Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

68

In late Gothic painting, grisaille underpainting was fa irly common fo r green

garments or landscape elements. This was fo und in paintings by van Eyck as

well as by Uccello, north of the Alps as well as in Italy (16, 17). The method

is described in artists' treatises. Palomino, in the first quarter of the eighteenth

century, describes the method of underpainting green cloths with grisaille

(18). The same instructions are fo und in Croeker's treatise, published in 1743

(19). This documents a long tradition. Grisaille undermodeling was not the

only method recommended. In his Portrait if a Dominican Monk (Upton House

near Banbury), painted around 1525, Lorenzo Lotto used undermodeling in

azurite and lead white with the darkest shadows painted in an olive green

mixture of black and lead-tin yellow. The next layer contains verdigris with

very little lead-tin yellow and some black in the shadows, fo llowed by a green

glaze. This green glaze is a substantial, absolutely homogenous layer, without

any visible brushwork or textile pattern.

In addition to colored undermodeling to modifY the green glaze, there is the

possibility of adjusting the green color by means of yellow glazes. Cennini

recommended saffron fo r this purpose (20). Leonardo suggested aloe dissolved

in warm spirit of wine: "If you have finished a painting with this simple

green [verdigris in oil] and if then you were to glaze it lightly with this aloe

dissolved in spirit of wine, then it would be of a most beautiful colour. Also

this aloe can be ground in oil, either on its own or together with the copper

green and with any other colour you like" (21).

De Mayerne noted a recipe fo r a green copper glaze that called fo r some

terra merita, which is curcuma, to be added to improve the color (22). Goet­

ghebeur and Kockaert drew attention to the existence of yellow and brown

glazes on top of layers of verdigris or copper resinate (23). In cleaning green

areas in paintings, therefore, it is not sufficient to test a brown layer fo r copper

to find out whether the paint is discolored copper resinate. Even if it is

not, it can still be an original yellow lake, now discolored. As these organic

lakes are very difficult to identifY, their presence is often suspected without

reassuring proof either way, a most disconcerting situation fo r the restorer. In

addition to research by means of scientific analysis, it might be helpful to

approach the problem via the written sources and by reconstructing some of

the recipes.

Notes

1. Hawthorne, J. G. and C. S. Smith. 1979. Theophilus on Divers Arts. New York:
   Dover Publications, 41. See also Scholtka, A. 19 92. Theophilus Presbyter: Die mal­
   technischen Anweisungen und ihre Gegenuberstellung wit naturwissenschaJtlichen Unter­
   suchungsbifunden. Zeitschrift jur Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 6 (1):1-54.


2. Cennini, C. 1960. The Crcifisman's Handbook. Translated by D. V. Thompson. New
   York: Dover Publications, 33.


3. Borradaile, V. and R. Borradaile. n.d. The Strasburg manuscript: a medieval painters'
   handbook. Munchen: Callwey, 55-7. Passage translated by the author.


4. Ludwig, H. 1882. Lionardo da Vinci. Das such von der Malerei. Nach den Codes
   Vaticanus (Urbinas) 12 70. Wien: Braumiiller (Quellenschriften fLir Kunstgesch­
   ichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Renaissance), 15:244. Passage
   translated by the author.


5. Merrifield, M. P. 1967. Original Treatises on the Arts if Painting, Vol. 2. New York:
   Dover Publications (2):822.


6. van de Graaf,J. A. 1958. Het De Mayeme Manuscript als bron voor de schildertechniek
   van de barak. British Museum, Sloane 2052. Proefschrift ... Mijdrecht: Drukkerij
   Verweij, 142. Passage translated by the author.


7. Pernety, A. J. 1972. Dictionnaire portatif de peinture, sculpture et gravure. Geneva:
   Minkoff Reprint, 547. Passage translated by the author.


8. Kuhn, H. 1993. Verdigris and copper resinate. In Artists' Pigments. Ed. A. Roy.
   Washington: National Gallery of Art, 136. For preparation and identification of
   green copper pigments, see Ellwanger-Eckel, E 1979. Herstellung und Verwendung
   kunstlicher gruner und blauer Kupjerp igmente in der Malerei. Stuttgart: Institut fur
   Museumskunde an der Staatlichen Akademie der Bildenden Kunste.


9. Hawthorne and Smith, op. cit., 33.

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice