Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

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Figure 1. FTIR spectrum of paint sample (no. 17) takenfrol11 blue if the sky area. Hydrocarbon
stretch bands at 2923 CI11-1 and 2851 cm-I• as well as the hydrocarbon bend at 1404 cm-I, indicate
the presence of an oi/ medium. The band at 2342 cm -I is characteristic for natural ultramarine.
the use of a drying oil. The palmitic:stearic acids ratios of the samples suggest
that the sky was executed in walnut oil or in a mixture of walnut and linseed
oils in contrast to other areas of the painting, in which the faster drying, but
more yellowing, linseed oil was used.
Painting
The thinness and relatively simple structure of the paint layers are in accordance
with what seems to have been Titian's practice around the 1550s.
Examination of the cross sections shows that most of the paint was fairly
directly and thinly applied, as opposed to the technique he used in his later
paintings. In the foreword to Marco Boschini's Ricche Minere della Pittura Veneziana
(1664), an authoritative and contemporary description is given by
Palma Giovane of the manner in which Titian gave form to the paintings he
made after the 1550s (6):
He used to sketch in his pictures with a great mass if colours, which served
as a base fo r the compositions he then had to construct. [The compositions
wereJformed with bold strokes made with brushes laden with colours, sometimes
with a pure red earth, which he used for a middle tone, and at other
times of white lead; and with the same brush tinted with red, black and
yellow he formed an accent; and thus he made the promise if a figure
appear in fo ur strokes . ... Having constructed these precious fo undations
he used to turn his pictures to the wall and leave them without looking at
them, sometimes for several months. When he wanted to apply his brush
again . .. he would treat his picture like a good surgeon would his patient,
reducing if necessary some swelling or excess of flesh, straightening an arm
if the bone structure was not exactly right . ... After he had done this,
while the picture was drying, he would turn his hand to another and work
on it the same way. Thus he gradually covered those quintessential forms
with living flesh, bringing them by many stages to a state in which they
lacked only the breath of life . ... In the last stages he painted more with
his fingers than with his brushes.
This process could involve not just two or three weeks but, with several steps
and with long interruptions, could continue for months, even years, resulting
in a painting with several paint layers.
The process, as described by Palma Giovane, is distinctly different from the
earlier manner in which Titian painted. This difference was already noticed
by Vasari in 1566:
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice