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PAINTING TECHNIQUES: HISTORY, MATERIALS AND STUDIO TECHNIQUES
Abstracts of the 17th International Congress - Dublin - 7-11 September 1998
SOME OBSERVATIONS ON PANEL PAINTING TECHNIQUE IN TUSCANY FROM THE TWELFTH TO THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY
Marco Ciatti
This paper presents a brief analysis of panel painting technique in Tuscany and its development in the period from the twelfth to the thirteenth century, from the Sarzana Cross by Maestro Guglielmo (1138) to Giotto's early works like the Santa Maria Novella painted cross and the Madonna from San Giorgio alla Costa, recently restored. Wooden supports, ground layers, gilding and paint layers are examined and artistic techniques are compared with the expressive intent and the use of images at that time. The paper aims to illustrate how, from the various different techniques existing in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, there was a reduction during the second half of the thirteenth century that would eventually produce the well-known technique of the fourteenth century recorded by Cennini.
Carmen Rallo and Enrique Parra
In the later Middle Ages, the mudejar people (Muslims who lived in Christian countries) built houses, castles and palaces in Spain in a characteristic way. In these special buildings, the craftworks in wood and in plaster are very famous, but there are some wall paintings too. Wall paintings from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries decorate the rooms as socles along the walls. They are little known, even in Spain, for two reasons: first, the main art of this period was religious, in the Gothic style; second, their maintenance is problematic because they were made for private houses. To understand how and with what materials and resources they were made, we have studied this kind of wall painting, found only in Spain. Historical documentation, photographic records and chemical analyses of the painting materials are reported. All these data point to a fresco technique.
THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MURAL PAINTINGS IN THE CHOIR OF ANGERS CATHEDRAL
Sylvie Demailly, Paulette Hugon, Marcel Stefanaggi and Witold Nowik
This paper describes studies carried out on mural paintings in the choir of Angers Cathedral, dating from the middle of the thirteenth century. The Laboratoire de Recherches des Monuments Historiques undertook analyses on all the paintings in order to determine the technique. The analyses related to the pigments, the stratigraphy and the binders. Several methods of analysis were used, notably gas-chromatography combined with mass- spectrometry, which allowed us to confirm observations made by other methods in relation to the binders. It was found that the paint layers, laid directly on the stone or with a very thin coat of lead white preparation, were applied using linseed oil as a medium. To complement these studies, statistical analysis of all the samples allowed us to group the results obtained for the different variants of the technique. At the same time, art-historical studies allowed us to relate the technique to old treatises and to other paintings of the Gothic period.
THE TECHNICAL STUDY OF A LATE THIRTEENTH-CENTURY BYZANTINE MARGINAL PSALTER FROM THE WALTERS ART GALLERY
Abigail Quandt and Arie Wallert
The pigments and binding media in a late thirteenth-century Byzantine marginal psalter from the Walters Art Gallery (MS W.733) were identified using a variety of analytical techniques. At the same time, the painting methods used by the illuminator were studied and compared with techniques found in two eleventh-century marginal psalters which the Walters manuscript closely resembles. Although there are many parallels with the earlier manuscripts, the miniatures in W.733 are highly idiosyncratic and stand apart from the work of contemporary Byzantine illuminators of the thirteenth century.
ANALYTICAL STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION OF PANEL PAINTING TECHNIQUE IN VALENCIAN WORKSHOPS FROM THE FOURTEENTH TO THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
M.T. Doménech, R. Mateo, V.Peris, J.V. Gimeno, F. Bosch, E. Aura and E. Lopez
This paper presents analysis of Valencian paintings from the fourteenth to the seventeenth century, to provide a scientific study of the development of this style of painting and innovations in painting technique. Four altarpieces representing this period have been examined. Microscopical, SEM-EDX and XRD techniques have been used to identify the support and characterize the grounds, the priming layers and the pigments used in each work. The binding media were analysed by microchemical tests, FTIR and GC-MS providing confirmation of the hypothesis that an oil painting technique appeared in this geographical area at the beginning of the period studied.
THE MEDIAEVAL POLYCHROMY OF THE MAJESTIC WEST PORTAL OF TORO, SPAIN: INSIGHT INTO WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES OF LATE MEDIAEVAL PAINTERS AND POLYCHROMERS
Melissa R. Katz
Bridging the disciplines of easel painting, wall painting, sculpture and architecture, architectural polychromy once provided steady employment for mediaeval artisans, especially in Spain where the craft flourished from the twelfth to the sixteenth century. This paper explores the history and techniques of architectural polychromy through an investigative method that combines regional history, archival materials, scientific analyses, technical observation and reviews of published literature. The extensive data assembled during the World Monument Fund's project to study and conserve the Majestic West Portal of Toro, Spain, are compared with archival material and technical studies of European polychromed portals, to provide insight into the workshop activities of mediaeval painters and polychromers.
ENGLISH FOURTEENTH-CENTURY INTERIOR POLYCHROMY: MANUSCRIPT SOURCES AND WORKSHOP PRACTICE AT EXETER CATHEDRAL
Anna Hulbert
Exeter Cathedral is exceptionally fortunate to retain most of its Fabric Accounts, from 1279 onwards, and also the original polychromy on many of its fourteenth-century limestone roof- bosses and corbels; a few are in pristine condition, and even those with insoluble nineteenth- century overpaint retain much valuable information, revealed in cross-sections. During the conservation programme of 1976-82 many samples were taken, and were found to relate closely to the appropriate entries in the Fabric Rolls. The painters' working practice is closely linked to the different stages of construction of the building. One of the carvers at Exeter also worked at Wells Cathedral, on bosses which exhibit a different technique of polychromy. Evidence that can be established at Exeter may well throw light on less well-preserved and well-documented schemes of architectural polychromy elsewhere.
THE THORNHAM PARVA RETABLE: WORKSHOP PRACTICE IN FOURTEENTH- CENTURY ENGLISH PANEL PAINTING
Louisa Goldsmith and Spike Bucklow
The Thornham Parva Retable was made in England c. 1330-40, originally forming a larger altarpiece with the Musée de Cluny Frontal. Technical examination of the Retable provides an insight into the production of a major commission, where so little comparative material survives. This paper provides an overview of the materials and techniques used in the making of the Retable, including the construction of the wooden support, the preparatory layers and design of the figures, the methods of gilding and tin relief decoration and the execution of the paint layers. It also explores questions of workshop organization.
THE RECIPE COLLECTION OF JOHANNES ALCHERIUS AND THE PAINTING MATERIALS USED IN MANUSCRIPT ILLUMINATION IN FRANCE AND NORTHERN ITALY, c. 1380-1420
Nancy Turner
A close reading of the recipe collection of Johannes Alcherius reveals the concerns of manuscript illuminators during the era of what is now known as the 'International Style'. Collected during extended residences in Paris as well as in northern Italy, the recipes can be grouped according to four areas of interest: organic colourants, metallic effects, copper corrosion product green pigments, and the preparation of ultramarine blue. The recipes in Alcherius's collection are compared with contemporaneous manuscript illuminations. Preliminary non-destructive pigment analysis (using X-ray fluorescence and UV-visible spectrophotometry) on illuminated manuscripts from the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum appears to confirm the direct relationship and immediate assimilation between technical treatise and the book illuminator's palette.
PAINTING TECHNIQUES IN THE BOUCICAUT HOURS AND IN JACQUES COENE'S COLOUR RECIPES AS FOUND IN JEAN LEBÈGUE'S LIBRI COLORUM
Bernard Guineau, Inès Villela-Petit, Robert Akrich and Jean Vezin
The Book of Hours of Jean II le Meingre, Maréchal de Boucicaut, is an outstanding example of the advanced state of painting in France at the time of Jean de Berry. It is not surprising that so many art historians held it in such high regard in their studies on the painting of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Our research on the Boucicaut Hours aims at comparing the results of the experiments we carried out on the illuminations with colour recipes found in contemporary treatises, specifically the technical recipes in Jean Lebègue's Libri Colorum. Particular attention is paid to innovative methods of painting, such as the consistent use of effects of light and shadow.
PAINTING ON PARCHMENT BESIDES MINIATURES: SCIENTIFIC ANALYSES AND A STUDY OF THE ARTISTIC TECHNIQUES OF GIOVANNINO DE' GRASSI'S MODEL BOOK
Letizia Montalbano, Michela Piccolo and Maria Grazia Vaccari
The interesting but little studied subject of painting on parchment is discussed from both art- historical and conservation points of view. Reference is made to literary sources, and to an outstanding group of small paintings by Florentine artists of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Finally, a study is presented on research carried out on a late fourteenth-century model book belonging to the Civic Library in Bergamo.
LATE MEDIAEVAL WALL PAINTING TECHNIQUES AT FARLEIGH HUNGERFORD CASTLE AND THEIR CONTEXT
Helen Howard, Tracy Manning and Sophie Stewart
Little systematic analysis has been undertaken of late mediaeval wall painting in England, but the early fifteenth-century paintings at Farleigh Hungerford have recently been subjected to detailed examination. Despite previous invasive conservation treatments, this revealed a highly sophisticated use of translucent glazes over gold and silver leaf, a wide range of pigments including orpiment and lead-tin yellow, and oil as a medium. These materials, the techniques of their application and aspects of their alteration in situ are considered within the context of other English wall painting of the period, as well as the sophistication of the scheme attributed to the patronage of Sir Walter Hungerford.
THE 'CALVARY' OF S. FRANCISCO'S CHURCH IN LEIRIA: WORKSHOP PRACTICE IN A PORTUGUESE LATE GOTHIC WALL PAINTING
Graça Horta, Isabel Ribeiro and Luís Afonso
Recent restoration work at the church of the Convent of S. Francisco in Leiria (Portugal) revealed a large Late Gothic Calvary on the back wall of the main chapel. This paper is a first report of the study carried out by an interdisciplinary team, and provides information about the organization and practice of a Portuguese wall-painting workshop in the late fifteenth century. The stratigraphy and composition of the renders are analysed, as well as the different stages of the preparatory drawing, the palette, the binding media and the painting processes, particularly the giornate and the different methods used for the flesh painting. In comparison with known treatises, such as that of Cennino Cennini, the results of the laboratory analyses are surprising, particularly in regard to the binding media used in the secco painting and the gilding.
THE CONSTRUCTION AND PAINTING OF A LARGE CASTILIAN RETABLE: A STUDY OF TECHNIQUES AND WORKSHOP PRACTICES
Sam Hodge, Marika Spring and Ray Marchant
This paper is based on technical examination of the painted panels of the Santa Marina retable, c. 1490, attributed to a Castilian painter called the Master of Palanquinos. There are two distinct styles of underdrawing, painting and gilding, indicating that two different painters worked on the retable, at least from the underdrawing stage onwards. These findings are compared with documentary evidence with indicates that collaboration between independent masters was common in fifteenth-century Spain. The techniques of construction and painting are also described and comparisons made with contemporary documents, in particular the 1493 Cordoba ordinances which specify the technical standards to be expected of master painters.
OIL PAINTING IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES IN SPAIN: THE RELATIONSHIP OF STYLE TO TECHNIQUE IN THE EPIPHANY ALTARPIECE OF SAINT PAUL'S CONVENT IN TOLEDO
Marta Presa, Rocío Bruquetas and Marco Connor
Taking advantage of a campaign of restoration, the Altarpiece of the Epiphany of Saint Paul's Convent in Toledo ( c.1430) was studied. Based on stylistic, material and technical considerations, it was concluded that at least three master painters worked on the six panels and predella. All three artists employed linseed oil as a medium in much of their work. This example of the early use of oil painting in an altarpiece, together with archival documents, seriously challenges the existing theories which state that oil painting in Spain started as an imported technique from Flanders in the second half of the fifteenth century.
STYLISTIC, TECHNICAL AND MATERIAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE PAINTINGS OF GIOVANNI DI PAOLO
Elyse Klein, Eric Gordon and Karen French
The Walters Art Gallery owns seven paintings attributed to Giovanni di Paolo, from very early to very late in the artist's career. Technical examinations of these and other paintings by Giovanni di Paolo in European and American collections were compared to investigate whether his techniques changed along with his style and possible studio participation. Information gathered from 32 paintings led to the conclusion that, with minor variations, the artist's materials and techniques remained constant and strayed little from traditions set out by Cennino Cennini.
PIERO DELLA FRANCESCA'S PROCESS: PANEL PAINTING TECHNIQUE
Roberto Bellucci and Cecilia Frosinini
This paper presents a new approach to Piero della Francesca's technique based on interpretations of historical sources, archival documents, and new results of scientific and technical investigations of the artist's panel paintings. This investigation leads to specific conclusions about Piero della Francesca's actual technical processes, which show very different methods from the traditional ones of the period. Innovations in carpentry construction; particular choices of materials for the ground preparation layers; a non-Italian use of priming; a definite and geometrical re-use of drawings which were proportionally enlarged (tested by computer simulation); continuous innovations in painting media, all reveal a particular knowledge of the physical and chemical characteristics of materials. All these technical innovations reflect an unusual type of professional organization; the structure of this organization is documented and technical procedures are reconstructed.
THE WASHINGTON PORTRAIT OF A LADY BY ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN RECONSIDERED IN LIGHT OF RECENT INVESTIGATIONS
Catherine A. Metzger and Michael Palmer
Rogier van der Weyden's corpus is constructed by comparison with three securely identified works. Technical studies have aided in the attribution process. Although it is known that Rogier worked as a portraitist for the aristocratic class in Brussels, no portraits survive today which can be securely linked with contemporary documents. In addition to the donors on altar wings, a group of five independent portraits and three which may have once been part of diptychs is generally attributed to Rogier on a stylistic basis. Published technical information on these is limited. The recent restoration of the Washington Portrait of a Lady provided an opportunity to study the painting method of this late portrait, possibly the latest, when Rogier's aesthetic sensibilities had become increasingly abstract. Aspects of the painting method facilitate the emphasis of the planar aesthetic.
THE ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE OF MARBLING AND MONOCHROME PAINT LAYERS ON FRAMES AND SUPPORTS IN NETHERLANDISH PAINTING OF THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
Hélène Verougstraete and Roger Van Schoute
Marbling and monochrome paint layers on the reverse of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century panel paintings have received little attention and are often poorly preserved. A link is suggested between painted marbling and oriental marbled paper. Marbled paper was first manufactured in China in the tenth century; it is reasonable to suppose that marbled papers were introduced into Europe long before the fifteenth century and that painters were aware of their use in the Persian and Arab worlds for writing, fine arts and administrative purposes. Similarities in use as well as in techniques support this hypothesis. Marbling on panel painting was intended for decorative effect rather than charged with symbolism. Reverses were also often painted in a monochrome paint layer. The favourite colour in the fourteenth century was red; in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries it was black, probably in accordance with fashion at the Burgundian court. In the sixteenth century, the reverses of wings were sometimes painted in other colours. These monochrome paint layers often have texts with gilded letters. They are also often overpainted, for example with portraits of donors, sometimes added at a later date and after the painting had been moved to another location. Even marbling was occasionally overpainted with a coat-of-arms or the figure of a donor. Art historians should be aware of this possibility when assigning dates and attributions.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ALBRECHT DÜRER'S PALETTE AND FIFTEENTH/SIXTEENTH-CENTURY PHARMACY PRICE LISTS: THE USE OF AZURITE AND ULTRAMARINE
Andreas Burmester and Christoph Krekel
The pigments used in 13 paintings by Albrecht Dürer have been identified: azurite, ultramarine, verdigris, lead-tin yellow, brown and, occasionally, yellow ochres, cinnabar, red lead, red lakes, basic lead white as well as plant and bone black. Dürer mentions only four of these in his diaries and letters, and, except for ultramarine, there are no indications of where he obtained his pigments. Mediaeval documentary sources indicate that artists' pigments were available from pharmacies. Examination of fifteenth/sixteenth-century pharmacy price lists shows that all the pigments Dürer used were available. The composition of the palette depended to a certain degree on the cost of the pigments. This is exemplified by the blues, and we focus on Dürer's use of azurite and ultramarine. The nomenclature, origin, production and trade in azurite in late mediaeval times are discussed in more detail.
ARTISTIC EXCHANGE AND EXPERIMENTAL VARIATION: STUDIES IN THE WORKSHOP PRACTICE OF LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER
Gunnar Heydenreich
In his early years, Lucas Cranach the Elder's search for new forms of expression corresponded with continually changing materials and techniques. The artistic exchange between Cranach and his contemporaries also included painting techniques. Several of these practices support his reputation as a 'quick painter'. With the expansion of his workshop, he apparently returned to more traditional approaches and developed extremely efficient variations.
SOME ASPECTS OF THE UTILIZATION OF DIFFERENT WOOD SPECIES IN CERTAIN EUROPEAN WORKSHOPS
Peter Klein
Dendrochronological analyses and microscopical examination of wood species have been undertaken for a number of catalogues during the last 20 years. Except for the identification of oak, there is still confusion as to the true identity of wood species. It is well known that in different European countries certain wood species were preferred, but it is not so widely known that some workshops used different kinds of wood. The Cranach studio used mostly beech and lime but also oak, fir, spruce and, exceptionally, elm, maple or pine. Other German painters of the fifteenth-sixteenth centuries showed a preference for fir, spruce and lime, but pine, stone-pine and elder have also been found. In Dutch workshops of the seventeenth century oak, of course, was used, but from different regions; Wouwerman, for example, used wood from the Baltic, from the Netherlands/Western Germany and from the north of Germany. Some Rembrandt panels were made from various tropical wood species.
CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF GROUNDS FOR PANEL PAINTING OF THE SPANISH SCHOOL IN THE FIFTEENTH AND SIXTEENTH CENTURIES
S. Santos Gómez, M. San Andrés Moya, J.L. Baldonedo Ródriguez, O. Conejo Sastre, M.I. Báez Aglio and A. Rodriguez Muñoz
The grounds of nine fifteenth-sixteenth century panels of the Castilian School were studied. The material used was gypsum in all cases. Examination as backscattered electron images by scanning electron microscopy showed the different morphologies of the materials used in the gesso grosso and gesso sottile layers. Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM-EDX) was used to determine the purity of the gypsum and provide preliminary data on the nature of the associated minerals (dolomite, calcite and various silicates).
THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAINTING ON COLOURED SURFACES IN SIXTEENTH- CENTURY ITALY
Jill Dunkerton and Marika Spring
Paint samples from nearly 140 sixteenth-century Italian panels and canvases in the National Gallery, London, have been examined to determine the nature of their preparatory layers. The results are presented in tables organized by colour. These tables are subdivided into three geographical regions, roughly equivalent to the established art-historical division into the Florentine and Roman, the North Italian and the Venetian Schools. By organizing the results in this way, it is possible to distinguish patterns of development and usage. These appear to contradict many traditional assumptions about the introduction of painting on coloured surfaces.
THE ELIZABETHAN WALL PAINTINGS OF HILL HALL: INFLUENCES AND TECHNIQUES
Tobit Curteis
Executed c. 1570 for Sir Thomas Smith, Queen Elizabeth I's ambassador to Paris, the wall paintings of Hill Hall are among the finest of their period. Including both biblical and classical themes, the paintings are based on a series of Italian engravings and Flemish woodcuts. While European architectural influence of this period is well known, the response of English wall paintings to influences from the continent has been less widely examined. Since 1994, the paintings at Hill Hall have been the subject of an extensive programme of investigation and analysis. Detailed examination of the original materials and painting techniques has shed considerable light on the little-known field of wall painting practice of this period. In addition, comparison of the print sources with both the underdrawing and the finished paintings reveals the adaptations made for a different medium and a different culture.
ANTWERP ARTISTS AND THE PRACTICE OF PAINTING ON COPPER
Michael K. Komanecky, Isabel Horovitz and Nicholas Eastaugh
Artistic activity in Antwerp around 1600 is explored in the context of the city's role in the international copper trade and print publishing. The physical characteristics of copper plates used by Antwerp artists such as Brueghel and his contemporaries are discussed, as well as the painting techniques employed.
PEETER STAS: AN ANTWERP COPPERSMITH AND HIS MARKS (1587-1610)
Jørgen Wadum
Lack of information on paintings on copper in seventeenth-century Antwerp inventories gives the impression that such paintings were rare. The coppersmiths who supplied the painters with plates were organized within the blacksmiths' guild. Even though legislation on the marking of copperware was passed in 1585 and 1602, and mentions certain guidelines for how objects should be marked, no document refers specifically to the marking of copper plates for paintings. However, marks of the Antwerp coppersmith Peeter Stas have been found on a number of plates from the early seventeenth century. A chronology of his securely dated marks enables us to date plates showing only his house-mark.
ESAIAS VAN DE VELDE'S TECHNICAL INNOVATIONS: TRANSLATING A GRAPHIC TRADITION INTO PAINT
E. Melanie Gifford
Esaias van de Velde was central to the remarkable development of naturalistic landscape in the drawings and prints of a few artists working in Haarlem and Amsterdam around 1610. Through shared artistic conventions these artists created selfconsciously unadorned images. They abandoned engraving in favour of etching, and used a graphic vocabulary derived from Pieter Bruegel's landscape drawings. This specific set of techniques conveyed a startling immediacy that suggested direct observation of the local landscape. Like many Northern Netherlandish landscape painters, Esaias was trained in a Southern Netherlandish tradition that had not changed dramatically for a century. He is often credited with being the first to attempt naturalistic paintings, but these are usually seen as more conservative than his graphic works. Technical study of the paintings has revealed the innovations through which Esaias translated the graphic vocabulary of naturalistic landscape into paint. Dramatic simplification of the painting process gave his paintings the immediacy of the graphic works. He adapted features inherent in the painting process (such as the woodgrain and the underdrawing) into explicit quotations of etchings and the Bruegel drawing tradition. By transforming landscape painting technique Esaias laid the basis for a truly Dutch landscape painting tradition.
A NOTE ON TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF PRINTS AND PAINTINGS OF HERCULES SEGERS
Arie Wallert
A technical study was carried out on the working methods of the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Hercules Segers. These methods were, more than those of many of his contemporaries, highly experimental. In this study we have tried to understand his working methods better by examining a small selection of his paintings and some closely associated etchings. The paintings were first examined with the stereomicroscope and by infrared reflectography. Based on careful observations, a small number of paint samples was taken to investigate the stratigraphy of the paint layers. The samples were analysed by microscopical, spectrometric and chromatographic methods to identify inorganic pigments, organic colourants and binding media. The results of analysis are evaluated in relation to contemporary technical sources.
SIXTEENTH- TO EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY GREEN COLOURS IN LANDSCAPE AND FLOWER PAINTINGS: COMPOSITION AND DETERIORATION
Jo Kirby and David Saunders
The green pigments available before the nineteenth century were inadequate to produce the range of greens required in paintings; artists nevertheless made greens in a wide variety of hues and saturations using various pigment mixtures. This common practice is described in many contemporary artists' handbooks and other documentary sources. Examination of paintings from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries has revealed that most green passages have been rendered using such mixtures and that there is a strong correspondence between green mixtures found in paintings and those suggested in the sources. Although adding yellows to greens, blues or blacks greatly increased the range of hues that could be obtained, these mixtures have not always survived unchanged. Several seventeenth- and eighteenth- century sources indicate that greens were liable to alter for various reasons. Light-induced deterioration of typical mixed greens prepared in the laboratory has produced changes that mimic those seen in paintings. Comparison between test samples and paintings allows some tentative conclusions to be drawn about the nature of the changes that have taken place in the painting, when detailed examination of the painting is inconclusive or impossible.
A NEW LEAD-BASED YELLOW IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Ashok Roy and Barbara H. Berrie
Since the important rediscovery by Jacobi in 1941 of the use of lead-tin yellow as a traditional artists' pigment, and the identification by Kühn of two distinct modifications of this material, elemental analysis and crystallographic determinations using X-ray diffraction (XRD) have been applied routinely to opaque yellow pigments from Old Master paintings. We report here the discovery and characterization by these methods of a new lead-based yellow in seventeenth-century paintings, based on a ternary oxide of lead, tin and antimony. This pigment is distinct from the two varieties of lead-tin yellow and from pure lead antimonate (Naples yellow); it appears to be restricted in use to Italian painting and specifically to paintings produced in Rome. Examples in the work of Poussin, Pietro da Cortona, Salvator Rosa, Sassoferrato, Gentileschi and Lanfranco are given, and art-historical interpretations based in the presence of this pigment are discussed.
INDIGO USED IN THE HAARLEM CIVIC GUARD GROUP PORTRAITS BY FRANS HALS
E. Hendriks, M. van Eikema Hommes and K. Levy-van Halm
Fading and discoloration of indigo paint areas is quite common in seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. Indigo used in the blue sashes of the Haarlem Civic Guard group portraits by Frans Hals is discussed. The choice of indigo as a blue pigment and the significance of the blue silk sashes are considered in their historical context. Technical examination of the paintings, combined with the study of historical sources, identified some features of Hals's paint application that may have aided preservation of colour in the indigo sashes.
ITALIAN WALL PAINTING IN OIL: CARLO BONONI AND FERRAÙ FENZONI, TWO ARTISTS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
A. Tucci, F. Bevilacqua, C. Di Francesco and V. Tagliatti
There are many early documentary sources dealing with the technique of wall painting in oil but it is described in a more detailed way in treatises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The contemporary taste for painting with a high density of colour and depth of tone was better expressed by the use of oil medium rather than by the traditional light fresco technique, which did not allow the use of many pigments and the superimposition of several coloured layers. Rather few wall paintings in oil have survived, and those on the exterior have generally deteriorated badly. For this reason their study from a technical point of view is difficult and little information is available. Analytical studies carried out on wall paintings by two artists of the seventeenth century, Carlo Bononi and Ferraù Fenzoni, have shown that they painted on walls using the same technique, pigments and medium as they used in their easel paintings on canvas.
EIGHT SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DECORATIVE PAINTINGS — ONE PAINTER?
Tone Marie Olstad and Kristin Solberg
A group of seventeenth-century distemper wall paintings, mainly in churches, has in the past been partly attributed to one artist. The project described aims, first, at a better understanding of these paintings in order to improve their conservation treatment, and second, to use the knowledge acquired as a basis for tentative attributions to a particular artist. An understanding of these paintings is augmented by visual comparison of the decorative elements in the paintings and technical analysis of pigments and media. Information on the painter's materials and, more importantly, how they were applied, is recorded from surface observations. Reference is made to the contemporary literature on techniques and to relevant archival records. The conditions of the seventeenth-century 'church painter' are discussed briefly.
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY CHURCH PAINTINGS OF GOTTFRIED HENDTZSCHEL: TECHNICAL EXAMINATION AND CHURCH RECORDS
Tine Frøysaker
Technical research is rather scarce on the painting techniques of artists of the early Norwegian Reformation. Comparison of the technique of domestic church paintings in Norway of the period is therefore limited. For over 30 years, the artist Gottfried Hendtzschel decorated representative interior pieces in the diocese of Stavanger. Three pulpit panels, previously attributed to him, have been examined and their materials and techniques are presented. Church records have been examined to demonstrate his work and operating conditions. The study indicates a skilful artist working in a commission system arranged by the secular establishment in collaboration with the church.
FRENCH EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PAINTING TECHNIQUES
Elma O'Donoghue, Rafael Romero and Joris Dik
Recent conservation treatment of several eighteenth-century French paintings at the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art allowed the authors to examine French painting techniques from this period more closely. The paintings proved to have unexpectedly complex layer structures that were revealed initially in the examination of paint cross-sections. Thin, non-pigmented, fluorescent layers were found isolating double grounds and paint layers. Polarized light microscopy and fluorescing stains were helpful in determining the nature of some of these layers. Additional examination using Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR) and gas-chromatography/mass-spectrometry (GC-MS) identified the media used by the artists. Energy dispersive X-ray microanalysis (SEM-EDX), electron-probe microanalysis and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) identified the pigments in the multiple paint layers. These findings are discussed in connection with relevant seventeenth- and eighteenth- century lectures and treatises.
THE POLITICAL CONSTRUCTION OF FRAGILITY AND FRENCH ARTS POLICY AROUND 1750
Thea Burns
The fragility of pastel paintings has always been acknowledged; however, solutions recommended for protecting their delicate surfaces from abrasion and dust shifted quite suddenly. Early eighteenth-century treatises advised glazing these works; from 1747 coating the pastel surface with a dilute varnish was suggested. This paper argues that the shift from glazing to fixing and the intense preoccupation with the development of pastel fixatives in France at mid-century were politically motivated. By acknowledging that fully elaborated pastel was a form of painting in eighteenth-century Europe and by re-examining the issue of fixatives from this perspective rather than from that of their use to preserve works of art on paper, this paper is able to integrate the phenomenon of fixatives for pastel in France at mid- century into the history of the conservation of paintings.
THE TECHNIQUE OF SIR HENRY RAEBURN EXAMINED IN THE CONTEXT OF LATE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH PORTRAITURE
Lesley A. Stevenson
Stylistically, the portraits by Sir Henry Raeburn stand apart from those of his English contemporaries. A technical examination of four paintings by Raeburn in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC was carried out in order to assess the nature of the artist's individuality. The investigation reveals that, while the materials Raeburn used place him indisputably within the mainstream, his uncompromising attitude towards providing a truthful representation of his sitter, his preoccupation with light effects, acute sense of colour and bold, direct handling of the paint, distinguish him from conventional painting practice of the period.
SUPPLYING ARTISTS' MATERIALS TO AUSTRALIA 1788-1850
Erica Burgess and Paula Dredge
From the earliest British colonization of Australia, draughtsmen and watercolourists were eager to depict their new home. A demand for paintings in the more permanent and prestigious medium of oil was met by many of these first artists, even though most were not trained in this medium. They were able to do so because they were beyond the control of Britain's established artistic institutions. In the first 40 years, artists often depended on personal patrons and friends in Britain for the supply of painting materials. The problems of shortages led to some improvisation and substitution of materials. By the 1830s the number of professionally trained British artists who had emigrated to Australia had increased, and the supply of artists' materials had also become more reliable. This early period, greatly dependent on irregular supplies from England, was followed by rapid commercial development of the colonies and faster shipping which ensured that new materials and techniques from England quickly appeared in the Australian colonies.
NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAINT MEDIA: THE FORMULATION AND PROPERTIES OF MEGILPS
Joyce H. Townsend, Leslie Carlyle, Aviva Burnstock, Marianne Odlyha and Jaap J. Boon
Megilp was made by combining a lead-treated drying oil with a mastic varnish and adding the product to paint on the palette, to make a thixotropic medium. Various forms of megilp were used by many artists from the mid-eighteenth to the nineteenth century, both for impasto and for glazing, but undesirable properties of darkening and cracking were soon reported. The present study began with a survey of the published recipes for megilp and the properties described, followed by their formulation in practice, with linseed oil prepared with lead acetate or lead oxide driers combined with mastic varnish in various proportions. These megilp formulations were then combined with modern commercial oil paints, painted out, and aged both naturally and artificially. Their surface morphology on drying and after aging was characterized by SEM-EDX, and thermoanalytical techniques, FTIR and DTMS were used to investigate and compare the different proportions used in various formulations, both for megilps alone and for megilps mixed with paint. It appears that a one-to-one or a resin-rich mixture reacts to form a new entity with properties distinct from the oil or resin alone, regardless of oil source or drier type. Oil-rich mixtures do not form 'true' megilps, and break down both in storage and in the paint film.
MIXING AND MINGLING: JOHN CONSTABLE'S OIL PAINT MEDIUMS c. 1802-37, INCLUDING THE ANALYSIS OF THE 'MANTON' PAINT BOX
Sarah Cove
This paper discusses Constable's oil paint mediums in the last decade of his career, based on the analysis of bladders from his paint box (Manton Collection, New York). Untreated and heat-bodied poppy oil have been identified as the primary grinding mediums in the bladders. Constable also modified his paint with heat-bodied linseed oil, egg yolk, beeswax and pine resin, either during grinding or mixed on the palette. Poppy and linseed oils containing zinc and lead 'driers' have also been identified. Comparisons are made with medium analysis of the 1837 palette (Tate Gallery Archive S135.6) and Constable's oil paintings. His general approach to the preparation and use of materials is discussed in relation to his 'late' painting style and technique.
AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES USED FOR WORKS ON PAPER, CANVAS AND PANEL BY HONORE DAUMIER
Aviva Burnstock and William Bradford
This paper describes the findings of a technical study of the materials and techniques used by Honoré Daumier for works on canvas, panel and paper, with special regard to the similarity between techniques used by the artist for all three supports. Thirteen paintings (five on canvas and eight on panel) and seven works on paper were examined using a range of techniques to characterize materials and methods used by the artist to create these works. Our findings suggest that materials and methods of application traditionally associated with works on paper were used by Daumier also for his works on canvas and panel supports. Materials include those usually associated with drawings, such as charcoal, lithographic crayon, and thin washes of water- and oil-based paint and ink, applied with quill and reed pens.
G.F. WATTS IN CONTEXT: HIS CHOICE OF MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES
Jacqueline Ridge and Joyce H. Townsend
In light of the potentially disastrous methods used by G.F. Watts (1817-1904), as outlined in documentary sources, this paper looks at the techniques and materials used for his 'subject' paintings. The findings are discussed in terms of their potential impact on the condition and the appearance of these paintings today.
METHODS AND MATERIALS OF THE PRE-RAPHAELITE CIRCLE IN THE l850s
Libby Sheldon
This paper combines the results of technical analysis on four paintings by English Pre- Raphaelite painters, executed between l852 and l857, with documentary evidence concerning the working lives and methods of the artists. It examines their manner of handling materials, which was designed both to imitate past painters and to be innovative. Looking at Millais and his followers in particular, this account focuses on their distinctive use of grounds and pigments, discusses the interpretation of technical data, and explores the circumstances which inspired these techniques.
ABSORBENT GROUNDS AND THE MATT AESTHETIC IN POST-IMPRESSIONIST PAINTING
Vojtech Jirat-Wasiutynski and H. Travers Newton Jr
There is a well established tradition of matt painting in modern art; this paper concentrates on the period after Impressionism, paying particular attention to the role of absorbent grounds. They were adopted by Seurat, the Neo-Impressionists and van Gogh largely for plein-air painting. Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Bernard, Sérusier, the Nabis group and Redon, on the other hand, employed them as part of a 'matt aesthetic' often linked to decoration. Drawing on sample analyses, supply catalogues and manuals, letters and art criticism, the paper surveys the different types of absorbent grounds used and their role in the production and appearance of the paintings.
THE LIFE OF A PAINTER: TECHNICAL INFORMATION IN PAINTERS' BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES PUBLISHED IN BRITAIN 1820-1940
Sally Woodcock
A large number of artists' autobiographies and biographies were published between 1820 and 1940, satisfying public curiosity about artists' lives. Although they frequently provide only a limited amount of technical information, these works can be some of the few eyewitness accounts of artists' methods, materials and attitudes to their art, as the artist's papers were often destroyed subsequent to publication. The accuracy of these reminiscences, often written in advanced old age, should not be assumed, but in some cases it is possible to verify the information they contain against surviving correspondence, commercial evidence in artists' colourmen's archives, and technical examination and analysis of works of art.
PAINTING MATERIALS RESEARCH IN MUNICH FROM 1825 TO 1937
Bruce F. Miller
Munich has been a centre for painting materials research since early in the nineteenth century. The Bavarian monarchs stimulated this study by their patronage and their unusual search for permanent painting materials, which led to the early study of 'synthetic' painting materials and collaborative study among artists and scientists. Many of the great German painting technologists and scholars worked in Munich, among them Ernst Berger, Max Doerner, Alexander Eibner, Franz Fernbach, Adolf W. Keim and Max von Pettenkofer. Late in the nineteenth century several institutions devoted to painting materials research were founded, and Munich's present-day centre for painting materials research, the Doerner-Institut, evolved from these early institutions. Although important contributions to our knowledge of painting materials and techniques took place in Munich, these contributions are generally little recognized.