Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Abstract
French publications on painting materials
and techniques before 1800
include books of "secrets," treatises
written by artists themselves or
about their practice, articles from
learned journals, dictionaries, and
encyclopedias. The traditional methods
of painting listed in these publications
include dhrempe (a reference
to a water-based media, which can
be glue, gum, or egg tempera), fresco,
miniature, and oil painting,
enamel and glass painting, as well as
painting on porcelain. Some of the
more unusual techniques are outlined:
encaustic, eludoric, and glass
painting, including glass transfer
techniques, and finally a satirical
contribution, "peinture en fromage
ou en ramequm."
From. Books of Secrets to Encyclopedias: Painting
Te chniques in France between 1600 and 1800
Ann Massing
Hamilton Kerr Institute
Whittlesford
Cambridge CB2 4NE
United Kingdom
Introduction
Until the mid-seventeenth century, the business of painting in France was
strictly regulated by guilds. The skills of the painting craft, handed down from
master to apprentice, were treated as valuable personal possessions and protected
by secrecy (1). Few records of the painting techniques themselves were
published before the mid-eighteenth century. The first information contributing
to the history of painting materials and techniques in the French language
is found in books of "secrets," collections of recipes on various topics,
often compiled from diverse authors. The "secrets" of the earliest such books
were not contemporary recipes, however, but translations from Italian or Latin,
often with reference to ancient Greek or Roman authors.
Books of secrets
The first of the books of "secrets," Les secrets de reverend Alexis Piemontois (Paris,
1557) was a compilation, translated from the Italian, that included remedies
for illness, wounds, and accidents, as well as instructions on how to make
perfumes,jams, dyes, and pigments. The book was reprinted in 1573 and was
expanded to include recipes from Dioscorides, Galen, and others, as well as
some recipes relating to the history of painting techniques such as gilding,
pigments, inks, and the making of varnishes. It was republished several times
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as were other secret books,
such as Les secrets et merveilles de nature (Lyon, 1586) by Jean Jacques Wecker,
a doctor from Colmar. Wecker's recipes fo r magic and sorcery, health, cooking,
beauty, and the manufacture of pigments, "des secrets des falseurs et vendeurs
de couleurs et peintures," were also taken from Latin sources; he credits seventy-five
authors from Aristotle onward. Fortunately, the book includes a
table of contents, fo r the recipes are not arranged alphabetically but in a
systematic order that reflects Wecker's vision of the universe and places painter's
secrets on the same level as recipes fo r cooks, druggists, carpenters, and
Jomers.
Several books of secrets were published in the seventeenth century, but perhaps
the most popular and the most relevant to our topic was Le Sieur
D'Emery's Recueil des curiositez rares et nouvelles des plus admirables iff ets de la
nature ret de l'art] (Paris, 1674) (2). Included were many recipes related to the
history of painting techniques, recipes on how to copy drawings, make pastels,
imitate marble, stain wood, gild, and make engravings look like old master
paintings.
Books of secrets continued to be written and reprinted throughout the eighteenth
century and beyond. In the eighteenth century, the two compilations
most frequently reissued were Secrets des arts et metiers (Brussels, 1755) and
L' Albert moderne ou nouveau secrets eprouves et licites (Paris, 1768). This "modern"
Albert was a revision of "old" Albertus Magnus, with the superstitions and
enchantments deleted, keeping only "useful" advice, such as how to cure a
toothache with two live moles. (The method begins by holding a mole in
each hand and squeezing gently, without letting go, until they die; this process
should take about five hours.) Large sections are devoted to medical and
agricultural recipes; the third section includes "divers moyens de se faire une
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice