Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

FIgure 2. Dierie Bouts, The Annunciation.
Distemper on linen, 90 X 74.5 em. The].
Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (85.PA.24).

112

Figure 1. X-radiograph of Andrea Mantegna's The Adoration of the Magi. The]. Paul Getty

Museum, Malibu.

duced, including examples by great artists such as Albrecht Durer and Pieter

Brueghel (8). Some of these that have survived relatively untouched show us

the beauty and brilliance of this medium. Well-preserved examples of this

technique include three paintings by Dieric Bouts: (a) the Annunciation in the

collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu (Fig. 2); (b) the Resurrection

at the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena; and (c) the Deposition in the Na­

tional Gallery, London (9). Many of these paintings, however, have either been

destroyed or severely damaged and altered. The glue renders the paint film

brittle and readily damaged by water; because of the glue's hygroscopic nature,

it attracts dust and candle soot. Consequently, most of these paintings suffered

the fate of being varnished in order to "liven up" the colors, thus becoming

oil or varnish paintings by absorption. Most of them were destroyed because

they were so fragile, and less than 100 of the above-mentioned Netherlandish

paintings have survived (10).

In Italy, however, Andrea Mantegna was the only artist to make extensive use

of this technique. Approximately thirty of his distemper paintings have sur­

vived.

Mantegna, with some of his fellow painters north of the Alps, must have been

intrigued with the effect of light, or the lack of it, on his paintings. In order

to visualize the effect of different media in the same light, we need only look

at an illuminated manuscript in the subdued light of a modern showcase to

marvel at the glowing colors (11). By contrast, it would be practically im­

possible to view an oil painting under the same light conditions because of

the deep saturation of the pigments and the different refractive index. Man­

tegna probably faced the same dilemma of wanting to create paintings with

incredible detail and luminosity that would not lose their visual power due

to lack of light and the distracting reflections caused by a varnished surface.

Because we live today in a technically advanced age in which we can regulate

the light we need, it is difficult to imagine relying on candles and torches.

Yet, until the wide distribution of electricity less than one hundred years ago,

light in a closed environment was scarce. Until the Renaissance, many palaces

and buildings in Italy had only a few small windows; many of Mantegna's

paintings were probably destined to be hung in a private bedroom or chapel

in the fo rtresslike Ducal Palace in Mantua, thus a technique that would not

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice