding chapters by means of numerous records, it is now proposed, with the aid of similar evidence, to describe the ordinary prac- tice of the school in other particulars. The prin- cipal points which remain to be considered are: the nature of the ground or substratum on which the picture was executed ; the order of operations in the commencement of the picture itself ; and such modes of preparing the colours as were, originally at least, peculiar to the artists of Flan- ders and Holland. Perhaps the only technical process which has survived without change from remote antiquity is, the method of preparing grounds, on wood or other surfaces, for painting. The layer of chalk and size which is found under the colours of the Egyptian mummy-cases is nearly, if not precisely, the same as that employed by the painters of the middle B B 370 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL ages, and which is often used at the present day.* This preparation, whether the solid ingredient con- sist of washed chalk (whitening), or plaster of Paris f prepared in water and finely ground (called by the Italians " gesso marcio " J), is fittest for an inflexible surface, as it becomes brittle with age. The Venetians, who from the first preferred cloth of fine texture as a groundwork for pictures, generally took the precaution of spreading the composition of size and gesso as thinly as possible, so as to avoid the danger of its cracking when the picture was rolled. § Their practice in this parti- * See Raspe, A critical Essay on Oil Painting, &c. p. 22. 25. | Vasari, in his Life of Luca della Robbia, speaking of the stucco works by that sculptor at " Madri " near Paris, observes that the j)laster of Paris is superior to that made from the gypsum of Yolterra, " because it is soft when worked, but in time becomes hard." Madri probably means the palace built by Francis the First in the Bois de Boulogne, and which he called Madrid. See the Lettere Pittoriche (17.57), voir iv. p. 338. J Gresso marcio, or marcito, is plaster of Paris first stirred well with water till it loses the power to set, and then kept and daily stirred for a month. (See Cennini, cap. 116.) A more exact receipt "ad faciendum gessum subtile" appears in the MSS. of Alcherius, copied from an Italian MS. of the 14th century. According to that description the gesso was at first sifted into the water, and the water was changed daily. § Van Mander relates that the elder Pourbus painted a land- scape on a large cloth prepared with the white size-ground of the usual kind. The picture required to be frequently rolled and unrolled, probably while the artist was at work ; the con- sequence was that the painted surface scaled off. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 371 cular will be further described and exemplified in treating of the Italian methods. It has been often asserted that Yan Eyck painted on wood only : there is, indeed, but one recorded instance of his having used cloth.* Rubens in- herited in this respect the predilections of the early Flemish masters : in one of his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton he observes that, for small works, wood is fittest. f The mode of preparing the ground of panels was so uniform, that the directions of Cennini may be considered applicable to all contemporary schools. The habits of the Northern artists differed from those of the Italians in some few points only. The w r ood commonly employed by the latter was the white poplar J : the Flemish painters used oak. Cennini (c. 113.) observes that, when the dimen- sions of the panel permit such an operation, the surest means of preventing its splitting is to boil it first. Time has shown that in larger works, com- posed of several pieces, the precautions adopted were seldom sufficient to guard against this accident, or to prevent warping : the mode of protecting the wood by battens, for example, is not always suc- cessful^ The cement which was used by the early * Morelli, Notizia cTOpere di Disegno, &c. p. 14. f Carpenter, Pictorial Notices, &c. p. 161. J Cennini, cap. 113. Compare Vasari, Yita di Jacopo., Giovanni, e Gentile Bellini. § See the note at the end of this chapter. B R 2 372 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL painters for their large panels, or tavole, was of the strongest kind, consisting of the insoluble part of cheese, ground with quicklime : the mode of pre- paring this glue, as described by Theophilus and others, has been often published.* The archives of the Duomo at Treviso contain some curious documents relating to the principal altar-piece of that church — a picture once attri- buted to Sebastian del Piombo, but now known to be the work of Fra Marco Pensabene. The follow- ing items in the account have reference to the sub- ject now under consideration : — " 7. March, 1520. To Mistro Benetto Marangon at the Duomo, for planks of good wood to make the panel for the figures of the great altar-piece, 14 soldi. " To Mistro Lio, who made the panel, to buy cheese to make the glue for fastening the planks of the same, 1 soldo." " 13. October, 1521. To Mistro Zan, the gilder, (part of his account) for having laid the gesso ground on the altar-piece, 3 soldi." f * Take soft cheese, cut it into small bits ; pound and wash in a mortar with hot water till all the soluble parts are removed, and till the water, which requires to be frequently changed, re- mains clear. The cheese, thus prepared, will crumble like bread when dry, and may be kept in that state for any length of time. The substance itself is not soluble in water, but it becomes so by the addition of quicklime : on pounding it with this a viscous cream is formed, which may be thinned with water. It dries quickly, and once dry cannot be again dis- solved. | " Marzo 1520, a di 7. Dati a Mistro Benetto Marangon CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 373 In large altar-pieces, necessarily composed of many pieces, it may be often remarked that each separate plank has become slightly convex in front : this is particularly observable in the picture of the Transfiguration by Raphael.* The heat of candles on altars is supposed to have been the cause of this not uncommon defect f; but heat, if con- sta al Domo per tavole de talpon [toppo] per far tavolado per le figure della pala dell' altar grando, L. 14. s. " Dati a Mistro Lio che facea la pala per comprar formajo per far la cola da incolar le tavole de dita pala, L. 1. s." "A di, 13. Ottobre. Item dati a Mistro Zan indorador per parte per aver inzesa [ingessato] la pala dell' altar grando, L. 3. s." — Federigi, Memorie Trevigiane, Venezia, 1803, vol. i. p. 130. Vasari relates that Paolo Uccello quitted a convent where he had been at work, because the monks fed him with nothing but cheese. He fled if he saw his employers in the streets, but being at last caught by two friars, who outran him, and being questioned as to the cause of his deserting them, he confessed that he was tired of their diet, adding, that he was afraid of being metamorphosed into cement. The expres- sion proves how generally the glue above described was then in use. {Vita de Paolo Uccello.) * The tavola on which this picture is painted is com- posed of five planks three or four inches thick. Richardson, who saw it in S. Pietro in Montorio, says that it is painted " on board or rather on timber, being, as I remember, at least a foot thick." (Vol. ii. p. 313.) He was perhaps deceived by the frame. It is remarkable, that in Titian's St. Sebastian, now in the Vatican, the planks of which the tavola is composed are placed horizontally, or parallel with the shorter sides of the picture ; in consequence of which the joinings are numerous. The upper and lower portions of this work are treated as distinct compositions, which may account for this arrangement. f Richardson, speaking of the St. Cecilia of Raphael, says n b 3 374 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL siderable, would rather produce the contrary ap- pearance. It would seem that the layer of paint, with its substratum, slightly operates to pre- vent the wood from contracting or becoming con- cave, on that side ; it might therefore be concluded that a similar protection at the back, by equalising the conditions, would tend to keep the wood flat. The oak panel on which the picture by Van Eyck in the National Gallery is painted is protected at the back by a composition of gesso, size, and tow, over which a coat of black oil-paint was passed. This, whether added when the picture was executed or subsequently, has tended to pre- serve the wood (which is not at all wormeaten), and perhaps to prevent its warping.* The judicious practice here noticed was almost the only precaution which the Italians overlooked : in other respects, the directions of Cennini relating to the preparation of panels evince extreme care. He first remarks that, if there should be any appear- ance of grease on the surface, there is no remedy but to entirely plane away the stained parts. A wood like that of the fir, which might throw out unctuous exudations, was on this account an unsafe material. Instances in which it has been used are sometimes to be met with in early English speci- that the surface of the picture, opposite the flame of the candles on the altar, was " perfectly fried." (Vol. ii. p. 34.) . * When this expedient is adopted, it is necessary that the coating should not be too firm, but of such a nature as to expand or contract with the wood. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 375 mens, and the ground has become detached in con- sequence. The Florentine writer recommends that any traces of iron nails in the wood should be covered with small plates of tin-foil, to cut off all communication from the rust. The surface of the panel was not to be too smooth : it was prepared for the gesso ground by two or three coats of size ; the first being thinner than the others, in order the more effectually to adhere to the wood.* The panel was now covered with " gesso grosso," mixed with the stronger parchment size. The gesso was first washed and sifted, but not with the ex- treme care required for the preparation of the material in its second application : it was therefore called u grosso." This first coat was spread on the plane panel with a stecca (a wooden or horn scraper, such as is now used), and on the relieved or orna- mented parts with a brush. When this was dry, and when the surface was reduced to sufficient smoothness by instruments adapted for the pur- pose, the finer gesso, mixed with the same size, was passed over the first preparation with a soft brush. Eight layers at least of this finer composition were applied, each successive layer being spread in a direction contrary to that of the previous one. Cennini observes that relieved ornaments did not require so thick a coat, but that in the plane por- * Trattato, cap. 113. The strength of the size is also described with sufficient exactness. B B 4 376 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL tions of the panel (constituting the ground of the picture properly so called) the gesso could hardly be too thick.* A ground so prepared, however safe while in dry situations, is obviously liable to be softened by moisture ; and this is another reason why it is less fit for cloth, which without due precautions may be accessible to damp at the back. Even on wood, a ground of this description, though covered (on one side) with colours mixed with oil, was not always safe ; and the porous nature of the white poplar, as compared with oak or chestnut, may partly account for this. Vasari relates that an altar-piece by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo having been placed in a room full of bundles of green broom (prepared for fascines during the siege of Florence), the damp occasioned by them softened the gesso ground, and the surface becoming detached the artist had to repaint the picture. f Another, by Perino del Vaga, formerly in the church of S. Maria sopra Minerva in Rome, having been for a time half under water during an inundation of the Tiber, suffered in the same manner. In the latter * Trattato, cap. 117. There is either a misprint or an error of the transcriber in this chapter of Cennini ; it occurs more than once. " In fogliami e altri rilievi si passa di meno ; ma in panni non se ne puo dare troppo." He is not speaking of draperies (panni), but of plane surfaces (piani), as opposed to the relieved ornaments. In cap. 115. the parallel passage is correct : " ne' piani non se ne puo dare troppo." | Vita di Ridolfo, David, e Benedetto Grillandai. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 377 case, Yasari remarks that the wood had swollen.* The same writer gives, as a report only (e' dicono), the story of Raphael's Spasimo di Sicilia having floated from a wrecked vessel into the harbour of Genoa f ; but, if the account be true, it is to be assumed that the edges and back of the picture were well protected by a hydrofuge coating of some kind. The wood, which is always thick in Raphael's altar-pieces, was probably chestnut : the picture, now in the Madrid Gallery, has been transferred to cloth. There can be no doubt, that, when rendered inac- cessible to damp on all sides, this ground would be durable under any circumstances : even cloth (not intended to be rolled), if covered with wax at the back, might be safely prepared with a size and gesso ground. Without such a protection, especially if the ground were thick, the ruin of the picture in a humid situation would be inevitable. De Mayerne states that a picture on cloth, by Abraham Latombe, having hung for several years against the damp wall of a church, the colour entirely separated, " a cause de la colle." He consequently recommends a priming with drying oil. It might indeed be in- ferred that if panels require to be protected at the * Vita di Perino del Vaga. The picture (on wood) of Venus Anadyomene, by Apelles, preserved in Rome, in Pliny's time, was irreparably injured in the lower half ; possibly from a si- milar cause. Plin. 1. xxxv. c. 36. f Vita di RafFaello. The picture was found " illesa e senza macchia o difetto alcuno." 378 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL back, cloth must need such a safeguard much more. The preservation of the cloth it self by means of t an may be also recommended, as its good results have been tested by long experience.* It should be remembered, that a picture on cloth is more liable to change if it be thinly painted ; as, under such circumstances, it is exposed to the action of air, damp, and even dust, on both sides. In old pictures executed in this manner, and which have not been lined, it may even be remarked, that, where the bars of the stretching-frame behind afford a greater protection to the cloth, the colours are in a fresher state ; the difference, which is sometimes very marked, corresponding exactly with the form of the woodwork. So, when such a picture is varnished, the narrow portions of the surface thus protected bear out, while the rest of the picture soon presents a different appearance. Thus, supposing thin painting to be preferred (as it very generally was in the early Flemish school), pictures so executed were calculated to retain their freshness much longer on panel than on cloth. To return to the preparation of the ground: when the coats of finer gesso were perfectly dry, the surface was again carefully scraped, till, to use the words of Cennini, it was as white as milk and as smooth as ivory. Upon this surface the design * See, in the Sixth Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, a communication from Mr. Hamlet Millett respect- ing a mode of rendering canvass durable by means of tan. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 379 was traced from a drawing or cartoon* ; the forms being afterwards fixed with a brownish ink, and shaded like a drawing. This was the mode of commencing a tempera picture ; but the same pro- cess was followed without change, or rather with greater care, by the first oil painters. The follow- ing details, relating to the habits of the early Flemish and German masters, are recorded by Van Mander in his Elements of Painting, f " Our predecessors [he afterwards names Van Eyck, Albert Durer, Lucas van Leyden, and (Peter) Brueghel] were in the habit of spreading the white ground over panels more thickly than we do : they then scraped the surface as smooth as pos- sible. They also used cartoons, which they laid on the smooth fair white ground, and then sat down and traced them, first rubbing any dark [powder] * Cennini does not speak of a cartoon ; but recommends that the drawing should be first sketched on the white ground in charcoal, and then outlined in ink with a minever pencil ; the shadows were washed in afterwards. Cap. 122. t Den Grondt der Edel vry Schilder-Konst. Perhaps the two earliest poems on painting — this by Van Mander, and another by a Spanish writer, Cespedes — are for practical pur- poses the best. The Flemish author has repelled most readers by his antiquated language ; and unfortunately the third edition of his Lives of the Painters, a somewhat free transla- tion in modern Dutch, does not contain the work here referred to. Extracts only from the poem of Cespedes are printed in Pacheco's Arte de Pintura : the MS. probably exists at Cordova. On the merits of the work, see Cean Bermudez, Diccionario, &o. 380 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL over the back of the drawing. They then drew in the design, beautifully, with black chalk or pencil. But an excellent method, which some adopted, was to grind coal black finely in water ; with this they drew in and shaded their designs with all possible care. They then delicately spread over the out- line a thin priming through which every form was seen, the operation being calculated accordingly ; and this priming was flesh-coloured."* The mar- ginal heading to this passage is : " They drew their designs on the white ground, and then passed an oil-priming over them." f A picture by Giovanni Bellini, in the Florence * " Ons moderne Voorders voor henen plochten Hun penneelen dicker als wy te witten, En schaefdens' alsoo glat als sy wel mochten, Ghebruyckten oock cartoenen, die sy brochten Op dit effen schoon wit, en ginghen sitten Dit doortrecken soo met eenich besmitten, Van achter ghewreven, en trockent moykens Daer nae met swarte krijkens oft potloykens. " Maer t' fraeyste was dit, dat sommighe namen Eenich sme-kool swart, al fijntgens ghewreven Met water, jae trocken en diepten t' samen Hun dinghen seer vlijtich naer het betamen : Dan hebbenser aerdich over ghegheven Een dunne primuersel, alwaer men even Wel alles mocht doorsien, ghestelt voordachtich : End' het primuersel was carnatiachtich." Het Schilder-Boeck (1604), p. 47. verso. ■f " Trocken hun dinghen op het wit, en primuerden daer olyachtich over." CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 381 Gallery, is thus drawn and shaded on a white ground, preparatory to its completion in oil colours. A Van Eyck, now in the Academy at Antwerp, representing St. Barbara, is in the same state ; the sky only being coloured. Various unfinished pictures by Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolommeo, and others, clearly exhibit the same process. A picture, so prepared, was in a certain sense a finished work ; and this may account for so many examples of the kind having been preserved. Cennini's words, in reference to such productions, are ■ remarkable : " E cosi ti rimarra un disegno vago, che farai innamorato ogni uomo de' fatti tuoi." * It is thus evident, as might indeed be reasonably inferred, that, in the first practice of oil painting, the habits of the Italian and Transalpine painters closely corresponded : but, while the Italians, as already noticed, gradually modified the process first adopted, the Flemish artists remained more constant to their traditional methods. The perfec- tion of Van Eyck's technical system is even appa- rent in the works of Rubens, notwithstanding the vast difference of style between the two painters. It has been seen that a transparent warm tint in oil (that is, an oleo-resinous medium f ) was spread * Cap. 122. f It is to be remembered that in the early Flemish practice the medium, or vehicle, was always more or less oleo-resinous. The method partly survived in some Italian schools. Armenini 382 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL over the outline and white ground. The important question now arises : Was the ground absorbent or not ? All writers on the technical processes of painting who have touched on this subject have followed each other in extolling the chalk or gesso grounds of the early painters; because such grounds, they assume, by absorbing the oil, removed in some degree the cause of yellowness in the colours, and thus insured the durability and freshness of the tints. This opinion, as regards the nature of the ground, is erroneous. It is true that the Venetians, when they painted on cloth, generally (but not always) spread so thin a coat of the white ground that the oil penetrated to the back of the picture. In proof of this it may be observed, before such pictures are lined, that the cloth is often embrowned as if it had undergone a slow combustion, and the principal forms and masses of the composition have stained through it. But in many cases even on cloth, and universally on wood, the early masters purposely prevented the absorption of the oil. The strength of the size mixed with the gesso was not of itself sufficient to prevent this ; it was not desirable to have too firm a ground, since it was then liable to crack. When Yasari, speaking of a recommends a flesh-coloured priming mixed with a certain proportion of common (sandarac) varnish ; but, according to his directions, this priming was not transparent but solid, the outline being traced upon it. ( De veri Precetti della Pittura y in Ravenna, 1587, lib. ii. p. 125.) CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 383 picture on wood by Giovan Francesco Caroto, says that the gesso cracked " per essere mal stemperato," he probably means that the size was too firm.* The question, whether the ground was absorbent or not, can be determined with certainty by the examination of pictures ; but documentary evi- dence also is not wanting. The older oil pictures on wood have been subject to so many vicissitudes that it is very rare to find a surface which, either from the warping of the panel or from other acci- dents, is not more or less cracked ; in consequence of which, small laminae of paint sometimes become entirely detached from the ground. In all such cases, and however thin the painted film may be, the ground so exposed will be found perfectly white. Had it been absorbent it would have been yellow, if not brown, with oil. But there is a still more decisive mode of settling this question by a sort of " experimentum crucis." Pictures are sometimes transferred from panel to cloth. The front being secured by smooth paper or linen, the picture is laid on its face and the wood is gradually planed and scraped away. At last the ground appears ; first, the " gesso grosso," then, next the painted surface, the " gesso sottile." On scraping this it is found that it is whitest immediately next the colours ; for on the inner side it may some- times have received slight stains from the wood, if * Vita di Fni Giocondo ed altri. 384 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL the latter was not first sized. When a picture which happens to be much cracked has been oiled or varnished, the fluid will sometimes penetrate through the cracks into the ground, which in such parts had become accessible. In that case the white ground is stained in lines only, corresponding in their direction with the cracks of the picture. This last circumstance also proves that the ground was not sufficiently hard in itself to prevent the absorption of oil. Accordingly, it required to be rendered non-ab- sorbent by a coating of size ; and this was passed over the outline, before the oil-priming was applied. Cen- nini, speaking of painting in oil on walls, says: "Draw your subject with charcoal, and fix the design either with ink or with verdaccio [a dull green] duly tem- pered. Then take a little size well diluted . . . and, either with a sponge or with a soft and broad brush, pass it once over all the surface to be painted ; and leave it to dry at least for a day."* Elsewhere: " How to paint in oil on iron, on panel, or on stone. And in the same manner paint on iron, or every stone surface, every panel ; always giving a coat of size first." f * " Poi disegna con carbone la tua storia, e fermala o con inchiostro o con verdaccio temperato. Poi abbia un poco di colla bene inacquata Poi, o vuoi con ispugna o vuoi col pennello morbido e mozzetto, daine una volta per tutto '1 campo che hai a lavorare ; e lascialo asciugare almen per un di." — Cap. 90. •f " Come dei lavorare ad olio in ferro, in tavola, in pietra. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 385 Vasari is equally conclusive, although his direc- tions relate to a more modern, and in some respects, a degenerate practice. He says : " Having covered the panels with a gesso ground, they scrape the surface, and, having given four or five coats of very thin size with a sponge, they proceed to grind their colours with nut or linseed oil (although nut oil is better, because it yellows less)."* He then di- rects that a dusky mixture of colours (not to be recommended ^ should be spread over this sized ground. We have here an instance of a traditional process surviving the motive which gave rise to it. There was obviously no reason for protecting the white ground in this case, as it was to be entirely shut out by the thick priming. The absorption of the oil was effectually, and it would seem needlessly, prevented ; but Vasari, in describing this process, un- consciously records the earlier method. The outline, he proceeds to say, might be drawn either with charcoal or with white chalk on the dark priming. Palomino, who notices the mode in which the early masters prepared their panels, is no less clear on the point in question. After describing the E per lo simile in ferro lavora, e ogni pietra, ogni tavola, in- collando sempre prima ; " &c. — Cap. 94. * " Ingessato che Lanno le tavole o quadri, gli radono, e, datovi di dolcissima colla quattro o cinque mani con una spugna, vanno poi macinando i colori con olio di noce o di seme di lino (benche il noce e meglio, perche ingialla meno)," &c. — Intro- duzione, cap. 21. C C 386 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL application of the two kinds of gesso (" yeso pardo" and "yeso mate") he says: "At last, having made the surface very smooth, they gave it a coat of size, and, after that, one or two of the oil-priming." * Van Mander, in the description above quoted, omits to mention the size (not only as applied over the outline, but over the wood before the gesso was spread) ; but he indirectly alludes to it in another passage, where he speaks of the difficulty of using smalt. The effect of this colour is much injured by its sinking in the oil, and various contrivances have been resorted to, in all schools, to remove the superfluous fluid. Some of these contrivances are enumerated by the Flemish writer. He observes : " On this account some prick the panel with needles ; some blow blotting paper close upon the surface, suffering it to remain for a time, so as to absorb the oil ; some paint with poppy oil, and others, for the same purpose, use prepared [bleached] oils."f * " Y ultimamente lixandola despues con lixa muy suave y usada, darle una mano de cola de retazo, y despues de ella, una 6 dos de inipriniacion a el olio." — El Museo Pictorico, tonao segundo, p. 49. f "De Smalten behoeven wel in te schieten, Hierom eenighe prickelen met naelden Dicht hun penneelen, om sulx te ghenieten, Sommighe bliesen cladtpapier, en lieten Die daer op ligghen, waer mede sy haelden D' oly daer uyt, en eenigh' ander maelden Met Heulsaeds oly, ander van ghelijcken Ghebruycken oly ghemaeckt met practijcken." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 50. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 387 The object was to prevent the alteration of the smalt, either by removing the superfluous oil or by using it in as colourless a state as possible. The first remedy noticed, that of pricking the ground, shows, first, that the surface was, in its or- dinary state, impermeable to the oil, and, secondly, that when that surface was perforated the ground within could absorb the fluid. The ground was, therefore, coated with size. Thus the warm transparent oil priming, which Van Mander says was spread over the outline, left the sized white ground unstained. Had the ground been absorbent, it would have ceased to be white. It was an object with the early Flemish masters to preserve its splendour unimpaired. Many of them, like the Van Eycks, were glass-painters* : they knew the value of light behind colours. Not only in stained glass, but in the " translucid painting " of the middle ages (in which method colours derived effect from being glazed over sheets of metal foil), they were accustomed to the brilliant effect of in- ternal light. The method of these inventors of the art, as regards the gesso preparation and its use, was still followed by Rubens and the painters of his time, when (as was generally the case) they * See in Houbraken (De Groote Schoubiirgh der Neder~ lantsche Konstschilders, Amsterdam, 1718, vol. i. p. 15.) a list of painters of this school who were also glass-painters, from Lucas van Leyden to the father of Vandyck. c c 2 388 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL employed white grounds. The picture of the Judgment of Paris, by Rubens, in the National Gallery, is an example ; it is painted on a per- fectly white gesso ground, which must have been first sized, for there are sufficient indications that its brightness was unstained with oil. The thin painting of the early Flemish masters (a system preserved even by their successors in the treatment of shadows) was thus calculated on the effect of the white ground within it ; and such a system being once adopted, the solidity of wood was essen- tial to the durability of their tints. It will now be apparent, that, if any portion of a picture, begun in the mode described, was executed in tempera, it must have been so prepared before the oil priming was applied. It is indeed very probable, that the reddish (carnatiachtich) priming with an oleo-resinous vehicle, which was passed over the finished design, was a vestige of the old practice of covering tempera pictures with a varnish of a similar tint *, the difference being that the tempera was now a light chiaroscuro painting only, which was still to receive its rich shadows and colours, and to be completed with an oleo-resinous vehicle. The * The indirect evidence afforded by Armenini (lib. ii.) on this point is remarkable. Speaking of a priming for oil pictures, he observes that it was a flesh-tint inclining to flame colour in consequence of the immixture of (common) varnish with it. The warm tint of the customary sandarac varnish has been before noticed. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 389 Flemish historian naturally records these operations as original methods ; but, in comparing them with the history of the art which has now been traced, they will appear only as connecting links with a previous practice. Descamps observes that the pictures by Memling in the Hospital of St. John at Bruges are in tempera.* This was, perhaps, a gratuitous assertion, as it is unsupported by any known authority ; but, if it have any foundation, it is to be assumed that the design, which, accord- ing to custom, was completed before the oil-priming was added, was carried further than usual, so as to amount to a tempera preparation. The light warm tint which Van Mander assumes to have been generally used in the oil-priming was sometimes omitted, as unfinished pictures prove. Under such circumstances, the picture may have been executed at once on the sized outline. In the works of Lucas van Leyden, and sometimes in those of Albert Durer, the thin yet brilliant lights exhibit a still brighter ground underneath. Again, in a later practice, the colour of the preparation was by no means restricted to a flesh-tint. The priming being quite dry (for, if it was not, the superadded colours would sink in), the shadows were painted in with a rich transparent brown mixed with a somewhat thick oleo-resinous vehicle of the firmer kind before described. The outlines * La Vic des Peintres Flamands, &c, tome i. p. 14, 15. c c 3 390 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL of the lighter parts were not necessarily repeated, since the drawing underneath exhibited all the forms : the minuter darks, though executed with a thinner vehicle, still had the effect of rendering such shades more prominent than the lights. The painters of the sixteenth century often followed the process of the earlier masters in this respect.* Those of the later artists who drew in their com- position (without the previous sketch underneath) on the oil priming, diluted the brown outline colour accordingly. Van Mander observes : " There are others who, having with great pains and study col- lected sketches and drawings in abundance, com- bine them in their work, and produce a clean and distinct outline from such materials, according to the design which they have conceived. They either make this outline on the priming, with a single colour, thinly tempered, which can flow readily, or draw it with a dry point, leaving it in a clean state." f The original method was, perhaps, never entirely * Compare Van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 254. 298. f " Ander zijnder, die met veel moeyten swaerlijck Wt schetsen oft teyckeninghen met hoopen Hun dinghen te samen rapen eenpaerlijck, En teyckenen daer nae suyver en claerlijck, Volcoomlijck wat sy in den sin beknoopen, Op t' primuersel, met een verwe, die loopen Can, dunne ghetempert, oft treckent netlijck Met Potloot, en vaghent reyn onbesmetlijck." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 47. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 391 laid aside : a light sketch, under the size, would serve as a guide for the brown outline, which was freely drawn upon the priming. When the transparent brown shadows were added throughout the work, in the mode described, the half-tints being also more or less indicated by the same means, the work was tolerably complete as to its chiaroscuro. Examples of pictures in this state are common ; but, according to the earlier and often- revived process, as the solid or opaque portions of the work were executed at once, and consequently in parts, so the shadows, though always painted first, were, in like manner, inserted as the work pro- ceeded. Care was taken not to disturb the trans- parency of the darker shadows by the unnecessary immixture of opaque pigments, and the bright ground was preserved under the lights by not load- ing them. The vehicle for the light pigments was thinner than that used for the shadows. This, it is repeated, is evident from the fact, that the sha- dows, in the early Flemish works, are uniformly more raised than the lights.* The habits of the first oil painters were in ninny circumstances influenced by the practice of tempera. It has been stated that portions were finished at a time, the ground being left untouched elsewhere. * Michiels (Histoire de la Peinture Flamandc, &c, vol. ii. p. 145.) speaks of a picture by Margaret Van Eyck, "ou les carnations ayant etc peintes tres k'gerement, les autres parties tlu tableau forment saillie." c c 4 392 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL That this was partly derived from the older habit may appear from the observation of Cennini, who, speaking of tempera, directs that the heads should be finished last. Such portions thus re- mained, for a time, light spots, while the rest of the picture was completed. Whatever parts were first begun by the oil painters (and it appears that they did not reserve the flesh for the last), the ground was, in this manner, left untouched in many places, while other portions were completed. Thus the unfinished Leonardo da Yinci in the Gallery at Milan has some parts — among others the head of the Virgin — nearly completed, while a mass of drapery, the lamb, and some of the background, remain carefully outlined (apparently traced) on a white ground. The process of the early Flemish oil painters was, in this respect, the same. Van Mander writes : " When this [the priming] was dry, they saw their design distinctly through it, al- ready half-completed. Upon this- they proceeded carefully to lay all [the shadows and tints], exe- cuting the work with extraordinary care and atten- tion. They did not load the colour, but used it thin and sparingly, in order that the tints might be clear and glowing [by showing the light ground through them]."* The marginal heading to this passage is : " They mostly finished their works at * " Als dit nu droogh was, saghen sy hun dinghen Schier daer half geschildert voor ooghen claerlijck, CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 393 once."* In another such heading we read : " Each colour, in order not to fade, is to be put in its place at once."f In his account of Jeronimus Bos (a later painter, who, perhaps from often treating fantastic subjects, had a freer hand), the same writer says: " He had a firm, rapid, and very agreeable execution, often finishing his works at the first painting ; yet those works have stood perfectly well, and without changing. Like other old masters he had a mode of drawing and tracing his subjects on the white panel ; he then passed a transparent flesh-coloured priming over the design, often suffering the ground to contribute to the effect of his work." J In his account of Jan de Hollander, a painter of the six- Waer op sy alles net aenlegghen ginghen, En ten eersten op doen, met sonderlinghen Arbeydt en vlijt, en de verwe niet swaerlijck Daer op verladende, maer dun en spaerlijck, Seer edelijck gheleyt, gloeyend' en reyntgens, Met wit hayrkens aerdich glietrocken cleyntgens." Het Schilder Boeck, p. 48. * " Deden hun dinghen veel ten eerste op." — lb. | " Elcke verwe van eerst op haer plaets legghen, om niet versterve." — lb. p. 47. \ " Hy liadde een vaste en seer verdighe en aerdighe handelinghe, doende veel zijn dinghen ten eersten op, het welck nochtans sonder veranderen seer schoon blijft. Hy liadde oock als meer ander oude Meesters de maniere zijn dinghen te teeckenen en trecken op het wit der Penneelen, en daer over een doorschijnigh carnatiachtigh primuersel te legghen, en liet oock dickwils de gronden mede wercke." — lb. p. 216. verso. 394 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL teenth century, the biographer remarks : "He was in the habit of making the ground of his panel or cloth tell, by painting loosely over it ; a method which [Peter] Breughel imitated in a peculiar manner."* Again, speaking of an elaborate altar- piece, by Peter Aartsen, which was destroyed by the iconoclasts, Yan Mander says : " The cartoon — as large as the painting itself — is still at Amster- dam. This [altar-piece] was an excellent work, handled in a masterly and manly style ; the flesh, as well as some other parts, being mostly finished at once on the outline ; and the whole was so judi- ciously executed that at a distance (whence the work required to be viewed) the effect was ex- tremely powerful." * These passages are sufficient to show that the * " Veel had by oock de manier van al swadderende op de Penneelen oft doecken de gronden mede te la ten spelen, het welck Brueghel seer eyghentlijck nae volghde." — Het Schil- der-Boeck, p. 215. f " Van de Tafel is noch den Carton, so groot als t' werck is geweest, tot Amsterdam : het is geweest een uytgenomen heerlijck werck, meesterlijck en manlijck aenghetast, de naeckten en anders veel ten eersten op de teyckeninghe opgedaen wesende, en soo aendachtig, dat het van verre (ghelijck het uyt der ooghe most staen) hadde eenen uytne- menden grooten welstandt." — lb. p. 244. Van Mander mentions other works by this painter which were destroyed by the Protestant iconoclasts ; and the editor of the third edition of the Schilder-Boeck adds that a large altar- piece by Aartsen, originally at Warmenhuizen in North Hol- land, representing the Crucifixion, was, in 1566, "hewn in pieces with axes by the senseless peasants," though a lady of Alkmaar offered a large sum to save it. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 395 practice of finishing at once on the prepared out- line was by no means uncommon even with the earlier masters. When, therefore, Van Mander speaks of the dead colour (dootverwe) of Van Eyck, he probably means the chiaroscuro prepara- tion, which, whether a shaded drawing on the white ground or a tempera painting, was executed on the panel before the size and priming were added. He observes : " His [Van Eyck's] dead colourings were cleaner and sharper than the finished works of other painters, and I remember to have seen, in the house of my master Lucas de Heere, at Ghent, a portrait of a female, with a land- scape behind, which was dead-coloured only, but yet very neatly and evenly executed." * As regards the subject, this description nearly corresponds with the chiaroscuro picture of St. Barbara above men- tioned, in the Antwerp Gallery. There can be no doubt that the term " dead colour " was afterwards applied, as it now is, to pictures prepared, indeed, with colours, but without their full vivacity ; at an earlier period, however, it seems that the expres- sion was understood more literally, and that it was applied to works executed almost in chiaroscuro. * " Sijn dootverwe was veel suyverder en scherper gedaen als ander Meesters opghedaen dinghen wesen mochten, alsoo my wel voorstaet dat ick een cleen conterfeytselken van een Vrouw-mensch van hem hebbe ghesien, met een Landtschapken acliter, dat maer gedootverwet was, en nochtans seer uytnemende net en glat, en was ten huyse van mijn meester, Lucas de Heere, te Gent." — Set Schilder-Boeck, p. 202. 396 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL For the rest, the above extracts, corroborated as they are by other accounts and by existing works, establish with certainty the preparatory methods of the early Flemish painters. The claims of Van Mander himself, as a competent judge of art, are not to be overlooked. The biographer was born at Meulbeek in 1548, and died in 1606 at Amster- dam, having settled in Holland to avoid the troubles in his own country.* His work was published in 1604. He studied painting first under Lucas de Heere, and then under Peter Vlieric, whom he quitted in 1569: he afterwards visited Italy, where he remained nearly three years. His professional life and experience thus belong to the sixteenth century. He was evidently well acquainted with the works of those whose merit he records, and his evidence on the technical processes which he describes is unquestionably valuable. That evidence strictly relates to the early Flemish school. He had ceased to live before the younger Teniers was born, and he appears to have known nothing of Rubens, since he makes no mention of the great painter in the biography of Otho Venius, nor in a short notice of Adam van Oort, with both of whom Rubens studied.f His * See his romantic history at the end of the second edition of the Schilder-Boeck, Amsterdam, 1618. The principal events are detailed in Johanna Schopenhauer's Johann Van Eyck und seine Nachfolger, Frankfurt a. M. 1822, vol. ii. p. 180. f Rubens was twenty- seven when Van Mander's work was CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 397 testimony respecting the methods of the Nether- lands school is therefore quite independent of the authority which those methods derived from the works and influence of Rubens. In reviewing the statements of this important Avitness, and in further consulting his biographies, it is impossible not to be struck with the great attention to drawing which the Flemish process required. When the habit of making cartoons for oil pictures was nearly obsolete in Italy, it was still considered indispensable in Flanders and Hol- land. Peter Aartsen, a painter before mentioned among those who often finished their works at once, left twenty-five cartoons, from which many altar-pieces had been executed.* Van Mander's frequent mention of designs, some of which were on a large scale, shows that the early practice of deciding every thing before the picture was begun was still common in his time. The mannerism which prevailed in the latter part of the sixteenth century did not affect the technical habits of the school. Spranger and (Henry) Goltzius made finished drawings as preparations for pictures, and the biographer observes that those designers were published ; his absence in Italy may account for the silence of the biographer. It would seem, however, that at the age of twenty-three, when he quitted Flanders on his travels, lie had made no great impression. * Ilet Schilder-Boeck, p. 244. 398 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL unsurpassed in the management of the pen.* The precision required in smaller works had recom- mended that instrument to the earlier masters, and the transition to etching and engraving, as in the instance of Lucas van Leyden and others, is thus explained. De Bie, in a general description of the preparatory studies of the Flemish painters, alludes to the use of the pen in drawing, as no less familiar than that of the portcrayon.f It thus appears that the method proposed by the inventors of oil painting, of preserving light within the colours, involved a certain order of processes. The principal conditions were: first, that the outline should be completed on the panel before the painting, properly so called, was begun. The object, in thus defining the forms, was to avoid alterations and repaintings, which might ultimately render the ground useless without supplying its place. Another condition was to avoid loading the opaque colours. This limitation was not essential with regard to the transparent colours, as such could hardly exclude the bright ground: their prominence in comparison with the lights was, * Ilet Sehilder-Boeck, p. 273. verso, p. 285. Van Mander remarks that Goltzius used the pen even on cloths primed for oil painting. | "Leert reuselen met cryt, Ieertmette penne trecken." — Het Gulden Cabinet, tot Lier, 1661, p. 29. Compare p. 195. Hoog- straten also observes that, for giving precision and force to drawings, the pen is the fittest instrument. {Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, tot Rotterdam, 1678, p. 31.) CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 399 however, partly the consequence of their being applied with a thick but lucid vehicle. Another consequence of this process was, that tints were mixed to the local hues required. This method (which is indispensable in fresco and tempera painting) may have been continued partly from mere habit.* Cennini gives the same directions for mixing tints in oil as in tempera. f The practice of using compound tints has not been approved by colourists J ; the method, as introduced by the early masters, was adapted to certain conditions, but, like many of their processes, was afterwards misapplied. Vasari informs us that Lorenzo di Credi, whose exaggerated nicety in technical details almost equalled that of Gerard Dow, was in the habit of mixing about thirty tints before he began to work.§ The opposite extreme * Van Mander takes occasion to remark that the practice of fresco painters in mixing tints is no less convenient for oil painters. (Het Schilder-Boec/i, p. 31.) The marginal heading to the passage referred to is : " The mixing of tints is no loss of time but is very useful." "T* verwen teperen is geen tijdt- verlies maer is seer voorderlijck." | Trattato, cap. 113. J Compare Reynolds, notes on Du Fresnoy's Art of Imitat- ing, note xxxvii. Wilson, happening to pay a visit to George Lambert, the landscape-painter, noticed the manner in which that artist's palette was prepared ; he afterwards observed to a friend, that the cow and the hay to be eaten by the animal were already visible among Lambert's prepared tints. The anecdote was related by Sir George Beaumont. § Vita di Lorenzo di Credi. 400 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL is perhaps no less objectionable.* Much may de- pend on the skilful use of the ground. The purest colour in an opaque state and superficially light only, is less brilliant than the foulest mixture through which light shines. Hence, as long as the white ground was visible within the tints, the habit of matching colours from nature (no matter by what complication of hues, provided the ingredients were not chemically injurious to each other) was likely to combine the truth of negative hues with clearness. Such a method would succeed best where the local colour, however neutral, was but little diversified ; as in draperies and similar sub- stances. But in flesh, which, strictly speaking, has no local colour, this mode of matching the hues of nature is less possible : it is still more difficult as regards the shadows. Accordingly, it is in delicate carnations that Y^n Eyck is least successful; the shadows especially are not always true : but in the imitation of darker complexions and the colours of inanimate objects, a vivid reality was often attained by such means. Inquiries respecting the implements used by the early painters can, generally, possess little interest except for the antiquary ; there are cases, however, where such investigations may illustrate the habits of those painters with regard to their style of * '« But if you imagine you can make a pallett of the picture, to make mixtures theare, you will make madd work." — Harleian MS. No. 2337. supposed to be written by Riley. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 401 colouring. Strange as it must now seem, all evi- dence hitherto brought to light tends to prove that the painter's palette was not in use in the beginning of the fifteenth century. Cennini, who is most minute in his descriptions, does not mention it; nor does there appear to be any allusion to it in medieval writers. But if it was not in use in its present form, it may still be supposed that a tablet was at hand which answered the same purpose, or on which the colours were tried.* The tints required for the portion of work in hand were placed in small cups. The ancient artists in encaustic used shells for this purpose f, * It would appear, from a passage in Van Mander, that fresco painters still used " tablets and boards " when oil painters used " palettes." " In sulcker manier, als op seker "Wetten, Bereyden haer tavelotsen, oft borden, Die op't natte calck haer te wercken setten, Ende d' olyverwers op haer palletten." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 31. Palomino remarks that the larger palettes (for oil painting) were not held in the hand, but were fastened on stools beside the painter. (El Museo, &c. torn. ii. p. 40.) De May erne (MS. p. 145. verso) uses the expression, " palette a, poignee," thus distinguishing the smaller implement. Vasari's word, tavolella (palette), it will be remembered, is the diminutive of tavola ; and paleta (a word used by the Venetians for a small altar-piece) stands in the same relation to pala. | "Pictoris instrumento legato, cerae, colores, similiaque horum legato cedunt : item peniculi, cauteria, et conchae." — 3fartianus, lib. xvii. ; quoted by Wiegman, Die Malerei der Alien. D D 402 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL and the Byzantine painters continued the practice. A copy of a drawing, supposed to be of the ninth century, representing St. Luke painting the Virgin, is published in Ottley's Italian School of Design. The artist holds a brush in one hand and a small shell in the other. In the MSS. of Alcherius colours are mixed in shells. In the Venetian manuscript caparoze (shells) are repeatedly men- tioned in reference to the same purpose. They were commonly used by the Spanish oil painters*, and were employed in miniature-painting in the seventeenth century f : the practice in that art is, even now, not altogether obsolete. J The more liquid colours of the fresco and tempera painters * Cespedes, in his poem before mentioned, says : " Sea argentada concha, do el tesoro, Crecio del mar, en el extremo seno, La que guarde el carmin, i guarde el oro, El verde, el bianco, i el azul sereno." Quoted by Pacheco, Arte de Pintura, p. 369. f De Mayerne alludes to this habit in speaking of Huskins (Hoskins) the miniature-painter. He also mentions "pots ou coquilles," in which the colours of tempera painters were kept. \ In oil painting the tradition does not appear to have sur- vived the 17th century. Norgate, in a MS. (to be hereafter noticed) on " Limning " and oil painting, written about the year 1634, observes, in his directions for the latter : " You must have shells allsoe to put your colours in after they be ground, with tinfoil to cover them," &c. Wilson had probably no intention of imitating the ancients, when he mixed his meguilp in an oyster shell. See Wright, Some Account of the Life of Richard Wilson, Esq. R. A., London, 1824, p. 20. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 403 required less shallow vessels: these are called vaselli, vasellini, and alberetti, by Cennini and Vasari; and scudellini by other writers. The con- trivances for keeping them at hand were sometimes curious. Vasari, speaking of Aspertini of Bologna, ridicules his habit of painting with a girdle round him stuck with small pots of colour.* Those who are curious to trace the history of painters' implements, and particularly of the palette, might compare the numerous representations of St. Luke painting the Virgin. In Van Eyck's pic- ture of this scene, the patron of the art is making a drawing only ; he has no colours at hand. Such was the mode in which the Flemish artist himself would study a portrait intended to be painted. Raphael, in treating the same subject, has placed a vasellino in the Saint's left hand : he may have done so from a desire to follow the older repre- sentations: the circumstance cannot, in this in- stance, be considered as evidence that the painters of the time (and the picture is not an early work of the master) did not use the palette. In the " Hortulus Amine," printed at Nuremberg in 1519, St. Luke holds the modern implement. In later * " Ma quello che era piu bello e da ridere si e, che stando cinto, aveva intorno intorno piena la correggia di pignatti pieni di colori temperati, di modo die pareva il diavolo di S. Maca- rio con quelle sue tante ampolle ; e quando lavorava con gli occhiali al naso, arebbe fatto ridere i sassi." — Vita di Bagna- cavallo. d d 2 404 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL representations of the sixteenth century, the only remarkable circumstance is the diminutive size of the palette. This is no le,s$ striking in some of the portraits of artists accompanying the eulogies of Lampsonius.* The habit is perhaps to be traced to the practice of finishing portions of a picture at once (for which few tints would be required), a practice which, as above shown, was at first com- mon: it also indicates a previous preparation of the tints. Later painters, who adopted a freer system, appear to have had no resource but either to use several palettes, and, like Guido, to change them often, or to keep the larger imple- ment, described by Palomino, beside them.f For a considerable period after the introduction of the improved oil painting, colours were kept in a dry state, and were mixed with the vehicle, in the quantity required, immediately before they were used. They were ground, as has been seen, in a * Elogia in Effigies Pictorum celebrium Germanise inferioris. Antw., 1572. f Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, vol. ii. p. 64. Ridolfi {Le Maraviglie delV Arte, vol. i. p. 49.), in gratuitously stating that Antonello da Messina was observed by Giovanni Bellini to dip his brush occasionally in linseed oil, at least described the habit of his own time. Others employed an essential oil for the same purpose. In the latter practice (which was common in the 16th and 17th centuries) the earlier masters may have thought that there was a danger of diluting the pigments unequally, and of not preserving a homogeneous surface. Their tints were prepared in the precise state in which they were to be applied. CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 405 pure drying oil ; afterwards, a few drops of varnish were added to each tint, the quality of the varnish being varied according to the nature of the colour. The earliest notices of oil colours being kept in bladders occur in English treatises. It would seem that the frequent visits of Dutch and Flemish painters to this country suggested the mode of carrying prepared pigments* in a convenient form : itinerant portrait-painters, especially, could, by such a contrivance, be more quickly prepared when their services were required.* The modern practice of keeping colours in this state has been necessarily influenced by views altogether different from those which would guide painters. The colour merchant prepared such materials so that they should not spoil on his hands ; in other * "I remember I had a parcel of colours given me in the year 1661, by a neighbouring yeoman, that were, as he said, left at his house by a trooper that quartered there in the time of the wars, about the year 164-4. This man was by profession a picture-drawer, and his colours were all tyed up in bladders according to the method before prescribed," &c. — Smith's Art of Painting in Oyl, (5th edition, 1723) p. 4. Palomino, whose Museo Pictorico was first published in 1715, communicates the method of tying colours in bladders as a new discovery. " Modo curioso de conservar los colores molidos a el olio," &c vol. ii. p. 54. The necessity of moisten- ing the pieces of bladder in water before the colour is placed in them may be mentioned among the objections to this practice. Metal tubes, although they may partially affect some tints, are on the whole preferable. See a paper by Mr. Linton in the Sixth Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, p. 24. note. j> n 3 406 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL words, so that they should not easily dry. The early painters, on the contrary, ground or mixed their colours in vehicles of different drying ten- dencies according to the nature of the pigment; and as the small quantity required was prepared for the occasion only, or was to last but a short time, the spoiling even of a certain portion would be of no consequence. The habits of the older masters, in the preparation of colours and in the mode of using certain pigments, will be further illustrated in the next Chapter. The leading methods which have been described differ in many respects from those of the Italian, and, in some, from those of the later Flemish masters. Painters of all schools have, indeed, recognised the principle that colours derive bril- liancy from light within them; but it was soon found that this object could be attained by various means. It matters not, for example, whether the internal brightness reside in the light ground, or whether it be reproduced at any stage of the work. •A preparation of the latter description, answering the same end as the white panel, may consist in a light but very solid painting, by means of which the composition may be defined ; and, when such a preparation is thickly painted, the colour of the ground underneath it is obviously unimportant. This conviction may have led to the introduction of dusky grounds ; but the indispensable condition of a solid and lighter covering upon such a priming CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 407 was gradually overlooked : some later Italian pic- tures exhibit the thin painting of the older Flemish masters on grounds requiring a contrary treatment, and premature decay has been uniformly the con- sequence. The opposite precaution, though appa- rently needless, is to be recommended; viz. that of employing a light ground, even when the picture is intended to be solidly painted. This was often Rembrandt's practice: it indicates his having reckoned on the possibility, at least, of leaving his ground ; accordingly it is sometimes apparent even in those of his pictures which are (partially) loaded with colour. It is evident that if cloth be employed instead of wood, and if the ground or preparation be thin, the colours constituting the picture or its substra- tum require to be applied in considerable body, in order to exclude air or damp from the back. The bad consequences of a neglect of this have been already noticed. There is thus a plain reason for solid painting on cloth, which is not applicable to panels ; and, as the Venetian oil painters happened to prefer cloth from the first, their whole process was soon influenced by this circumstance, and dif- fered widely in its means, though not in its end, from that of the Flemish masters. When Rubens remarked that wood was prefer- able for small pictures, he may, therefore, have meant that the solidity which is indispensable for works executed on cloth may be too apparent, D D 4 408 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL since small pictures can only be seen near. This and other principles of the kind, founded on a not unreasonable attention to the impressions of the ordinary spectator, were, however, set at nought by those who, like Rembrandt, considered art as an acknowledged convention, and who thought it at least unnecessary to conceal its means. It is also to be remembered, that, if a certain smooth- ness of surface be desired at last, the substance required may be furnished by a sufficiently thick ground (such as Armenini describes) ; the solidity of the picture, properly so called, is then not so essential. It was observed that the system of colouring adopted by the Van Eycks may have been in- fluenced by the practice of glass-painting. They appear, in their first efforts at least, to have con- sidered the white panel as representing light behind a coloured and transparent medium, and aimed at giving brilliancy to their tints by allowing the white ground to shine through them. If those painters and their followers erred, it was in some- times too literally carrying out this principle. Their lights are always transparent (mere white excepted) and their shadows sometimes want depth. This is in accordance with the effect of glass-stain- ing, in which transparency may cease with dark- ness but never with light. The superior method of Rubens consisted in preserving transparency chiefly in his darks, and in contrasting their lucid CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 409 depth with solid lights. Shadows produced in the mode of Kubens and Teniers are already, strictly speaking, glazed, a transparent colour being passed over a light ground to produce them. The ultimate glazings of the Italian schools were, therefore, less necessary in the Flemish process, and, accordingly, were seldom employed. They could, indeed, only be required for the lights ; and Rubens, in many instances, seems to have calculated on the effects of time, as sufficient for this object. He may have thought that the quality of depth, though desirable throughout a picture, should at all times be most apparent in shadows ; and that this, their distin- guishing attribute, would be less effective if the lights were treated on the same principle. The crudeness of bright pigments may undoubtedly be toned, to a certain extent, by the film which ac- cumulates with age, to say nothing of the effect of varnishes ; but, where transparency (no matter how produced) is wanting, in any degree, in shadows, time rather increases the defect.* * The proverb of the Italians, " il Tempo dipinge," is to be understood chiefly of the tone which solid lights may acquire. A critic of the last century, dwelling on the qualities which time cannot confer, observes : " Ricordatevi almeno, che se il Tempo dipinge, non hamai disegnato." — Lettere Pittoriche (Milano, 1822), vol. vii. p. 339. The good effects of time on pictures may be said to belong to the painter's intention, and should be respected accordingly. In cases where it might even be historically certain that a picture had not been originally glazed, yet, as the painter 410 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL It is unnecessary to advert to the more striking imperfections commonly noticed in the works of Yan Eyck ; the meagreness in some of his forms, his occasional hardness, and his want of reflections : they were obviated in a great measure in his latter works, and perhaps, as regards the execution, there does not exist a finer specimen of his powers than the picture by him in the National Gallery. One defect, however, he avoided (and the same may be said of the minutest finishers among the Dutch painters), a defect from which modern artists of all schools are by no means free. When Vasari, in dwelling on the advantages of oil painting, observed that tempera was executed with the point of the brush, he meant to stigmatise the greatest defect of the latter process, viz. the hatched and stippled appearance which betrays the labour of the hand, and reduces painting (in respect to its execution) to a seemingly mechanical operation. If this was looked upon as a defect in tempera, it was likely to be considered unpardonable in oil painting. At all events, it is never to be detected in the smallest and most highly finished works of the Flemish and Dutch painters.* Either the probably calculated on the effects of time for producing the requisite tone, it must often be a question whether the patina so acquired may represent the intended change or may have overpassed it. * Van Gool remarks that Karel de Moor latterly adopted a stippled manner in finishing, his earlier works being quite CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 411 handling is free, as in Jeronimus Bos or his great successor Teniers ; or the surface is produced, ap- parently at least, at one flow, without any indica- tions of touch. The latter mode is that of Yan Eyck, and afterwards of Mieris and others. But in none is the line or point (the tratteggiare, pun- teggiare of the tempera painters) visible : the system was even banished from the later works in tempera, and survived only in what Fuseli calls " the ela- borate anguish of missal-painting." When it is remembered that Van Eyck himself sometimes wrought as an illuminator, and when it is re- membered how minute the execution of some of the early painters was in their engravings and pen drawings, it is not a little surprising that they should have been enabled, in any degree, to forget their habitual methods when they had to deal with oil painting. It remains to observe that the qualities in colour which, notwithstanding his occasional dryness, Van Eyck attained deserve to be classed among the essential excellences of the new method, and opened up its resourses. The leading attribute of the ma- terial of oil painting, as distinguished from those of free from it. " In zynen laetsten tyt deet hy de laetste over- schildering al stippelende .... maer voor myn keur zou ik de eerste manier de beste houden." — De nieuwe Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders, &c, in 's Gravenhage, 1750, vol. ii. p. 432. Perhaps no instance occurs in the earlier Dutch or Flemish writers where such a manner is even mentioned. 412 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL tempera and fresco, viz. its power to transmit the light of an internal surface through superposed substances more or less diaphanous, was recognised and ex- pressed. It is true, the early miniature-painting, when not restricted (as it sometimes was) to body- colours, exhibited the effect of a light ground under the tints ; but this impression was far more com- plete when the coloured medium, like glass or like a glassy varnish, had, as it were, a distinct ex- istence, and was sensibly interposed between the light ground and the spectator. The important attribute of depth was thus proved to be greatly within the power of the new art ; and it is the more probable that Van Eyck founded much of his style on the principle of glass-painting, because the characteristics of inward brightness and extreme force were sooner and more fully attained by him than the quality of roundness. His feeling for depth was, however, shown to be nearly allied to that of gradation, by his singular fondness for re- presenting the effects of distance on form. His knowledge of perspective far surpassed that of Pietro della Francesca, Paolo Uccello, and his other Italian contemporaries. Vasari extols perspective designs executed for the first time, as he appears to think, at the close of the fifteenth century, which are not to be compared with some works of the kind by Van Eyck. Again, in Paolo Uccello (the chief early representative of the science in Italy) the love of perspective is to be traced to a CONSIDERED GENERALLY. 413 dependence on its mathematical rules, without the slightest feeling for it as a measure of space.* Yan Eyck, on the contrary, while he shrunk from no labour which the mere science imposed, seems to have considered its most elaborate results only as a means of representing depth, and of contributing to the pleasing illusion of atmosphere and distance. With such aims it is not surprising that he should substitute, for the customary gilt field behind the principal figures, the cheerful openness of sky and background, and all the indications of inward, as opposed to superficial, extent.f He may have felt that the triumph was even more conspicuous in small dimensions. Facius, in describing the picture of the Bath (in Vasari's time in the possession of the Duke of Urbino), speaks of " horses and men of minute size [reduced by perspective] , mountains, forests, villages, castles, wrought with such art that one would suppose them spread over a space of fifty miles." J Giorgione was thought to have added to * " Fece i campi azzurri, le citta di color rosso, e gli edificj variati secondo che gli parve ; ed in questo manco," &c. — Vasari, Vita di Paolo Uccello. Compare Dr. "Waagen, Ueber Hubert und Johann Van Eyck, Breslau, 1822, p. 131. f See the just observations of Dr. Waagen (ib. p. 132.) on this subject. Among the rare instances of an open background in tempera pictures, before Van Eyck's time, may be mentioned a Madonna and Child by the elder Bizzamano. (See Peintres Primitifs, par M. Le Chevalier Artaud de Montor, Paris, 1843, pi. iii.) J "Et item equi, hominesque perbrevi statura, montes, ne- 414 METHODS OF THE FLEMISH SCHOOL. the resources of painting by exhibiting the back of a figure (whose front only was turned to the spec- tator) in a mirror. It is not impossible that he may have borrowed the idea from this same picture by Yan Eyck. The writer above quoted, in another part of his description, says : " One of the females shows only her face and bosom, but a mirror which is on the other side, reflects her back, so that she is seen in that view as well as in front."* A mirror is introduced in the picture by Van Eyck in the National Gallery ; it is a remarkable example of the feeling of the painter for depth, since it (ap- parently) extends the limits of the space repre- sented. In this work too, as in most of his interiors, he does not omit to give a glimpse of the bright sky through the open window. In the chiaroscuro picture of St. Barbara, before mentioned, the only portion coloured is the blue sky, as if the painter's first object had been to remind himself of the idea of space. mora, pagi, castella tanto artificio elaborata, ut alia ab aliis quinquaginta millibus passuum distare credas." — Facius De Viris Ulustribus, quoted by Morelli, Notizia d? Opere di Disegno, &c. p. 117. * "E quis unius os tantummodo pectusque demonstrans posteriores corporis partes per speculum pictum lateri opposi- tum ita expressit, ut et terga, quemadmodum pectus videas." — lb. MODES OF STRENGTHENING PANELS. 415 NOTE ON THE MODES OF STRENGTHENING PANELS BY LEDGES OR BATTENS. Panels on which fine pictures have been executed are often injured by the misapplication of parquetting. It would, there- fore, appear that the method of safely strengthening wood by ledges, however familiar to cabinet-makers, is not so gene- rally understood as could be wished, by those who under- take operations of far greater importance than the construction of the most costly furniture. A reference to some elementary facts connected with this subject may, therefore, not be without its use. The fibres of a plank of wood, sawn in the usual way, run lengthwise. The expansion or contraction which can take place acts chiefly, if not solely, at right angles to the direc- tion of those fibres. When this action is equal on both surfaces of the plank, the wood preserves its plane, although it may be altered in lateral extent. When the action is greater on one surface of the plank than on the other, whether from a dif- ference of temperature or from any other unequal conditions, the wood is not only altered in lateral extent, but ceases to be flat, and is said to wind or warp. In this partial alteration, concavity indicates the shrinking of the surface ; such shrink- ing being generally the consequence of the evaporation or destruction of the sap. If a thin piece of wood be exrjosed to heat till it begins to be charred, it will become concave on the side next the fire. The expansion or contraction of wood, under ordinary circumstances, is attributable to the presence or absence of moisture. A coat of paint, in as much as it protects the surface of wood from moisture and prevents eva- poration, is to be considered as tending to produce warping, if confined to one side, or if its effect be not otherwise coun- teracted. The warping of wood may be guarded against by forcible means ; but the application of such means with a view to 416 MODES OF STRENGTHENING PANELS prevent its splitting will generally accelerate the evil it is in- tended to obviate. The wood being assumed to be well seasoned, the surest way to prevent its splitting is to leave it free to expand or contract according to the changes of temperature. If this free action be restrained in any point, the substance will sooner or later, in all probability, rend somewhere. The first principle to observe, therefore, is, never to glue or in any way immovably fasten to the wood a ledge or batten in a direction contrary to that of the fibres. But, as ledges may require to be placed in that direction to prevent the warping of the panel, they should be attached in such a manner as, in answering that end, to allow of the lateral expansion or contrac- tion. The general principle thus proposed may be carried out in various ways. The usual and effectual mode adopted in carpentry is to sink dovetailed ledges in corresponding grooves at the back of the panel. The ledges are not glued or even tightly fitted, but their keyed form prevents their falling out ; and when used in a vertical direction, as in dadoes, they rest on the floor. They may or may not be flush with the surface of the wood, according to its thickness ; in general they project above it. Another mode which has been adopted with success for picture panels* (which are sometimes too thin to admit of sink- ing grooves in them with safety) is to glue battens, formed of a wood not firmer than that of the panel, in a direction parallel to that of the fibres. The ordinary glue, thus applied on a narrow extent only of surface, will always expand as much as the wood of the panel ; so will the battens. Thus, no force is applied sufficient to restrain the free action proposed. Each of the battens is grooved at corresponding intervals on its under side, next the panel; and through these grooves flat cross pieces, touching the panel, are passed. These, which are at right angles to the battens, and consequently at right angles also to the direction of the fibres of the panel, are not only not * Particularly by Mr. Francis Leedham, whose skill in lining pictures, and in transferring them from wood to cloth, is well known and appreciated. BY LEDGES OR BATTENS. 417 glued, but are not even tightly fitted. They are secured at each end, so as not to slip out, by not passing through the two last battens, which are, consequently, fastened on afterwards. In either of the above methods the edges of the panel should not be confined by a strong frame, but merely by slips suffi- cient to protect the edges of the picture from chipping. What- ever substance be employed for this purpose, and in whatever mode the slips are attached, they should offer no force'which the expanding or contracting action of the panel cannot easily overcome. As regards the glue employed to fasten the planks of a panel together, it is to be observed that, if not used in undue quan- tity, it merely represents one of the harder fibres of the wood (the intervals between which chiefly undergo alteration); its strength therefore does not, in this case, appear to be objection- able. But the glue used to fasten the ledges or battens, in the mode described, should on no account be so strong as not to obey the dilatation or contraction of the wood. When the panel is sufficiently thick, the planks of which it is composed may not only be glued but grooved (midway in their substance) across the joint, and feather-tongued. With respect to the seasoning of wood, the action of the air is generally considered sufficient. Steam has, however, been applied with effect to destroy or consolidate the sap ; and thus the propriety of Cennini's recommendation to boil the wood, when- ever its dimensions admit of the operation, is indirectly re- cognised in modern practice. All such methods are, however, partial only in their effect. It is found, for example, that planks which may have served for flooring even for a century or more, if planed, become again liable to all the changes which new wood would undergo.* * "Wood in general, if exposed to drought, continues to shrink permanently more or less, especially in the lateral direction, or across its fibres, so long as it lasts ; and, when alternately exposed to the expanding and contracting influences of moisture and drought, the permanent contraction is upon the whole accelerated and increased." — Encycl. Britannica, art. Hygrometry. E E 418 CHAP. XII. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. The practice of oil painting before the fifteenth century, however limited in its application, afforded ample means of testing the durability of colours mixed with the half-resinified vehicle. In this re- spect the inventors of the new method may be said to have inherited a long experience. The deco- rators, who had employed oil painting, had noted much that was calculated to be of service in a more refined exercise of the art ; while, in all that related to the purification of the materials used for pig- ments, the tempera painters, and especially the illuminators, had set the example of the most scru- pulous care. With regard to the materials themselves, it does not appear that any colours of importance, used by the Flemish painters, are now unknown : on the other hand, some valuable pigments have been dis- covered by the moderns, of which those painters were ignorant. In investigating the practice of the early masters, it is therefore chiefly of consequence to inquire what process the substances finally un- derwent before they were used as pigments ; and by PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 419 what contrivances colours which, under ordinary circumstances, were fugitive or changeable, were rendered durable. Brilliancy, and purity from noxious ingredients, were proposed by the operations of grinding and washing. The perfect levigation of colours by such means was indispensable in the art of illuminating ; indeed, far more so than in oil painting : but the Van Eycks, who themselves practised the former method, were not likely to abandon their habitual precautions in undertaking a new process. The finest trituration of certain substances was consi- dered no less essential in tempera. Cennini, who enters fully into this subject, observes : " This colour [white lead] is the better the more it is ground."* Again : " Grind this black for half an hour or an hour, or as much as you please ; but know that if you were to grind it for a year it would be blacker and better in tint."f Of sinopia (here meaning a red earth) he says : " The longer it is ground the finer [in tint] it becomes." J Of vermilion : " If you were to grind it for twenty years it would still be better." § Ochre, in like manner, " still becomes more perfect " by grind- ing || ; and orpiment, "if you were to grind it for ten years, would still be improved," | In general, * Trattato, c. 59. J lb. c. 38. || lb. c. 45. 2 t lb. c. 36. § lb. c. 40. 4 lb. c. 47. 420 PREPARATION OP COLOURS. it is found that colours are more vivid in propor- tion as they are finely comminuted ; but this is by no means universally the case. Cennini himself remarks that some substances are to be ground but little ; he mentions the green and blue carbonates of copper and Naples yellow (giallorino) as pig- ments which are injured in tint by much grind- ing.* The habits of the missal-painters were inherited by the illuminators (limners) of the 16th and 17th centuries, a class of artists who were celebrated in England at those periods. As regards the careful preparation of pigments, the recorded methods of these later painters agree with those of their pre- decessors, and, in the history of technical processes, may be considered of equal authority. They di- vided colours into four classes, viz. those which required to be washed and ground, those which were to be washed only, those which were to be ground only, and those which required neither operation. The liquid vegetable extracts, for ex- ample, could be neither washed nor ground ; ivory and blue blacks, and some other colours, were ground only ; white lead was washed and ground ; minium, massicot, bice, ultramarine, smalt, and some other substances, were washed only.f * Trattato, c. 35. 46. 52. | Norgate, The Art of Limning ether by y e Life, Landscip, or Histories, MS. Compare Sanderson, Graphice, London, 1658, p. 55.; Brown, Ars Pictoria, London, 1675, p. 78. It PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 421 Norgate, referring to the last-named class, ob- serves : "If you thincke to make them fine by- much grinding, they instantly loose their beauty, becomeing starved and dead." He then minutely describes the process now called " washing over" or elutriation (a method commonly practised, not only in the manufacture of colours, but for other purposes), by which the substance was reduced to an impalpable state. The process is as follows. The colour, for example red lead, is first moistened to render it easily miscible ; it is then placed in a basin, which is nearly filled with pure water. Being stirred and allowed to settle, the first scum, together with the fluid, is thrown away. After being well stirred in fresh water, the grosser parts only are allowed to settle, and the coloured water, in which the finer particles are still floating, is poured ofl* into another basin. Water being added to the second basin, the colour is again stirred, and, as soon as the coarser parts have subsided, the rest is again poured off into a third basin. The opera- tion is repeated six or seven times, the colour be- appears that several copies of Norgate's treatise are extant. Dallaway, in his notes to Walpole (vol. ii. p. 43.), speaks of one in the Bodleian Library, dated 1654, which commences thus : " There are now more than twenty years past, since, at the request of that learned physician, Sir Theodore May- erne, I wrote the ensuing discourse." Another transcript is in the possession of Sir Henry Bunbury, Bart. ; and a third, from which the above extracts are taken, is the property of the author of the present work. e e 3 422 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. coming finer with each washing. According to the old process, the various sediments were then again washed with pure water, and any greasy scum floating on the surface was thrown away. " And if," observes Norgate, "you perceive a scum still to rise upon the water, pour it off again and again till the colour be clear. The scum is chalk and other filth in the colour [red lead], which you are to wash off as long as it doth arise." In the example of the process (on a very moderate scale) here quoted, large shells are used instead of basins. The writer continues : " The colour left in the first two shells is dross, but the colours in the other shells are for limning, and the colour in the fourth shell is finer and fairer than the colour in the third shell," and so on. The now pure water being abs- tracted, the shells with their sediments of colour are placed in the sun to dry. " This done, put your colour into several boxes or papers, reserveing the finest for your best use ; your rest or courser sorts you may keep for your ordinary work."* The small scale of the operation excepted, there * In his ' Art of Painting in Oyl by y e Life," forming an appendix to his Art of Limning^ Norgate gives the following directions for washing. " Your readiest way for red lead is to put it into a fine cloth, and when it is tyed up (gathering the edges of the cloth together), shake and slubber it in a basin of fair water untill all the finest of it be washed out of the cloth Try allsoe whether this way of washing will doe well for masticote, bise, verditure, and smalt, for I never proved it." PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 423 is no difference between the process here noticed and the modern " washing over " in the manufac- ture of very fine colours. There can be no doubt that the first oil painters, inheriting the me- thods of the illuminators, had the patience to prepare their choicer materials in this way. The older practice, though quite as minute, was in some respects less clumsy than that of the limners of the 17th century. Instead of shells, which were employed chiefly as receptacles for the colours in painting, the missal-painters used a cone-shaped glass (cornu pictoris)* ; this was better adapted for collecting the sediment and pouring off the turbid and coloured water containing the finer par- ticles. The ultimate operation described by Nor- gate, viz. washing, as distinguished from elutriation, is also commonly referred to in the ancient re- ceipts. In general, all foreign matter of the coarser kind subsides sooner than the pigment ; the mere wash- * "Ad purificandum azurium. — H.lazuru sive de alamania sive ultra marinu et fortiter duchatur sup lapidem sine mistione aque . . . postea ipsu accipias et ponatur I chornu pictoris et ponatur sechu de aqua clara etbene duchatur cum bach ullo," &c. — Venetian MS., Sloane MSS. 416. " Vermiculum molendum est cum aqua et in cornu deinde mittendum et postquam in cornu positum fuerit implendum est cornu totum aqua," &c. — Sloane MS. 1754. The " cornu pictoris," when perforated, as in the mode of washing oil before described, might serve as a filter, fine cloth being placed within it. e e 4 424 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. ing process had therefore only the effect of freeing the colour from lighter impurities, and particularly from soluble ingredients. The following example occurs in the Venetian MS. u To purify vermi- lion. — Take vermilion in the lump and grind it on the stone, first dry, and afterwards with pure water. Then put it in a shell and place it on warm ashes, that the moisture may be evaporated. When it is dry put it in a horn of glass, and throw in strong gum water ; stir it with a stick, and then let it settle ; throw away the first water, and re- peat the operation two or three times. Thus your vermilion is purified."* * " A purgare lo cinapo.— Toy locinapo itiegro e maxinalo sopra la pietra a seco e poy cu aqua chiara e poy lamiti i uno caparaco e mitilo sopra lacene calda aco che la humidita vada via eqn sra seco mitilo I uno cornicelo de vedro e toy aqua de goma forte ebutagela dent 0 che stage amoglio emescolalo como uno steco e poy lasalo riposare ebuta via laprima e fa cussi due volte overo tre esra purgato el tuo cenapo." A modern writer on oil painting considers it " above all im- portant to invite the attention of the artist to the necessity of subjecting the colours, especially the ordinary pigments which are chemically prepared, to a cleansing process before they are mixed with oil. After showing the importance of this in the instance of white lead, he adds the following example : — " Grind rose madder lake in water and suffer it to dry on the stone. The colour will soon exhibit a number of needle- like crystals and a white saline efflorescence ; both of which have an extremely bitter and pungent taste. When placed in the filter, the water from this colour quickly exhibits the evidence of the saline ingredient ; so much so, that twenty or thirty washings are often necessary to free the colour from it. The PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 425 It has been seen that, in washing minium, a scum which floated quite on the surface was thrown away, either because it was supposed to be a foreign substance, or from its otherwise tending to injure the tint ; but the minuter particles of the colour itself were reserved as the purest and best portion. The .painters of the 14th century had observed that such particles are sometimes lighter in colour than the rest.* It would appear from a passage in the MSS. of Alcherius, that a common term was appropriated to this " extract" in all colours. " Bisetus, or the Biseth of folium, is less red in colour than folium itself, and is taken from that por- tion which floats on the surface. I believe that this term is applicable, in the same sense, to the lighter tint of any colour when tempered in shells for painting, [such lighter tint rising to the surface] after the colour has settled a little." f efflorescence and crystals in question are alum, which thus exists in excess in the colour, and without a previous cleansing would be introduced into the substance of the picture." The same writer remarks that the effects of the filter on Prussian blue are no less convincing ; and repeats that, in all these cases, the injurious consequences would not be confined to the impure colours themselves, but would affect other tints with which they might be brought in contact." — Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, p. 58. * Ultramarine is an exception ; the minutest particles floating near the surface of the water are the purest and darkest in colour. f " Bisetus vel Biseth foliiest color minus rubens quam folium, et de eodem folio cum supernatat acceptus. Et credo per hoc 426 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. The first tint of certain substances was some- times thrown away. De Mayerne gives an exam- ple* ; but he refers to elutriation as follows. " All colours may be varied in quality in washing. The first particles which become diffused equally in the water form the finest [tint] ; the last, the coarsest. Grind white lead first in water, then wash and suffer it to settle awhile ; pour off the still turbid fluid, and let it rest. The sediment which it will form will be very pure, and more durable than the dregs [in the first vessel]. "j* etiam potest intelligi qualiter clarescens color supernatans cui- libet ex coloribus cum in conchillis temperati sunt ad pingendum et aliquantulum quieverunt." The colour " folium," described by Theophilus and all the early writers, appears to be the English woad, sometimes con- founded with the " folium Indicum." Besides its ordinary blue tint, the substance, it seems, furnished a purple and a red colour. * The following memorandum appears in the Mayerne MS. under the name of Norgate. " Pour faire bonne cendree d'azur avec la bice des Indes. — II le fault mettre en poudre tres subtile sur un porphyre, non en metal, parcequ'il noircit et entre aultres le V- [tin]. La pierre, quoiqu'elle soit noire, estant lavee, elle devient bleu. Pilez, broyez, lavez avec vinaigre. La poudre au commencement est verte. Ce vert s'en va avec le vinaigre ; le bleu reste au fonds." — MS. p. 22. f " Toutes couleurs, en se lavant, se peuvent diversifier. Les premieres qui se meslent exactement parmy l'eau sont les plus fines, les dernieres plus grossieres. Le blanc de plomb broye premierement avec l'eau puis lave et laisse rasseoir en decantant l'eau trouble faict une residue qui est tres belle et meurt moings que le fonds." — lb. p. 97. This washing may sometimes require to be repeated several times in the instance of white lead. (See Fernbach, Die Oelmalerei, p. 58.) PEEPARATION OF COLOURS. 427 This finer portion, like the "Bisetus" of the medieval painters, is, in some instances, a change in the tint itself, as well as in its depth. Thus the lighter tint of vermilion, obtained in the mode de- scribed, inclines to orange, as compared with the colour from which it is separated.* The perfect levigation of colours was of great importance to the oil painters on another account, besides the improvement of the tint. De Mayerne frequently remarks that the fading, ofFuscation, or, as it was called, the M death" of colours, is the con- sequence of their sinking in the oil. The altera- tion too often observable in colours which are themselves permanent may undoubtedly be so pro- duced. The formation of a thick and more or less yellow skin of oil above delicate blues and greys, if not literally equivalent to their " death, " may at least be said to entomb them. " The death of colours," observes De Mayerne, " is [that appear- ance which takes place] when the supernatant oil in drying forms a skin, which darkens by [long] exposure to the air. There are some colours, such as the smalts, which are not easily miscible with oil, but always subside without combining with it. They thus easily fade and become darkened."* * Field's well-known " extract of vermilion." Fernbach pro- bably means another substance, when he says that " the colour called purified vermilion blackens in a very short time if exposed to the sun." — Die Oelmalerei, p. 51. f " La mort des couleurs est quand l'huyle, nageant au dessus, 428 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. Smalt, on account of its vitreous nature, cannot be very finely ground without losing much of its tint. The sinking of the colour would thus appear to be partly the consequence of the magnitude of its particles. Various contrivances, resorted to by the Flemish painters in Van Mander's time, to ob- viate the consequences of this, have been already noticed. They consisted in providing for the ab- sorption of the oil, or in using a bleached oil of the purest kind. The example which smalt affords of the sinking of the colouring substance (or, as it is sometimes called, the rising of the oil), and the modes of pre- venting it, throw some light on the practice of the early masters in regard to the preparation both of pigments and vehicles. To obviate the defect in question it might be proposed that the colour should be impalpable ; that its vehicle should not only be as colourless as possible, but should possess as much firmness as is consistent with sharpness of execution. Accordingly, all these conditions were attended to in the first practice of oil paint- ing. The expedient of thickening the vehicle with the view here indicated is alluded to by De May- erne ; a receipt for a clear but half-resinified oil (before given) is thus headed: " To make a thick se seiche et faict une peau qui noircit a l'air. Ilya quelques couleurs, et les esmaulx entre aultres, qui ne se meslent pas aisement avec l'huyle, mais vont tousjours a fonds sans se lier, et ainsi meurent facilement et noircissent." — MS. p. 9. verso. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 429 yet clear and very drying oil, fit to mix with colours which want body, in order to sustain them and prevent their sinking in oil."* The superior method of Rubens in meeting the particular diffi- culty which smalt presents will be noticed in the next chapter. The other obvious method, which, for the reasons before given, was not possible or advisable in the instance of smalt and in a few other cases, was to reduce the colouring substance to the most impal- pable state, so as to insure its admixture with (or suspension in) the vehicle. The minute particles of white lead, or of any other colour, which float long near the surface of water during the operation of washing, are not likely to sink in a much thicker fluid. The heaviness of the substance in a com- pact state was thus of little consequence, provided the particles were infinitely comminuted. The colour was effectually dried after washing, to pre- vent, as far as possible, the tendency to cake, es- pecially since it was not always possible to attain * " Pour faire une huile espaisse fort siccative, propre a mesler les couleurs qui manquent de corps, afin de leur en dormer, pour ne tomber a fonds de l'huile." — MS. p. 16. Smalt, inasmuch as it will not bear much grinding, is said to have no body. In another sense, its particles being coarse, it might be said to have more substance than other colours. But in any view of this point smalt would be included in the colours referred to by the physician, because it is especially liable to sink in (unprepared) oil. 430 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. the requisite fineness by subsequent grinding con- sistently with perfection of hue. If, therefore, the tempera painters reduced most of their pigments to an impalpable state, because, as Cennini remarks, the tint was thus greatly im- proved, and if the illuminators spared no pains for the attainment of the same object, the oil painters may be said to have had even additional reasons for following the established practice. Colours so prepared, when thinly spread over a white ground, not only exhibited that ground, and consequently their own hues in greater brilliancy, but were in less danger of sinking in the vehicle ; while the oleo-resinous vehicle itself was of a nature to sus- tain the finely comminuted particles. Under these circumstances the colouring substance was as near the surface, and as little covered with the pure medium with which it was combined, as was con- sistent with its protection from the air ; for these two causes of change, the effects of a humid atmo- sphere and the undue thickness of the pellicle of oil, both required to be guarded against, and the endeavour to fulfil these conditions appears to have gradually defined the method of the early Flemish oil painters.* * To carry this principle to its utmost extent, it only remained to scatter the pigment in dust on the surface, before such surface was dry. This, as will be seen, was literally done in some cases. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 431 Another contrivance to keep the colour above the oil, which was adopted by some later masters of the school, rather belonged to the Italian, and strictly to the Venetian, practice. It consisted in mixing an essential oil with all colours which were more especially injured in their effect by the super- natant vehicle. White, blues, and all delicate tints, including flesh tints, were thus treated. Scheffer, in his short, but not unimportant, observations on the different vehicles for colours, says that white should be tempered with spike oil (in addition to the ordinary medium).* Pacheco boasts that he used linseed oil with blues without fear. His me- thod was to dip his brush occasionally in spike oil, thus causing the linseed oil to subside, and pro- ducing the effect which is called (improperly as applied to the pigment) "sinking in."f De May- erne observes : "If, in using blue, a little spike oil be added to the cendre d'azur it does not fade." J Elsewhere, after speaking of the " death" of colours, in consequence of their subsiding in the oil, he again remarks : " Nota. The addition of spike oil to white or blue effectually prevents their fading ; * " Cerussam spicae oleo temperare melius putatur." — Gra- phice, Norimb. 1669, p. 179. | " I no tengo por malo mojar el pincel en el [azeite] de Es- pliego cuando se va pintando, porque ayuda a rebeverse." — Arte de Pintura, &c. p. 392. J " Quand on travaille avec bleu, si on ajouste a la cendre d'azur un peu d'huyle d'aspic, la couleur ne meurt pas." — MS. p. 5. 432 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. I repeat this because it is a great secret." * The same recommendation appears under the name of Latombe. " With regard to blue, two or three drops of spike oil should be added to it ; thus the colour sinks in, does not shine, and, having no oily skin on its surface, never fades, but remains bright."f According to another authority, "green does not fade, if, before applying it, a few drops of naphtha, or spike oil, or well rectified spirit of tur- pentine, be added to it on the palette ; this causes the colour to sink in, and whatever sinks in does not fade." J The following communication from Mytens is dated September 18. 1629. " The way to make all kinds of colours sink in and look dull, and to prevent their shining, is to temper them on the palette with linseed or nut oil, to a pound of which a quarter of an ounce of spike oil has been added." § The editor of De Piles, who was well * " N. L'addition de l'huyle d'aspic au blanc et au bleu, qui fait qu'ils ne mourront jamais, ce que je repete parceque c'est un grand secret." — MS. p. 10. f (| " Pour le bleu fault adj ouster un peu d'huile d'aspic, deux ou trois gouttes, ainsi la couleur penetre, ne reluit point, et, n'ayant point de peau huileuse a la superficie, ne meurt jamais, mais de- meure belle." — lb. p. 11. \ " Un peintre Francois. Le vert ne meurt pas, si, quand on le met en ceuvre, on adjouste sur la palette quelques gouttes de petrole ou d'huyle d'aspic ou de therebenthine fort clair. Cela faict emboire la couleur, et ce qui s'emboit ne meurt point." — lb. p. 9. § " M. Mitens, peintre tres excellent. 18 Septembre, 1629 .... Le moyen de faire emboire toutes sortes de couleurs, les rendre PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 433 acquainted with the methods of his time, records a similar process*: Felibienf and Dupuy du Grez J also recommend it, and the authors of the Encyclopedie Methodiqve^ repeat the same advice. De May erne does not omit to remark that, when the surface of an unfinished picture shines, the oil of a superadded layer of colour readily combines with that of the inner, leaving the external face without gloss : but (he might have added), if the inner surface be quite dry, this effect will not take place. By whatever means the inner surface attracts or absorbs the oil the outer will look dull : on the other hand, mere polish (as in the instance of glass) does not of itself produce the appearance which is called " sinking in." || mattes, et einpescher qu'elles ne reluisent, est de les destremper sur la palette avec de l'huile de lin ou de noix, a, une livre de laquelle on ait adjouste settlement un quart d'once d'lmile d'aspic." — lb. p. 95. * ETemens de Peinture Pratique, Paris, 1776, p. 139. The original edition of this work (1684) is extremely scarce, and in the "edition entitlement refondue et augmentee" of Jombert, which has superseded it, it is difficult to say what portion belongs to De Piles. The French writers on art of the 17th century, and their followers, evidently borrowed their technical details from Flemish authorities ; their testimony is valuable accordingly. f Des Principes de l'Architecture, de la Sculpture, de la Peinture, &c, Paris, 1697, p. 298. % Traite sur la Peinture, Paris, 1700, p. 245. 252. § Encyc. Method. Beaux Arts, tome ii. p. 652. 657. || See Franchi, La Teorica della Pittura, &c, Lucca, 1739, p. 169. F F 434 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. The use of an essential oil with the colours was not, in all cases, intended to produce a dull sur- face ; that effect depends on the quantity em- ployed, and also on the nature of the original vehicle. A certain proportion, serving only to dilute a thick oleo-resinous medium, was compati- ble with the glossy surface, which was an especial object with the early Flemish masters, and which superseded a final varnish. It has been seen that works so executed were frequently completed at once. But when, in a later practice, the picture was laid in, or, in the modern sense of the term, dead-coloured, it was desirable that the surface, which was to be again painted upon, should not shine. The Venetians, who covered their pictures repeatedly, took every precaution to prevent the colours from shining ; and, as this system was pur- sued more or less to the end of the work, they gene- rally found it necessary to add a varnish at last. The varnish so applied was by no means thick : pictures retain their brilliancy in a dry climate with the least possible protection of their surface. A. Spanish writer, after prohibiting the use of ver- digris, red lead, the green carbonate of copper, and orpiment, adds, that in (the dry air of) Andalusia these colours will last.* It is well known that the causes of change in pigments are, in many in- stances, doubly active, or only active when assisted by humidity. Thus, if a strip of paper coloured * Palomino, El Museo Pictorico, tomo i. p. 56. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 435 with red lead be introduced into a volume of sul- phuretted hydrogen, it remains unchanged for a considerable time while dry ; but, if it be moistened, the discoloration is almost instantaneous. White lead, treated in the same manner, blackens quite as rapidly.* A protection of some sort was thus indispensable for the preservation of pictures in the damp climate of the Netherlands; the colours required, to use the painter's phrase, to be "locked up:" but this was accomplished not so much by an adventitious coating, which if removed would leave the surface almost exposed, as by inti- mately combining the substance of the pigment, and, as it were, clothing its atoms with the firm, drying, and colourless vehicle which has been before described. With respect to other causes of change, the pro- * "Although in England the whites of lead cannot be employed, except with oil or varnish, they are, as is commonly known, used in Italy as distemper pigments, and, under the influence of a dry and pure atmosphere, remain for a very long time un- changed, locked up by size only. When brought to this country, the distemper paintings executed with lead-whites are very quickly discoloured. If it were possible to keep them perfectly free from moisture, impure air would not so readily attack them : moisture greatly facilitates the combination of the lead-whites with sulphuretted hydrogen, the chief agent in the changes that take place. The prevalence and general diffusion of this agent in our large cities, assisted by the penetrating influence of our humid climate, which cannot by any known means be with cer- tainty guarded against, subject lead-whites to the changes which render them unavailable as water-colour pigments." — Commu- nication from Mr. Winsor (of the firm of Winsor and Newton). F F 2 436 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. tection from light would seem to be more needed in the South ; yet the custom of enclosing pictures in shrines was retained much longer on this side the Alps than in Italy : there, a silken curtain suf- ficed to protect the work from the solar rays, or from the action of strong light.* The Northern practice may, therefore, still be traced to the neces- sity of protecting pictures, not indeed from damp itself (which cannot be effectually excluded by the means adverted to), but from dust and smoke, and the impurities which more readily adhere to a moist surface. The permanence of colours was, for the above reasons, an object of especial attention in the schools of the Netherlands ; and perhaps the very experience which was the result may have led to an undue confidence : instances, at least, are not wanting, in which pigments of known instability were used by the best artists in those schools during the 17th century. The principal colouring substances employed at various times in Flanders and Holland will now be enumerated, together with some of the recorded expedients for insuring the durability of the tints. * The use of curtains before pictures, to protect them from strong light, is discussed and recommended by Mancini in his Trattato sopra le Pitture antiche. This work (referred to by Lanzi in treating of the Sienese school) exists in manuscript only ; it contains no information of importance. . On the use of triptychs in Italy and in Flanders, see a note at the end of this chapter. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 437 White. — Among the resources of the Flemish painters for correcting the lowering tendency of the "vehicle," may be mentioned their habit of paint- ing quite up to the brightness and force of nature. The observance of this principle is scarcely less apparent in the masters of the 15th century than in Rubens. The saying of an early Italian writer, " that it would be well for art if white paint were as dear as gems*," was often repeated in Flan- ders; yet it was an especial object to obtain white of the purest quality. The frequent observations of De May erne, on supposed discoveries of brilliant whites by the painters of his time, show how much attention was then given to this subject. All such novelties gave place, however, to the customary white leadf : this was refined and purified by washing, in the mode before described. When ground in oil it was kept in water, and was consi- dered to be still further improved in tint by being * Leon Battista Alberti, Delia Pittura e della Statua, lib. ii. ■f The " schelp-wit " mentioned by Hoogstraten {Inleyding^ &c. p. 220.) and the " schulp-weiss " of Sandrart ( Teutsche Acad, ler theil, p. 87.), literally " shell-white," mean only a lead-white prepared, according to the last-named author, in England during the seventeenth century. But Beurs, if his German translator is correct, speaks of the white prepared from (oyster) shells as preferable, for delicate works, to white lead. {Die grosse Welt, &c. p. 8.) The pearl-white, which is of this kind, is extremely brilliant, but has not body enough for oil. f f 3 438 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. exposed in this state to the sun.* The white of calcined hartshorn, according to a writer of the 14th century before quoted, is the only substance which can be safely mixed with orpiment to lighten it. Yellow. — Van Mander, referring to the tradi- tion respecting the use, by some painters of an- tiquity, of four colours only, remarks that the Flemish artists had a fuller scale in yellows alone ; for, he observes, " besides ochre, we have massicot, yellow lake, and two orpiments."f " The yellows which we use, 7 ' says Hoogstraten, " are light and brown Roman ochre, massicot, and yellow lake. Orpiment may also be sometimes employed in brilliant draperies." J De Bie enumerates massi- * " Blanc de plomb soit premierement broye avec l'eau, puis estant sec, avec l'huyle. Vous le mettez deux ou trois fois au soleil, couvert d'eau ; il devient beaucoup plus blanc." — May- erne MS. p. 6. " Toutes couleurs se peuvent garder broyees avec eau et seichees, et se destremper seulement avec l'huile, quand on en veult user, sur la palette, hormis le blanc de plomb, qui, estant dans l'eau, devient toujours plus beau." — lb. p. 86. ■f " Maer wy hebben nu wel al vier verscheyden Ghelen boven ten Oker in ons tenten, Masticot, schiet-gheel, en twee Oprementen." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 53. verso. J " 't Gheel, dat wy gebruiken, is lichten en bruinen Room- schen oker, mastekotten en schietgeelen. Men kan het opriment in schoone kleederen ook somtijts te pas brengen." — Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst, &c, Rotterdam, 1 678, p. 220. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 439 cot, ochre, and yellow lake * ; Beurs mentions king's yellow (yellow orpiment), light and brown ochre, massicot, red orpiment, and light and dark yellow lake.f He remarks that massicot blackens in time J; and Van Mander, speaking of the same colour, recommends that it should not be used in flesh, as it turns to a heavy tint, and, moreover, dries so rapidly as to be inconvenient to use ; very fine light ochre, he observes, is to be preferred. § It is remarkable that in none of these writers, or their contemporaries of the same school, is any substance mentioned which can be considered as intended to represent Naples yellow, a colour then common in Italy, and which is supposed to have been used by Rubens. On the other hand, no colour is more frequently named than yellow lake. As the ochres were chiefly relied on for flesh, it must have been an object to obtain them of the lightest and purest tint ; the browner kinds were more easily procured. Among the deeper yellows, * Het Gulden Cabinet, tot Lier, 1661, p. 209. f Die grosse Welt ins klein abgemahlet, zu Amsterdam, 1693, p. 6. J lb. p. 14. § " Ick meen den Masticot meuchdy wel swichten, En ghebruycken hier toe seer schoonen lichten Oker, als voorseyt is, t' is meer gheraden, Dan zijn Carnaty te gaen overladen Met dees swaer verwe, verstervich in 't hooghen, En quaet te verwercken door 't haesticb drooghen." I let Svhihlcr-Boech, p. 50. f f 4 440 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. the colours produced by the rust of iron (Mars yellow) are sometimes mentioned. One of De Mayerne's authorities appears to consider " ochre de rut " and " ochre de rouille " as synonymous.* An English writer of the seventeenth century in- cludes " the best rust " in a list of colours. f Massicot, though generally condemned, and fail- ing most when mixed with white, is often inci- dentally mentioned by the above writers as the light yellow which was chiefly in use. The colours coming under the head of yellow lake are numerous. Transparent tints of this kind, prepared from different vegetable substances, are described in the earliest records of painting. The extracts were originally applied as lackers, but, at a later period, most of the pigments of this description were reduced to a substantial form by impregnating white earths with the juice. My tens, quoted by De Mayerne, classed the ordinary yellow lake among the earths, on account of the chalk which served to give it body. J The ancient lackers were applied with the thickened oil, or with oleo-resinous mixtures ; and, thus protected, * MS. p. 123. Compare the Encyclopedic Methodique, art. Ochre. f Brown, Ars Pictoria, appendix, p. 5. J " My tens. Pour le jaulne l'ocre jaulne l'ocre brune qui donne un roux fort beau le schitgeel ou pinke peult aussi passer entre les terres parceque son corps est de craye quoique la teinture vient de l'herbe Isatis [read Reseda Luteola] laquelle est precipitee avec l'alum puis paytrie avec la craye." — MS. p. 123. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 441 may have appeared to later observers as very durable colours. The blue plants, and blue ivy leaves, sometimes conspicuous in Dutch pictures, and now deprived of their complemental yellow, show that the transparent tints of the latter were not always employed with due caution. The yellow lakes which were familiar in the seventeenth century differed but little from those now employed. The " graines d' Avignon " (Rham- nus infectorius), weld (Reseda Luteola), broom (Genista tin ctoria) *, and numerous other vegetable substances, including curcuma, saffron, aloes, and the inner rinds of various trees, are all occasionally mentioned; but none can be considered equal to the quercitron bark, from which the best specimens of this colour are at present prepared. f There was however one substance, viz. gamboge, now undeservedly fallen into disuse in oil painting, which is superior to most, if not to all, of those above named. The colouring matter united with its resinous portion, which renders it more durable in oil painting, may be easily freed from mere gum. J De Mayerne, it would seem on good * The yellow lake called scudegriin, according to a receipt quoted by De Mayerne, was prepared from the "fleurs de genestes." (MS. p. 172.) f For an account of this colour by its inventor, see Bancroft, Experimental Researches concerning the Philosophy of per- manent Colours, London, 1813, vol. ii. p. 112. % One method is to dissolve the gamboge in alcohol, and then precipitate the colour, united with the resinous portion, 442 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. grounds, pronounces in its favour ; and his specu- lations respecting the best mode of using it are confirmed by modern authorities. " Gamboge," he observes, " furnishes a beautiful yellow, constant, unfading, and that works freely." # Again : " There are two kinds of gamboge ; one, which is pure and very clean, now (1640) sells for eight shillings the lb. ; the other, dirtier, redder, and which, when ground, approaches an orange tint, only costs half that price. . . . The coarser kind answers best, and gives the splendour of gold perfectly, used alone." f He then describes his having mixed it with his amber varnish diluted with spirit of turpentine. He proceeds : u Portman thinks that the gilt leathers of Amsterdam, which are so beautiful, are varnished with this gum. J He is of opinion that by boiling by means of water. Another, and perhaps a better, mode is to dissolve the substance in ether ; the gum and impurities subside, leaving a yellow fluid. This is easily separated from the dregs ; and, when the ether is evaporated, the colouring matter, com- bined with a small quantity of resin, remains pure. * " Un beau jaune, constant et qui ne meurt point et qui s'estend excellemment, est le Gutta Gummi. Je croy qu'avec le bleu on en peult faire un verd excellent." — MS. p. 23. | "II y a deux sortes de Gutta Gummi ou Gambouja, Tune est pure et fort nette, dont la livre se vend 1640 pour huit shill., l'aultre plus sale, plus rousse, et qui broyee approche de l'aurange, ne coustant que la moitie du prix de la susditte. . . . La plus grossiere faict beaucoup mieux et donne l'esclat de Tor parfaitement, toute seule." — lb. p. 74. verso. \ The physician, who omits no particulars, remarks that the colour was spread by the leather-varnishers " en battant avec PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 443 it in oil it would dissolve better, and might be spread more easily. For myself, I do not think this necessary : I would grind it in very clear spirit of turpentine, and keep this preparation, of the con- sistence of honey, in a glass. To make use of it, I would temper it with my [amber] varnish, or any other of the kind which would render the colour sufficiently liquid, so as to be able to spread it with the brush." * He suggests that a very little clear drying oil might be added. le doigt," by tapping with the finger. Glazing-colours, which have no body, can only be applied by some such operation. Armenini directs that a pad or ball should be used, formed of cotton wrapped in a piece of linen ; " un piumazzolo di bambase coperto di tela lina." (I veri Precetti, p. 127.) * " Portman croit que les cuirs dores d' Amsterdam qui sont si beaux se dorent avec cette gomme. II croit qu'en la cuisant dans l'huile elle se dissoudra mieux, et se couchera plus eguale- ment. Moy je croy qu'il n'en est pas besoing. Je voudrois broyer la dicte gomme avec huyle de therebentine fort blanche . . . et guarder ceste mixture dans un vaisseau de verre, estant reduite a consistence de miel. Pour m'en servir je voudrois la destremper avec mon vernix magistral ou un aultre equivalent, et luy donner la consistence assez liquide pour pouvoir le coucher avec le pinceaul." — MS. p. 75. A description (in the Strassburg MS.) of a yellow varnish, prepared with amber and drying oil, was noticed in a former chapter. Among the yellow dyes which are mentioned, either of which might be employed to tinge it, the expression u pic. goct." (picis Gokathu) appears to mean gamboge. " The natives of the coast of Coromandel call the tree from which it is principally obtained Gokathu, which grows also in Ceylon and Siam." — Field, Chromatography, London, 1841, p. loo. If the above reading be correct, there can be little doubt that 444 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. Gamboge, freed from its gum and dissolved in spirit of turpentine, easily combines with unctuous vehicles, but, in order to last, it requires to be effectually " locked up." Mr. George Barker, well known for his skill as a picture-restorer, is in pos- session of a canvass covered by Sir Joshua Rey- nolds with patches of colours mixed with different vehicles. The names of the substances used, and the dates of the principal experiments, are written next them. The following are examples of tints which have stood perfectly well. " Yellow lake, cera, and drying oil. Gamboge and lake with Venice turpentine. Gamboge with turpentine, March 6. 1772. Prepared gamboge with cera. Verditer, varnish alone. Gamboge with Venice turpentine, June 3. 1772." Contrasting with these unfaded colours, " gamboge with oil " is to be traced only by its name. All the above experi- ments appear to have been made in 1772. De Mayerne may have known that the amber varnish which he recommends was used in Holland with transparent yellows : some examples are here added, as they confirm the evidence before ad- duced respecting the employment of this varnish as a medium for colours. " Take half an oz. of aloes, half an oz. of amber, pulverise both, and set gamboge was used by the early Flemish painters. Scheffer (Graphice, p. 168.) asserts, perhaps erroneously, that it had been recently introduced into Europe in the 17th century. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 445 them on hot coals in a glazed earthen vessel. The heat at first should not be too great. As soon as the amber is dissolved, throw in boiling oil, stirring well with a wooden spatula. Let it cool ; strain through a cloth." * Again : " Take linseed oil, in the quan- tity required, which has been previously boiled and skimmed ; add to it amber and aloes, of each equal quantities ; pulverise well, and stir them in the oil on the fire till the composition is thick enough," &c.f It was before shown that a transparent yellow was sometimes mixed with certain colours to enrich them. The painters whom De Mayerne consulted even recommended the immixture of a yellow of this kind with vermilion, as a substitute for minium. J A transparent golden or orange colour * " Neempt een loot aloe, een loot amber, stootet beyde wel onder een. Settet op heete colen in eenen verloyden pot, int eerste niet al te heet, alst nu wel tsamen gesmolten is, so giet siedende olie daer op, roeret wel door een, met een houten spatula, latet coudt worden en sijget door een doeck." — Secreet- Boeck waer en velc diver sche Secreten . . . ghebracht zij?i } tot Dordrecht, 1601, p. 180. f " Neemt so veel Lijnolie alst u belieft, die te voren opt vyer afgeschuymt geweest is, doet daer in amber en Aloe, van elckx even veel, stootet wel onder een, ende menghelet wel opt vyer onder de Olie tot dattet dichte genoech is, nemet alsdans van den vyere en settet dichte toegestopft under der aerden dry daghen lanck, ende al wat ghy hier mede op Tin strijct dat crijcht een Gout verwe." — lb. p. 182. J "La mine meurt, et n'est pas bonne a l'huile. Pour faire aurange fault mesler vermillion et schitgeel ensemble." — 31 S. p. 5. 446 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. appears to have served a more important purpose in the hands of Rubens. The peculiar glow of his deep browns is hardly to be accounted for by any accidental varieties in the earths of Cassel, which may have been common in his time ; nor does even asphaltum, alone, present the appearance in question. It may rather be concluded that the practice of occasionally mixing a warm transparent yellow with various pigments was applied by the great colourist to correct the redness of some of the darker browns ; by this means the utmost richness of tint was produced in shadows, through which a light ground was often visible. Among the permanent transparent yellows, that prepared from madder is not to be forgotten. This colour is generally considered of difficult manu- facture ; in modern times, and perhaps formerly, it has been chiefly prepared in the Netherlands : its tendency to become slightly orange is no ob- jection to it for the use above adverted to.* The gold field behind the principal figures, as noticed in the last chapter, was discarded by John Van Eyck. A gold ground was, however, occa- sionally used at a later period under the colours : a picture of the Last Judgment, by Bernard Van Orley, which is still preserved at Antwerp f, was * Mr. Field (the author of Chromatography) often prepared this colour for Sir Thomas Lawrence. f In its original place, the Aalmoeseniers-Kapel. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 447 executed, according to Van Mander *, entirely on a gold ground. The customary white panel would perhaps have answered better; but, in some cases (examples occur in early German pictures), a gilt background toned with brown till it ceases to shine is to be classed among the richest effects of yellow. Orpiment was commonly used in draperies. (Cornelius) Jansen's mode of employing it, inserted under his name in the May erne MS., is probably in his own handwriting. As Vandyck's method will be quoted in the next chapter, the remarks of his predecessor need not be given at length ; after describing the two kinds of orpiment, Jansen con- tinues : "It must be ground in water, and, when it is dry, it will easily temper with oyl, either on a pallett or stone, as one uses quantity, but it will never grind fay re in oyl. . . . Orpiment will ly fayre on any culler except verdigris, but no culler can ly fayre on him; he kills them allf: either being wrought upon by other cullers, or mingled with other cullers, except yellow oker or such like * Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 211. ■f The Flemish writers are careful to distinguish the colours which cannot be safely used under other colours. One of De Mayerne's correspondents writes : " II fault toutesfois notter et estre adverty que la dicte myne, le vert de gris, le noir de fumee ou de lampe,' sont comme des poisons et que font mauvaises ces couleurs qu'on y met dessus, et pour ce fault les eviter en im- primant," &c. — MS. p. 100. verso. Umber is also included, by some authorities, among the colours which should not be used too freely in grounds. 448 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. culler to break it for shadows ; but shadows are best made of other cullers, and then orpiment use for hightnings." * De May erne does not omit to add that orpiment should not be touched with an iron knife. Red. — Vermilion, minium, lake, and " face brown red," are mentioned in the Strassburg MS. The use of vermilion by Rubens, in flesh, has been sometimes supposed to be one of the great painter's bold peculiarities, but there never was a time when it was not so employed by the Flemish painters. The carnation tints of the single figures, by Hubert Van Eyck, in the upper part of the Ghent altar- piece, are evidently painted with vermilion. Van Mander, whose precepts, as before remarked, are antecedent to the influence of Rubens, thus recom- mends its use. " Let not your flesh colour freeze ; let it not be too cold or purple, for a carnation which approaches the whiteness of linen cannot bloom with the signs of life. But vermilion makes it glow with a more fleshy hue. Endeavour to produce this warmth. ... In painting peasants, shepherds, and mariners, spare not yellow ochre with your vermilion. ... Be careful not to light up the flesh tints in either sex with too much white ; no pure white is visible in the living subject." f * MS. p. 153. f " Nu aengaende t' verwen, laet niet vervriesen U bios, noch soo cout oft purperich laten : Want sulck een lacke wittigh' incarnaten, PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 449 In his account of Jacques de Backer, and the early works of Joos van Cleef, he commends those painters for having avoided the defects here alluded to,* Carnaty en can niet lijfverwigh bloeyen, Maer vermillioen doet al vleeschigher gloeyen. Om wel doen gloeyen hebt u speculaty. . . Aen Boeren, Herders, en aen die daer varen Door wilde golven, mit stormen bestreden, Daer salmen den ghelen oker niet sparen Onder t' vermillioen. .... Hooght so niet met wit Mans naecten noch Vrouwen, Geen puer wit in 't leven blijckt in't aenschouwen." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 49. * Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 232, 227. Of De Backer the biogra- pher remarks : " He was one of the best colourists Antwerp has produced; he had a fleshy manner of painting, not lighting up his carnation with mere white, but with the flesh tint." On the durability of vermilion, when not adulterated with red lead, and on the means of detecting the latter, see the Encyc. Methodique, art. Cinnabre. The most valuable observations on colours, in the work here quoted, are extracted from the anonymous Traite de la Peinture au Pastel, Paris, 1788. The following anecdote is related by Northcote in his Life of Reynolds: "I once humbly endeavoured to persuade Sir Joshua to abandon those fleeting colours, lake and carmine, which it was his practice to use in painting the flesh, and to adopt ver- milion in their stead, as infinitely more durable ; although not, perhaps, so exactly true to nature as the former. I remember he looked on his hand and said, ' I can see no vermilion in flesh.' I replied, 'But did not Sir Godfrey Kneller always use ver- milion in his flesh colour ? ' when Sir Joshua answered rather sharply, ' What signifies what a man used who could not colour ? But you may use it if you will.' It is to be observed, however, that Sir Joshua made use of vermilion himself in all G G 450 PKEPAEATION OF COLOURS. The use of vermilion was still more confirmed after it had received the sanction of Rubens. Beurs, who, in his chapter " on the colours of the living model/' undertakes to describe a palette for painting flesh, employs vermilion and lake as the only reds for the light masses.* In the earlier part of the 17th century, great attention seems to have been paid to the manufacture of this colour, so as to obtain it in the most brilliant state. " A man at Antwerp," observes De May erne, " makes vermilion three times as red as the average colour;" the price at which it was sold was, for the time, enormous.*)* " We use," says Hoogstraten, " Indian red, and brown red, vermilion, and minium." J Elsewhere : " With us, lakes are in use, not only the purple, but the blue, green, and brown, or tints of yellow lake." § his latter works ; finding by experience the ill effects of lake and carmine in his early productions." — Vol. ii. p. 18. The lakes, it may be added, were very inferior to those now in use. * Die grosse Welt, &c. p. 183. | MS. p. 95. After speaking of the brilliancy of the colour, the physician speculates on its cause: "An iterata sublima- tione, an per additionem sulphuris," &c. Another brilliant # red is mentioned by him as follows : " Sircome, Sericon, couleur rouge comme cynabre qui dure au feu et ne meurt point : semble un mercure precipite de fort haulte couleur ; mis sur la lamine ne s'esvapore point ; s'allie facilement avec toutes sortes de couleurs." — lb. p. 96. % " Wy gebruiken Indiaens en bruin-root, vermelioen en meny." — Inleyding, &c. p. 220. § "By ons zijn de lakken in gebruik, niet alleen de paersse, PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 451 The " blue lakes " may be passed over ; the green will be briefly noticed in speaking of that colour. These vegetable preparations were no doubt intro- duced by the illuminators ; and, as they are for the most part evanescent colours, their use, at the best period of the Dutch and Flemish schools, can only be accounted for by the confidence with which painters then reckoned on the method of " locking up" tints with protecting vehicles. The experi- ments of Eeynolds, before quoted, exemplify the effects of this expedient. As regards red lake, the painters of the Nether- lands obtained it in perfection. The cultivation of Zealand madder was greatly encouraged by the Emperor Charles V., and for a long period Holland monopolised the sale of the material.* The lac lake of India was no less familiar f ; but whether the modern methods of extracting the purest colouring matter from this substance were known and practised is by no means so certain. J maer ook de Blaeuwe, Groene, en Bruine of schietgeelverwige." — Inleyding, &c. p. 222. * Bancroft, Experimental Researches, &c. vol. ii. p. 221. De Mayerne observes : " La lacque pour glacer doit estre meslee avec peu d'huyle et estre broyee aussi espaisse que du beurre, de sorte qu'elle se puisse couper, aultrement elle n'a point de corps et ne vault rien." — MS. p. 87. f " La lacque qui vient des Indes orientales est une excellente couleur. . . Icelle bruslee en creuset couvert j usques a noirceur seulement faict un noir aussi beau qui celui d'yvoire et qui a plus de corps. " — lb. p. 29. \ In a Dutch publication before noticed it is called " a light G G 2 452 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. The " brown reds " included many kinds of red earths, and the varieties produced by burning the ochres.* " Indian red " may have comprehended, as now, the colcothars of vitriol, formerly called " caput mortuum." Minium is found to have been generally used alone by the early masters : this accounts for its lasting as a colour, and may also explain the occa- sional flatness of its tint in draperies. When mixed with white lead and some other colours, it is liable to change. The miniature-painters, who contrived to use it in flesh with white lead, preferred it to vermilion. The oil painters, on the contrary, while they rarely complained of the latter, not un- frequently recorded their objections to minium. Van Mander includes it with verdigris and orpi- ment, recommending that all those colours should be generally avoided, f De May erne observes that " minium fades, and is not good in oil." He then adds : "If you extract the salt from minium with brown colour." " Gummi Lacca is een wonderbarelick gomme alsmen die, cleyn gestoot en in clare water heet maeckt, so maecktmen daer van een lichte bruyne verwe." — Secreet-Boeck, tot Dordrecht, 1601, p. 227. * The Dutch painters rendered the colour of light red (burnt yellow ochre) brighter by quenching it in wine or in vinegar. " Alsmen hem brant dat hy gloyende wort, en met wijn of met azijn blusschet so wort hy vael root, hy is goet om daer mede opt bloote lijf te strijcke." — lb. p. 246. j- " Meny en Spaens groen wilt oock vry versaken, En Orpimenten, giftich van natueren." Net Schilder-Boech, p. 50. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 453 distilled vinegar, the remainder does not fade, and dries very well." * Blue. — " For our blues," says Hoogstraten, " we have English, German, and Haarlem ashes, smalts, blue lakes, indigo, and the invaluable ultra- marine." f The " ashes," so often mentioned by writers of the seventeenth century, never mean ultramarine ashes, but light blues derived either from silver (the " Indian bice "), from carbonates of copper, or from smalt. J The later Dutch painters found that some of these colours little deserved their reputation. Weyerman remarks that the monotonous grey observable in Van Goyen's works, " was not altogether his fault ; but in his time a colour was in fashion called Haarlem blue," which, being very perishable was the cause * " N.B. Si vous otez le sel de la mine avec vinaigre distiller ce qui reste ne meurt point et seiche fort bien." — MS. p. 5V St. Audemar, one of the medieval writers quoted in a former chapter, directs minium to be washed in the " cornu " with wine and water. t "Wy hebben tot ons blaeuw, Engelsche, Duitsche, en Haerlemse Assen, Smalten, blaeuwe Lakken, Indigo, en den onwaerdeerlijken ultramarijn." — Inleyding, &c. p. 221. | The method of preparing blue from silver is often described in early receipts. Boyle and others observe that the tint is derived from the copper which is commonly intermixed with the finer metal. The best quality of the colour called bice, according to De Mayerne, was obtained from some silver mines in India. (MS. p. 16.) The German azure (" azurro de la Magna"), much used by the early painters, was not cobalt, but a native carbonate of copper. g g 3 454 PKEPARATION OF COLOURS. of this defect.* Indigo is generally condemned by the professional authorities whom De Mayerne quotes, but, according to one of these (Elias Feltz of Constance), the colour may be rendered safe by steeping it in vinegar, and exposing it to the sun for two or three days ; the vinegar is then to be poured off, and the paste when dry may be ground in oil.f Under the name of Feltz, the following note also appears. " An excellent mode for ren- dering indigo, yellow lake, and lake permanent in oil. Calcine 4 roche ' alum in a clean crucible, so as to render it very white in colour and light. Grind some of this powder with the above-men- tioned colours in nut oil, on the stone or on the palette. The colours are thus much more vivid, and, having been exposed to the sun, rain, and wind, they have not faded. They generally fade, and even in a few hours, in the sun." J In the margin is written: "June 19. [1642], Feltz expertus est et valde probat." * De Levens-Beschiyvingen der Nederlandsche Konst- Schilders, &c, in 'a Gravenhage, 1729, l e deel, p. 395. t MS. p. 145. J " Excellent moyen pour fixer l'lndigo, le Sciidegrun et la Lacque a huyle. Calcinez de l'alum de roche dans un creuset bien net, de sorte qu'il soit tres blanc et leger. Broyez de cette poudre avec les couleurs susdittes avec huyle de noix, soit sur la pierre, soit sur la palette a poignee. Les couleurs sont beaucoup plus orientales et ayant este exposees au soleil, a la pluye, et au vent, ne sont point mortes, ce qu'elles sont ordi- nairement et dans peu d'heures au soleil." — MS. p. 145. verso. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 455 It seems to have been an especial object with the Flemish painters, to protect blues from the altera- tion commonly occasioned by the yellowing of the oil. Extraordinary methods were adopted for this purpose. Sometimes the blue was painted in size ; and, in order to make it adhere effectually to a dry oil ground, the surface was first rubbed with the juice of garlic; the colour afterwards received a coat of " thin and very drying varnish ; thus, " adds De Mayerne, " your blue will never fade."* He also notes the following method. " After having painted a drapery with a smalt and white lead . . . while the colour is still fresh, powder ultramarine over it, and then, with a very soft feather, brush off the superfluous colour." f Portman, a Flemish painter before mentioned, gives a similar receipt. " Spread a coat of white lead ground in oil ; on this, while quite fresh, powder your azure, or coarse smalt, but chiefly a good bice. Let it dry, and by blowing on it, or by means of a hare's foot, remove the powder which has not adhered. Pass over the surface some white of egg or isinglass or size. Let this dry, and then cover it with a very * li Notez. Le bleu peult estre couchc a destrempe avcc colle sur vostre imprimeure a huyle (frottee avec sue d'ail), puis, estant sec, appliquez un bon verms subtil et fort siccatif. Ainsi vostre bleu ne meurt jamais." — 3IS. p. 11. f " Apres avoir faict toute une draperie d'esmail et blanc de plomb . . . quand tout est frais, saulpoudrez d'ultramarin, et avec une plume fort delicate emportez le superflu." — lb. p 96. q g 4 456 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. drying varnish." * According to Malvasia, Lodo- vico Carracci attempted this in fresco : " In executing the sky, he scattered or blew dry smalt on the fresh colour." f De May erne observes that blue (or, he might have added, any colour) may be thus powdered on various objects, such as carved figures or ornaments in relief. " After having given a coat of white lead, the colour is powdered upon it, and the superfluous dust removed ; it never fades, and has a very good effect." J A bright orange colour was spread in the same manner, but without the admixture of oil in the preparation, on ornamental boxes manufactured in Italy; the method is thus described in the Vene- tian MS. " Take of minium two oz., orpiment half an oz., Naples yellow half an oz. ; reduce them all to powder and mix them. First colour the box with saffron, tempered with a lixivium, and suffer it not to dry ; powder the colour on it, and after- * " Couchez sur votre labeur du blanc de plomb broye a 1'huyle, sur lequel, tout frais, poudrez d'azur ou de gros esmail, mais principalement de belle cendree d'azur. Laissez seicher, et eii soufflant, ou avec le pied de lievre, abbattez tout ce qui n'est pas adherent. Passez par dessus du blanc d'ceuf ou de l'ycthyocolle, ou quelqu'une de nos colles susdites. Laissez seicher et puis couvrez d'un vernix fort siccatif." — MS. p. 151. The use of white of egg under varnish is to be condemned, as it frequently becomes opaque, and is very difficult to remove. f Felsina Pittrice, tomo i. p. 447. % " Ay ant donne la ceruse .... puis jettant les poudres dessus et soufflant le superflu, jamais ne se guaste et est ties beau.' T PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 457 wards [when it is dry], give it a wax varnish, and polish it with a tooth."* The original object in this practice, as already shown, was to avoid the immixture of blue with oil (that colour being especially liable to change under such. circumstances) ; but the agreeable effect which was the result may have led to the applica- tion of the process in other cases. The sparkling appearance of some green and yellow draperies, in Venetian pictures, may have been sometimes pro- duced by thus powdering the bright dry pigments on a ground fitted to retain them. Such a pre- paration, reduced to a surface by subsequent opera- tions, might then be toned or varnished. Green. — Hoogstraten regrets that a good green was not so easily to be obtained as other pigments. " Terra verde," he observes, " is too weak, verdi- gris too crude, and green bice is not durable." f Beurs remarks that greens were usually com- pounded ; it is in such mixtures that the yellow lake has sometimes ill served the intentions of the Dutch painters. De May erne frequently notices * " A fare cholore suoxo a le busole to minio oz. ii., orpi- mento oz. -4-, zanolino oz. -f-, e fa spolverizare ogni chossa Isieme iprima tinze la busola de zafrano destepado con lorina e no la lassare asugare e possa miti la polvere sovra dite e possa ge da la zira biancha de sovra, e possa la lissa con el dente de porco." ■f " Maer ik wensclite wel, dat wy zoo wel het groen, als het Rood of Geel, tot onzen wil hadden. Terra verde is te zwak, en spaens groen te wreed, en d'assen t'onbestandig." — Inten- ding, &c. p. 221. 458 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. the composition of greens with yellow lake, massicot, and bice. The " verd de vessie " (bladder green, sap green,) is correctly described by him as the juice of berries of the cervispina (Rhamnus cathar- ticus, buckthorn) ; he supposed that some painters contrived to use it in oil, by means of firm vehicles. The Liliengriin, much used in the 17th century, was made from the purple flowers of the Iris ger- manica.* The " distilled verdigris, " so often mentioned by early writers, is the salt produced by the solu- tion of common verdigris in distilled vinegar ; the crystals thus formed furnish the colour in the most brilliant state. Pacheco recommends that it should be ground in vinegar, and then, when dry, in oil ; varnish being added at last.f Leonardo da Vinci remarks that verdigris, though ground in oil, can only last when it is varnished immediately after it is dry ; otherwise " it not only fades," he observes, " but may be removed by a wet sponge, especially in humid weather. This is because of its saline nature ; it becomes deliquescent in a moist atmosphere." J * Scheffer, Graphice, p. 177. Compare Lindley's Vegetable Kingdom, p. 161. f Arte de Pintura, p. 389. J " II verde fatto dal rame, ancorche tal color sia messo a olio, se ne va in fumo . . . s' egli non e subito inverniciato : e non solamente se ne va in fumo, ma s' egli sara lavato con una spugna bagnata di semplice acqua comune, si lev era dalla sua tavola, dove e dipinto, e massimamente se il tempo sara umido : PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 459 These were the cases in which the resources of the Flemish painters, under the disadvantages of a humid climate, were most needed. The mode of " locking up " verdigris may exemplify the means by which all colours liable to be affected by damp, can be rendered durable. The colour was mixed either with a strong oleo-resinous vehicle (it may be supposed without any admixture of lead), or with varnish only. Modern painters, who find that verdigris and some other colours are not durable when mixed with oil, probably use the vehicle prepared with lead, or in too thin a state. It is, however, quite possible to dispense with oil. The traditional practice of the Netherlands is to mix the colour with a balsam # ; in more modern times the balsam of copaiba was used. Bouvier, who recommends an equal quantity of the finest mastic varnish with this ingredient, admits that the colour, thus applied, dries with in- convenient rapidity f ; the copaiba, indeed, answers quite well alone. As the early painters were un- e questo nasce perche tal verderame e fatto per forza di sale, il qual sale con facilita si risolve ne' tempi piovosi," &c. — Trat- tato, &c., Roma, 1817, p. 124. * The term balsam was formerly, and is still often, applied to the liquid resins generally. The modern French chemists, how- ever, restrict the word "baume" to those resins, whether liquid or solid, which contain benzoic acid. See Guibourt, Histoire abregee des Drogues simples, Paris, 1836, tome ii. p. 568. 585. f Manuel des jeunes Artistes, &c. p. 77. 460 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. acquainted with this (American) produce, they may have used the purest turpentine resin, the Cyprus balsam, or a resin dissolved in an essential oil. The solid preparation on which the colour was glazed necessarily inclined to yellow : it was required to be perfectly dry, and the communica- tion between it and the verdigris might even be intercepted by a thin coat of varnish. The colour, then applied with a balsam, lasts perfectly * ; and this is an example of the superior method of mixing or clothing the particles with a hydrofuge vehicle calculated to defend them, as opposed to the mode of covering the surface only. The latter practice suffices in many cases, but not infallibly with verdigris. It is also thus intelligible how a colour can be durable, and yet require no super- ficial varnish. One consequence of applying verdigris mixed with a vehicle of the above description would be, that the surface, in process of time, would become more or less cracked ; yet not necessarily to such a degree as to injure the appearance, or affect the # An eminent foreign professor writes : "Twenty-five years since, when at , on the Rhine, I heard of a tradition pre- served in the Netherlands, viz. that copaiba balsam mixed with verdigris, instead of oil, preserves the colour in its purity ; whereas, if the colour is ground in oil, it soon becomes dark and almost black. I know these results from actual experience ; on this account I value the balsam much as a vehicle." The Cauada balsam, called the English balm of Gilead, would pro- bably answer as well. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 461 durability, of the work. In the well preserved Yan Eyck, in the National Gallery, the green drapery is more cracked than any other part of the pic- ture. * De Mayerne, who, even in his professional capa- city, seems to have missed no opportunity of col- lecting information on his favourite subject, has recorded a similar method applied to commoner purposes. " BoufFault, a very excellent workman, gave me these secrets on his deathbed. A beauti- ful green. Take of Venice turpentine two ounces, spirit of turpentine an ounce and a half, mix them, add two ounces of verdigris, reduced to small frag- ments. Place these ingredients on hot ashes, and let them gently dissolve. Try the colour on glass. Pass it through linen." j* Another composition of the kind contained yellow lake, the vehicle being * The fluid resins, or balsams (which are resins originally held in solution by an essential oil), are more unctuous than resins artificially so dissolved, and, in most cases, are less liable to crack. To correct this tendency, however, a small quantity of wax might be added to them. This ingredient has been re- commended, in the instance of Copaiba balsam (to check its tendency to flow), by Lucanus in his Vollst'dndige Anleitung zur Erhaltung,SfC, der Gemalde, Halberstadt, 1842, p. 12. Com- pare Knirim, Die Ilarzmalerei der Alten, Leipzig, 1839, p. 174. f " BoufFault tres excellent ouvrier m'a donne ces secrets siens en mourant. Beau vert. R. Therebenthine de Venise 2 oz., huile de Therebenthine 1 oz. et demie ; meslez, adjoustez vert de gris mis en morceaux 2 oz., mettez sur cendres chaudes et faittes bouillir doulcement. Essayez sur un verre si la couleur vous plait. Passez par un linge." — MS. p. 81. 462 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. the same. The physician remarks that all trans- parent colours might be applied (as lackers) in the same way.* Browns. — Yan Mander, taking occasion to con- demn the use of lampblack, which, he observes (on the authority of Vasari), produced such bad effects in certain parts of Eaphael's picture of the Transfiguration, recommends for the shadows of flesh, terra verde, umber, Cologne earth, and as- phaltum.f Hoogstraten speaks only of the browner yellow lakes (brown pink). De Bie mentions um- ber and asphaltum J ; Beurs, umber and Cologne * Among the receipts of Bouffault two essential-oil varnishes appear : one, composed of spike oil, sandarac, and mastic, was to be used for red and various colours ; the other, consisting of turpentine and the spirit of turpentine, was reserved for greens. This explains the use of the " red and white varnish" mentioned in the early English records (a fixed oil being substituted for an essential oil). The green, which was so much in favour for interior decorations in the 13th and 14th centuries, was no doubt applied with the white varnish, com- posed either of turpentine or mastic, or both ; as the red tint of the sandarac would vitiate its colour. t " Laet u in 't ghebruyck nefFens umbre werden Aspalten, Ceulsch' eerden, en terreverden." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 49. verso. J " Take on your palette the various colours, both choice and ordinary (but such as never fade), tempered with oil ; as red or vermilion, some umber, massicot, some ochre, grateful green, lake, yellow lake and ceruse, ultramarine and smalt, azure and minium, white lead and asphaltum." " Nempt op u plat Palet van alderhande verwen Goet en gheringh, van aert die nimmermeer vesterven, PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 463 earth.* Under the latter term (now appropriated to a distinct colour) may have been included the Cassel or Vandyck brown, f There can be no doubt that asphaltum was much used by the Flemish painters ; it was even pre- pared in the modern manner. " Asphaltum," says De Mayerne, " is not ground, but a drying oil is prepared with litharge, and the pulverised asphal- tum mixed with this oil is placed in a glass vessel, suspended by a thread [in a water bath]. Thus exposed to the fire it melts like butter ; when it begins to boil it is instantly removed. It is an ex- cellent colour for shadows, and may be glazed like lake; it lasts well." J There are no complaints, in any of the writers above quoted, of the flowing or Met olie ghemenght, als root oft fermilioen, Wat omber, masticot, wat oker, heylsaem groen ; Lack, schetgheel en serujs, oulter marin en smalten, Asuer en menie, loot-wit en oock aspalten." Het Gulden Cabinet, &c. p. 208. * Die grosse Welt, &c. p. 183, 186. f Compare Field, Chromatography (1841). The following passage in this work has reference to the subject now under consideration. " Rubens Brown. — The pigment still in use in the Netherlands under this appellation is an earth of a lighter colour and more ochreous texture than the Vandyke brown of the London shops : it is also of a warmer or more tawny hue than the latter pigment, and is a beautiful and durable brown, which works well both in water and oils and which resembles the brown used by Teniers." — p. 281. J " La spalte ne se broye point : mais on faict une huile sic- cative avec la lytharge silberglette, et on met la spalte pul- 464 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. the cracking of this substance. The painters were perhaps careful to obtain the best specimens of the native bitumen.* An English painter of the last century, who seems to have given much attention to the manufacture of colours, gives the following receipt for the preparation of asphaltum : — " Antwerp Brown. This brown, I believe, is not to be had in the shops at present, but may be thus prepared ; it is a valuable colour from its great depth of tone, has great body, and will un- doubtedly stand well. Put some good asphaltum into an iron ladle, set it over a slow fire, taking care that it does not boil over ; keep it there till it will boil no more, and it becomes nearly a cinder. When cold, put to it the proportion of half an ounce of sugar of lead to half a pound of the calx ; grind it in the strongest drying oil. It will work free and dry well."f This treatment, probably, suffices to prevent its flowing, and may also render it less liable to crack. To obviate the former de- verisee dans cest huile dans une conserve de verre ou pot a pommade pendu a un filet. On le met sur le feu et le tout se fond comme beurre. Quand il commence a bouillir on Tenleve vistement. Cest une excellente couleur pour ombrager et se glace comme la lacque : ne meurt point." * Compare Field, Chromatography (1841), p. 283. De May- erne speaking of brown colours for the shadows of flesh, ob- serves : " Item avec le spalt ou asphaltum qui doit estre choisi pur, tres noir et friable." — MS. p. 94. f Williams, An Essay on the Mechanic of Oil Colours, &c. Bath, 1787, p. 43. PREPAKATION OF COLOURS. 465 feet, the French painters of the school of David added wax to the bitumen, when dissolved in the ordinary way. The practice of enriching browns with transparent yellows is alluded to by the writer above quoted; after objecting to brown pink he observes : "a better colour, and more certain, may be made from No. 9. and No. 18. [the ' Ant- werp brown,' and yellow lake]."* Mummy is noticed in a Dutch work (of the age of Yan Mander) which has been already referred to. The colour is described as being fit for " hair and drapery," and as being generally useful.f A colour which was unknown in the best ages of art (having been discovered in the last century), viz. Prussian blue, furnishes, when burnt, a very fine and durable brown. It requires much filter- ing to free it from salts. J * Williams, Mech. of Oil Colours, p. 46. f " Men vint de raommie nergens als in de Apteke, het is een Menschenvleesch, dat constich is ghedroocht en bereyt. Sy geeft ooc fijne Ilaerverwe, en cleedinge, en is nut tot veel dingen." — Secreet-Boeck, p. 253. The writer is here speaking of water colours. % See Bouvier, Manuel, &c. p. 49. Compare Montabert, Traite complet de la Peinture, tome ix. p. 364. Messrs. Winsor and Newton, having made some experiments in pre- paring this colour, report as follows : " The best mode of obtaining Prussian brown is by reducing Prussian blue to a fine powder and burning or rather roasting it in a shallow pan on a clear fire. A common iron pan does very well for this purpose. While roasting, the powder should be well stirred and shaken, and, as soon as the desired tint is obtained, thrown into water and repeatedly washed, to free it from a II II 466 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. Blacks. — Ivory and bone black are now scarcely distinguished; but the finer substance undoubt- edly yields the best black. The Dutch painters substituted the teeth of the walrus for the Oriental ivory, and were so much in the habit of consider- ing the materials identical in all respects, that Hoogstraten, speaking of the invention of this colour by the ancients, observes : " It is said that the ivory, or walrus, black was invented by Apel- les."* Like other writers of the time, he does not omit to condemn lampblack. Under the head of bone, or ivory black, may be mentioned carbonised hartshorn : a collection of specimens of tints (in water colours) is inserted in the May erne MS., and among these the " cornu cervium" black is very intense. Among other materials for black pigments may be mentioned black chalk, which, when ground in oil, according to De May erne, "dries easily, is unctuous, and spreads well ; for painting satins and similar things it is superior to the ordi- nary [vine] charcoal black, of which blue black is made. It should be kept in water. " *j* Common quantity of soluble salt which it now contains (some potass, not previously soluble, being set free by the burning). The powder, after being washed, is thrown upon a filter and dried. A variety of tints may be obtained according to degree of burning, and according to the nature of the blue, some samples giving a much warmer tint than others." * " Men ook zegt dat het y voir of Walrus zwart van Apelles gevonden is." — Inleyding, &c. p. 221. | " Terre noire ou crayon noir, Black chalke, qui facilement PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 467 coal, called by Van Mander " sme-kool" (forge coal), was not only used in water colours, but in oil: it furnishes a brownish tint. De Mayerne observes : " The shadows of flesh are well rendered by pit-coal, which should not be burnt.* This substance is included among dark pigments by other writers of the time. Norgate, whose direc- tions for oil painting correspond in all outward particulars with the Flemish methods, says : " Small cole or charcole [carbonised vine stalks] is a blew black and sea-cole makes a red black and soe called." f The early Flemish illuminators, for ex- ample, Gerard of Bruges, also used the warm black prepared from common coal (schmiedekoh- lenschwartz).J Such were the principal colours employed by the painters of the Netherlands. The modes of puri- fying the materials by washing ; their preparation, in certain cases, with peculiar ingredients to insure se seiche, est gras et s'estend fort bien, et vault mieux que le charbon commun dont on fait le bleu noir ou noir bleu, pour peindre satin et semblables choses ; se doit guarder dans l'eau." — MS. p. 1. * " Les orubrages se font excellens pour charneures avec le charbon de pierre qui ne doit point estre brusle." — lb. p. 94. Compare Beurs, Die grosse Welt, &c. p. 6. 183. f Norgate MS. J The treatise of " Gerhard zur Brugge " was published by Willhelm Goeree, and afterwards translated into German, under the title Illuminir- oder Erleuchterey-Kunst, &c, Hamburg, 1678. For the list of colours see p. 3. 5. The yellows include gamboge. II h 2 468 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. their durability ; and the methods of applying them, having been briefly noticed, the more general means adopted to protect them, or "lock them up," will now be described. The effect of moisture on verdigris, even when the colour is mixed with oil, as noticed by Leo- nardo da Vinci, shows that such a vehicle, unless it be half-resinified, affords no durable protection to some colours in humid climates ; and the efficacy of resinous solutions, as hydrofuges, is at once ex- emplified by the fact that they answer the end which (unprepared) oil alone is insufficient to accomplish. Colours which are easily affected by humidity re- quire to be protected according to the extent of the evil. Whatever precaution of this kind was requi- site in Italy was doubly needed in Flanders. The superficial varnish which sufficed in the extreme case referred to by Leonardo was incorporated with the colour by the oil painters of the North. So, in proportion as the Flemish painters adopted a thinner vehicle, the protecting varnish was ap- plied on colours which the Italians could safely leave exposed, at all events till a general varnish was spread over the work. It will be remembered that this last method was unnecessary in the origi- nal Flemish process, according to which the colours, being more or less mixed with varnish and being painted at once, remained glossy, and needed no additional defence. The following examples of the later practice in PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 469 Flanders occur in De May erne's notes. After describing the mode of rendering colours dull, and causing the oil to remain undermost by the addition of spike oil, the physician adds : " As soon as the colour is dry, pass the varnish immediately over it."* He elsewhere remarks: " Indigo is used in oil, but it fades without the varnish It makes a green with dark yellow lake ; upon this also the varnish should be spread ; the colour then lasts. " f Speaking elsewhere of verdigris glazed over other tints, he repeats: " Forget not to add the varnish." J Lastly, after describing the composition of a preservative of this kind, he adds : " The varnish answers very well spread over the whole surface of a picture ; thus the colours are protected, and do not fade."§ This ob- servation would have appeared a truism in Italy ; but, coming from a writer who was conversant in the technical habits of the Northern schools, it is well worthy of notice. It shows that the practice of varnishing pictures was not universal in those schools, even in De Mayerne's time. The use of the * " Quand on travaille du bleu il fault . . . y mesler un peu de huile d'aspic ou de petrole et aussi tost qu'il est sec passer incontinent le vernix par dessus." — MS. p. 97. verso. t " Indigo s'use a huile mais il raeurt sans le vernix, on en faict . . . un vert avec schitgeel obscur sur quoy fault passer le vernix et il dure. " — lb. 95. X lb. p. 9. § " Le vernix fait fort bien passe par dessus tout un tableau ainsi les couleurs se conservent et ne meurent point." — lb. p. 59. verso. H II 3 470 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. original Flemish, vehicle, or an equivalent to it, still rendered such an addition, in many cases, unne- cessary. The essential-oil varnish, the composition above alluded to, was probably of Italian origin ; it was an almost necessary protection to pictures painted with a diluted vehicle, yet a thin coat of the resi- nous solution was found to be sufficient for this purpose in a dry climate. The period when this composition was introduced in the North is unim- portant ; but, if adopted when the oleo-resinous vehicle was no longer generally employed, it would be used in a thicker state than in Italy, or, which is the same thing, several layers would be applied : the chief object being to protect the colours, by a hydrofuge coating, from the effects of moisture and air. Hence, as might be expected, the Italian system of varnishing, when once adopted on this side the Alps, was not unfrequently abused. We find Vene- tians, in the seventeenth century, ridiculing the extreme polish of some "foreign pictures."* One cause of this excess was the difficulty of preserving such compositions from chilling, and even from speedy decay, in a humid climate. The remedies for this, such as they were, will be noticed in due order. The Italian varnish consisted of an essential oil and a balsam : to these a resin was sometimes added. * Boschini, La Carta del Navegar Pitoresco, Venezia, 1660, p. 338. PREPARATION OP COLOURS. 471 Such compositions, serving to protect the colours and to make them bear out, last perfectly well in Italy when they are carefully prepared. Armenini describes the essential-oil varnish which was used by Correggio and Parmigiano. His au- thorities, he informs us, for so designating it were the immediate scholars of those masters ; and he states that he had himself witnessed its general use throughout Lombardy by the best painters. His description is as follows. " Some took clear fir turpentine, and dissolved it in a pipkin on a very moderate fire ; when it was dissolved, they added an equal quantity of petroleum (naptha), throwing it in immediately on removing the liquefied turpen- tine. Then stirring the composition with the hand, they spread it, while warm, over the picture, which had been previously placed in the sun and was some- what warmed. They were thus enabled to spread the varnish over every part of the surface equally. This varnish is considered the thinnest, and [at the same time] the most glossy, that is made."* * " Alcuni dunque pigliavano del oglio d' abezzo chiaro, e lo facevano disfare in un pignattino a lento fuoco, e disfatto bene, li ponevano tanto altro oglio di sasso, gettandovelo dentro subito che essi lo levavano dal fuoco, e mesticando con la mano cosi caldo lo stcndevano sopra il lavoro prima posto al sole, e alquanto caldo, si che toccavano con quella da per tutto egualmente, e questa vernice e tenuta la piu sutile, e piu lustra d' ogni altra che si faccia ; io ho veduto usarla cosi per tutta Lombardia da i piu valenti, e mi fu detto che cosi era quella adoprata dal Correggio e dal Parmigiano nelle sue opere, se n n 4 472 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. The turpentine resin here mentioned is the pro- duce of the silver fir (Abies pectinata or taxifolia) * ; it is obtained in perfection on the Italian side of the Tyrolese Alps. It is perfectly clear and colourless, which is not the case with Venetian turpentine (the produce of the larch) f; the latter may, however, be purified in the modes before de- scribed. Venetian turpentine, perhaps from the influence of its name, seems to have been chiefly used by the Flemish painters. It was selected as light in colour as possible, and, when mixed by heat with the essential oil of turpentine, care was taken not to allow the latter to evaporate ; for, when this happened, the varnish was thick and less drying. The following are examples : — " Incomparable Varnish. — Take the clearest Venice turpentine and colourless essential oil of tur- pentine, equal quantities. Place them in a vessel on egli si pub credere a quelli che li furono discepoli." — De' veri Precetti delta Pittura, in Ravenna, 1587, p. 128. For the best mode of preparing this varnish see the second note at the end of this chapter. * Lindley, Vegetable Kingdom, p. 229. Compare Guibourt, Histoire abregee des Drogues simples, Paris, 1836, tome ii. p. 576. This is the "nobilior lachryma abietis " mentioned by Cardanus (De Subtil, lib. viii.), and so described by him as compared with the inferior turpentine of the larch and of the " picea" or Abies excelsa. Linnaeus, it is to be observed, calls the Abies pectinata, Pinus Picea ; and the Abies excelsa, Pinus Abies. ( Guibourt. ib. p. 577.) t Guibourt, p. 575. Lindley, p. 229. The Strassburg tur- pentine, also the produce of the Abies pectinata, is not so pure and colourless as that obtained on the Italian side of the Alps. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 473 a very moderate fire ; and, as soon as you see bubbles form round the surface, withdraw it quickly from the fire : the varnish will boil of itself. When cold, keep it in a phial. This varnish may be spread on all colours, particularly on verdigris, on face tints, and all others. It preserves all colours ; they thus never fade, not being liable to be altered by the air. It dries in three hours, and the advantage of it is, that it is possible to work and paint on it after- wards."* De Mayerne, who records this receipt, probably obtained it from his friend Yandyck, as another contemporary authority thus describes it : " Sir Nathaniel Bacon's vernish for oyl pictures. Allsoe it was the vernish of S r Anthony Vandike, which he used when he did work over a face again the second time all over, otherwise it will hardly dry. Take two parts of oyle of turpentine and one part of Venice turpentine ; put it in a pipkin and set it over the coles, on a still fire, untill it begin to buble up : or let them boyl very easily, and stop it close * " Vernix incomparable. — R. Therebentine de Venise trcs claire, huile de Therebentine blanche, an. mettez en un pot sur un petit feu et quand vous verrez que des bulles se feront a la circonference tirez vistement du feu le vernix bouillera de soi mesme. Estant refroidy guardez le dans une fiole. Le vernix se peult coucher sur toutes couleurs specialement sur le verd de gris sur les visaiges et tout aultre. II conserve toutes couleurs qui ne meurent jamais ne pouvant estre alterees de Pair. II seiche dans trois heures et le bon est que par apres on peult travailler et peindre dessus." — Mayerne MS. p. 95. 474 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. with a wett woollen cloth untill it be cold. Then keep it for your use ; and when you will use it, lay it but warm, and it will dry."* The damp cloth was evidently intended to prevent the evaporation of the essential oil. Vansomer also gives the fol- lowing directions. " In preparing the ordinary painter's varnish (which is made with the colour- less oil of the clearest Venice turpentine and the turpentine itself, in a water-bath), take care that the spirit does not evaporate in any way, for otherwise the varnish does not dry well nor so quickly. The evaporation may be easily prevented by using a cir- culating vessel, or a matrass with a very long neck." f A description of the same varnish appears under the name of Van Beleamp, a painter who was em- ployed in copying pictures for Charles I. u An excellent Varnish. — Make the common painter's var- nish with very clear Venice turpentine (or, at all „ events, the least yellow that can be found) and the rectified essential oil of turpentine. It should be made in a sand-bath, without allowing the spirit to evaporate much, for fear the varnish should become * Norgate MS. \ " En la preparation du vernix ordinaire des peintres (qui se faict avec rhuile blanche de la plus claire Therebentine de Venise et la Therebentine mesme dans le B. M.) il fault adviser que l'esprit de Therebentine ne s'exhale en aulcune facon, aultrement le vernix ne se seiche pas bien ni si tost. Cela se fera facilement ou dans un vaisseau de rencontre ou dans un matras dont le col soit fort long." — Mayerne MS. p. 154. verso. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 475 too thick."* De Mayerne, in some general observa- tions on varnishes, remarks : " The most usual [in- gredients] for delicate varnishes are, the essential oil of turpentine, spike oil, or petroleum, with tur- pentine itself, which, although unctuous and slow in drying, dries at last and prevents the varnish from cracking. Nota : very little is necessary ; the tenth or twelfth part."f This would indeed be a " de- licate," but not very durable, composition. It was, * " Vernix excellent. — Faittes le vernix commun des peintres avec Therebenthine de Venise tres blanche ou au moings la moings jaulne que pourrez trouver et l'huile blanche de There- benthine redistillee pour mieux faire, ou tiree la premiere fois avec eau. Cecy se doibt faire sur la sable sans souffrir longtemps l'exhalaison de l'esprit de peur que le vernix ne s'espaississe par trop." — MS. p. 143. verso. The defect here alluded to, which involved slow and imperfect drying, is corrected by De Piles (or perhaps his editor, Jombert) by the addition of some clear lac varnish. The proportions are, one oz. of turpentine, two oz. of spirit of turpentine, and half an oz. of the lac resin ; to be dissolved in a water-bath. f <; Les plus ordinaires pour les vernix delicats sont les huyles de therebenthine, d'aspic et le petroleum avec la therebenthine mesme qui, quoyque grasse et lente se seiche a la parfin et empesche le vernix de s'escailler. Jl y en fault fort pen la 10 ieme ou ^leme pa rtie." — lb. p. 47. verso. Van Mander relates that loos van Cleef, who, in his youth, was one of the best colourists of his time, -when he became deranged " varnished his clothes, his hood, and cap with turpentine var- nish, and went in this state shining through the streets." " Ily vernistede met Terbentijn vernis zijn cleeren, zijn cappe en zijn bonnet, en gingh soo al glimmende achter straet." — Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 226. verso. The anecdote is a proof that turpentine was, originally, the chief substance used in the com- position of essential-oil varnishes. Van Cleef died about 1556. 476 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. however, a varnish of this kind, or but little stronger, which, when passed over a dry picture before re- painting, answered all the end of " oiling out," without its inconveniences, viz. the probability of yellowing. The thin resinous film, if left in any part of the work, undergoes no alteration : though drying rapidly, it leaves a comparatively fresh sur- face which takes the colour easily ; and, having scarcely any body, does not affect the superadded tints. The application of such a varnish by Van- dyck, in this way, has been already noticed. In the Netherlands, the painters were in the habit of increasing the body of this composition by the addition of mastic. The " peintre Flamand" quoted in a former chapter, whom De Mayerne met at " Lord Newport's," said that he commonly used for his picture varnish, " very light turpentine, very clear spirit of turpentine, and mastic."* The phy- sician elsewhere gives the following description. " Very good Varnish used by M. Adam, clear as water, and drying in three hours. — Take of very clear Venice turpentine an oz. and half (this is the best proportion, although sometimes he takes as much as an oz. and three quarters). Place it in a glass vessel, in a basin of hot water, on a small furnace. The turpentine being melted and warm, have ready half an oz. of well cleansed mastic tears * " Son verny ordinaire pour tableaux est faict avec there- benthine fort blanche huile de thereben thine fort claire et mastic."— MS. p. 161. PREPARATION OF COLOURS. 477 reduced to a fine powder ; throw this into the tur- the melted turpentine and mastic, mix duly, and take the vessel from the fire. To apply this, your picture, well cleansed, should be placed in the sun till it gets warm. Spread your varnish upon it added in a marginal note, " Vidi, optimum." Hoogstraten also describes a similar composition. " Our varnish, consisting of turpentine, spirit of turpentine, and pulverised mastic dissolved, is suffi- ciently convenient for our works." f The varnish * " Vernix tres bon cle M. Adam, clair comme eau et siccatif en trois heures R. therebenthine de Venise fort claire une oz. et demie (qui est la meilleure proportion encor que quelque fois il en prenne jusqu'a une once et trois quarts). Mettez la dans une conserve de verre dans un bassin d'eau chaude sur un petit fourneau et la therebenthine estant fondue et chaude ayez demy once de mastic en larmes bien purge mis en poudre subtille laquelle jetterez dans la therebenthine remuant tous- jours tant que le mastic soit fondu. Ayez en une autre conserve quatre oz. d'huile de therebenthine tres blanche et tres claire et la faictes pareillement chauffer, le vaisseau couvert d'un couvercle de verre. Versez la avec la therebenthine et le mastic fondu reduites a bon escient et ostez de la chaleur. Pour l'appliquer vostre tableau bien net soit mis au soleil tant qu'il s'eschauffera couchez vostre vernix sur icelui chaud, laissez seicher." — M S. p. 141. f " Onzen vernis van Terpentijn, terpentijn oly, en gestooten mastix gesmolten, is bequaem genoeg tot onze werken." — Inhyding, &c. p. 223. 478 PREPARATION OF COLOURS. last noticed, under the name of Adam, gives the usual proportions of the ingredients here named. The testimony of Hoogstraten on this and other points is important, because he was the scholar of Rembrandt. * * " Rembrandt, after the death of my father Theodore, my second master." — Inleyding, p. 257. " On one occasion when I was troublesome to my master Rembrandt, by asking him too many questions respecting the causes of things, he replied very judiciously : 'Try to put well in practice what you already know ; in so doing you will, in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about.' " — Ib. p. 13 NOTE ON THE USE OF TRIPTYCHS, ETC. 479 NOTE ON THE USE OF TRIPTYCHS, ETC. The practice of enclosing pictures in cases with doors, called diptychs, triptychs, or polyptychs, accordingly as they had one two, or many leaves, is to be traced to the use of portable altar-pieces. The above terms were originally applied to books (libelli) composed of a few tablets or leaves, generally of ivory. The more ornamented kinds were called simply diptychs, because they consisted of ivory covers only, in which leaves of the same substance or of vellum might be inserted. An inscrip- tion published by Gruter speaks of " pugillares membranaceos operculis eboreis." The consular diptychs, for example, were nothing more than ivory covers in which the book or libellus itself might be enclosed. They were presents distributed by the consul on his entering office, and generally exhibited the portrait and titles of the new dignitary on one side, and a mythological subject on the other. The covers were carved on the outside, and were plain within. At a very early period in the Christian era similar diptychs of a larger size w r ere employed in the service of the church. They sometimes contained the figures of saints and martyrs on the inside (probably as a means of concealing them in times of persecution), and were subsequently exhibited on the altar open. The circumstance of the principal representation being on the inside, instead of the outside, constitutes the distinction between the sacred and the consular diptychs. Such was the origin of the medieval altar-piece, the size of which long remained small as compared with later decorations of the kind. The Roman diptychs are generally rectangular, but sometimes (as in the instance of that representing the apotheosis of Romulus, a work probably of the fourth or fifth century) the upper edge is finished in an ornamental form ap- proaching that of a tympanum. This enrichment, as a matter 480 NOTE ON THE USE OF TRIPTYCHS, ETC. of course always followed the architectural taste of the period : Byzantine diptychs have often circular tops ; but those of later Italian and German origin commonly finish in various forms of Gothic ; the early decorated style occurring most frequently. With regard to the number of doors, the most ancient form, consisting of two leaves, or one door, is now the least common : the triptych, or centre picture with two doors, the most so. The Ghent altar-piece by the Van Eycks is a polyptych : it originally consisted of two tiers of leaves, seven above and five below. Of the seven, three were fixed, and the portions closing upon them were divided on each side into two subjects. Of the five, one large centre subject was fixed, and two leaves (one on each side) closed upon it. The outside of the doors was, almost universally, painted in chiaroscuro, probably from a traditional imitation of the ancient sculptured back of the original diptych. When the case was spread open it generally exhibited (at least in older examples) a centre subject and single figures of saints on the doors. In Italy the doors appear to have been left permanently open at an early period, since various altar-pieces exist, executed in the fourteenth or first half of the fifteenth century, which, though representing a centre with doors, really consist of immovable panels, the hinges being omitted. In Flanders, on the contrary, even to the time of Rubens, the doors were real, and could be closed upon the principal picture. The form being at length still more simplified in Italian altar- pieces, the single figures of saints were no longer separated by compartments; but were brought into the centre picture, which generally represented a "Majesty," or enthroned Madonna. This seems to have been the origin of the groups of saints, belonging to different periods, which are often introduced together in altar-pieces. (See Buonarruoti, Osservazioni sopra alcuni Frammenti di Vasi antichi di Vetro, fyc, Firenze, 1716, p. 231, 257.) VARNISH FROM OLIO D' ABEZZO. 481 NOTE ON THE VARNISH PREPARED FROM THE OLIO D' ABEZZO. An Italian writer of the present century, who had given great attention, during a long series of years, to the technical part of painting, being convinced of the correctness of Armenini's statement respecting this varnish, endeavoured to prepare and use it. He at first failed, from some defect in the materials; he thus describes his more successful experiments. " I thought it possible that the liquid fir resin (olio d' abezzo) might not have been good of its kind, or that it might have been mixed with [Venetian] turpentine or some similar substance ; I therefore, by means of a friend, procured from the Valtellina some olio d' abezzo which was pure, limpid, and of the finest quality. Not satisfied with this, I caused some clear petroleum to be rectified by a chemist, so as to be limpid, transparent, and fluid as water. With these I composed the varnish. I employed it on some old paintings, and on some studies then recently executed by my- self : the following is the result of my trials." The writer states that he applied the varnish to four old pictures which were in an arid state ; he proceeds : " After an interval of more than thirty years these pictures have not only retained their freshness, but it seems that the colours, and especially the whites, have become more agreeable to the eye ; exhibiting, not indeed the lustre of glass, but a clearness like that of a recently painted picture, and without yellowing in the least. I also applied the varnish on a head of an academy figure painted by me about five and twenty years since. On the rest of the figure I made experiments with other varnishes and glazings. This head surpasses all the other portions in a very striking manner ; it appears freshly painted and still moist with oil, retaining its tints perfectly. The coat of varnish is extremely thin, yet on gently washing the surface it I I 482 VARNISH FROM OLIO I)' ABEZZO. has not suffered. The lustre is uniform ; it is not the gloss of enamel or glass, but precisely that degree of shine which is most desirable in a picture." He then attributes the preservation of Correggio's pictures, and the clearness of the tints, in a great measure to the use of this varnish. He continues : " Such results are not surprising, when the nature of the ingredients in question is considered. The fir resin is transparent and lustrous ; mastic is not to be compared to it in these qualities, being naturally opaque. The rectified petroleum, again, is extremely thin ; it evaporates easily and dissolves the resin perfectly. The varnish, when spread on a picture, thus dries almost instantaneously, so that no dust can attach itself to the surface. The mode of spread- ing the varnish contributes also to its perfect effect ; it should be applied warm, and the picture should also be warmed, either in the sun or at the fire. By attending to this, the com- position may be applied in the thinnest and most transparent state. The fir resin " he adds, " should be dissolved by a very slow and gentle heat ; warm [wood] ashes almost suffice for this purpose. It is then taken from the fire and the rectified petroleum is poured on it, being stirred well with a clean stick. With respect to the proportions, experience will teach this : it is always better to put more essential oil than resin, because by this means the varnish may be spread very thinly, and it may be always repeated if necessary. Thus the essential oil quickly evaporates, and the resin remains spread in a fine transparent and uniform film. Experience proves that the ingredients thus applied do not yellow, nor does the surface grow dull ; while the colours are preserved more perfectly than by any other varnish." — C. Verri, Saggio elementare sul Disegno, Sfc, con alcune Avvertenze sulV Uso de Colori ad Olio, Milano, 1814, p. 138. 483 CHAP. XIII. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. The characteristics of the early Flemish practice in oil painting, induced by an attention to the effects of the climate in which it arose, are still to be recognised in some of the best productions of the school during the seventeenth century, notwith- standing the influence of Italian examples. The chief peculiarities in the original process, which then survived, may be recapitulated as follows: — Those who adhered to the early system generally determined the entire composition of their subject before the picture itself was begun ; for this pur- pose they made numerous sketches and studies. They preferred a white ground, which was rendered non-absorbent in a mode before described ; and, hav- ing completed the outline upon it, they allowed portions of the finished work to exhibit that ground underneath. A general tint — pale flesh -colour, brown, or even grey* — which was sometimes passed * Many of the sketches, and not unfrequently the finished works, of Rubens are painted on a light grey preparation, through which the white priming is visible. i i 2 484 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. over the ground, was intended only to assist the middle tints of the picture, and never excluded the still lighter priming. The above process was more especially followed when the picture was executed on wood (a material which the Flemish masters commonly employed), the defence of an impervious substratum allowing of a thinner application of the colour. The shadows, unmixed with opaque colours, were always inserted first. The painting was executed as much as possible at once, and there- fore, occasionally, in portions at a time. This last system was, by degrees, so far departed from, that the design, especially when of large dimensions, was dead- coloured from a finished sketch, so as to avoid alterations in the more complete work. Later painters, instead of the original white ground, employed a dusky priming, serving as a middle tint for the shadows rather than the lights, and not exhibiting a light preparation within it. An " Imprimeur Wallon," residing in London in De Mayerne's time, prepared cloths with a tint composed of white lead, black, red ochre, and a little umber*: the same ground (the umber ex- cepted) is described in Jombert's De Piles. f A preparation of this kind is frequently observable in pictures by the Dutch masters; Teniers is, how- ever, an exception ; he still preferred the white ground, over which he passed a light brown trans- * MS. p. 5. | E'lemens, &c. p. 129. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 485 parent tint. In this use of the light priming, as in many other points, he followed the example of Rubens.* With regard to vehicles, the same ingredients and processes which were common in the earliest days of the Flemish and German oil painting had survived, and were still adopted by many at the period now under consideration. The mode of rendering oil clear and drying by means of calcined bones (to mention one of the original expedients) is to be traced from the Strassburg MS. in the fif- teenth century, through the treatise of Boltzen in the sixteenth, to the Secreet-Boeck published at Dort at the commencement of the seventeenth f ; and the * In small works, both of the Italian and Flemish schools, one coat of fine gesso sufficed. Pictures on wood by Teniers, when transferred to cloth or veneered, exhibit a perfectly white ground, unstained with oil. "f After speaking of a varnish composed of one lb. of pulverised mastic added to three lb. of linseed oil, the writer continues : " Here observe, if you wish the varnish to dry quickly take calcined sheep's bones, pound them to powder as fine as dust, sift this through a hair sieve, and then stir a little, about the size of a walnut, into the varnish ; let it boil once with this ingredient, it will then dry quickly on whatever surface you apply it." " Ghy suit al hier noteren dat soe verre als ghy den Vernis wilt hebben dat by strack drooghe, soe neempt witte gebrande Schaepsbeenders, stootse tot poeder so cleyn als stof, buydelt hem door eenen haeyren sift, ende roert daer van onder den Yernis ontrent soo veel als een note groot, ende laet hem daer mede eens opsieden soo sal sy haestich drooghen, tsy waer op ghy hem strijcht." — Secreet-Boeck, tot Dordrecht, 1601, p. 223. 1 1 3 486 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. process is again recommended by De Mayerne in the age of Eubens and Eembrandt. So with regard to amber : its employment as a vehicle for colours is noticed in De Ketham's MS., by various German writers of the sixteenth century, and in the Dort publication above referred to ; while the modes of dissolving the substance, and of using it in painting, are repeatedly and amply discussed by De Mayerne. The use of oleo-resinous vehicles, the effect of which rendered a final varnish, at least for many years, needless, was still common in Flan- ders in the seventeenth century. The pigments, consolidated by the addition of the resinous ingredient, were diluted when necessary with an essential oil, but not (in the original method) to such an extent as to render the surface dull. The consistence of the vehicle itself, except when em- ployed for rich shadows, was at all times such as to be compatible with the sharpest execution. Its drying tendency was sometimes assisted by the addition of metallic oxides; thus securing the colours as soon as possible from the effects of mois- ture and dust ; and the desiccation was completed by exposing the picture, with due precautions, to the action of air and the warmth of the sun. When a thinner vehicle was used, the essential- oil varnish of the Italians was, almost necessarily, adopted. This consisted, as has been seen, of a liquid resin or balsam dissolved or diluted in spirit PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 487 of turpentine or other volatile oil ; to this compo- sition, which, it seems, was too thin for a north- ern climate, mastic was afterwards added ; till, at last, as modern experience shows, the latter ingre- dient entirely superseded the original fir or larch resin. The oleo-resinous medium had been gradually confined, in Italy, to colours which had little substance, or, when it was used throughout the work, to pictures in exposed or humid situa- tions. In proportion as the authority of the Italian methods prevailed on this side the Alps, the same restrictions were observed in the use of such vehicles; thus superseding the early practice (of Northern origin) from which the Italian painters had found it possible and convenient to depart. The editor of De Piles states that colours ground in a composition of linseed oil and mastic are durable in the open air.* This, which is scarcely to be affirmed with regard to a southern climate, is certainly not true in reference to a northern one. * " Huile a broyer les couleurs pour resister aux injures ile l'air. — Prenez deux onces de mastic en larmes bien claires et broyez les avec de l'huile de lin. Versez ce melange dans un pot vernisse que vous mettez sur le feu : vous y ferez fondre peu a peu le mastic, remuant toujours la matiere ; puis vous laisserez refroidir cette huile et regarderez si le mastic est fondu et bien incorpore avec l'huile. Alors vous vous en servirez pour broyer vos couleurs, lesquelles resisteront a l'air, et vous en peindrez les ouvrages qui doivent rtre exposes a l'injure du terns." — E'lemens, &c. p. 143. 1 i 4 488 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. The method proposed is an instance of the change which the original process, or rather its applica- tions, had undergone : the contrivances to render oil painting proof against damp, which may have been adopted only in extreme cases in Italy, were, at first, ordinary expedients in Flanders ; it will be remembered that the composition in question, or an equivalent to it, was a usual vehicle in the early German and Flemish practice. With respect to the pigments in use, the omis- sion of Naples yellow by the Flemish and Dutch writers on art, even during the seventeenth century, may be considered sufficient evidence that it was not then commonly employed in the Netherlands. A less durable yellow of the lighter kind, viz. massicot, was familiar ; but the finest varieties of ochre were recommended in preference. Transparent yellows were very generally, and sometimes too fearlessly, employed. Yermilion and lake were, from first to last, admitted as the chief materials for imitating the florid complexions of the North ; and, among the colours peculiar to the later painters, may be mentioned a rich brown, which, whether an earth or mineral alone, or a substance of the kind enriched by the addition of a transparent yellow or orange, is not an unimportant element of the glowing colouring which is remarkable in examples of the school. Such a colour, by artificial combinations at least, is easily supplied ; and it is repeated, that, in general, the materials now in use are quite as PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 489 good as those which the Flemish masters had at their command. But it is no less certain that the final prepara- tion of these and other materials for oil painting was more carefully attended to by painters them- selves, or their immediate assistants, at the period referred to than at the present day. The examples which have been given in the preceding chapters, and which were copiously selected partly with the view of affording some insight into the ordinary habits of the older masters of the art, sufficiently prove that those masters disdained not to superin- tend operations which were calculated to insure the durability of their productions. They appear to have been indebted to the colour-merchant for genuine materials only, and they spared no pains to obtain such of the best quality, knowing that the fit preparation of them for the palette was in their own power.* Van Mander recommends that * Northcote observes : " It was of advantage to the old school of Italian painters that they were under the necessity of making most of their colours themselves, or at least under the inspection of such as possessed chemical knowledge, which excluded all possibility of those adulterations to which the moderns are exposed. The same was also the case in England, till the time of Sir Godfrey Kneller, who, when he came to this country, brought over a servant with him whose sole employment was to prepare all his colours and materials for his work. Kneller afterwards set him up as a colour-maker for artists ; and this mans success, he being the first that kept a colour shop in London, occasioned the practice of it as a trade. " Sir Joshua was ever careful about procuring unadulterated 490 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. ■ choice colours should be laid up in store ; intima- ting that the opportunities of procuring them were to be seized when they occurred.* At the same time, the range of pigments remained limited ; the object was rather to obtain the usual materials good than to encourage the introduction of novel- ties. Among the technical improvements on the older process may be especially mentioned the preserva- tion of transparency chiefly in the darker masses, the lights being loaded as required. The system of exhibiting the bright ground through the sha- dows still involved an adherence to the original method of defining the composition at first ; and the solid painting of the lights opened the door to that freedom of execution which the works of the early masters wanted. That the general principles and, to a great ex- tent, the methods above described were followed in articles of every sort, and has often desired me to inform the colour-man that he should not regard any price that might be demanded, provided the colours were genuine." — The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. vol. ii. p. 21. Some incidental remarks in De Mayerne's notes tend to show that there were persons exclusively employed in the manufac- ture of painters' materials, in London, before the time of Kneller. * "En indient u mach ghebeuren, Wilt u van langher handt van schoon coleuren Passen te voorsien, en by houden leeren, Als die de Const houdt in weerden en eeren." Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 50 PKACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 491 the school of the Yan Eycks has been established by abundant evidence: the directions of Van Mander and others, which have also been quoted, prove that those methods were still common in Flanders at the commencement of the seventeenth century. It remains to show that Rubens, the highest authority in that school, still sanctioned the same process by his example ; while, in adopt- ing those elements of the Italian practice which were compatible with it, he formed a more perfect manner than that which the painters of his own country had generally followed, and carried the principles of the early Flemish masters to a higher perfection. It has never been ascertained from what source Descamps derived the "maxims" which he attributes to Rubens * ; but the practice inculcated by them is so entirely borne out by the evidence of the master's works that there can be no doubt of their authenticity. The same observation is applicable to the account of the method of Teniers given by the same writer. Of Rubens he observes : " The pictures of his scholars, which were re- touched [by the master], are easily recognised. They want the transparent depths which this great painter turned to such good account. ... In the pictures of Rubens the obscurer masses have * It may be conjectured that the authority was Largiliere (the master of Descamps), a painter devoted to the principles and methods of the Flemish masters. 492 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. scarcely any substance of colour : this was one of the grounds of criticism with his enemies, who objected that his pictures were not painted with sufficient solidity, that they were little more than a tinted varnish, calculated to last no longer than the painter. We now find that this criticism had no just foundation. Every thing at first, under the pencil of Rubens, had the appearance of a glaze only ; but although he often produced tones by means of the [light] priming of the cloth [or panel] that priming was, at least, entirely covered with colour. . . . One of the leading maxims respecting colouring, which he repeated oftenest in his school, was, that it was very dangerous to use white and black. ' Begin,' he was accustomed to say, 4 by painting your shadows thinly : be careful not to let white insinuate itself into them ; it is the poison of a picture except in the lights : if white be once allowed to dull the perfect transparency and golden warmth of your shadows, your colouring will no longer be glowing, but heavy and grey.' After having given this very necessary caution respecting the shadows, and having pointed out the colours which can injure their effect, he continues thus : ' The case is different in regard to the lights ; in them the colours may be loaded as much as may be thought requisite. They have substance : it is necessary, however, to keep them pure. This is effected by laying each tint in its place, and the various tints next each other, so that, by a slight PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 493 blending with the brush, they may be softened by passing one into the other without stirring them much. Afterwards you may return to this pre- paration, and give to it those decided touches which are always the distinctive marks of great masters."* * " Les tableaux de ses E'leves qui ont ete retouches, sont aises a reconnoitre ; on n'y trouve pas les transparents dont ce grand Peintre tiroit si bien parti : ... II semble que dans les tableaux de Rubens les masses privees de luiniere ne soient presque point chargees de coleur : c'etoit une des critiques de ses ennemis, qui pretendoient que ses Tableaux n'etoient point assez empates, et n'etoient presque qu'un vernis colorie, aussi peu durable que 1' Artiste. On voit a present que cette pre- diction etoit tres-mal fondee. Tout n'avoit d'abord, sous le pinceau de Rubens, que l'apparence d'un glacis ; mais quoiqu'il tira souvent des tons de l'impression de sa toile, elle etoit cependant entierement couverte de couleur : . . . . Une des maximes principales qu'il repetoit le plus souvent dans son E'cole, sur le coloris, etoit, qu'il etoit tres-dangereux de se servir du blanc et du noir. ' Commencez,' disoit-il, 'a peindre legerement vos ombres ; gardez-vous d'y laisser glisser du blanc, c'est le poison d'un tableau, excepte dans les lumieres ; si le blanc emousse une fois cette pointe brillante et doree, votre couleur ne sera plus chaude, mais lourde et grise.' Apres avoir demontre cette precaution si necessaire pour les ombres, et avoir designe les couleurs qui peuvent y nuire, il continue ainsi : * II n'en est pas de meme dans les lumieres, on peut charger ses couleurs tant que Ton le juge a propos : Elles ont du corps : il faut cependant les tenir pures : On y reussit en placant chaque teinte dans sa place, et pres Tune de l'autre, ensorte que d'un leger melange fait avec la brosse ou le pin- ceau, on parvienne a les fondre en les passant l'une dans l'autre sans les tourmenter, et alors on peut retourner sur cette pre- paration et y donner des touches decidees qui sont toujours les marques distinctives des grands maitres.' " — Les Vies des Peintres Flamands, &c, Paris, 1753, tome i. p. 310. Mansaert, speaking of Rubens's picture of the Elevation of the 494 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. It is unnecessary to enumerate the particulars in which such a method agrees, in principle, with that of the early Flemish masters ; one circumstance, however, should not be overlooked. It is well known that Rubens, with all his facility, rarely omitted to decide his composition, and prepare a coloured sketch of the effect before the picture itself was begun.* This method was still more requisite when his scholars were entrusted with the preparation of large works from his finished designs. His drawings and studies are innumer- able ; and one of the objects which he proposed, in thus arresting the forms, was to be enabled to in- sert the shadows on the light ground at once, and to avoid alterations. It is not to be supposed that a painter of such exuberant invention and con- summate dexterity would at all times abstain from changes ; his works are by no means free from them : but, in general, such corrections have been made in the lighter masses, where the exclusion of the ground was unimportant. This solidity in the lights is one of the points in which the Italian Cross, in the Church of St. Walburge at Antwerp, observes : " Dans plusieurs endroits elles [les couleurs] y sont employees fort epaisses et fort grossieres, et dans d'autres fort legeres, de sorte qu'on y voit a travers le fond du panneau, principale- ment dans les grandes parties d'ombre." — Le Peintre amateur et curieux, p. 250. * " Nous avous plusieurs esquisses de lui, faites pour le meme Tableau. On en connoit trois en France du Tableau d'Autel des Augustins d'Anvers. 1 ' — Descamps, Peintres Flamands, p. 313. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 495 system was blended by Rubens with the early Fle- mish method. The caution, in the above passage, respecting the use of white and black, has evidently reference to the warm transparent shades only. Blackness and a leaden opacity in shadows are the dangers to which the observation points. A (dry) white pre- paration underneath the rich darks is by no means prohibited ; indeed it existed in the white ground. On the same principle it might be used in a more or less solid preparation of the shadows, with a view to glazing, as was often the practice of the Italians. Again, not only white, but any light opaque colour, would be injurious, if mixed with the transparent darks, so as to exclude the light within or altogether sully their clearness. On the other hand, in light reflexions Rubens himself could not, and did not, dispense with white. The above precept is there- fore to be understood as referring to a particular method, and is not without exceptions even in its application to that method. In the Italian system, pictures ultimately wrought to the highest degree of warmth were sometimes begun in white and black.* Tintoret, * Northcote gives the following extracts from some notes by- Reynolds. " The Leda, in the Colonna Palace, by Correggio, is dead coloured white, and black or ultramarine in the shadows ; and over that is scumbled, thinly and smooth, a warmer tint, I believe caput mortuum [colcothar of vitriol]. . . . The Adonis of Titian, in the Colonna Palace, is dead 496 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. being once asked which were the most beautiful colours, answered, " white and black." * By their means the gradation of light and dark in a picture can be, in a great degree, denned. The Flemish masters (including Rubens himself), as is evident from existing specimens, commonly used Cologne earth instead of, or in addition to, black in their chiaroscuro oil sketches ; and some of the Venetian masters employed a warmer brown. Even when confining themselves to such simple materials they were careful to preserve transparency as much as possible in the darks ; for, whatever be the nature of the colour, internal light still exhibits its maximum of warmth. It may here be remarked that those masters who, either from want of skill in drawing or from an impatience of restricting themselves to a fixed design, painted and repainted the shadows, were compelled to use the warmest colours, enriching them further with ultimate glazings, to represent the effect of transparency, and to avoid that leaden coloured white . . . the shadows in the light parts of a faint purple hue. That purple seems to be occasioned by blackish shadows under, and the colour scumbled over them." Again : " Dead colour with white and black only ; at the second sit- ting carnation. (To wit, the Barocci in the Palace Albani, and Correggio in the Pamphili.) " — The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, &c. vol. i. p. 36, 37. * (i Dimandato quali fossero i piu belli colori, disse, il nero ed il bianco : perche 1' uno dava forza alle figure profondando le ombre, 1' altro il rilievo." — Ridolfi, Le Meraviglie deW Arte, &c, 1648, vol. ii. p. 59. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 497 hue which Rubens so justly condemned. The effect of powerful brightness behind colours, however neu- tral and even seemingly opaque in themselves, may be easily tried by holding up a not uniformly solid painting on cloth between the eye and the light. Wherever the ray penetrates, the dullest pigments are kindled to a flame ; to imitate which with solid colours, the most glowing materials must of neces- sity be used. Reynolds, who scarcely ever left a light ground in the manner of Rubens, supplied its warmth, where he felt it to be desirable, with such colours. The warm shadows observable in some of the works of Rubens might at first seem to be incom- patible with "the negative nature of shade" so often recommended, and of which Correggio has been considered the chief representative. It will, how- ever, be remembered that warmth on a very low scale can never be positive, and that its effect is more rapidly diminished by distance than the glow of brighter colours. The most daring examples of this system, in Rubens and in the Venetians, are to be found in works which required to be seen at a considerable distance * ; and, when the Flemish master partially adopted this method in smaller * " Songez aussi que les tableaux ou autres ouvrages en Peinture, qui sont vus d'une distance eloignee, doivent etre plus colores et rougeatres dans les parties d 'ombres et de lumierc que ceux qui sont vus de pres." — Mansaert, Le Peintre amateur, et curieux, p. 282. K K 498 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. pictures, a more than ordinary freshness in the half tints restores the balance which the eye re- quires, giving the combined effect the utmost viva- city. The transparency of the deeper shades thus prevented the uniform blackness sometimes observa- ble in otherwise fine works of the Italian schools ; and as regards another quality in shadows, much and justly insisted on by the critics of the last century and among others by Reynolds*, viz. a uniformity of tone, a " simple unity of shade, j As all were from one single palette spread," f this attribute is secured by the process in question ; a general, and more or less transparent, shade tint being left for the darks, varied in degrees of force rather than in hue. To return to Descamps : speaking of the younger Teniers, he observes that the objections made to that painter's works (as to those of Rubens), on account of their being so thinly painted in cer- tain parts, were, unfortunately, at one time listened to by the artist. He painted some of his pictures * * For the sake of harmony, the colours, however dis- tinguished in their light, should be nearly the same in their shadows." — Reynolds, Notes to Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting, note xliii. Cochin {Voyage d'ltalie, 1758, p. 199.) observes: " [L'artifice] consiste a faire toutes les ombres de son tableau, en quelque facon, du meme ton de couleur. . . . Dans les ombres meme des etoffes blanches, ce ton y entre assez pour les accorder avec le reste." Cochin was a scholar of Largiliere. ■f Mason's translation of Du Fresnoy ? s Art of Painting, j PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 499 more thickly throughout ; but they had neither the lightness nor the warmth of his earlier productions. Rubens, who had persevered in his method, induced Teniers to return to his original practice. " He advised him to load his lights as much as he pleased, but, in painting the shadows, never to omit to keep them transparent, so as to show the priming of the cloth or panel through them ; for otherwise the co- lour of that priming would be of no consequence."* The biographer takes care to add in a note, that this ground, or priming, was always white, or ap- proaching to it. Rubens, observes De Piles, always made use of white grounds. u I have seen pictures by the hand of this great man, executed at once [on such grounds], and which had a marvellous vivacity." f One of the objects of the Van Eycks and their followers in keeping the colour thin, besides the * " Rubens, a qui on avoit fait le meme reproche, ramena Teniers a sa premiere maniere. II lui conseilla de eharger les lumieres autant qu'il le jugcroit a propos, mais de ne jamais manquer en peignant les ombres, de conserver les transparents de l'impression de la toile ou du panneau ; autrement la couleur de cette impression seroit indifferente." — La Vie des Peintrcs Flamands, &c. tome ii. p. 160. f "Une autre maxime .... c'etoit de se servir de fonds blancs, sur lesquels ils peignoient, et souvent meme au premier coup, sans rien retoucher. . . . Rubens s'en servoit toujours ; et j'ay vu des Tableaux de la main de ce grand homme faits au premier coup, qui avoient une vivacite merveilleuse." — De Piles, Remarques sur VArt de la Peinture [par Du Fresno y], ver. 382. K K 2 500 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. chief aim of showing the ground through the tints, seems to have been to preserve a surface which should harbour no dust, and which might be easily cleaned. It is not to be imagined that such a condition, if really proposed, could long fetter the hands of succeeding painters ; yet it may be re- marked that the works of Rubens, however freely executed, and often thickly painted in the lights, exhibit a surface which may be called smooth as compared with that of many other masters. Hoog- straten, who was accustomed to the practice of Rembrandt, may have had Rubens in his view, when he admitted that a picture with an even surface has the advantage of not being easily soiled. * Whether the Flemish master aimed at producing this appearance from an unconscious adherence to the traditional practice, or from a supposition that it would really contribute to the preservation of his works, it is needless to inquire ; but it may be remarked that the method, described by Descamps, of slightly blending the colours of the preparation (which necessarily produced a certain smoothness, not materially altered by the final retouching), was habitual in the school, f That this evenness of surface was * " Een wel deurwrochte en gladde Scliildery heeft vooreerst die deugt, datze minst van stof en vuilnis beschaedicht wort." — Inleydi?ig, &c. p. 241. •f Compare Houbraken's account of the method of Frank Hals (a scholar of Van Mander), De Groote Schouburgh, &c. vol. i. p. 92. In an earlier age, the works of Rijckaert Aertsz PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 501 by no means essential to the preservation of pictures is sufficiently evident from many a well preserved work by Rembrandt, executed certainly with no attention to such a condition. The latter practice of this great painter, so opposite to that of his early years, may perhaps be considered as the direct expression of his opinion on this point, at a time when the style of Rubens had degenerated in the hands of numerous imitators, who, as usual, copied the external characteristics only of their original.* Hoogstraten, in another passage, expresses an opinion more consonant to the lessons which he had received from Rembrandt. He says: " It is above all desirable that you should accustom yourself to a lively mode of handling, so as to smartly express ceased to please when, in consequence of the failing of his sight, he left his colours rough. See Van Mander, Het Schil- der-Boeck, p. 247. verso. * On the difference of Rembrandt's manner from that of the celebrated painters of his time, Houbraken makes the following observation. "The peculiarity of his execution (although in many respects not to be commended) leads me to suspect that he adopted it intentionally ; for, if he had taken up a manner of painting like that of others, or if he had proposed to imitate any of the celebrated Italians or other great painters, the world would, by a comparison of his style with that of his models, have been enabled to define his [subordinate] merit ; whereas now, by taking the contrary course, he has superseded all such tests. He has done that which Tacitus says Tiberius intended when he avoided all which could give occasion to the people to institute a comparison between him and Augustus, whose memory, he saw, was cherished by all." — De Grootc Schmiburgh, vol. i. p. 273. The allusion to Rubens is not to be mistaken. 502 PKACTICE OF LATER MASTERS, the different planes or surfaces [of the object repre- sented] ; giving the drawing due emphasis, and the colouring, when it admits of it, a playful freedom, without ever proceeding to polishing or blending : for this annihilates feeling, supplying nothing in its stead but a sleepy constraint, through which the legitimate breaking of the colours is sacrificed. It is better to aim at softness with a well-nou- rished brush, and, as Jordaens used to express it, ' gaily lay on the colour/ caring little for the even surface produced by blending ; for, paint as thickly as you please, smoothness will, by subsequent operations, creep in of itself." * As the practice of Eubens was, not to blend the colour much with the tint that was next it, so the method of Eembrandt was, not to mix the super- added pigment with what was underneath it, except in final operations, when, to conceal the art, the brush was allowed here and there to plough deeply. * " Dies is allermeest te prijzen, datmen zich tot een wakkere pinseelstreek gewoon maeke, die de plaetsen, die van andere iets verschillen, dapperlijk aenwijze, gevende de teykening zijn behoorlijke toedrukkingen, en de koloreeringen, daer 't lijden kan, een speelende zwaddering : zonder ooit tot lekken of verdrijven te komen; want dit verdrijft de deugt, en geeft niets anders als een droomige stijvicheit, tot verlies van d' oprechte breekinge der verwen. Beter is 't de zachticheyt met een vol pinseel te zoeken, en, gelijk het Jordaens plach te noemen, lustich toe te zabberen, weynich act gevende op de gladde in een smelting : dewijl de zelve, hoe stout gy ook zult toetasten, door't veel doorschilderen wel van zelfs zal in- kruipen." — Inleyding, &c. p. 233. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 503 Mansaert remarks that " he [Rembrandt] rarely- blended his colours, laying one on the other without mixing them." * Northcote records the following similar observation by Reynolds. " To preserve the colours fresh and clean in painting, it must be done by laying on more colour, and not by rubbing them in when they are once laid ; and, if it can be done, they should be laid just in their proper places at first, and not any more be touched, because the fresh- ness of the colours is tarnished and lost in mixing," &c.f The direction here given, it will be remem- bered, refers to solid painting, in which the effect of the colours is not calculated on the light ground underneath. The sharpness which is so remarkable in well preserved Venetian pictures of the best time is of a still different quality from that alluded to by Hoogstraten, and is altogether incompatible with the employment of a thick vehicle. Even the * "Les tableaux de Rymbrant sont charges dc co-uleurs principalement aux belles lumieres ; il fondoit rarement ses teintes, les couchant les unes sur les autres sans les mariei ensemble : facon de travailler particuliere a ce grand maitre." — Le Peintre amateur et curieux, Spc. par G. P. Mansaert^ Peintre, Bruxelles, 1763, 2 nde partie, p. 142. f The Life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, vol. i. p. 78. This observation, extracted from some notes in the handwriting of Sir Joshua, and supposed by Northcote to be original, is a translation from a passage in the annotations of De Piles on Du Fresnoy's poem. "Pour conserver les couleurs fraiches, il faut peindre en mettant toujours les couleurs et non pas en frottant apres les avoir couchees sur la toile ; et s'il se pouvoit," &c. — Remarques sur VArt de la Peinture, ver. 382. k k 4 504 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. distinctness of Rembrandt's touch, produced by a rapidly drying varnish, has not the peculiar crisp- ness of the Venetians . Descamps, in alluding to the practice of Rubens, in the passage above quoted, speaks of " a tinted varnish." This expression, used by the critics of the painter, was not likely to be accidental ; it is indeed literally applicable to the vehicle of the earlier masters, and the employment of such a medium by Rubens was almost a necessary conse- quence of his adopting the original method of showing the ground through the deep colours ; for, in proportion as the pigment is thin, the vehicle requires to be substantial. But the durability which the oleo-resinous medium insured, and the possibi- lity of dispensing with a final varnish by its means, appear to have recommended it to Rubens in the execution of his work generally. Its consistence was no doubt varied as required, as in Flemish pic- tures of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries ; and he was certainly not less careful than the early painters to use it in as colourless a state as possible for his brightest lights. In some of his works it is impossible to mistake the semi-resinous nature of the medium universally employed. Merimee detected the presence of varnish in the ridges of liquid colour with which the sketches of Rubens are outlined*, and Reynolds, whose peculiar prac- * " A great number of sketches by this master are preserved, in which his process may be distinctly seen. The figures, PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 505 tice well qualified him to give an opinion on such matters, remarks that the picture of the Battle of the Amazons, formerly in the Dusseldorf Gallery and now at Munich, is " painted in varnish."* De Piles, a warm advocate of the style and methods of Kubens, recommends the use of varnish, in finish- ing at once, in order that the colours may " set" in working, f The firmness of a semi-resinous medium recom- drawn at first with black lead [probably before the size was added], are then retraced [on the oleo-resinous priming] with the hair pencil, and the effect of light and dark is produced by a brown colour thinly applied. The lines, formed by the pencil, are very delicate, yet at the same time full of colour. Their continuity proves that the pencil flowed freely on the surface of the panel. The ridges formed by the brush are not effaced, and the thick touches of transparent colours have remained where they were placed, notwithstanding their extremely liquid state." — De la Peinture a niuile, p. 19. Merimee is quite correct in concluding that the appearance in question indicates the presence of a resin ; the brown outlines, it' drawn with oil alone, would not have remained sharp. The correspondence of the process here described with Van Mander's account of the method of the earlier painters -will not fail to be remarked. * Journey to Flanders and Holland. Reynolds further observes : " This appears to be painted at the same time of his life that he painted the Fall of the Angels, which is in his best manner." f " Si Ton veut faire un portrait au premier coup il faut . . . faire en sorte qu'il y ait peu d'huile dans les couleurs ; et si Ton y vouloit meler en peignant un peu de vernis avec la pointe du pinceau, cela donneroit un moyen facile de mettre couleurs sur couleurs, et dc les meler en peignant sans les emporter. " — Cours dc Peinture, p. 290. 506 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. mended it to painters who adopted a much more solid execution.* The glossy effect which it pro- duced, and which rather fits it for works executed at once, may have been reduced by the admixture of a larger proportion of well rectified essential oil; or, in repainting, a wash of the latter (lightly applied for fear of disturbing the surface) would diminish this effect, and prepare the work for the ulterior operations. According to some notes which have been preserved relating to the ever- varying practice of Reynolds, it is evident that he did not object to the occasional use of varnish, even in the commencement of his pictures.^ Rembrandt, who was likely to adopt the semi-resinous vehicle, not only from the traditional favour in which it was held in the Netherlands, but from its assisting the texture which he aimed at producing, was not always careful to use the medium in the most colourless state. A writer well acquainted with the methods of the Flemish and Dutch schools, speaking of a picture by this master which had ac- quired a russet tone, observes that, although this was partly the effect of time, it was also a con- * " Jordaens had not begun to study painting under Rubens, and he was not accustomed, like that master, to prepare his pictures with thin washes ; but the brilliancy and transparency of his colour are such, independently of all contrast, that it is not to be doubted that it contains varnish." — Merimee, De la Peinture a VHuile, p. 22. | See some extracts from the notes here referred to at the end of this chapter. PRACTICE OE LATER MASTERS. 507 sequence of Rembrandt's habit of painting with varnish.* The essential-oil varnish commonly em- ployed at the time, and which a scholar of Rembrandt has described, was chiefly composed of Venice tur- pentine, a material which, when not carefully puri- fied, is very apt to grow yellow. But this ingredient is hardly sufficient to account for the uniform tawny colour sometimes observable in pictures by Rembrandt. The ordinary (red) sandarac oil var- nish, the ancient " vernice liquida," was still com- monly used in the seventeenth century by cabinet- makers, and was rendered very drying by means of spike oil, in addition to the ordinary ingredients.f The amber varnish had been adopted in its stead * "Un jour que je montrois une fort belle piece de cet auteur a un particulier, il me demanda s'il meloit de la suie dans ses couleurs, puisqu'elles lui paroissoient si roussatres. . . J'avoue que le vrai coloris etoit change par la longueur du terns, d'autant plus que Rymbrant etoit accoutume a peindre au vernis." — Mansaert, Le Peintre Amateur, &c, 2 nde Partie, p. 142. ■f " Vernix est le vernix commun qui se met en ceuvre par les menuisiers et marqueteurs duquel se servent les peintres qui font des lambris et peignent les boutiques et boestes des apotiquaires, auquel pour le rendre plus tost siccatif ils ad- joustent deux oz. d'aspic pour livre. Cela se seiche en fort peu d'heures et a fort beau lustre." De Mayerne explains that this " vernix " is sandarac dissolved in oil. The date of the memorandum is "24. Feb. 1634." The celebrated Ruisdael was the son of a cabinet-maker at Amsterdam. The preservation of ancient methods and mate- rials in the commoner handicrafts, after they have become obsolete in the arts which are subject to the taste or caprice of professors, has been already adverted to. 508 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. by the early Flemish painters, and, though often represented by copal, had never been entirely laid aside ; it had even returned to the North from Italy, in the hands of Gentileschi. Rembrandt, from motives of economy, may have employed the scarcely less durable common " vernix," or san- darac oil varnish; and, for certain effects, may have reckoned on its tint. Either this, or the rapidly drying Venice amber before described, was, in all probability, used by him freely. In the practice of oil painting, from the first, the darkness of the vehicle had been allowed to increase with the darkness of the colour employed ; and, on the same principle, when, from whatever cause, such a medium has been used throughout the work, large masses of shadow and extreme force have been commonly resorted to, in order to give comparative freshness to the yellow lights. Pain- ters who have not been careful to use a colourless vehicle are the most remarkable, and consistently so, for the depth of their effects and their scarcity of light. It is not necessary, in this instance, to inquire which circumstance influenced or led to the other ; it is sufficient to remark that they are cor- relative. The influence of the colour of the vehicle on the quantity and depth of shadow is, indeed, plainly to be traced in the general style of oil painting, as compared with tempera and other methods.* It may be added, that the lighter * Sandrart ( Teutsche Acad. p. 336.) relates, it is to be hoped PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 509 treatment has rarely been successful without a modification of the vehicle itself. The low tone to which the lights subside, even when the most care- fully prepared medium is employed, suggested to the first Flemish and Italian masters of the art — to the Van Eycks and Leonardo da Vinci — the necessity of that extreme force which is re- markable in their productions. To appreciate this merit in the Van Eycks, it is necessary to remember the pale character of the works executed imme- diately before their time, for example, the altar- pieces of Cologne and Dijon. Some precautions adopted in all schools, to guard against or remedy the general defect here alluded to, remain to be considered. From the first introduction of oil painting, the yellowing of the vehicle was looked upon as its chief objection. Light within the colours, and force round them, were among the resources adopted by the Van Eycks to disguise this evil. The more direct expe- dients consisted in clarifying the oils to the last degree of purity ; in rendering them drying, so as to present without delay a barrier to the action of air and moisture ; and in fortifying them with resins, which had also the effect of checking the on no good authority, that Rubens induced Jordaens to paint some works in tempera for tapestries, in the hope that his rival, by being accustomed to the light style of colouring suitable to tempera, might lose his characteristic force in oil ; the biogra- pher even adds that the scheme answered. 510 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. accumulation of the thinner ingredient on the sur- face. The suppression of the oil was found to be promoted by the addition of a certain proportion of a highly rectified essential oil ; but this adjunct, if used at all in the earlier ages of the Flemish school, was not intended, as it afterwards was, to do away altogether with the gloss of the vehicle ; for, had this been the case, the work would have required a varnish at last ; and one of the recorded peculiarities of the early Flemish pictures was, that the surface bore out without varnish. A superficial film, however thin, of the oleo-resi- nous vehicle, which invariably remained, thus superseded varnish; and to this surface the lighter and evaporable exudations of the oil would rise.* Leonardo da Vinci, as before shown, had noticed this effect; and the question with him, as with all oil painters, was, how this superficial yellowing was to be prevented or removed. In the subsequent Italian practice, when the whole picture was fre- quently laid in with an almost equal body of colour, which was to be again covered, it was allowable to cleanse the surface fearlessly ; for example, by washing with alkaline detergents, and even by scrap- ing and abrading the oily film.f But this was not * " The drying of oils takes place partly from the evaporation of a portion of the fluid oil, partly from their combination with oxygen derived from the air." — Dreme y Der Virniss- und Kittmacher, p. 18. f Fine sand, pulverised Flanders brick, or cuttle-fish, may PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 511 possible with finished works ; a remedy was required which should remove the superficial discoloura- tion without otherwise affecting the substance of the picture. The early painters could not long be in doubt as to the fittest expedient. They were familiar with the bleaching action of the sun on oils, and they knew from that experience that the same process, duly regulated, would remove the yellowness objected to, would harden the binding vehicle, and, by almost reducing the superficial film to its resinous ingredient only, would antici- pate in some measure the enamel of time.* When the surface was thus freed from the evaporable portion of the oil, and was no longer in danger of undergoing change by exclusion from the light, the enclosure of the picture in its altar shrine un- doubtedly tended to preserve the freshness of the colours. The artists of the Netherlands, who at first be used with good effect in this way, when it is not important to preserve the surface of the picture. Armenini (/ vert Precetti, p. 126.) even recommends scraping with a knife ; but this can only be advisable when the surface is not very rough. * The same process, by accelerating the evaporation of aqueous particles and insuring the free action of air, tends to resinify the oil itself. " According to Thenard and Gay- Lussac (olive) oil consists of 77 '21 parts of carbon, 9*43 of oxygen, and 13-36 of hydrogen : resin, of 75*94 parts of carbon, 13*34 of oxygen, and 10*72 of hydrogen. Hence, as the oil acquires oxygen and loses hydrogen it approaches the nature of a resin." — Dreme, Der Virniss- und Kittmacher, p. 19. note. 512 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. painted chiefly on wood, were not deterred by the story of Yan Eyck's accident from placing their pictures in the sun. They continued the practice ; not as originally, merely to dry the surface, but to bleach and remove the superficial oil. They even suffered occasionally from the use of this remedy, precisely as Van Eyck was said to have suffered. Van Mander relates that Peter Ylieric (his second master) having placed an unfinished picture on wood in the sun, the panel split, " so that it re- quired to be again glued and planed." * The practice in question was familiar in Italy in Cen- nini's time, and was not likely to be discontinued after the introduction of oil painting, as there was then an additional reason for it. It is, therefore, by no means improbable that the Venetians, who took every possible means to prevent the rising and yellowing of the oil, and who needed not Cen- nini's caution f to be reminded of the danger of exposing panels to the sun, may have found in the necessity of the practice itself a new motive for painting on cloth. The Venetian painters of the present day com- monly place their pictures in the sun, not merely * "Dese maeckte hy te Cortrijck, was een redelijck groot Penneel, t'welck ghedootverwet zijnde, is in de Son gheborsten, dat het herlijmt en gheschaeft zijn most." — Het Schilder- Boeck, p. 251. verso. f "La tavola 1' ha molto per bene a non essere troppo sforzata dal sole." — Trattato, c. 155. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 513 before varnishing, but at different stages of the work. In the expeditious days of the school, the rapid drying of the colours was often promoted by such means. Ridolfi states that Maffeo Verona was accustomed, in summer, to prepare a picture in the morning, and, after drying it in the sun, to finish it before night.* The fierce heat of the Italian sun limited the process in the warmer season to a very short interval, at least for finished pictures. A Genoese painter, writing to a friend in the month of July, requests that a newly painted picture on cloth may be exposed " for a quarter of an hour " f to the sun. The story of Titian placing his portrait of Paul III. in the sun, previously to its being varnished, is well known : the anecdote is preserved by Vasari only from the circumstance of the passers by mistaking the representation for the pope himself. J It is not unlikely that Rembrandt may have placed the * Le Meraviglie dell' Arte, vol. ii. p. 148. f " Sara bene che il quadro che ho fatto .... quando sara messo sopra al suo telaro, lo facciate stare un quarto d' ora al sole. Genova, 6. Luglio, 1704." — Lettere Pittoriche (1822), vol. iv. p. 61. | "Essendo [il ritratto di papa Paolo di Tiziano] messo a una finestra al sole alto per verniciare, tutti quelli che passavano, credendolo vivo, gli facevan di capo." — Le Opere de Giorgio Vasari, Firenze, 1832-1838, Parte 2 nda , p. 1450. In the copv of the same letter of Vasari in the Lettere Pittoriche, it is stated that the picture was placed "in su un terrazzo :" the illusion produced would have been more possible supposing the figure to be seen at a window, as in the passage quoted. L L 514 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. portrait of his servant at his window merely to expose it to the light, but the story is recorded because of the illusion which the picture produced.* The practice was, at all events, common in the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. De Mayerne, whose information was chiefly derived from painters of that school, observes, in a passage already noticed, that, when the picture is placed in the sun, linseed oil bleaches better than the other oils: the process was, therefore, customary in all cases. Adam, a Flemish painter frequently named by the physician, remarks that certain co- lours (massicot and indigo) are liable to change, if the picture is exposed to the sun.f Norgate, in the MS. before quoted, gives the following receipt. " To refresh oyl pictures, whose colours are faded " (the expression " faded " here meaning the alter- ation produced by a film of oil on the surface). — " Wash the picture clean with water, and set it in a hott sunshine to dry the space of three or four hours, soe the colours will be refreshed, and, if it be but a litle faded, it will recover it again." The next receipt begins, " If your picture be old," &c. ; * De Piles, Cours de Peinture, &c, Paris, 1708, p. 10. This writer states that he afterwards purchased the picture in question, " que je trouvai d'un beau pinceau et d'une grande force." ■f " M. Adam, Peintre Flamand. — Le massicot et indico a huyle s'esvanouissent et se tirent dehors, si le tableau est expose au soleil ; ce sont couleurs dont il fault fort peu user." —MS. p. 123. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 515 thus showing that, in the case referred to, he alludes to recently painted pictures. The Spanish painters adopted the same method. Palomino, after speaking of the necessity of as- sisting the desiccation of most colours, observes : " This [drying] is promoted by the state of the weather in summer, and by the sun in winter ; the pictures being placed where they can receive the solar rays. It is, indeed, always important that an oil picture should be exposed to the air and sun for a while, in order to remove the oily exudation, which deadens the colours, especially the blues and whites ; and the more so if the picture has been for a time turned to the wall. Care must, however, be taken in regard to indigo, for the sun, if powerful, will cause it to fade."* The habits of Rubens, in this respect, may be gathered from various letters of his, in which he alludes to the same practice. In one addressed to Sustermans, at Florence, to whom his " Allegory of War," now in the Pitti Palace, was consigned, he expresses his fears that the flesh tints and whites * "Y para esto ayudan tambien muclio el tiempo, si es verano, y el sol, si es invierno, poniendo las pinturas donde le puedan gozar ; y siempre es importante a una pintura a el olio que goce a el descubierto de los ayres y del sol algun tanto para que se le quite lo abutagado que suele mortificar los colores, especialmente en azules y blancos, y mas si ha estado algun tiempo vuelta a la pared; pero con cuidado si tiene anil, porque si es mucho el sol, se lo lie vera." — El Museo Pictorico, tomo 2 ndo , p. 57. L L 2 516 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. may have become a little yellow in consequence of the picture having been packed up while it was fresh; and requests that, should such be the case, it may be exposed to the sun, at intervals, to remedy the defect.* In his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, he repeatedly adverts to his having placed certain pictures, then freshly retouched, in the sun to dry. There is, however, no evidence that these, or any other of his works, were so ex- posed in order to be varnished : on the contrary, the pictures referred to were sent away, rolled, within a very few days after he had worked upon them. The circumstances under which they were completed tend further to show that the vehicle used, while it superseded the necessity of an ultimate varnish, must have dried hard in a very short time, to admit of their being packed in the mode described. f * " Io temo che stando tanto tempo una pittura fresca incol- lata ed incassata, ben potrebbono smarrire un poco gli colori, e particolarmente le carnagioni e le bianche ingiallirsi qualche poco ; che pero, sendo V. S. si grand' uomo nella nostra profes- sione, vi rimediera facilmente con esporlo al sole, lasciandolo per intervalli ; e quando fusse necessario, ben potra V. S. con mia permissione metterci la sua mano, e ritoccarlo dove sara di bisogno, o per disgrazia, o per mia dappocaggine." — Latere Pittoriche (1822), vol. iii. p. 528. The date of this letter is "12. Marzo, 1638." f All the pictures, nine in number, were more or less re- touched by Rubens in the month of May, 1618 : two or three required considerable repainting. On the 26th of May he writes that for some time he had not given a single stroke of the brush, " alcuna pennellata," except on these pictures ; and PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 517 Another letter from Rubens to Peiresc is no less important, as it contains the great painter's opinion, founded on his experience, of the remedy in question. He says: "If I knew that my por- trait was still at Antwerp, I would cause it to be detained, and the case to be opened, in order to see if it is not spoiled after having been so long shut up without air ; and whether, as com- monly happens to fresh colours [under such cir- cumstances], it has not turned yellow, so as to be no longer in appearance what it was at first. The remedy, however, if it should happen to be in so bad a state, will be to place it several times in the sun, as the sun can dissipate the superfluity of oil which causes this alteration. And, if at any time it should again become brown, it should again be exposed to the sun's rays, which are the only antidote for this disease of the heart." * reckons on completing all by the 28th. By the end of the month the pictures were all packed in their cases, for on the 1st of June he writes: "I quadri tutti ben conditional et incassiti con diligenza ho consigniati," &c. He speaks of them as freshly retouched, " frescamente rittochi ;" always alluding to painting, and not to varnishing. See the letters in Carpen- ter's Pictorial Notices, &c. p. 153. 165. It is hardly to be conceived that, in entering into all these details, the application of varnish would have been omitted, if it had taken place : the inference is, that the vehicle which he used rendered such an addition unnecessary, being itself partly composed of varnish. * " Se io sapessi che il mio ritratto fosse ancora in Anversa, io lo farei ritenere per aprir la cassa, e vedere se sendo stato rinchiuso tanto tempo in una cassa senza veder 1' aria, non sia guasto e, siccome suole accadere agli colori freschi, ingialdito, h l 3 518 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. The recommendation in this letter, and in that to Sustermans, to place the picture in the sun " at intervals," and " several times," is not an unneces- sary caution, even when the work is executed on cloth. Besides the danger, already adverted to, of some colours fading (especially if not defended by a firm vehicle), it is to be remarked that pigments thinly spread on a dry ground, in expanding with the heat, may become partially detached and rise in blisters. This is more likely to take place in pictures painted on panel, because the wood con- tracts (on the heated side), while the paint has a contrary tendency. Accidents of this kind are avoided by not exposing the picture to a fierce heat for any continuous length of time ; in warm and dry weather it is safer to place it in the open air, without exposing it to the direct rays of the sun.* The repetition of this process, as Rubens inti- mates, will at last entirely exhaust the exudations di maniera che non parira piii quello che fu. II remedio pero, se arrivara [d' essere] cosi mal trattato, sara di metterlo piii volte al sole, che sa macerare questa ridundanza del oglio che causa questa mutanza ; e se per intervalli torna ad imbrunirsi, bisogna di novo esporlo ai raggi solari, che sono 1' unico anti- doto contro questo morbo cardiaco." — Gachet, Lettres inedites de Pierre Paul Rubens, 1840, p. 234. * Sebastian Resta, speaking of some pictures which had darkened in tone, recommends that they should be placed for some days in the open air : " Gli tenga qualche giorno all' aria che si rischiariranno un poco piii." — Letter e Pittoriche (1822), vol. ii. p. 114. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 519 which cause the yellowing of the surface; and, when a picture is thus as safe as it can be from further change, the same cause which would injure it while in a fresh state, viz. its being screened from the action of light, will now be beneficial, and will tend to maintain the vivacity and force of the colours. The age of triptychs is past ; the habit of reserving fine pictures for occasional in- spection only is now almost obsolete ; but their protection from the sun's rays, when there is no longer any " superfluity of oil" to dissipate, is essential to their preservation.* Painters who are accustomed to a climate where the sun is not always to be had when wanted may find in the example of the Dutch and Flemish artists, who had no better sky than our own, a sufficient inducement to revive the practice above described. Rubens, as appears from one of his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton, required serene as well as sunny weather, because the wind " stirring up the dust is injurious to newly painted pictures." He had thus all the disadvantages to contend with which the painters of this country can experience. The hints obtained by De May erne from Rubens and Vandyck relate to various subjects, and occur * The celebrated Pieta, by Perugino, now in the Pitti Palace at Florence, suffered from long exposure to the sun while in its original situation in the Church of S. Chiara. See the notes to the Florence edition of Vasari (1832-1838), vol. i. p. 124. L L 4 520 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. in different parts of the physician's MS. ; but, as it may be desirable to compare the remarks so re- corded, they are here inserted together ; with the exception of Vandyck's receipt for clarifying oil, which has been already given. The physician, in noting some methods for pre- paring essential-oil varnishes, adds the following receipt, which, it will be seen, corresponds with that of Armenini, called the varnish of Correggio n " Another method, which is considered better. — Melt 1 oz. of very fine turpentine in 2 oz. of petro- leum in a water-bath, taking care that nothing boils. This varnish never cracks, does not become white [opaque], and displays your work perfectly."* Immediately after, he inserts Kubens's opinion on this varnish. " M. Rubens. N.B. Turpentine in time becomes arid (as the essential oil of turpentine or the petro- leum evaporates), and is not proof against water. The best varnish, resisting water, is made with drying oil, much thickened in the sun on litharge, without boiling at all."f * " Aultre facon qu'on tient meilleure. — R. Terebenthine tres belle une oz., petrole deux oz., fondus ensemble dans eau chaude, et guardez que rien ne bouille. Ce vernix ne s'escaille jamais, ne blanchit point, et vous monstre exactement tout vostre ouvrage." — MS. p. 7. verso. "j- " La terebenthine avec le temps se seiche, l'huile de tere- benthine ou le petrole s'esvanouissant, et ne peut endurer l'eau. Le meilleur vernis resistant a, l'eau se faict avec l'huile sicca- tive fort espaissie au soleil sur la lytharge (voyez sur la ceruse) sans aulcunement bouillir." — lb. p. 8. The observation in PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 521 The first point which is clear from this memo- randum is, that Rubens disapproved of essential-oil varnishes as final coatings for pictures. The var- nish first described, as already shown, was held in great estimation by the Italians, and is frequently noticed in the physician's MS. ; but, in more than one instance, he takes occasion to say, on the au- thority of various Flemish painters, that, without some admixture of oil, it is not durable in a humid climate. For example : "M. Portman, a Flemish painter, thinks that any varnish, whether composed of mastic, sandarac, or other resins, which cannot bear moisture without becoming white, and thereby being spoiled, will bear it without injury if you add to your varnish a little drying oil bleached in the sun, in the mode before explained. This oil should be thinned (so as to be easily spread) with spike oil, which presently evaporates; thus the drying oil will preserve all the rest."* After describing one of the essential-oil varnishes of Van Belcamp, De Mayerne observes : " The acldi- the parenthesis is by De Mayerne. In the margin is written, "M. Rubens. N. B." * " Vernix resistant a l'eau. — M. Portman, peintre FJamand, croit que tout vernix, soit de mastic, sandarach, ou aultres gommes resineuses, qui ne peuvent souffrir l'eaue sans blanchir et se gaster, la souffriront sans prejudice si a vostre vernix vous adjoustez un peu d'huyle grasse blanchie au soleil, ut a. s., laquelle soit delayee et rendue extensible avec huile d'aspic qui s'evapore facilement ; ainsi l'huile seichant conservera tout le reste." — MS. p. 151. 522 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. tion of some very drying linseed or nut oil, in the proportion of half an oz. to a lb., will render this varnish, and any other which whitens or cracks in the air, very hard and firm."* Elsewhere, after noticing some similar compositions, he says : "To all these varnishes add a little nut or linseed oil bleached in the sun ; this prevents their cracking, and causes them to resist moisture and air." f On the authority of Mytens, he gives the following direction : " To render it [the varnish] constant and unalterable by moisture, add to it, when it is prepared, an eighth part of drying linseed oil, bleached in the sun." J A remedy for the chilling of ordinary varnishes is also suggested by Mytens. " Observe that a bloom appears on the surface of varnish as if one had breathed on it ; this takes place especially in a damp situation. It is easily wiped away with a piece of linen ; but it will not happen at all, if the picture, when varnished, is placed and left for some hours in the sun ; or [and] if a second coat of the same varnish be ap- plied.'^ * " L'addition de Jss sur lb. 1. d'huile de lin ou de noix fort siccative rendra ce vernix, et tout aultre qui se blanchit ou s'ecaille a l'air, tres dur et resistant." — MS. p. 163. ■f " A v tous ces vernis ajoustez un peu d'huile de noix ou de lin blanchie au soleil : cela empesche qu'ils ne se fendent et les faict resister a l'eau et a l'air." — lb. p. 112. \ " Pour le rendre constant et inalterable a l'eau quand le vernix est faict adjoustez une huictiesme partie d'huyle de lin blanchie au soleil, siccative." § et (Mitens) Notez que sur le vernix, principalement en lieu PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 523 The sunned drying oil, of which Rubens speaks, may either have been an ingredient in an oleo-resi- nous varnish, or, being half-resinified, may have formed a varnish by itself. As it was " much thickened," it required, in either case, to be diluted; and it will be seen that (at least in painting) he employed an essential oil for this purpose. Leonardo da Yinci alludes to a varnish consisting of nut oil alone, thickened in the sun (rassodato al sole) * ; and a Flemish authority quoted by De Mayerne, after describing the usual essential-oil varnish, adds: "nut oil alone answers very well also."f If the opinion of Rubens above cited is to be taken literally, his authority may be added to those who recommended such a varnish : but this remains to be examined. It is to be supposed that, whenever this method was adopted, the oil had the consistence and nature of a varnish ; having been thickened and bleached by exposure to the sun, and having been rendered drying, either by the same means, or by the addi- tion of metallic oxides. In some cases it was even allowed to attain its maximum of solidification, and was then dissolved by gentle heat with spirit of ou a l'air humide, se faict un ternissement bleuastre, comme si on avoit souffle dessus, qui s'essuye facilement avec un linge, mais qui ne viendra point si le tableau verny est mis et laisse pour quelques heures au soleil, ou si on donne une seconde couche du dit vernix." — MS. p. 149. * Trattato della Pittura, Roma, 1817, p. 256. f MS. p. 154. verso. 524 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. turpentine.* The addition of an essential oil would, indeed, be required in most cases, in order that the varnish might be easily spread, and in order to reduce its substance when applied on the picture. But it would evidently have been a misapplication of the method, to use thin unprepared oils. They have not sufficient body to protect the surface, and, as they become incorporated with the colours, have only the effect of yellowing without defending them. Van Gool relates that Robert Du Val, who was employed by William III. to take charge of the cartoons, and to repair other works at Hampton Court, had adopted the system here objected to. " He had," observes the biographer, " quite a mis- taken notion on this subject, as I know from having often conversed with him ; I found that instead of good varnish, he used nut oil to bring out the colours, maintaining that this was the best mode of keeping pictures in a good state. On this point I could never agree with him ; for it is impossible to rub the oil so thinly and sparingly on the sur- face as to prevent it, before it is dry, from running down. Besides which, no oil is known which does not become yellow in time, thus spoiling the effect of the picture ; it is, also, not to be removed without caustic materials, the application of which is ex- tremely dangerous : whereas, when the ordinary * See the description before given of a varnish of this kind, p. 357. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 525 varnish has become yellow, it is easily removed by any one who understands the operation." * Du Yal appears to have used the nut oil in its thin unprepared state, thus rendering the method doubly objectionable. When thickened and bleached in the sun, and again diluted with a quickly evapo- rating essential oil, it would undoubtedly form a sufficient defence for pictures, and would, perhaps, be less likely to turn yellow, though this last defect, as Van Gool remarks, is hardly to be avoided. The addition of a small quantity only of bleached oil to the ordinary " Italian " varnish, in the mode recommended by De Mayerne and his Flemish authorities, would form a more brilliant and * " Op order van Koning Willem den derden, monarch van Groot Brittanje, stak Du Val naer Engelant over, om .... het geen beschadigt of vuil was in order te brengen en sclioon te laeten maken ; hoewel hy van dit laetste een heel verkeert begrip had, daer ik wel meer als eens met hem over in gesprek ben geweest, en verstont van hem, dat hy, in plaets van goede Vernis, Nooten-Olie gebruikte om uit te halen ; voorgevende, dat zulks het beste middel was om de Schildereyen in goeden staet te houden ; het geen ik geenzints met hem eens was ; want daer is niemand in staet, om 'er den Olie zo dor en schrael op te vryven, of, eer hy droog is, loopt 'er dezelve by neer ; waer noch by komt, dat 'er geen Olie bekent is die niet geel wordt door den tyt, en de Schildereyen bederft ; ook is 'er dezelve nooit af te krygen als met bytende middelen, het geen ten uiterste gevaerlyk is. Daer men in tegendeel Vernis, die geel geworden is, op een heele makkelyke manier, voor je- mant die de behandeling weet, daer weder kan afdoen." — De Nieuive Schouburg der Nederlantsche Kunstschilders, &c, in 'Sgravenhage, 1 750, vol. i. p. 85. 526 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. scarcely less durable composition, and there can be little doubt that this was what Rubens meant. The expression " le meilleur vernis . . . . se faict avec" &c., bears this interpretation. But if he gave his opinion in favour of such a varnish, as compared with the more perishable applications in use, it still does not follow that he commonly em- ployed it. As already remarked, it may, at least, be inferred from the above passage, that he did not varnish his works with an essential-oil varnish ; and if, as there seems ground to conclude, he used an oleo-resinous vehicle with his colours, his pictures, when first executed, could not require varnish at all. It is not likely that a painter who took such precautions to re- move the yellowness occasioned by the rising of the oil, and who describes that effect as a "disease of the heart," would increase the evil he complained of by the addition of oil on the surface ; nor could he con- sistently have explained such an effect in the words just cited, if the rising of the oil had been checked by a superadded varnish of any kind. Rubens ap- pears to have considered that the essential-oil var- nish, although answering very well in Italy, is not fit for a humid climate ; and that the best substitute for such a composition is a vehicle which leaves a sufficient gloss on the colours, thereby superseding the necessity of any further addition. It may also have been his opinion, that those who consider a PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 527 varnish indispensable might employ, as such, this same medium diluted with an essential oil. After all, the gloss on pictures executed with an oleo-resinous vehicle, though it may supersede var- nish for many years, disappears at last, and requires to be supplied by other means. Specimens of pic- tures by the immediate followers of the Van Eycks are sometimes to be seen in their original state. They have now the dryness of tempera ; the gloss, which at the time of their completion rendered varnish unnecessary, has entirely disappeared. Two portions of the triptych by Hugo van der Goes in S. Maria Nuova, at Florence, are* in this condition, and contrast strongly with the third (one of the wings) which has been recently var- nished. It remains to observe, in reference to the above opinion of Rubens, that he evidently did not object to a drying oil prepared with litharge, provided the oil was not boiled with that substance. The next memorandum is as follows : — " M. Rubens. N.B. To make your colours spread easily, and consequently unite well, and even retain their freshness — as in the case of blues and indeed all colours — dip your brush lightly, from time to time while you paint, in clear essential oil of Venice turpentine, distilled in a water-bath ; then, with the same brush, mix your colours on the * April, 1846. 528 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. palette."* De Mayerne, in a marginal note, ex- plains the oil of turpentine by the term " aqua di raggia " (the present Italian appellation of spirit of turpentine). The word "vidi" is also added, inti- mating that the physician had seen Rubens put his recommendation in practice. The direction here given is a necessary conse- quence of using a somewhat thickened drying oil. If the oil itself be thinned with the spirit, the latter, when well rectified, evaporates so quickly, and so soon separates from the oil by rising above it, that the method proposed by Rubens is perhaps the least inconvenient. The same mode was adopted (probably to a greater extent) by Paul Veronese, as will be shown hereafter. Painters are aware that a considerable quantity of essential oil may be used with an oleo-resinous vehicle, without impair- ing its gloss. It has been shown that some Flemish painters, adopting the Italian practice, were in the habit of using so much spirit with certain colours, as purposely to render them dull ; but it is evident that, had Rubens done this, he must have varnished his pictures at last, and this does not appear to * " M. Rubens. N.B. Pour faire que vos couleurs s'esten- dent facilement, et par consequent se meslent bien, et mesme ne meurent pas, comme pour les azurs, mais generalement en toutes couleurs, en peignant trempez legerement de fois a aultre votre pinceau dans de l'huile blanche de terebenthine de Venise extraite au baing m., puis avec le dit pinceau meslez vos couleurs sur la palette." — MS* p. 10. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 529 have been his ordinary practice. De Mayerne, in another part of his MS., writes: " Sir Peter Paul Rubens said that all colours should be ready ground, employing for this pur- pose spirit of turpentine, which is better than spike oil, and not so strong."* If colours are ground in an essential oil, it is to be supposed that the fluid has been perfectly recti- fied, otherwise the resinous portion would cause the colours to cake. Spirit of wine is, for this rea- son, generally preferred. Rubens had probably experienced the inconvenience of using colours ground in water, from the difficulty of drying them thoroughly; the mischief of aqueous particles in oils, varnishes, or pigments, has been already noticed. The expression " fiera," applied to spike oil, may have had reference to its pungent odour. The colours being perfectly ground, and kept in that state, could then be mixed with the drying vehicle for immediate use, according to the early Flemish practice. He proceeds : * " II Cavaliere Pietro Paulo Rubens. II Signor Cavaliere Rubens a detto che bisogna che tutti i colori siano presto macinati operando con acqua di raggia che e migliore e non tanta fiera come 1' oglio di spica." — 3IS. p. 151. The physician explains " acqua di raggia" as follows : " i. cum oleo extracto ex pice molli et alba quae colligitur ex arbore picea, est boni odoris et distillatur in aqua instar olei albi Terebinthinae." Rubens appears to have sometimes conversed, as he commonly wrote, in Italian ; but not always in the purest and most intelligible language. The word " presto" is probably here used in the sense of the French "pret." M M 530 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. " To use smalt so that it shall be beautiful and light, it is necessary to temper it quickly with var- nish ; then to lay it on gently, without caring to stir it much while the colour is wet, because this stirring spoils it : but when dry it may be worked upon as you please. The same mode may be adopted for blue bice. Ultramarine and ultrama- rine ashes are excellent for finishing the distance." * The varnish here alluded to was no doubt the essential-oil varnish before mentioned, composed of fir resin and petroleum ; the recommendation to mix the colour with it quickly (from its rapid dry- ing) would hardly be applicable to an oil varnish. The ultramarine was evidently used in the second painting, perhaps over a preparation with the " cendre d'azur." The next remarks relate to Vandyck. " Sir Anthony Vandyck, Knight, a very excel- lent painter. London, 30th December, 1632. N.B. Oil is the principal thing which painters should be choice in, endeavouring to have it good, colourless, fluid ; for otherwise, if it be too thick, it alters all the finest colours, especially the blues and whatever is made with them, as the greens." * " Per far la smalta bella e chiara bisogna temperarla con vernice tosto e metterla piano e non affaticarsi a mescolar troppo mentre il colore e umido, perche questa agitatione guasta il colore. Ma essendo il lavoro secco si puo lavorare di sopra come vi piace. " Cos! si puo far con la cenere— cendre d' azur. L'oltramarino e la cenere di oltramarino sono bellissime per finire la lonta- nanza." — MS. p. 151. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 531 " Linseed oil is the best of all the oils ; it even surpasses nut oil, which is more fat, and that of the poppy seed, which becomes so and easily thickens."* It is evident from these passages that the prac- tice of Rubens and Vandyck differed in regard to the vehicle. Vandyck is, however, quite consistent : as he was accustomed to a thin and fluid medium, he objected, as will be seen, to the amber varnish. The firm vehicle which Rubens appears to have used, diluting it as required, was, for the same reason, not to his taste. On the other hand, the oleo-resinous medium, described as Vandyck's in a former chapter, and which, according to that account, he always preferred in a fresh state, before it had become inspissated, possessed the quality which he here approves. The physician continues : " Having suggested to him that those colours — blue and green — when applied with gum water or isinglass in distemper, and then varnished, are as good as colours applied with oil, he told me that he very often laid in those colours in his pictures with gum water, and when they were * " S r Antony Van Deik chevalier, peintre tres excellent. Londres 30. X bris 1632. N.B. L'huyle est la principals chose que les peintres doivent rechercher, taschant de l'avoir bonne, blanche, liquide ; car aultrement, si elle est trop grasse, elle tue toutes les plus belles couleurs, comme les azurs principalement et tout ce qui se faict avec iceulx, comme les verds. " L'huyle de hn est la meilleure de toutes, mesine elle sur- passe celle de noix, qui est plus grasse, et celle de semence de pavot, qui le devient et s'espaissit facilement." — MS. p. 154. M M 2 532 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. dry passed his varnish over them : but that the secret consists in making colours in distemper take and adhere to a priming in oil. This is accom- plished certainly and permanently if the juice of onion or garlic be passed over the priming : the juice, when dry, receives and retains colours mixed with water. " This conversation arose in consequence of his telling me that Sign or Gentileschi, a Florentine painter of merit, has a very excellent green, pre- pared from an herb, which he makes use of in his oil pictures, possibly in the mode above described." * De May erne adds : " See above, among the observa- tions on green colours, the preparation of bladder green with tartar ; see also the notes on gamboge, a colour which does not fade." In the process here recorded, which was common * " Lui ayant propose que les couleurs susdites, l'azur et le verd, estant couchees avec eau gommee ou colle de poisson a detrempe, puis vernissees, sont esquivalents a celles qui sont mises a huile, il m'a dit que bien souvent il couche en ses tableaux lesdites couleurs avec eau gommee, et puis, estant seiclies, passe son vernix par dessus. Mais que le secret consiste a faire que les couleurs a detrempe prennent et s'attachent sur l'imprimeure qui est a huile. Ce qui se fera certain ement et fidellement, si on passe par dessus l'imprimeure le sue d'oignon (ou d'ail) lequel estant sec recoit et garde les couleurs a eau. Ce discours est venu sur ce qu'il m'a dit que S r . Gentileschi, bon peintre Florentin, a un tres excellent verd fait avec une herbe, duquel il se sert a ses tableaux a huile, possiblement de facon susdite. [Voyez ici devant entre les verds la preparation du verd de vessie avec le tartre et le Gambouya qui ne meurt point.]" — MS. p. 154. PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 533 with some Venetian painters, it was necessary to cover the portion painted in tempera with varnish, so as to render the colour proof against water. This precaution was sometimes imperfectly attended to, or the varnish may have decayed ; the conse- quence has been (particularly in some Venetian examples), that such portions have been sometimes partly disturbed by washing. The varnish of Vandyck, fortunately recorded by Norgate, has been already given. The use of the medium above described, as a mordant for gilding, is very ancient ; it occurs in most of the early treatises, and, among others, in the Byzantine and Venetian MSS. before quoted.* It may have been employed at an early period in oil painting, in the mode recommended by Van- dyck ; it was afterwards used in the Northern schools, as a means of assisting the adherence of oil colours on any smooth surface. The editor of De Piles, after describing the preparation of an oil ground on copper, adds that the metal may be painted on at once, without any ground, if it be previously rubbed with the juice of garlic. f The authors of the Encyclopedie Methodique even state that glass may be prepared for painting in the * The glutinous mordants described in the latter are, gum arabic (rendered less liable to crack by the addition of honey or sugar), ox-gall, the milky juice of the fig tree, gum sagapenum, and the juice of garlic. t E'lemens, &c. p. 1 38. M M 3 534 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. same way.* The adherence to an oil ground is complete, apparently in consequence of the presence of an essential oil in the juice. De May erne con- tinues : " Treatment of Yellow. He [Vandyck] makes use of orpiment, which is the finest yellow that is to be found ; but it dries very slowly, and, when mixed with other colours, it destroys them. In order to make it dry, a little ground glass should be added to it. In making use of it, it should be applied by itself ; the drapery (for which alone it is fit) having been prepared with other yellows. Upon these, when dry, the lights should be painted with orpiment : your work will then be in the highest degree beautiful. " He spoke to me of an exquisite white, com- pared with which the finest white lead appears grey, which, he says, is known to M. Rubens. " Also of a man who dissolved amber without carbonising it, so that the solution was pale, yellow, transparent f The above communications from Vandyck are * Beaux Arts, vol. ii., art. Impression, p. 661. f " Labeur de Jaime. II se sert de l'orpiment, qui est le plus beau jaune que Ton scauroit avoir ; mais il seiche fort tardive- ment, et mesle avec toutes autres couleurs il les tue. Pour la faire seicher il y fault adj outer un peu de verre broye. Et pour s'en servir il le faut appliquer seul, ayant fait la draperie (pour laquelle seule il est tres bon) avec autres couleurs jaunes, et sur icelles bien seiches fault rehausser sur le jour avec orpiment. Ainsi votre labeur sera beau par excellence. " II m'a parle d'un blanc exquis au prix [aupres] duquel le PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 535 inserted towards the end of the physician's MS. The following extracts occur before it, but they have been here placed in the order of their dates. "London, 20th May, 1633. The ground, or priming, for pictures is of great consequence. Sir Antonio Vandyck has made the experiment of priming with isinglass; but he told me that what is painted upon it cracks, and that this glue causes the colours to fade in a very few days. Thus it is good for nothing. " Having given him some of my good [amber] varnish to work with the colours, by mixing it with them on the palette in the same mode as the varnish of Gentileschi is used, he told me that it thickened too much, and that the colours, in con- sequence, became less flowing. Having replied that the addition of a little spirit of turpentine, or other fluid which evaporates, would remedy this, he answered that it would not : but that remains to be tried. See whether the oil of white poppy, spike oil, or other will answer."* blanc de plomb le plus beau semble gris, qu'il dit estre cogneu par M. Rubens. " Item d'un homrae qui dissolvoit l'ambre sans le brusler, de so-rte que la dissolution estoit blanche, jaune, transparent." — MS. p. 155. * "20. May, 1633, a Londres. L'imprimeure est do ires grande consequence. S r . Antonio Van Deik a cssayo d'im- primer avec la colle de poisson ; mais il m'a dit que le labour s'escaille, et que cette colle dans fort peu de jours tue les couleurs. Partant elle ne vaut rien. "Luiayant donne de mon bon vernix pour travailler avec les m m 4 536 PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. De Mayerne had made the amber varnish too thick and too drying ; the latter defect, instead of being corrected, would rather be increased by the addition of an essential oil. The proposed poppy oil was a fitter remedy. The author of the By- zantine MS. directs a thick vehicle to be diluted either with an essential oil, or with a raw (unpre- pared) fixed oil. The physician proceeds : " He [Yandyck] has tried the white of Bismuth with oil, and says that the white prepared from lead — the material commonly used — provided it be well washed, is much whiter than that of Bismuth. The latter has not body enough, and is only good for the miniature-painter." * " My tens having tried the white of tin [or Bis- muth] told me that it blackened on exposure to the sun, and that if mixed with white lead it spoils the latter. Thus it is good for nothing in oil, nor even in tempera if you expose it to the air : in a book it would do for illuminating." f couleurs, les meslant sur la palette a la facon de celui de Gentileschi, il m'a dit qu'il s'espaissit trop, et que les couleurs se rendent par la moins coulantes. Lui ayant replique que d'y adj ouster un peu d'huile de tereben thine, ou aultre qui s'evapore, cela peult servir pour remede, il m'a repondu que non. Cela gist a l'essai. Voyez si l'huile de pavot blanc, l'huile d'aspic ou aultre pourra servir." — MS. p. 10. verso. * "11 a essaye le blanc de % Bismuth a huile, et dit que celui de blanc de plomb, qui est l'ordinaire, pourvu qu'il soit bien lave, est beaucoup plus blanc ; que celui de % n'a pas assez de corps, et ne vault rien que pour l'enlumineur." — MS. ib. f " Mitens, ayant essaye le blanc de If, m'a dit qu'expose au PRACTICE OF LATER MASTERS. 537 It seems that tin ( % ) and bismuth were not very clearly distinguished at the period when the physi- cian wrote. The allusion to the washing of white lead shows that Vandyck, like other painters of his time, did not neglect this mode of improving the colour. The trial by exposure to the sun also exemplifies the habits before noticed. The technical processes of the Flemish school long survived, not only in England but in France. De Piles and his immediate followers were the eulogists of Rubens. At a later period Descamps undertook to write the lives and record the practice of the painters of the Netherlands ; while Largi- liere, Descamps's teacher, ceased not to exhort his countrymen to study the works of those masters to whom he was himself indebted for the skill or knowledge which he possessed. The principles of Largiliere were embodied by his scholar, Oudry, in some valuable observations " On the manner of studying colour." * The homage paid by the French school to that of Flanders, during the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth century, accounts for the resemblance which is often to be traced soleil il se noircit, et si vous le meslez avec blanc de plomb il le gaste : partant il ne vault rien a l'huile, ny mesme a destrempe si vous l'exposez a l'air. En un livre il est bc-n pour enluminer." — MS. p. 10. verso. * Reflexions sur la Maniere d'etudier la Couleur, en com- parant les Objets les uns aux autres. Printed originally in Watelet's Dictionnaire des Arts de Peinture, Sculture, &c., Paris, 1792, vol. i. p. 366. 538 EXTRACTS FROM NOTES between the directions contained in French manuals, of those periods, and the methods which have now been brought to light from MSS. written during the lifetime of Rubens and Yandyck. The same may be said of the scattered records of art in this country ; and, to whatever extent the English painters of the last age may have professed to imitate Italian examples, their technical habits still leaned to the traditions of the Flemish school. EXTRACTS FROM NOTES BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. The notes which Sir Joshua Reynolds kept of the materials employed, and the order of the processes adopted by him, in the execution of many of his works, are important links in the technical history of painting. On a comparison of these interest- ing records with various circumstances that have been detailed in the foregoing pages, it will now appear that his experiments were not, as has been sometimes supposed, entirely novel. His methods often coincided with the Flemish practice, and were probably derived from its traditions. His use of wax was, however, an exception. The credit which that medium sud- denly acquired in the latter part of the eighteenth century was the result of Caylus's attempts to restore the ancient encaustic painting. The original purpose failed, but the chief material which had been the object of experiment in the attempted revival, was adopted, with no very good results, by the oil painters, and especially by Reynolds. Most of the notes from which the following specimens are extracted (and of which other copies exist) have already BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 539 appeared in print ; they are not all equally interesting, and some, from the obscure form in which the memoranda were entered, are unintelligible. Sir Joshua may have adopted this mode to conceal his methods from his immediate attendants. It may be satisfactory to know that there can be no doubt of the authenticity of these records ; the author is enabled to give his testimony on this point, having seen the original MSS. in the handwriting of Reynolds. " Mr. Pelham, painted with lake and white and black and blue, varnished with gum mastic dissolved in oil with sal Saturni and rock alum. Yellow lake and Naples and black mixed with the varnish. July 7th, 1766." This portrait was therefore laid in with white and black and blue, as Sir Joshua supposed Correggio's Leda, and some other pictures which he saw in Rome, were begun.* Lake was the only red admitted in this preparation, over which was passed a yellow varnish. The varnish itself, with the exception of the dryer (sugar of lead), corresponds with one described by Armenini.f " Lord Villers, given to Dr. Barnard. Painted with yernice fatta di cera and Venice Turp. mischiato con gli colori macinati in olio. Carmine in vece di Lacca. Lady Wray, do." The abbreviated form, "cera vern.," which sometimes occurs in these notes, is explained by this passage. It was a varnish consisting of wax dissolved in Venice turpentine : a portion of this was mixed with the colours previously ground in oil. "Oct. 1767. Lord Townsend prima con magP., poi olio, poi magP. senza olio. Lacca, poi verniciato con vermilion." This appears to mean that the colours, in the first and last sitting were mixed or ground with meguilp alone ; but, as that composition consists of oil and mastic varnish, the expres- sion "senza olio" is not literally correct. Lake was employed as the red in the first painting, and was varnished with ver- milion. * Northcote's Life of Reynolds, vol. i. p. 36. f I veri Precetti, &c. (1587), p. 129- 540 EXTRACTS FROM NOTES "The Speaker, the face colori in olio mischiato con magilp, poi verniciato." Colours ground in oil were mixed with meguilp, then var- nished. " Solo magilp e poi tutto verniciato con colori in polvere senza olio e magilp." The colours in the first paintings were ground in meguilp alone ; the colours used with the (mastic) varnish may have been spread in a dry state, mingling with the varnish in the process of working: or, "colori in polvere" may only mean that the colours were not previously ground in oil. " Master Buck, finito con ver. senza olio o cera, carmine. (Mastic) varnish alone used with the colours in finishing. " Duchess of Ancaster, prima magilp, seconda olio, terza olio." The colours were mixed in the first sitting with meguilp only, in the second and third with oil. " Lady Almeria Carpenter, Mrs. Cholmondeley, con magilp, terza olio." The colours were mixed in the first two sittings with me- guilp, in the third with oil. " Mio proprio, given to Mrs. Burke, con cera finito quasi, poi con mastic var. finito interamente, poi cerata senza colori." His own portrait, almost finished with wax, completed with mastic varnish, then covered with a wax varnish. This order of processes, the final wax varnish excepted, was well calculated to produce cracking. The wax must have been dissolved in spirit of turpentine and then mixed with colours ground in oil, as colours ground in the dissolved wax alone would have been unmanageable. " Offe's picture painted with cera and cap. solo, cinabro." Painted with wax and copaiba, vermilion for the red. The anonymous author of the Traite de la Peinture au Pastel (1788) suggests that copaiba should be generally used instead of, or slightly diluted with, oil. The use of this or some similar " balsam, " with certain colours, by the painters of the Netherlands, has been already adverted to. Colours ground in BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 541 wax dissolved in a liquid resin would be scarcely manageable without some addition of oil, as an essential oil (with which they might be diluted) evaporates too rapidly. "April 3. 1769. Per gli colori Cinabro e Lacca e ultra- marine e nero, senza giallo. Prima in olio, ultima con vernice solo e giallo." The colours first named (without yellow) were mixed with oil for the first sitting ; yellow afterwards added with (mastic) varnish alone. " May 17. 1769. On a grey ground. First sitting vermilion, lake, white, black Second, ditto. Third, ditto, ultramarine. Last, senza olio, yellow ochre, black, lake, vermilion, touched upon with white." " Senza olio" is equivalent to "with varnish only." "July 10. 1769. My own picture painted first with oil, aft. glazed without white, with capvi [copaiba], yellow ochre, and lake, no varn." Part of this is struck through witli the pen, and the memoran- dum continues : " painted with lake, yellow oohre, blue and black, capi. and cera vern." From the correction it appears that the wax varnish before described was used together with copaiba. " Dr. Johnson and Goldsmith, 1st olio, after capivi with colours but without white ; the hand of Goldsmith capivi and white. " Mrs. Ilorton, con capivi senza giallo, giallo quando era finito." "Jan. 22. 1770. Sono stabilito in maniera di dipingere, primo e secondo o con olio o capivi, gli colori solo nero, ultram. e biacca, secondo medesimo, ultimo con giallo okero e lacca e nero e ultram. senza biacca, ritoccato con poca biacca e gli altri colori. My own given to Mrs. Burke." This picture has been already mentioned ; it was painted with a different vehicle, but the memorandum here appears to mean that the colours and order of the processes corresponded with those now described. 542 EXTRACTS FROM NOTES " Feb. 6. 1770. Primo olio biacca e nero, secondo olio biacca e lacca, terzo capivi lacca e giallo e nero senza biacca." " May, 1770. My own picture, canvas unprimed, cera, finito con vernice." "The Nysaean nymph with Bacchus principiato con cera sola, finito con cera e capivi, per causa it crak'd. Do. Dr. John. Offe fatto interamente con cap. e cera. Testa sopra un fondo preparato con olio e biacca." When wax alone was used underneath, a more resinous medium being employed above, the surface was liable to crack. With this example " Offe's picture," already described, appears to be contrasted ; that work having been painted with wax and copaiba from the first. FROM ANOTHER MEMORANDUM-BOOK. " Oct. 1779. Hope, cera solamente. La milior maniera con cera mischiata con Turp. di Venetia. Justicia, ma li panni cera sol." Having before used the solution of wax in Venice turpentine (as appears from instances already quoted), his approval of it here may be considered the result of experience. " Strawberry Girl, cera sol. " Dr. Barnard, 1st black and white, 2. Verm, and white dry, 3. varnished and retouched." "Oct. 2. 1772. Miss Kirkman. gum dr. et whiting, poi cerata, poi ovata, poi verniciata e retouched. Cracks." A picture begun with whitening and gum tragacanth, then covered successively with wax, white of egg, and varnish, could hardly escape cracking and separating. Compare the anecdote quoted p. 221. " Aug. 15. 1774. White, blue, asphaltum, verm, senza nero. Miss Foley, Sir R. Fletcher. Mr. Hare." "Aug. 26. 1774. White, asphal. verm, minio principalm. e giallo di Napoli, ni nero ni turchino. Ragazzo con sorella, glaze con asphaltum e lacca. " Sir R. Fletcher. Biacca, nero, ultramarine, verm, sed principalmente minio senza giallo. Ultima volta oiled out and BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS; 543 painted all over. Do. Mr. Hare, except glazed with varnish and giallo di Napoli finito quasi con asphaltum, minio e verm, poi con poco di ultramarine qua e la, senza giallo." " Mr. Whiteford, Asphal. verm, minio principalmente senza giallo." Another portrait, in the description of which some un- intelligible contractions appear, was painted at first with " bruciata e non bruciata umbra e biacca, poco di olio." Of another (or perhaps the same) he writes : " umbra, verm., biacca, thick, occasionally thinned with [spirit of] turpentine. Prima, nero, cinabro, minio e azurro, thick." " Lord Henry and Lady Charlotte Spencer, first olio, e poi colori con cera senza olio. Mr. "Weyland do. Miss N. do. Mrs. Mordaunt do. Mrs. Morris do. Tyrconnel do. " My own, Florence, upon raw cloth, cera solamente." " Mrs. Sheridan, the face in olio, poi cerato. Panni in olio poi con cera senza olio, poi olio e cera." Even in this case " cera senza olio" cannot be supposed to mean that the colours were ground in dissolved wax only, but that wax was mixed with the colours previously ground in oil. " My Lord Altorp minio e nero sol. poi giallo e verm, senza biacca, olio. " Mrs. Montagu, olio poi cerata e ritoccata con biacca." " Samuel, V. red [Venetian red ?] glazed with gamboge and verm. Drapery gam. and lake, sky retouched with orp." Another copy reads " retouched with turp." The gamboge and lake, quoted with other experiments in page 444., is extremely brilliant, having lasted perfectly well with Venice turpentine. " St. Joseph, dipinto con verm, e nero velato con gamboge e lacca e asphaltum, poco di turchino nella barba. Panni, turchino e lacca." " My own picture sent to Plympton, cera poi verniciato senza olio ; colori, Cologne earth, vermilion. The cloth varnished first with copal varnish, white and blue, on a raw cloth." The word "blue" is struck through with the pen. 544 EXTRACTS FROM NOTES " Miss Molesworth, drapery painted with oil colour first, after cera alone. Miss Ridge do. Lady Granby do. "Praesepe [nativity] on a raw cloth senza olio. Venice turp. e cera." " Aug. 1779. Hope, my own copy, first oil, then Venice T. [turpentine] cera, verm, white and black, poi varnished. with Venice [turpentine] and cera. Light red and black thickly varnished." " 1781. Manner. Colours to be used Indian red, light red, blue and black, finished with varnish senza olio, poi ritocc. con giallo." The few unquestionable defects in the practice thus exem- plified may be enumerated as follows : — 1. Heterogeneous mixtures, as in the instance of Miss Kirk- man's portrait. 2. The use of soft materials under others of a less dilatable nature; as in the instance of the picture of Bacchus and the Nymph ; this is one of the ordinary causes of cracking. Merimee observes : " Cracks take place whenever the inner colours of the painting remain soft when the external layer is dry. Let drying oil, for example, be thickly spread on a canvass ; it will be very soon dry on its surface. Let white lead be painted upon this ; the colour will sink in, and will dry the sooner because a portion of the oil which it contained quits it to combine with the drying oil of the inner layer. In this state of things, if the atmosphere be warm enough for the materials to expand, the layer of white will crack."* The expansive tendency of the oil underneath is greater than that of the white. When these conditions are reversed, when the softer layer is uppermost, it will, if it contain much oil, become wrinkled or shriveled on the surface. 3. The use of colours of uncertain stability, such as lake (probably not of the best kind), yellow lake, and minium. The * De la Peinture a l'Huile, p. 102. BY SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 545 mention of orpiment (orp.) is doubtful, but Northcote, who gives some extracts similar to those above copied, quotes the follow- ing passage. " For painting the flesh, black, blue black, white, lake, carmine, orpiment, yellow ochre, ultramarine, and varnish. To lay the pallett ; first lay carmine and white in different degrees ; second, lay orpiment and white, ditto ; third, lay blue black and white, ditto." * The date of this memorandum is early, Dec. 6. 1755. Carmine, orpiment, and blue black were at this time the representatives of red, yellow, and blue on Sir Joshua's palette. The immixture of orpiment with white, it is scarcely necessary to say, was sure to change. The directions of Cornelius Jansen and Vandyck point out the true mode of using this colour : its poisonous nature may, however, be added to other reasons for avoiding it. Another colour which Rey- nolds, in his latter practice, used too profusely, was asphaltum. When mixed with the colours, without due precautions in its preparation, it causes them to remain long soft, and is easily torn by drying varnishes. With the above exceptions, not forgetting the use of wax (which, whether advisable or not, is unsanctioned by the example of the early masters), the practice of Reynolds, as exhibited in the above memoranda, is by no means dissimilar from that of the Flemish school. The use of liquid resin6 and varnishes with the colours, in addition to and even without oil, agrees with some methods occasionally adopted by Rubens and Rembrandt, as well as with the habits of the earliest oil painters. The object in this practice seems to have been to combine apparent substance with transparency, a characteristic which, as before observed, is especially attainable in oil painting as compared with other methods. The depth and richness of texture which Reynolds sought, and for which his finest works are remarkable, are qualities peculiar to the art in which he excelled. Although he never seems to have reckoned on the light priming of his canvass, as Rubens did, yet his system of painting at first in white and black, and witli cool reds only, was equivalent to that process. Over this preparation his * Life of Reynolds, vol. i. p. 78. N N 546 NOTE ON THE MAYERNE MANUSCRIPT warmer, yellower colours, generally applied with varnishes only, had the richest effect : the picture in this state was some- times retouched with tints mixed with white ; but was finished quite as often, it seems, even in the lights, with the warmer colours alone. The method of Reynolds, therefore, presents a judicious and generally successful union of the Italian and Flemish practice ; inclining, on the whole, to the latter. NOTE ON THE MAYERNE MANUSCRIPT IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. {Shane MSS., No. 2052.) Theodore de Mayerne, the author of the MS. in question, was born in 1573 at Geneva, where his father, Louis, had dis- tinguished himself by various literary productions. Theodore selected the medical profession ; and, after studying at Montpelier and at Paris, accompanied Henri Due de Rohan to Germany and Italy. On his return he opened a school, in which he delivered lectures to students in surgery and medicine. This proceeding, and the innovation, as it then appears to have been, of employing mineral specifics in the healing art, excited a spirit of opposition which led to a public resolution, emanating from the faculty at Paris, in which his practice was condemned. His reputation rapidly increased from this period. He had before been appointed one of the physicians in ordinary to Henry IV. : in 1611, James I. invited him to England, and appointed him his first physician. De Mayerne enjoyed the same title under Charles I. : he died at Chelsea, leaving a large fortune, in 1655. The name of Theodore de Mayerne appears with honour in the history of chemistry : Brande observes that the writings of IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 547 Paracelsus "are deficient in the acumen and knowledge dis- played by ... . his immediate successors, especially by Theodore de Mayerne and Du Chesne." * His knowledge of painting, and remarkable predilection for investigating its technical pro- cesses and materials, were of great service to the artists with whom he was in communication. Dallaway, in his annotations on Walpole, after noticing the influence of De Mayerne's medical practice on the modern pharmacopoeia, remarks that " his application of chemistry to the composition of pigments, and which he liberally communicated to the painters who enjoyed the royal patronage, to Rubens, Vandyck, and Petitot, tended most essentially to the promotion of the art. From his experiments were discovered the principal colours to be used for enamelling, and the means of vitrifying them. Rubens painted his portrait ; certainly one of the finest now extant. It originally ornamented the Arundel collection ; was then at Dr. Mead's ; Lord Besborough's ; and is now [ 1 826] at Cleveland House."f A monarch who was so fond of painting as Charles I. was fortunate in having the assistance of a person who combined a love of art with a scientific knowledge applicable to its me- chanical operations. It is not surprising that such an amateur as De Mayerne should enjoy the confidence of the first painters of his time; or that, in return for the useful hints which he was sometimes enabled to give them, they should freely open to him the results of their practical knowledge. Such communications, registered at the time by an intelligent observer, throw con- siderable light on the state of painting at one of its most brilliant periods, and tend especially to illustrate the habits of the Flemish and Dutch schools. The manuscript in question is entitled " Pictoria, Sculp- toria, Tinctoria, et quae subalternarum Artium spectantia in Lingua Latina, Gallica, Italica, Germanica conscripta, a Petro * Manual of Chemistry, p. 23. f Walpole's Anecdotes, edited by the Rev. James Dallaway, vol. ii. p. 302. note. N N 2 548 NOTE ON THE MAYERNE MANUSCRIPT. Paulo Rubens, Van Dyke, Somers, Greenberry, Jansen, &c. Fol. No. xix. A. D. 1620. T. de Mayerne." The signature is evidently that of De Mayerne. The same autograph occurs in the MS., p. 148. : " Artifice pour raviver tableaux a destrempe et les rendre equivalents a ceux qui sont a huyle. T. de Mayerne Invent. 1632." The signature and the passage which precedes it are, in this instance, written, currente calamo, by the same person ; and from this specimen it appears that the greater part of the book is written by the physician himself. Communications consisting of autograph letters from various persons, and even short treatises, are also bound up with the work. In one or two letters the superscrip- tion is preserved : one in particular, from Joseph Petitot (brother it seems of the celebrated John Petitot), which is dated "de Geneve ce 14 Janvier, 1644," is addressed, "A Monsieur Monsieur le Chevalier de Mayerne, Baron d'Aubonne, et Premier Medecin du Roi, et demeu*. en St. Martin's Lane, a Londres." The barony of Aubonne descended to him from his ancestors. In a letter dated 1631, from another correspondent, he is styled " Monsieur de Maierne, Premier Medecin de leurs Majestes." The identity of the compiler of this MS. with the celebrated physician and chemist of the same name is thus clearly esta- blished, as well as the fact that the greater part of the book is in his own handwriting. Various circumstances to which it refers corroborate its authenticity, and connect it with the age of Charles I. As the work will be published entire by Mr. Hendrie, its contents need not be further anticipated here. 549 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Page 4. The assumed identity of the sarcocolla of Pliny with gum tragacanth rests on the authority of Dr. John, Die Malerei der Alten, Berlin, 1836, p. 210. Page 63, lines 2, 3. For " The oldest and best copy known, that in the Ricciardi," read " The best copy known, that in the Riccardi." Page 83. Size under oil paint is not limited by Cennini to the surface of stone, but is directed to be applied in all cases. ( Trattato, c. 94.) Earlier writers only recommend that the surface to be painted should be thoroughly dry. Page 98. Mabuse occasionally adopted the method, here described, of painting in water colours on cloth, as appears from the follow- ing passage in Van Mander. " There is also ... at Amsterdam a large work representing the beheading of St. James, executed in chiaroscuro entirely without [body] colours, being tinted only ; so that the whole cloth may be folded, pressed, and crushed without injury." " Daer is oock . . . t' Amsterdam een groot stuck, wesende een onthoofdinge Jacobi, van wit en swart, ghedaen schier sonder verwe, als sapachtigh, datmen den heelen doeck mach vouwen, douwen, en kroken, sonder dat hem hindercn mach." — Met Schilder-Bocck, p. 225. verso. N N 3 550 ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. Page 100. Sandrart observes that the ordinary tempera was only fit for dry situations. The method of tinting linen, as opposed to solid, tempera, was no doubt suggested by the effects of damp on body colours. Van Mander, speaking of some subjects in tempera on cloth, by Lucas van Leyden, observes : " It is to be lamented that these works are much injured by time, and in consequence of the damp of the walls — a great evil in these Netherlands." "... het is te jammeren datse ten tijdt en de oudtheyt so by den tanden hebben ghehabt en verdorven, door de voch- ticheyt der muren, daer in dese Nederlanden veel ghebrecks van is." — Het Schilder-Boeck, p. 214. Page 111. Note. The passage, "pro coopertura ymaginum regum depingen- da," may perhaps be better explained by the following mandate of Henry III. : — " Rex Thesaurario, &c, Liberate de thesauro nostro Willielmo de Sancto Paulo, xxvm. d. ad emendam telam ad cooperiendum altare in capella nostra Sancti Stephani apud Westmonasterium. Teste Rege apud Westmon. xix. die Maii." (21 Hen. III. 1237.) Page 116. The first number of the Archceological Journal (March, 1844) contains some receipts for colours, written early in the fourteenth century. The explanation of " cynople " there given only shows that there were inferior colours of the name, as well as the costly preparation described in the passage above referred to. The " gaudegrene " was probably prepared from weld (gaude). Page 121. The statutes of the Sienese painters (1355) might be com- pared with those of the English Painters' Guild, written more than half a century earlier (1283). The following passage is quoted by Sir Francis Palgrave, in his Merchant and Friar, page 9. : — ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS. 551 " Ponrveu est, que nul ne mette fors (hormis) bonnes et fines couleurs sur or ou sur argent. C'est a savoir, bon azur, bon sinople, bon vert, bon vermilion, ou des autres bonnes couleurs destrerapes d'huile, e nient de brasil, ne de inde de Baldas, ne de nul autre mauveise couleur." The finer lake, which had received the name of sinople, is here clearly distinguished from brasil (from which it is prepared in one of the receipts printed in the Archaeological Journal, above quoted). For the explanation of " Inde de Baldas," see p. 121. of the present work. It is to be observed that no men- tion of oil colours occurs in the Sienese document. Page 171, Note. A "Majesty," like that represented by Cimabue, is referred to in the following order dated the seventeenth of Henry III., before Cimabue was born : — " Mandatum est custodi domorum Regis de Wudestok quod in rotunda capella Regis de Wudestok bonis coloribus depingi faciat Majestatem Domini et quatuor Evangelistas, et imaginem Sancti Edmundi ex una parte et imaginem Sancti Edwardi ex alia parte. Teste P. Winton. Episcopo apud AVestmon. xxim. die Januarii (1233)." — Liberate Rolls. Page 343. Note, line 11. For " ivory black " read " bone black." N K 4 552 SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS PAINTED IN ENGLAND DURING THE REIGN OF HENRY III. The following documents throw considerable light on the state of painting in this country during the first half of the thirteenth century ; they are selected from a greater number, some of those already published having been omitted.* A few notices are in- cluded (as specimens of many similar directions) relating to sculp- ture and also to mere decoration. The taste for painting rooms in green, " viridi colore depingi et auro scintillari," has been already adverted to, as partly tending to explain the occasional use of the " white" instead of the " red" varnish. " Rex custodi Manerii de Kenington salutem. Prsecipimus tibi quod caminum cameras nostras de Kenington de novo fieri facias et ea quas reparanda sunt in aliis domibus nostris ibidem reparari et capellam nostram de camera nostra depingi historiis ita quod campus sit de viridi colore estencelatus stellis aureis. . . Teste Rege apud Kenington, xvn. die Martii (1233)." — Liberate Rolls. "Mandatum est Vicecomiti Oxon. quod picturas quae restant faciendas in magno talamo Regis apud Wudestok fieri facias, et depingi in magna capella imaginem Crucefixi et imagines Beatae Marias et Beati Johannis. . . . Teste Rege apud Wudestok, xxim. die Junii (1233)." — Ib. * See Gage Rokewode's Account of the Painted Chamber, Brayley and Britton's History of the Ancient Palace at West- minster, and Smith's Antiquities of Westminster. SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS. 553 " Rex Vicecomiti Sutbampton. salutem. Pnecipimus tibi quod . . . cameram Regina? nostra? ibidem [Winton.] de- pingi et picturam in camera nostra ubi necesse fuerit renovari . . . et Majestatem quandam in capella Sancti Thoma? depingi. T. R. ap. Merleberg. xxvi. die Mart. (1238)." — Liberate Rolls. "Mandatum est Vicecomiti Suthampton. quod . . . lam- bruschuram camera? ibidem [Winton.] colorari viridi colore et stellari auro et circulos fieri in eadem lambruschura in quibus depingantur historian Veteris et Novi Testamenti. T. R. apud Wherewell xxvii. die Decemb. (1238)." — lb. " Henricus Dei gratia Rex Anglia? &c. Vicecomiti South- ampton, salutem. Pra3cipimus tibi quod . . . fieri etiam facias quandam Mariolam cum quodam magno tabernaculo ad capellam praedictoe Reginae nostra? et quandam tabulam depictam ante altare ejusdem capellae. T. R. ap. Wudestok xmi. die Novem- bris (1239)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Kantia? salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod parietes capellae nostra? infra castrum Roffense de novo plastrari et dealbari et capellam ipsam intus depingi et Majestatem loco quo prius depicta fuit renovari. T. R. ap. Kofi*, x. die Febr. (1239)."— Ib. "Rex custodibus operationis Turns Loud, salutem. Praeci- pimus vobis quod . . . fieri faciatis in eadem capella [S. Johannis Evangelista?] tres fenestras vitreas unam scilicet ex parte Boreali cum quadam Mariola tenente puerum suum, reliquam in parte Australi de Trinitate, et tertiam de Sancto Johanne Apostolo et Evangelista in eadem parte Australi . . . et depingi duas imagines pulcliras ubi melius et decentius fieri possint in eadem capella, unam de Sancto Edwardo tenentem anulum et donantem et tendentem Sancto Johanni Evangelista.*. . . T. R. ap. Windlesoram, x. die Decemb. (1241)." — Ib. " Rex custodibus operationis Turris Lond. salutem. Praeci- pimus vobis quod . . . et Mariolam cum suo tabernaculo et imagines beatorum Petri, Nicliolai, et Katarinae et trabem ultra altare beati Petri et parvum patibulum cum suis imaginibus de novo colari [sic] et bonis coloribus refriscari ; et fieri faciatis quandam imaginem de beata Virgine ultra altare beati Petri versus Austrum, et alteram imaginem de beato Petro in solemni apparatu Arcliiepiscopali in parte Boreali ultra dictum 551 SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS altare, et de optimis coloribus depingi, etquandam imaginem de Sancto Christoforo tenentem et portantem Ihesum ubi melius et decentius fieri potest et depingi in praedicta ecclesia. Et fieri faciatis duas tabulas pulchras et de optimis coloribus et de historiis beatorum Nicholai et Katerinae depingi ante altaria dictorum sanctorum in eadem ecclesia et duos Scherumbinos stantes a dextris et sinistris magni patibuli pulchros fieri faciatis in prasdicta ecclesia cum hilari vultu et jocoso. Teste ut supra (1241)." — Liberate Rolls. Mandatum est Ballivis Wudestok. quod ... in capella Regis [apud Wudestok.] super tabulam altaris imagines Cruce- fixi, Beatas Marine, Sancti Johannis Evangelistae et duorum angelorum in modum Cherubim et Seraphim confectorum fieri . . . faciant. T. R. ap. Wudestok. xix. die Febr. (1244)." — Ib. " Mandatum est Vicecomiti Suthampton. quod . . . Majestatem et imagines circa ipsum [in capella Sancti Thomae, Winton.] fieri et deaurari faciat, et ultra hostium illius camerae [Reginae] quandam civitatem depingi. T. R. ap. Lutegareshull. in. die Mart. (1246)." — Ib. " Mandatum est R. de Mucegros custodi manerii de Lute- gareshull. quod . . . depingi etiam [faciat] postes ejusdem [aleae] colore marmoreo et historiam de Divite et Lazaro in gabulo ex opposito deisii. T. R. ap. Westmon. xvn. die Mart. (1246)." — Ib. " Mandatum est eidem [Vicecomiti Kantiae] quod fieri faciat in ecclesia Castri Dovoriae tria altaria, unum in honore Sancti Edmundi, et aliud in honore Sancti Adriani et tertium Sancti Edwardi et tres imagines prasdictorum trium Sanctorum et unam de Sancto Johanne Evangelista. T. R. ap. Wingeham. xv. die Mart. (1247)."— Ib. "Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod fieri facias unam trabem in capella Reginaa nostrae in castro nostro Winton. et desuper unam crucem cum Maria et Johanne superpositis. T. R. ap. Clarendon, xvm. die Decemb. (1248)." — Ib. iC Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod .... in eadem capella [Winton.] depingi [facias] ima- ginem Beatae Mariee ultra altare et versus Austrum in eadem PAINTED IN ENGLAND TEMP. HEN. III. 555 capella imaginem Dei et Matris suae. T. R. ap. Winton. xxviii. die Decemb. (1248)." — Liberate Rolls. " Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . depingi facias in capella dilectae Reginae nostras apud Winton. super gabulum versus Occidentem imaginem Sancti Christofori qui, sicut alibi depingi tur, in ulnis suis deferat Christum, et imaginem Beati Edwardi Regis qualiter anulum suum cuidam peregrino [donet] cujus imago similiter depingatur. T. R. ap. Windlesor. n. die Maii (1248)." — lb. " Rex Ballivo suo de Wodestok. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . imagines Crucefixi et Beatae Mariae et Beati Johannis Evangelistae in tabulis et muris juxta sedem nostram in supe- riori capella depingi facias. T. R. ap. Wodestok. xx. die Junii (1250) ." — Ib. " Rex Constabulario suo de Merleberg. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in castro nostro de Merleberg. fieri facias ... in capella Reginae nostra; ibidem unum Crucefixum cum Maria et Johanne et unam Mariam cum puero . . . Et in castro nostro de Lutegarshul. . . . unum Crucefixum cum Maria et Johanne et imaginem Beatae Mariae cum puero in capella nostra. T. R. ap. Winton. vm. die Julii (1250)." — Ib. " Rex Godefrido de Lyston. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in aula castri nostri de Windesora .... fieri facias rcgalem sedem in qua depingi facias imaginem Regis sceptrum in maim tenentis provisurus quod sedes ilia pictura aurea decenter ornetur. T. R. ap. Clarendon xix. die Julii (1250)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Wiltes. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in capella nostra Omnium Sanctorum in manerio nostro de Cla- rendon, fieri facias .... unum Crucefixum cum duabus imagi - nibus ex utraque parte de ligno et imaginem Beatae Mariae cum puero. ... In camera Fratrum minorum fiant imagines Sanctae Trinitatis et Beatae Mariae. T. R. ap. Gillingham. xxx. die Julii (1250)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Wiltes. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in camera Reginae nostrae unam fenestram vitream et in eadem fenestra unam Mariolam cum puero et unam Reginam ad pedes ipsius Mariolae junctis manibus tenentem in manu sua Ave Maria fieri facias. T. R. ap. Clarendon. VII. die Decemb. (1251) ." — Ib. 556 SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS " Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod novam capellam nostram in castro nostro Winton. de historia Josep depingi et . . . tabulam juxta lectum nostrum de imaginibus custodum lecti Salomonis depingi facias. T. R. ap. Winton. xx. die Decemb. (1251)." — Liberate Rolls. "Rex Johanni de Haneberg. salutem. Praecipiraus tibi quod . . . picturam beatae Mariae Virginis [in capella Reginae apud Wodestok.] melius depingi facias. T. R. ap. Wodestok. ni, die Feb. (1251)."— Ib. " Henricus Dei Gratia Rex Anglian &c. Vicecomiti Essex, salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . imaginem ejusdem Beati Edwardi ex parte orientali inferioris partis ostii [in capella S. Johannis Evan, in cimeterio de Clavering] cum anulo porri- gendo imagini Beati Johannis Evangelistae ex parte superiore ostii ejusdem capellae depingi facias. T. R. ap. Waleden. xn. die Mart. (1251)." — Ib. "Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . pingi facias cameram Rosamundae in eodem castro [Winton.] historiam Antiochae. T. R. ap. Wherewell. vi. die Junii (1251)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Wiltes. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . in eadem camera [Clarendon.] historiam Antiochae et duellum Regis Ricardi depingi et lambruscariam illam depingi viridi colore cum scintillis aureis . . Imagines autem Beatae Mariae, Beati Edwardi et Cherubin fieri facias et poni in capella nostra. T. R. ap. Merleberg. n. die Julii (1251)." — Ib. " Rex Ballivo suo de Havering, salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod apud Havering. ... in capella ejusdem Reginae unam Mariolam cum puero fieri et Annunciationem Beatae Mariae in eadem depingi . . . et in camera dictae Reginae quatuor Evange- listas depingi cum aliis picturis in eadem . . . facias. T. R. ap. Wantham. xxvi. die Augusti (1251)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Surr. et Sussex, salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod apud Guldeford. ... in capella Beatae Katherinae ejusdem imaginem et ejusdem historiam ultra altare absque auro et azuro honeste depingi . . facias. T. R. ap. Windesor. xx. die Septemb. (1251)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Notingham. salutem. • Praecipimus tibi quod .... ante altare in capella nostra [apud Noting.] quan- PAINTED IN ENGLAND TEMP. HEN. III. 557 dam tabulam de historia Sancti Willielmi et super idem altare aliam tabulam de historia Sancti Edwardi depingi facias . . . et in capella Sanctae Katerinae ante altare unam tabulam et super altare aliam cum historia ejusdem virginis et in gabulo ejusdem capellae tremendum judicium depingi. T. R. ap. Notingham. xii. die Decemb. (1252)." — Liberate Rolls. " Rex Vicecomiti Notingham. salutem. Prrccipimus tibi quod ... in fronte albae capellae ejusdem castri [Notingh.] de- pingi [facias] imaginem Sancti Edwardi ex una parte et ex alia parte imaginem Beati Johannis Evangelistae et in medio imagi- nem Beatas Virginis cum puero. . . . T. R. ap. Notingham. xiit. die Januarii (1252)." — lb. " Rex Vicecomiti Notingham. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod in camera Reginae nostras apud Notingham. depingi facias his- toriam Alexandri circumquaque. T. R. ap. Noting, xv. die Januar. (1252)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Notingham. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . quandam mngnam verinam extra ostium ejusdem camera cum imagine Sancti Martini pallium pauperi extendentis fieri facias. T. ut supra. " Rex Vicecomiti Northampton, salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod ... in castro nostro Northampton. . . . fieri facias fenestras de albo vitro et in eisdem historiam Lazari et Divitis depingi. T. R. ap. Noting, xv. die Januar. (1252)." — Ib. " Rex Johanni de Ilenneberg. et Petro de Leg. custodibus operationum suarum de Wodestok. salutem. Praecipimus vobis quod apud AVodestok. . . . una verinam cum imagine Beata3 Maria? in nova capella et imaginem Angelicam ultra sacrarium ejusdem capellae et . . . veterem capellam historia de muliere adulterio condempnata et qualiter Dominus scripsit in terra, et qualiter Dominus dedit Alapham Sancto Paulo et aliquid de Sancto Paulo depingi, et in superiore parte ejusdem capellA historiam Evangelistarum similiter depingi faciatis. T. R. ap. Wodestok. mi. die Febr. (1252)."— Ib. "Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Praecipimus tibi quod . . . fieri facias duas tabulas ad duo altaria et duo superaltaria ponenda in capella nostra Sancti Thomae et capella nostra juxta lectum nostrum in Castro [Winton.] et in eadem capella fieri facias unam Crucem cum Maria et Johanne et aliam Mariam 558 SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS cum filio suo. T. R. ap. Winton. xxvii. die Junii (1252)." — Liberate Rolls. "Rex Johanni de Hanneberg. et Petro de Legh. custodibus manerii sui de Wudestock. salutem. Prascipimus vobis quod . . . duas tabulas depictas cum imaginibus duorum Episcoporum in magna capella nostra ibidem poni et unam tabulam depictam cum imagine Beatas Maria3 in capella Beati Edwardi . . faciatis. T. R. ap. Wudestok. xix. die August. (1252)."— Ib. " Rex Odas Wymer Ballivo suo de Gillingham. salutem. Pra3cipimus tibi quod ... in fenestris vitreis depingi [facias] tres imagines videlicet Beatas Marias Beati Edwardi Regis et Confessoris et Beati Eustachii . . &c. T. R. ap. Gillingham. x. die Decemb. (1253)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod in fronte capellas Sancti Thomas in castro nostro Winton. imaginem Beatas Marias cum puero suo fieri ; warderobam Re- ginas nostras viridi pictura et stellis aureis depingi et quendam angelum ex altera parte prasdictas capellas fieri et imagines Prophetarum in circuitu ejusdem capellas depingi et in fenestra vitrea in eadem capella imaginem Beati Edwardi cum anulo fieri . . . facias. T. R. ap. Winton. xxvm. die Decemb. (1253)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Northampton, salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod . . . quandam fenestram vitream in aula nostra Northamp- ton, cum imaginibus Lazari et Divitis in ea depictis ex opposito desci nostri . . facias. T. R. ap. Merton. vm. die Januar. (1253)." — Ib. " Rex Ballivo suo de Havering, salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod superiorem capellam nostram de Havering, lambruscari et quandam imaginem Beatas Marias Virginis in inferiori capella et duas fenestras vitreas cum scutis Provincias . . . facias. T. R. ap. Havering. Yin. die Aprilis (1253)." — Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Sussex, salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod . . . habere facias Ricardo Constabulario et Eljas Maunsell. custodi- bus operationum nostrarum de Guldeford. centum libras ad .... ad depingendum in aula nostra ibidem ex opposito sedis nostras historiam de Divite et Lazaro . . &c. T. R. ap. Guide- ford, in. die Januar. (1256)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod PAINTED IN ENGLAND TEMP. HEN. III. 559 . . . in capella Sancti Thomas [in castro Winton.] unam fene- stram vitream cum imagine de Majestate et sub Majestate imaginem Sancti Edwardi tenentem in manibus quendam Regem Majestati oblatum, et imaginem Sancti Georgii super parietem in introitu aulas . . . facias. T. R. ap. Winton. xxx. die Junii (1256)." — Liberate Rolls. " Rex Vicecomiti Surr. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod . . . imaginem Sancti Edwardi et imaginem Sancti Joliannis tenen- tem anulum in sua manu ibidem depingi et easdem imagines super murum juxta sedem nostram in capella nostra de Guide- ford, similiter depingi facias, et quandam imaginem Beatas Marias fieri facias et poni in capella Reginas nostras ibidem. T. R. ap. Turrim Lond. xra. die Februar. (1261)."— Ib. " Rex dilecto et fideli suo Roberto de Sancto Johanne Con- stabulario Castri sui Winton. salutem. Mandamus vobis quod . . . quandam fenestram albam de vitro fieri et Nativitatcm Beatae Marias in ea depingi faciatis. T. R. ap. Westmon. xi. die Februar. (1266)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Wiltes. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod . . . quatuor Evangelistas in fenestris vitreis aulas nostras [apud Clarendon] fieri facias. T. R. ap. Clarendon, xvu. die Decern. (1268)."— Ib. " Rex Vicecomiti Suthampton. salutem. Prascipimus tibi quod . . . [apud Winton.] unam imaginem Beati Edwardi incidi et depingi . . . et picturas frontellorum coram altaribus in capella nostra et omnes alias picturas domorum nostrarum et capellarum ibidem innovari . . . facias. T. R. ap. AVestmon. xxvi. die Julii (1268.)" — Ib. The mandates that follow are extracted from the Close Rolls. " Mandatum est W. Karliolensi Episcopo quod capellas Regis Sancti Stephani et Sancti Joliannis Westmonasterii celare faciat ultra altaria et quatuor tabulas fieri, videlicet duas ponendas ante eadem altaria et duas strictiores ponendas super eadem altaria, in quibus tabulis depingi faciat quod melius et com- pctentius viderit depingendum, dum tamen in tabulis stric- tioribus depingantur sanctorum Stephani et Joliannis [imagines] . . . ita quod pro posse suo ea parata inveniat Rex in adventu 560 SCRIPTURAL AND HISTORICAL SUBJECTS suo London. T. R. ap. Otteford. mi. die Decemb. (16 Hen. III. 1232)." — Close Rolls. " Mandatum est R. Passelewe quod fieri faciat vel emi si prompte inveniantur duas imagines pulchras et bene depictas, unam ad similitudinem Beati Johannis Evangelistee et aliam ad similitudinem Beati Stephani Martyris quales conveniunt pras- dictorum Sanctorum figuris ; ita quod Rex imagines praedictas promptas et decenter provisas inveniat in capellis suis West- monasterii in primo adventu suo London, et quod inde possit commendari (1233)." — Ib. " Mandatum est H. de Patheshull . . . quod . . . borduram a tergo sedis regis in capella Sancti Stephani apud Westmonas- terium et borduram a tergo sedis Reginae ex alia parte ejusdem capellaa interius et exterius depingi faciat de viridi colore juxta sedem ipsius Reginae depingi faciat qnandam Crucem cum Maria et Johanne ex opposito Crucis Regis quae juxta sedem Regis depicta est. T. R. ap. Winton. vn. die Febr. (1236)." — Ib. " Mandatum est H. de Pateshull. Thesaurario quod ... in capella Sancti Stephani apud Westmonasterium ... a tergo ultra sedem Regis faciat depingi historiam Joseph. T. R. ap. Westmon. x. die Februarii (1238)." — Ib. " Mandatum est custodibus- operationum de Windlesora quod in capella Regis depingi faciant vetus testamentum et novum. T. R. ap. Burdegal. x. die April. (1243)." — Ib. " Mandatum est Edwardo filio Odonis quod in exteriori parte sedis Regis in capella Sancti Stephani Westmon asterii . . . bene depingi faciat pulchram et decentem imaginem Sanctas Marias et ex alia parte cancelli versus ostium gardini imagines Regis et Reginae ita quod paratae sint et bene depictae in proximo adventu Regis ibidem. T. R. ap. Clarendon, vra. die Febr. (1245)." — Ib. " Mandatum est Edwardo de Westmonasterio quod in capella Beati Stephani depingi faciat imagines apostolorum in circuitu ejusdem capellae et judicium in occidentali parte ejusdem et iconiam Beatae Mariae Yirginis in quadam tabula similiter pingi faciat, ita quod parata sint in adventu Regis. T. R. ap. Bruges- water, xiii. die August. (1250)." — Ib. " Mandatum est Edwardo de Westmonasterio . . . quod . . . PAINTED IN ENGLAND TEMP. HEN. III. 561 magnam etiam Crucem collocari faciat in navi ecclesiae West- monasterii et emat duos angelos in modum Cherubym ex utra- que parte illius crucis collocandos. T. R. ap. Wodestok. mi. die Febr. (1251)."— Close Rolls. " Mandatum est Edwardo de Westmonasterio quod in novo opere fabricae feretri Beati Edwardi apud Westmonasterium fieri faciat unam capellam ubi commodius fieri possit . . . et depingatur in eadem capella historia Sancti Edwardi et bassam cameram lambruscari faciat in qua depingatur historia Sancti Eustachii et in fenestra gabali historia Salomonis et Marculphi. T. R. ap. Gillingham. ix. die Decemb. (1253)." — Ib. THE END. O O London : Spottiswoode and Sha New-street- Sq iiare. STANDARD BOOKS FOR LIBRARIES. i. The Rev. T. BOWDLER'S FAMILY SHAKSPEARE. Ninth Edition. 8vo. with Wood Engravings from Designs by Smikke, Howard, &c. 21*. ii. SELECT WORKS of the BRITISH POETS, from Ben Jonson to Beattie. With Biographical Sketches by Dr. Aikin. New Edition, with Supplement, by Lucy Aikin ; consisting of additional Selections from more recent Poets. 8vo. 18s. in. SELECT WORKS of the BRITISH POETS, from Chaucer to Withers. With Biographical Sketches. By R. Southey, LL. 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SIR JAMES MACKINTOSH'S MISCELLANEOUS WORKS. Including his Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. Edited by R. J. Mackintosh, Esq. 3 vols. 8vo. 42s. XXII. The WORKS of the REV. SYDNEY SMITH. Including his Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. Third Edition, with Additions. 3 vols. 8vo. Portrait, 36s. XXIII. The REV. SYDNEY SMITH'S SERMONS, preached at St. Paul's Cathedral and several other Churches. 8vo. 12s. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. LIST of WORKS in GENERAL LITERATURE PUBLISHED BY Messrs. LONGMAN, BEOWN, GEEEN, LONGMANS, and EOBEETS, 39, PATEENOSTEE EOW, LONDON. CLASSIFIED INDEX Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Pages. Bayldon on Valuing Rents, &c. - 3 Cecil's Stud Farm 0 Hoskvns's Talpa - 10 Loudon's Agriculture - 12 Low's Elements of Agriculture - 13 Arts, Manufactures, and Architecture. Bourne on the Screw Propeller - 4 Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c. 4 " Organic Chemistry- - 4 Chevreul on Colour 6 Cresy's Civil Engineering 6 Fairhairn's Informa. for Engineers 7 Gvrilt's F.ncyclo. of Architecture - 8 Harford's Plates li om M. Angelo - 8 Humphreys's Parables Illuminated 10 Jameson'sSacred & Legendary Art 11 " Commonplace-Book - 11 Konig's Picto.ial Life of Luther - 8 Loudon's Rural Architecture - 13 Mac Dougall's Theory of War - 13 Malan's Aphorisms on Drawing - 14 Moseley's Engineering - - 16 Piesse's Art of Perfumery - - 17 Richardson's Art of Horsemanship 18 Scrivenor on the Iron Trade - - 19 Stark's Printing - - - - 22 Steam-Engine, by the Artisan Club 4 Ure'g Dictionary of Arts, &c. - 23 Biography. 22 Arago's Autobiography " Lives of Scientific Men - 3 Bodenstedt and Wagner's Schamyl 22 Buckingham's (J. S.) Memoirs - 5 Bunsen's Mippolytus ... 5 Cockayne's Marshal Turenne - 22 Crosse's (Andrew) Memorials - 6 Forster's De Foe and Churchill - 22 Green's Princesses of England - 8 Harford's Life of Michael Angelo- 8 Hayward'8 I hesterfield and Selwyn 22 Holcroft's Memoirs - - - 22 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 Maunder's Biographical Treasury- 14 Memoir of the Duke of Wellington 22 Memoirs of James Montgomery - 15 Merivale's Memoirs of Cicero - 15 Mountain's (Col.) Memoirs - - 16 Parry's (Admiral) Memoirs - - 17 Rogers's Life and Genius of Fuller 22 Russell's Memoirs of Moore - - 15 Soutliey's Life of Wesley - - 20 *' Life and Correspondence 20 " Select Correspondence - 20 Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 20 Strickland's Queens of England - 21 Sydney Smith's Memoirs - - 20 Symond's (Admiral) Memoirs - 21 Taylor's Loyola - - - - 21 " Wesley ... 21 Waterton's Autobiography & Essays 24 Books of General Utility. Acton's Bread-Book ■ " Cookery - - - - 3 Black's Treatise on Brewing - - 4 Cabinet Gazetteer - ... 5 " Lawyer ... - 5 Cust's Invalid's Own Book - - " Gilbart's Logic for the Million - 8 Hints on Etiquette ... 9 How to Nurse Sick Children - - 10 Hudson'sExecutor's Guide - - 10 " on Making Willi - - 10 Kesteven's Domestic Medicine - 11 Lardner's Cabinet Cycloptcdia - 12 Loudon's Lady's Country Compa- nion ------ 13 Maunder's Treasury of Knowledge 14 •* Biographical Treasury 14 " Geographical Treasury 14 Maunder's Scientific Treasury - 14 " Treasury of History - 14 " Natural History - - 14 Piesse's Art of Perlumery - - 17 Pocket and the Stud ... 8 Pycroft's English Reading - - 17 Reece's Medical Guide - - - 18 Rich's Comp. to Latin Dictionary 18 Richardson's Art of Horsemanship 18 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - 18 Roget's English Thesaurus - - 18 Rowton's Debater - - - - 18 Short Whist 19 Thomson's Interest Tables - - 21 Webster's Domestic Economy - 24 West on Children's Diseases - - 24 Willich's Popular Tables - - 24 Wilmofs Blackstone - 24 Botany and Gardening. Hassall's British Freshwater Algae 9 Hooker's British Flora - - - 9 " Guide to Kew Gardens - 9 " " " Kew Museum - 9 Lindley's Introduction to Botany 11 " Theory of Horticulture - 11 Loudon's Hortus Britannicus - 13 " Amateur Gardener - 13 Trees and Shrubs - - 12 " Gardening - - 12 " Plants - 13 * Self- Instruction for Gar- deners, &c. - - - - 13 Pereira's Materia Medica - - 17 Rivera's Rose-Amateur's Guide - 18 Wilson's British Mosses - - 24 Chronology. Blair's Chronological Tables - 4 Brewer's Historical Atlas 4 Bunsen's Ancient Egypt 5 Calendars of English State Papcri 5 Haydn's Beitsonfs Index 9 Jaquemet's Chronology - - II Nicolas's Chronology of History - 12 Commerce and Mercantile Affairs. Gilbarf* Treatise on Banking - 8 Lorimer's Young Master Mariner 12 Macleod's Banking - - - 13 M'CulIoch'sCommerceA Navigation 14 Scrivenor on Iron Trade - - 19 Thomson's Interest Tables - - 21 Tooke's History of Piices - - 21 Criticism, History, and Memoirs. Blair's Chron. and Histor. Tablet - 4 Brewer's Historical Atlas - - - 4 Bunsen's Ancient Egypt - - 6 " Hippolytus 5 Burton's Historv of Scotland - 6 Calendars of English State Papers 5 Chapman's Gusta\ us Adolphus - 6 Conybeare and Mowson's St. Paul 6 Co!-.n>'ll\'s Sappers and Miners - 6 Glcig's Leip-ic Campaign - - 22 Gurney's Histor cal Sketches - 8 Hcrschels Essavs and Address«s - 9 J effrey 's ( Lord ) Contributions - 1 1 Kemble's Anglo-Saxons - 11 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 Macaulay's Crit. s.nd Hist. Essays 13 " History of England - 13 " Speeches - - - 13 Mackintosh's Miscellaneous Works 13 " History of England - 13 M'Culloch'sGeogiaphicalDictionary 14 Maunder's Treasury of History - 14 Memoir of the Duke of Wellington 22 Merivale's History of Rome - - 15 " Roman Republic - - 15 Milner's Church History - - 15 Moore's (Thomas) Memoirs, &c. - 15 Mure's Greek Literature - - 16 Perry's Franks ... - 17 Raikes's Journal .... 17 Ranke's Ferdinand & Maximilian 22 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - 18 Rogers's Essays from Edinb. Reviewl8 Roget's English Thesaurus - - 18 Schmitz's History of Greece 18 Southey's Doctor - 20 Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 20 " Lectures on French History 20 Sydney Smith's Works - 20 " Select Works - 22 ** Lectures - - 20 " Memoirs - - 20 Taylor's Loyola - - 21 Wesley - ... 21 Thirlwall's History of Greece - 21 Thomas's Historic*] Notes - - 21 Thornbury's Shakspeare's England 21 Townsend's State Trials - - 21 Turkey and Christendom - - 22 Turner's Anglo-Saxons - - 23 " Middle Ages - - - 23 " Sacred Hist, of the World 23 Vehse's Austrian Court - - - 23 Wade's England's Greatness - 24 Whitelocke's Swedish Embassy - 24 Young's Christ of History - - 24 Geography and Atlases. Brewer's Historical Atlas 4 Butler's Geography and Atlases - 6 Cabinet Gazetteer - ... 6 Cornwall: Its Mines, &c. - - 22 Durrieu's Morocco - - - 22 Hughes's Australian Colonies - 22 Johnston's General Gazetteer - 11 M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary 14 " Russia and Turkey - 22 Maunder's Treasury of Geography 14 Mayne's Arctic Discoveries - - 22 Murray's Encyclo. of Geography - 16 Sharp's British Gazetteer - - 19 Juvenile Books. Amy Herbert 19 Cleve Hall . - ... 19 Earl's Daughter (The) - 19 Experience of Life - - 19 Gertrude ... - 19 Howitt's Boy's Country Book - 10 ** (Mary) Children's Year - 10 Ivors - - - - - - 19 Katharine Ashton - • - 19 Laneton Parsonage - - - 19 Margaret Percivsl - 19 Medicine and Surgery. Brodie's Psychological Inquiries • 4 Bull's Hint* to Mothers- - - 4 " Managementof Children - 4 Copland's Dictionary of Medicine - 6 Cust's Invalid's Own Book 7 Holland's Mental Physiology - 9 B Medical Notes vnd Reflect. 9 How to Nurse Sick Children - - 10 Kesteven's Domestic Medicine - 11 Pereira's Materia Medica - - 17 Reece's Medical Guide - - - 18 Richardson's Cold- Water Cure - 18 West on Diseases of Infancy - - 24 Miscellaneous and General Literature. Bacon's (Lord) Works - - 3 j Carlisle's Lectures and Addressee 22 Defence of Eclipte of Faith - 7 Eclipse or Faith - - 7 Greg's Political and Social Essays 8 Greyson's Select Correspondence - 8 Gurney's Evening Recreations - 8 Hassall'sAdulterations I)etected,&c. 9 Havdn's Book of Dignities - - 9 Holland's Mental Physiology - 9 Hooker's Kew Guides 9 Howitt's Rural Life of England - lo " Visitsto RemarkablePlaces lo Hutton's 100 Years Ago - - lo Jameson's Commonplace-Book - li Jeffrey's (Lord) Contributions - li 2 CLASSIFIED INDEX. Johns's Lands of Silence and of Darkness ----- u Last of the Old Squires - - 16 Macaulay's Crit.and Hist. Essays 13 " Speeches - 13 Mackintosh's M iscellaneous Works 13 Memoirs of a Maitre-d'Armes - 22 Maitland's Church in the Catacombs 14 Martineau's Miscellanies - - 14 Moore's Church Cases - 16 Printing: Its Origin, &c. - - 22 Pycroft's English Reading - - 17 Rich's Comp. to Latin Dictionary 18 Riddle's Latin Dictionaries - - 18 Rowton's Debater ~ - 18 Seaward's Narrative of his Shipwreckl9 Sir Roger De Coverley - - - 19 Smith's (Rev. Sydney) Works - 20 Southey's Common -place Books - 20 " The Doctor &c. - - 20 Souvestre's Attic Philosopher - 22 " Confessions of a Working Man 22 Stephen's Essays - 20 Stow's Training System - - 21 Thomson's Laws of Thought - 21 Townsend's State Trials - - 21 Willich's Popular Tables - - 24 Yonge's English-Greek Lexicon - 24 " Latin Gradus - - 24 Zumpt's Latin Grammar - - 24 Natural History in general. Catlow's Popular Conchology - 6 Ephemera and Young on the Salmon 7 Garratt's Marvels of Instinct - 8 Gosse's Natural History of Jamaica 8 Kemp's Natural History of Creation 22 Kirby and Spence's Entomology - 11 Lee's Elements of Natural History 11 Maunder's Natural History - - 14 Turton's Shells oftheBritishlslands 23 Van der Hoeven's Zoology - - 23 Von Tschudi's Sketches in the Alps 22 Waterton's EssaysonNatural Hist. Youatfs The Dog - " The Horse 1-VoIusne Encyclopaedias and Dictionaries. Blaine's Rural Sports 4' Brande's Science, Literature, and Art 4 Copland's Dictionary of Medicine - 6 Cresy's Civil Engineering S Gwil't's Architecture 8 Johnston's Geographical Dictionary 11 Loudon's Agriculture - - - 12 " Rural Architecture - 13 " Gardening - 12 " Plants --- - 13 " Trees and Shrubs - - 12 M'Culloch'sGeographicalDictionary 14 " Dictionaryof Commerce 14 Murray's Encyclo. of Geography - 16 Sharp's British Gazetteer - - 19 Ure's Dictionary of Arts, &c. - - 23 Webster's Domestic Economy - 24 Religious & Moral Works. Amy Herbert - - - - 19 Bloomfield's Greek Testament - 4 Calvert's Wife's Manual - - 6 Cleve Hall 19 Conybeare's Essays - - - 6 Conybeare and Howson's St. Paul 6 Cotton's Instructions in Christianity 6 Dale's Domestic Liturgy 7 Defence of Eclipse of Faith 7 Discipline ----- 7 Earl's Daughter (The) - - - 19 Eclipse of Faith - - - . 7 Englishman's Greek Concordance 7 " Heb&Chald. Concord. 7 Experience (The) of Life - - 19 Gertrude - 19 Harrison's Light of the Forge - 8 Hook's Lectures on Passion Week 9 Home's Introduction to Scriptures 9 " Abridgment of ditto - 10 Hue's Christianity in China - - 10 Humphreys's Parables Illuminated 10 Ivors - ----- 19 Jameson's Sacred Legends - - 11 " Monastic Legends - - 11 " Legendsof trie Madonna 11 " Lectures on Female Em- ployment ----- 11 Jeremy Taylor's Works - - - 11 Katharine Ashton - - - 19 Konig's Pictorial Life of Luther - 8 Laneton Parsonage - - 19 Letters to my Unknown Friends - 11 " on Happiness - - - 11 Lyra Germanica 5 Macnaught on Inspiration - - 14 Maguire's Rome - 14 Maitland's Church in Catacombs - 14 Margaret Percival - - - - 19 Martineau's Christian Life - - 14 " Hymns - - U Menvale's Christian Records - 15 Milner's Church of Christ - - 15 Moore on the Use of the Body - 15 " " Soul and Body - 15 " 's Man and his Motives - 15 Mormonism - - ... 22 Morning Clouds - 16 Neale's Closing Scene - - - 16 Ranke's Ferdinand & Maximilian 22 Readings for Lent - - 19 " Confirmation - - 19 Riddle's Household Prayers - - 18 Robinson's Lexicon to the Greek Testament ----- 18 Saints our Example - - 18 Sermon in the Mount - - 19 Sinclair's Journey of Life - - 19 Smith's (Sydney )'Moral Philosophy 20 " (G.V.)AssvrianProphecies 20 " (G.) Wesleyan Methodism 19 " (J.) St. Paul's Shipwreck - 20 Southey's Life of Wesley - - 20 Stephen's Ecclesiastical Biography 20 Taylor's Loyola - - - * 1 21 " Wesley - - - - 21 Theologia Germanica 5 Thumb Bible (The) - - 21 Tomline's Introduction to the Bible 21 Turner's Sacred History - - - 23 Young's Christ of History - - 24 " Mystery - - - - 24 Poetry and the Drama. Aikin's (Dr.) British Poets - - 3 Arnold's Poems 3 Baillie's (Joanna) Poetical Works 3 Calvert's Wife's Manual - 6 De Vere's May Carols - - - 7 Estcourt's Music of Creation - 7 Fairy Family (The) ... 7 Goldsmith's Poems, illustrated - 8 L. E. L.'s Poetical Works - - 11 Linwood's Anthologia Oxoniensis- 12 Lyra Germanica 5 Macaulav's Lays of Ancient Rome 13 Mac Donald's Within and Without 13 " Poems - 13 Montgomery's Poetical Works - 15 Moore's Poetical Works - - 15 " Selections (illustrated) - 15 " Lalla Rookh - 16 " Irish Melodies - - - lfi " Songs and Ballad3 - - 15 Reade's Poetical Works - - 17 Shakspeare, by Bowdler - - 19 Southey's Poetical Works - - 20 " British Poets - - - 20 Thomson's Seasons, illustrated - 21 Political Economy and Statistics. Dodd's Food of London 7 Greg's Political and Social Essays 8 Laing's Notes of a Traveller- - 22 M'Culloch's Geog . Statist. &c. Diet. 1 4 " Dictionary of Commerce 14 " London - - - 22 Willich's Popular Tables - - 24 Tiie Sciences in general and Mathematics. Arago's Meteorological Essays - 3 " Popular Astronomy - - 3 Bourne on the Screw Propeller - 4 " 's Catechism of Steam- Engine 4 Boyd's Naval Cadet's Manual - 4 Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c. 4 " Lectures on Organic Chemistry 4 Cresy's Civil Engineering - - 6 DelaBeche'sGeology ofCornwall,&c. 7 De la Rive's Electricity - - 7 Grove's Correla. of Physical Forces 8 Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy 9 Holland's Mental Physiology - 9 Humboldt's Aspects of Nature - 10 " Cosmos - - - 10 Hunt on Light - 10 Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 12 Marcet's (Mrs.) Conversations - 15 Morell's Elements of Psychology - 16 Moseley'sEngineering&Architecture 16 Our Coal Fields and our Coal-Pits 22 Owen's Lectureson Comp. Anatomy 17 Pereira on Polarised Light - - 17 PeschePs Elements of Physics - 17 Phillips's Fossils of Cornwall, &c. 17 " Mineralogy - - - 17 " Guide to Geology - - 17 Portlock's Geologv of Londonderry 17 Powell's Unity of Worlds - - 17 Smee's Electro-Metallurgy - - 19 Steam-Engine (The) - - - 4 Wilson's Electric Telegraph - - 22 Rural Sports. Baker's Rifle and Hound in Ceylon * Berkeley's Forests of France - 4 Blaine's Dictionary of Sports - 4 Cecil's Stable Practice - - - £ " Stud Farm - « The Crifket-Field - - - - 6 Davy 'sFishing Excursions, 2 Series '1 Ephemera on Angling - _ 7 " 's Book of the Salmon - 7 Hawker's Young Sportsman - - 9 The Hunting-Field ... 8 Idle's Hints on Shooting - - 10 Pocket and the Stud ... 8 Practical Horsemanship 8 Richardson's Horsemanship - - 18 Ronalds' Fly-Fisher's Entomolosy 18 Stable Talk and Table Talk - 5 8 Stonehenge on the Greyhound - 20 Thacker's Courser's Guide - - 21 The Stud, for Practical Purposes - 8 Veterinary Medicine, &c. Cecil's Stable Practice 6 " Stud Farm 6 Hunting-Field (The) - 8 Miles's Horse-Shoeing - - - 15 " on the Horse's Foot - - 15 Pocket and the Stud 8 Practical Horsemanship 8 Richardson's Horsemanship - 18 Stable Talk and Table Talk - - 9 Stud (The) ... 8 Youatt's The Dog - H " The Horse ... 24 Voyages and Travels. Auldjo's Ascent of Mont Blanc - 22 Baines's Vaudois of Piedmont - 22 Baker's Wanderings in Ceylon - 3 Barrow's Continental Tour - - 22 Earth's African Travels 3 Berkeley's Forests of France - 4 I Burton's East Africa - - - 5 " Medina and Mecca 5 Carlisle's Turkey and Greece - 6 De Custine's Russia - - 22 Eothen ------ 22 Ferguson's Swiss Travels - - 22 Flemish Interiors - - - - 7 Forester's Rambles in Norway - 22 " Sardinia and Corsica - 8 Gironiere's Philippines - - - 22 Gregorovius's Corsica - - - 22 Halloran's Japan 8 Hill's Travels in Siberia - - 9 Hinchliffs Travels in the Alps - 9 Hope's Brittany and the Bible - 22 " Chase in Brittany - - 22 Howitt's Art-Student in Munich - 10 " (W.) Victoria - 10 Hue's Chinese Empire - - - 10 Hue and Gabet's Tartary & Thibet 22 Hudson and Kennedy's Mont Blanc - - - - 10 Hughes's Australian Colonies - 22 Humboldt's Aspects of Nature - 10 Hurlbut's Pictures from Cuba - 22 Hutchinson's African Exploration 22 Jameson's Canada - - - - 22 Jerrmann's St. Petersburg - - 22 Laing's Norway - - - - 22 " Notes of a Traveller - 22 M'Cltire's North- West Passage - 17 MacDous;all'sVoyage of theResolute 13 Mason's Zulus of Natal - - 22 Miles's Rambles in Iceland - - 22 Osborn's Quedah - - - - 16 Pfeiffer's Voyage round the World 22 " Second ditto - IV Scherzer's Central America - - 18 Seaward's Narrative - - - 19 Snow's Tierra del Fuego - - 20 Spottiswoode's Eastern Russia - 20 Von Tempsky's Mexico and Gua- temala - 24 Weld's Vacations in Ireland - - 24 " United States and Canada- 24 Werne's African Wanderings - 22 Wilberforce's Brazil & Slave-Trade 22 Works of Fiction. Cruikshank's Falstaff - 6 Howitt's Tallangetta - 10 Macdonald's Villa Verocchio - 13 Melville's Confidence-Man - - 15 Moore s Epicurean - - 15 Sir Roger De Coverley - 19 Sketches (The), Three Tales - 19 Southey's The Doctor &c. - - 20 Trollope's Barchester Towers - 23 " Warden - 23 ALPHABETICAL CATALOGUE of NEW WORKS and NEW EDITIONS PUBLISHED BY Messrs. LONGMAN, BKOWN, GKREEN, LONGMANS, and EOBEETS, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. Miss Acton's Modern Cookery for Private families, reduced to a System of Easy Prac- tice in a Series of carefully-tested Receipts, in which the Principles of Baron Liebig and other eminent Writers have been as much as possible applied and explained. Newly-re- vised and enlarged Edition ; with 8 Plates, comprising 27 Figures, and 150 Woodcuts. Fcp. 8vo. 7s. 6d. Acton's English Bread-Book for Do- mestic Use, adapted to Families of every grade : Containing the plainest and most minute Instructions to the Learner, and Practical Receipts for many varieties of Bread ; with Notices of the present System of Adulteration and its Consequences, and of the Improved Baking Processes and Institutions established Abroad. Fcp. 8vo. price 4s. 6d. cloth. Aikin. — Select Works of the British Poets, from Ben Jonson to Beattie. With Biographical and Critical Prefaces by Dr. Aikin. New Edition, with Supplement by Lucy Aikin ; consisting of additional Selec- * tions from more recent Poets. 8vo. price 18s. Arago (F.)— Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men. Translated by Admiral W. H. Smyth, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. ; the Rev. Baden Powell, M. A.; andRoBERT Grant, M.A., F.R.A.S. 8vo. 18s. Arago' s Meteorological Essays. With an Introduction by Baron Humboldt. Trans- lated under the superintendence of Lieut.- Colonel E. 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