Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

Figure 2. Roelandt Savery, Landscape with Animals and Figures, signed and dated 1624. Panel, 54.6 X 91.4 cm. Na tional Gallery if Art,
Washington, D. C. (1989.22. 1). Gift of Robert H. and Clarice Smith in honor if the fiftieth anniversary if the Na tional Gallery of Art.

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were completed did a workshop assistant fill in minor foliage details. The

assistant's work has a mechanical, repetitive quality, and shows a cautious re­

spect fo r the work of the master; the monkey on a low branch at the left is

surrounded by a halo of the base color, where the assistant scrupulously avoid­

ed overlapping the master's work with his blades of grass.

Landscapes by Flemish immigrants

Landscapes by Flemish immigrants such as Gillis van Coninxloo, who arrived

in Amsterdam from Frankenthal in 1595, and Roelandt Savery, who arrived

with his fa mily in 1591, are clearly in the Flemish tradition, both composi­

tionally and technically (10). There are, however, variations of emphasis in

the compositions that have consequences fo r the technique. The compositions

retain the conventions of Flemish landscape. Dark and light passages are

strongly juxtaposed and the three zones in brown, green, and blue organize

the recession into space, but there is a much greater emphasis on the nearer

zones. In Coninxloo's fo rest landscapes, such as the Landscape with Hunters of

1605 in Speyer, the second and third zones are reduced to glimpses caught

through the dense growth of monumental trees that fills the fo reground zone

(11). The result is a newly limited tonal range, one that emphasizes the browns

and deeper greens of the middle and fo reground. This self-imposed limitation

is in itself a first step toward naturalism.

The techniques of these immigrant artists are consistent with contemporaries

still working in Flanders. The compositions were planned in underdrawings

that made provision fo r all but the minor figures. Over a light-colored ground

the artists established a base color fo r each area with a brushy underpaint;

each area was then worked up with loosely painted, final details in a color

that harmonized with the underpaint showing through from below. To avoid

the danger of monotony in their emphasis on the brown fo reground and

green middle zones, the artists introduced a range of subtle variations within

the harmonies of browns and greens.

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice