In the north this practice changed during the sixteenth century.
The underdrawing would be made directly onto the thin white ground,
ontop of which a translucent insulating layer, the primuersel, would be
placed. This primuersel would leave the drawing visible for further devel-
opment in the painting process. It is obvious, then, that the primuersel was
applied in the artist’s studio, not by the witter.
Karel van Mander wrote in 1605 that his predecessors ground
their panels thicker than in his time and that afterward they planed or
scraped the surface as smooth as they could (Miedema 1973:256–57).
The technique of Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450–1516) is described by van
Mander as a method used by many other old masters: Bosch drew his
images on the white ground, placing over them a thin translucent, flesh-
colored primuersel that would allow the ground to play a role in the
finished painting. The fact that the old masters did indeed draw directly
onthe ground, using a thin, flesh-colored layer in oil as an isolation layer,
has been duly confirmed by intensive studies on this subject (Federspiel
1985).^39 It is this pigmented oil layer that van Mander named primuersel
(Fig. 25) (Plesters 1983; Coremans and Thissen 1962; Sonnenburg and
Preusser 1979).^40
In 1620 de Mayerne gave advice on priming a panel. If one wants
to paint on wood, he wrote, it is the custom first to size with chalk. One
can mix a little honey in it in order to prevent cracking; but in de Mayerne’s
opinion it is better not to size wood too much. Then one should apply a
good and strong ground (imprimeure) in oil, with a knife or horn spatula, inH O P-M T N C 167Figure 25
Jan Brueghel the Elder and studio of Peter
Paul Rubens,Nymphs Filling the Horn of Plenty,
ca. 1615. Detail. Oil on panel (single plank),
67.5 3 107 cm. Conservation Department,
Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis (inv. 234),
The Hague. The streaky, transparent
primuersel is seen on an infrared
reflectogram.