Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

create surface gloss and could be viewed in subdued light was ideal. Of all
the techniques, only fresco and distemper have these characteristics and only
distemper, which is more brilliant, gives the artist a limitless time to work
(12). Distemper paintings are also light and portable. A letter by Mantegna
to Ludovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, suggested painting portraits on
fme linen in this technique, as they can be rolled up on a dowel and easily
shipped (13). These advantages and characteristics might explain why Mantegna,
the absolute perfectionist, had such a predilection for distemper.
The animal glue for distemper painting was made from either skins or parchment,
preferably sheep or goat (14). Glue made out of fish bones was also
used; it has been identified in the Cult of Cybele by Mantegna at the National
Gallery in London (15). The glues were prepared and dried into tablets in
the winter to keep them from growing mold. When the glue was needed, it
was first soaked in water and then dissolved in a hot water bath.
Historical methods and recipes
A rather succinct description of the practice of this distemper technique is
given in the so-called Eraclius manuscript. In recipe XXVI of De Coloribus
et Artibus Romanorum, the text states (16):
If you wish to paint on linen cloth, and lay gold upon it, prepare it thus:
Take parchment, or clippings if parchment, and put them in a jar with
water, which must be placed over the f ire and made to boil as before directed;
then dip a cloth into it, take it out immediately, and stretch it out on a
wet panel and let it dry. Then burnish or polish it all over with a glass
muller, and stretch it out, fastening it on to a wooden frame with the
thread. You may then paint upon it with colours distempered with size,
or egg, or gum.
The recipe describes how the cloth was treated to make it less absorbent, so
that the colors would not be soaked into the cloth and spread out. Only such
a pretreated cloth could be painted on with some detail. It is this same property
that is alluded to in Jehan Ie Begue's 1431 recipe compilation Experimenta
de Coloribus (17):
In England the painters work with these waters upon closely woven cloths
[sindone?], wetted with gum water, made with gum arabic and then dried,
and afterwards stretched out on the floor if the soler ... and the painters
... paint upon them figures stories and other things. And because these
cloths lie stretched out on a flat suiface, the coloured waters do not flow or
spread in painting upon them . . . the touches of the paint brush made
with these waters do not spread, because the gum with which, as already
mentioned, the cloth is wetted, prevents their spreading . ...
Glue gels at room temperature, however, making it difficult to use. The difficulties
of keeping the medium in a workable consistency are described in
the De Coloribus Diversis Modis Tractatur in Sequentibus, written in 1398 by
Johannes Alcherius. In a recipe given to Alcherius by the Flemish painter
Jacob Coene, instructions are provided for painting and "laying gold on
parchment, paper, linen cloth, sindone [very fme linen], and on primed wooden
panels. The recipe describes the making of glue out of parchment or cutting
of fine leather: "Lastly, let the size, or sized water be warm; I say warm, lest
it may be conglutinated, ... when it is cold it will be congealed like jelly ..."
(18).
Alcherius continues, "Moreover when using a paintbrush, the colour may be
held in the hand, which by its warmth or heat will not allow it to congeal
... And in painting with a pen, as well as with a paint brush, it is a good
thing to keep the colour over a slow fire of charcoal at such a warmth, that
it may not congeal, but may remain liquid" (19).
The recipe stresses the fact that-in contrast to painting on panel-when
painting on cloth or Tiichlein, the artist should apply paint in several layers
(20):
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