Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Figure 3. Gherardo Cibo, "Hell/ionite, "
from Herbarium (MS ADD 22332 ),
fo l. 143r, ca. 1570. Courtesy of the British
Library.

52

Figure 2. Gherardo Cibo, Landscape. Courtesy of the Printrooltl if the University of Leiden, the

Ne therlands (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 fa mily. Praised by the local population fo r 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, fr uits, and seeds (21).

Could Gherardo Cibo be the writer of Ricordi di belli colori? Proof was to

be fo und 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 Dios­

corides and added landscape backgrounds as a personal touch.

Additional proof can be fo und 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 her­

barium illustrated contains only plants, drawn in ink and colored with wa­

tercolor, 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 fu lly 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 fo r the Jusaina or nocella

flowers and folio 184v in the herbarium can be fo und many color samples

and some fu saina 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

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice