Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

In late Gothic painting, grisaille underpainting was fairly common for green
garments or landscape elements. This was found in paintings by van Eyck as
well as by Uccello, north of the Alps as well as in Italy (16, 17). The method
is described in artists' treatises. Palomino, in the first quarter of the eighteenth
century, describes the method of underpainting green cloths with grisaille
(18). The same instructions are found in Croeker's treatise, published in 1743
(19). This documents a long tradition. Grisaille undermodeling was not the
only method recommended. In his Portrait if a Dominican Monk (Upton House
near Banbury), painted around 1525, Lorenzo Lotto used undermodeling in
azurite and lead white with the darkest shadows painted in an olive green
mixture of black and lead-tin yellow. The next layer contains verdigris with
very little lead-tin yellow and some black in the shadows, fo llowed by a green
glaze. This green glaze is a substantial, absolutely homogenous layer, without
any visible brushwork or textile pattern.
In addition to colored undermodeling to modifY the green glaze, there is the
possibility of adjusting the green color by means of yellow glazes. Cennini
recommended saffron for this purpose (20). Leonardo suggested aloe dissolved
in warm spirit of wine: "If you have finished a painting with this simple
green [verdigris in oil] and if then you were to glaze it lightly with this aloe
dissolved in spirit of wine, then it would be of a most beautiful colour. Also
this aloe can be ground in oil, either on its own or together with the copper
green and with any other colour you like" (21).
De Mayerne noted a recipe fo r a green copper glaze that called fo r some
terra merita, which is curcuma, to be added to improve the color (22). Goetghebeur
and Kockaert drew attention to the existence of yellow and brown
glazes on top of layers of verdigris or copper resinate (23). In cleaning green
areas in paintings, therefore, it is not sufficient to test a brown layer for copper
to find out whether the paint is discolored copper resinate. Even if it is
not, it can still be an original yellow lake, now discolored. As these organic
lakes are very difficult to identifY, their presence is often suspected without
reassuring proof either way, a most disconcerting situation fo r the restorer. In
addition to research by means of scientific analysis, it might be helpful to
approach the problem via the written sources and by reconstructing some of
the recipes.
Notes
1. Hawthorne, J. G. and C. S. Smith. 1979. Theophilus on Divers Arts. New York:
Dover Publications, 41. See also Scholtka, A. 1992. Theophilus Presbyter: Die maltechnischen
Anweisungen und ihre Gegenuberstellung wit naturwissenscha J tlichen Untersuchungsbifunden.
Zeitschrift jur Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 6 (1):1-54.
2. Cennini, C. 1960. The Crcifisman's Handbook. Translated by D. V. Thompson. New
York: Dover Publications, 33.
3. Borradaile, V. and R. Borradaile. n.d. The Strasburg manuscript: a medieval painters'
handbook. Munchen: Callwey, 55-7. Passage translated by the author.
4. Ludwig, H. 1882. Lionardo da Vinci. Das such von der Malerei. Nach den Codes
Vaticanus (Urbinas) 1270. Wien: Braumiiller (Quellenschriften fLir Kunstgeschichte
und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance), 15:244. Passage
translated by the author.
5. Merrifield, M. P. 1967. Original Treatises on the Arts if Painting, Vol. 2. New York:
Dover Publications (2):822.
6. van de Graaf,J. A. 1958. Het De Mayeme Manuscript als bron voor de schildertechniek
van de barak. British Museum, Sloane 2052. Proefschrift ... Mijdrecht: Drukkerij
Verweij, 142. Passage translated by the author.
7. Pernety, A. J. 1972. Dictionnaire portatif de peinture, sculpture et gravure. Geneva:
Minkoff Reprint, 547. Passage translated by the author.
8. Kuhn, H. 1993. Verdigris and copper resinate. In Artists' Pigments. Ed. A. Roy.
Washington: National Gallery of Art, 136. For preparation and identification of
green copper pigments, see Ellwanger-Eckel, E 1979. Herstellung und Verwendung
kunstlicher gruner und blauer Kupjerpigmente in der Malerei. Stuttgart: Institut fu r
Museumskunde an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Kunste.
9. Hawthorne and Smith, op. cit., 33.
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice