Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Figure 2. Gherardo Cibo, Landscape. Courtesy of the Printrooltl if the University of Leiden, the
Netherlands (il1v. nr. A W 441).
exhibition and catalogue dedicated to Gherardo Cibo shed much light on
the artist's career and personality (20). A large group of landscape drawings,
several herbaria, and illustrated editions of Mattioli's translated version of
Dioscorides can now be attributed to Cibo (Plate 7b, Fig. 3). According to
contemporary testimonies, Cibo must have been an interesting personality
who came from a wealthy family. Praised by the local population for his
virtues and charity work, Cibo occupied himself with botanical expeditions
and painting. A local seventeenth-century historian alludes to Cibo's high
artistic qualities and his method of preparing colors by extracting the dyestuffs
from herbs, fruits, and seeds (21).
Figure 3. Gherardo Cibo, "Hell/ionite, "
from Herbarium (MS ADD 22332),
fol. 143r, ca. 1570. Courtesy of the British
Library.
Could Gherardo Cibo be the writer of Ricordi di belli colori? Proof was to
be found by comparing Cibo's works with the Rome manuscript. In the
manuscript we not only find instructions on the mixtures of colors and the
build-up of transparent washes of paint to achieve certain effects but also
instructions specifically directed toward working on pen drawings or prints
(i.e., Chapter XXIX: "Beautiful green to use on prints and on plants drawn
with pen"; Chapter XXXVI: "To colour herbs, printed or drawn with pen").
Cibo's works show that he did both. Many of his landscape drawings were
executed in pen and ink and then colored with transparently applied colors.
He also colored prints in several editions of Mattioli's translation of Dioscorides
and added landscape backgrounds as a personal touch.
Additional proof can be found in the text. The personal remarks cited above
concerning the chapters on plants point to the herbaria illustrated by Cibo.
Two of these drawings are kept in the British Library (22). The largest herbarium
illustrated contains only plants, drawn in ink and colored with watercolor,
without landscapes in the background: " . .. my largest book on herbs
without landscapes." The other smaller herbarium does have landscapes; on
folio 183v, one reads, "Fusaina salva[ti]ca, nocella qui chiamata a Roccha
C[ontrada]," which corresponds fully with the first lines of Chapter XLV of
the manuscript, in which the instructions on how to paint this flower are
given. The author describes several color mixtures for the Jusaina or nocella
flowers and folio 184v in the herbarium can be fo und many color samples
and some fusaina flowers where these mixtures are apparently tested (Figs. 4,
5).
Finally, examination reveals that the Rome manuscript is written in two
hands. One author wrote only two pages; the script on these pages can be
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Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice