Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

therefore, to say that the pigment is a tin white (Table 1). A mixed tin-lead
white was identified on a seventeenth-century Hindu miniature; much overpainting
with zinc white confused the picture.
It has not been possible to determine the constitution of the Indian tin white;
the size and delicacy of the miniatures prohibits the removal of a sample. The
pigment is a clean, brilliant white and appears reasonably opaque. It is probably
tin oxide.
Although the date of these miniatures falls into the same period in which
the pigment is said to have been used in Europe, it seems unlikely that the
Jain school was using the Western pigment. It is probable, however, that it
developed from the use of tin oxide in ceramics, ultimately deriving, as it did
in Europe, from the Near East or neighboring Persia.
Burnt green earth
Table 1. White pigments on jifleenth- to
eighteenth-century Jain miniatures.
Accession No. Da" Pigments
IS 2-1972 c. 1460 Kaolin, mica
Isacco 1
15C Calcium white
Isacco 2 15C Tin while
IS 46-1959 f26 16C Tin white
IS 46-1959 f45 16C Tin white
IS 46- 1959 f47 16C Tin white
IS 46-1959 f49 16C Tin white
IS 84-1963 fl5 16C Tin white
IS 82·1963 16C Hindu Calcium white, mica
Private owner 17C Hindu Tin - lead white
IS 2-1984 18C Lead white
Green earth in its various fo rms has been used as a pigment through much
of Eurasia fo r 2,000 years. Vitruvius wrote of it in the first century B.C.E.
Burnt green earth seems to be mentioned first in the sixteenth or seventeenth
centuries. The Paduan manuscript lists it as a color for miniature painting and
also records that "the shadows of the flesh are made with terra 'ombra, terra
verde burnt, and asphaltum" (18). The Volpato manuscript gives the method
of preparation (19). Merrifield quotes Lomazzo, who directs that shadows on
flesh should be made with burnt terra verde and nero di campana or umber
(20). She says that "modern writers do not mention this colour, but the use
of it has been revived by an eminent English artist, under the name of 'Verona
Brown' "(21).
Linton mentions it briefly with terre verte: "When calcined, it forms another
beautiful pigment called Verona Brown" (22).
To ch says Verona brown is a "fancy name" fo r a mixture of burnt umber and
burnt or raw sienna (23). At the time of the Constable and Turner research
projects in England, the author examined two paint boxes of the relevant
period in the Victoria & Albert Museum collections. One was said to have
Figure 4. Paint box, said to have belonged to William Turner, with bladders of oil paint, including
Gebr. Terra di Verte and Gebr. Griine Erde. W. 65- 1920. Courtesy of the Victoria & Albert MuseU/t!.
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice