Figl/re 3. Detail if lower left, s/lOwillg wlltractioll cracks ill vitulllell-rich paillt, jrolll J. M. W. Tu r
lIer's The Hero of a Hundred Fights, ca. 1800, rel/,orked 1847. Oil 01/ cal1vas, 908 X 1213.
COl/rtesy oj the Ta te Gallery, LOlldoll (N00551).
tively elsewhere through the use of bitumen, megilp, and resinous glazes.
Bitumen has been detected in his Italian landscapes of 1820-1840 in partic
ular, and appears at its worst when used as an underlayer fo r the fo reground.
In other works, Tu rner added to bitumen's poor drying characteristics by
painting it directly over old damaged paint or by exposing canvas to extreme
dampness and dripping water, so the support stressed the paint and caused
cracking. It is not certain whether he ever used synthetic bitumen, a material
severely criticized by his contemporaries, and reputed never to dry at all (8).
Figure 3 shows a detail from Turner's The Hero of a Hundred Fights that has
bitumen-rich paint applied over oil paint a few decades old, showing severe
cracking typical of this artist's oeuvre. Figure 4 shows even more disfiguring
cracking, attributed to synthetic bitumen, in a study of Editha's head fo r
Hilton's Editha and the Monks Searching for the Body of Harold.
The fu ll complexity of Tu rner's later paintings can be represented by The
Dawn oj Christianity, The Flight into Egypt, exhibited in 1841. Tu rner used a
square canvas with a white, absorbent priming of lead white and oil, and
planned the work fo r a non-square frame. He sketched in octagonal cut-offs
in pencil, drew a circle with pencil and compasses, and then painted a more
or less circular image. He prudently made use of the corners of the canvas
to tryout colors, and quite large brush loads of paint survive there, uncon
taminated by later layers. Figure 5 shows the framed painting, and Plate 35
shows a detail of the lower right corner. The most textured paint, nearly free
of pigment and by now honey colored, proved to be a megilp. The canvas is
Townsend^179