Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

o. (Vv.. 1 -.<

2.

Figure 2. Cross section fro m Baptism with
measurements in microns: layer 1, traces of
the intermediate white layer; layer 2, particles
of black chalk underdrawing; layer 3, mixture
of light green, blue, and white. Photograph
by M. Faries (aft er J. R. J. van Asperen de
Boer).

underdrawing, and a third layer consisting of a dark green mixture of green,

blue, and white; no ground is used (Fig. 2). In addition, Scorel often paints

wet in wet with the usual run of pigments, except fo r his use of natural

ultramarine and a blue-over-rose structure. The latter superimposition of col­

ors, with ultramarine on the surface (as seen again in a cross section from

Baptism), has been linked to Scorers observation of Italian painting technique

(Plate 30) (7).

Marteen van Heemskerck's technique compared

Before the conservation of the Cologne Lamentation and the recent revisions

in art historical opinion, what was known of Heemskerck's painting technique

showed little connection to Scorel (Fig. 3). The current acceptance of Lam­

entation, long attributed to Scorel, as a Heemskerck by scholars Faries, Har­

rison, and W Th. Kloek is by no means unchallenged. A study of the pain­

ting's technique shows why a separation of "hands" has been so difficult.

Lamentation was begun as a Scorel studio piece and finished as a Heemskerck,

as seen in both the underdrawing and the painting technique. Infrared re­

flectography examination, undertaken by Faries in 1991, disclosed exception­

ally complicated compositional change in this work (8). The painting was

taken through as many as six stages while the composition was changed from

a profile Scorelesque Entombment scene to a Heemskerck frontal presentation

of the Lamentation.

The numerous samples required because of the piece's complex restoration

history provided more than enough evidence about Lamentation's painting

procedure. The initial preparation of the ground and position of the under­

drawing in the paint layer structure match the standard practice of Scorers

Haarlem shop. A thin layer of lead white covers the entire surface of the

ground; it appears consistently in sections that show the entire paint layer

structure. The black chalk underdrawing is fo und on top of the intermediate

layer (9). Although some of the lines of the different compositional stages

must have crossed, no noticeable overlapping or disjunctures in any samples

that include the underdrawing layer can be seen. The presence of the lead

white intermediate layer coupled with the black chalk underdrawing can be

Figure 3. Maarten van Heemskerck, Lamentation of Christ, ca. 1530. Photograph by C. Stein­

bachel, courtesy of Wallraj-Richartz-Museum, Cologne.

Faries, Steinbiichel, and van Asperen de Boer 137