Historical Painting Techniques, - The Getty

Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice

PUBLICATIONS COORDINATION: Dinah Berland EDITING & PRODUCTION COORDINATION: Corinne Lightweaver EDITORIAL CONSULTATION: Jo Hill COVER DESIGN: Jackie Gallagher-Lange PRODUCTION & PRINTING: Allen Press, Inc., Lawrence, Kansas

SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS: Erma Hermens, Art History Institute of the University of Leiden Marja Peek, Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science, Amsterdam

? 1995 by The J. Paul Getty Trust

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America

ISBN 0-89236-322-3

The Getty Conservation Institute is committed to the preservation of cultural heritage worldwide. The Institute seeks to advance scientiRc knowledge and professional practice and to raise public awareness of conservation. Through research, training, documentation, exchange of information, and ReId projects, the Institute addresses issues related to the conservation of museum objects and archival collections, archaeological monuments and sites, and historic bUildings and cities. The Institute is an operating program of the J. Paul Getty Trust.

COVER ILLUSTRATION Gherardo Cibo, "Colchico," folio 17r of Herbarium, ca. 1570. Courtesy of the British Library.

FRONTISPIECE Detail from Jan Baptiste Collaert, Color Olivi, 1566-1628. After Johannes Stradanus. Courtesy of the Rijksmuseum-Stichting, Amsterdam.

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Historical painting techniques, materials, and studio practice :

preprints of a symposium [held at] University of Leiden, the

Netherlands, 26-29 June 1995/ edited by Arie Wallert, Erma

Hermens, and Marja Peek.

p.

cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 0-89236-322-3 (pbk.)

1. Painting-Techniques-Congresses. 2. Artists' materials-

-Congresses. 3. Polychromy-Congresses.

I. Wallert, Arie,

1950-

II. Hermens, Erma, 1958- . III. Peek, Marja, 1961-

ND1500.H57 1995

751' .09-dc20

95-9805

CIP

Second printing 1996

iv

Contents

vii

Foreword

viii

Preface

1

Leslie A. Carlyle, Beyond a Collection of Data: What We Can

Learn from Documentary Sources on Artists' Materials and

Techniques

6

Sylvana Barrett, Dusan C. Stulik, An Integrated Approach for the

Study of Painting Techniques

12

Helen Glanville, Varnish, Grounds, Viewing Distance, and

Lighting: Some Notes on Seventeenth-Century Italian Painting

Technique

20 Ann Massing, From Books of Secrets to Encylopedias: Painting Techniques in France between 1600 and 1800

30

Sally A. Woodcock, The Roberson Archive: Content and

Significance

38

Arie Wallert, Libro Secondo de Diversi Colori e Sise da Mettere a

Oro: A Fifteenth-Century Technical Treatise on ManUSCript

Illumination

48

Erma Hermens, A Seventeenth-Century Italian Treatise on

Miniature Painting and Its Author(s)

58

Beate Federspiel, Questions about Medieval Gesso Grounds

65

Renate Woudhuysen-Keller, Aspects of Painting Technique in the

Use of Verdigris and Copper Resinate

70

Josephine A. Darrah, Connections and Coincidences: Three

Pigments

78

Kate I. Duffy, Jacki A. Elgar, An Investigation of Palette and Color

Notations Used to Create a Set of Tibetan Thangkas

85

Zuzana Skalova, New Evidence for the Medieval Production of

Icons in the Nile Valley

91

Helen C. Howard, Techniques of the Romanesque and Gothic Wall

Paintings in the Holy Sepulchre Chapel, Winchester Cathedral

105

Eddie Sinclair, The Polychromy of Exeter and Salisbury

Cathedrals: A Preliminary Comparison

111

Andrea Rothe, Andrea Mantegna's Adoration of the Magi

117

Ulrich Birkmaier, Arie Wallert, Andrea Rothe, Technical

Examinations of Titian's Venus and Adonis: A Note on Early

Italian Oil Painting Technique

127

Catherine A. Metzger, Barbara H. Berrie, Gerard David's St.

Anne Altarpiece: Evidence for Workshop Participation

v

135

140 148 155

158 166 176 186 191 196

204

Molly Faries, Christa Steinbuchel, and J. R. J. van Asperen de

Boer, Maarten van Heemskerck and Jan van Scorel's Haarlem Workshop

E. Melanie Gifford, Style and Technique in Dutch Landscape Painting in the 1620s

J?rgen Wadum, Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and His Use of Perspective

Ilze Poriete, Dace Choldere, A Technical Study of the Materials and Methods Used by the Painters of the Latvian Churches in the Seventeenth Century

Melissa R. Katz, William Holman Hunt and the ?Pre-Raphaelite Technique"

Jo Kirby, Ashok Roy, Paul Delaroche: A Case Study of Academic Painting

Joyce H. Townsend, Painting Techniques and Materials of Turner and Other British Artists 1775-1875

Stephen Hackney, Art for Art's Sake: The Materials and Techniques of James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

John R. Gayer, Painting on a Photographic Substrate: Notes Regarding Materials and Techniques over the Past 100 Years

Ernst van de Wetering, Reflections on the Relation between Technique and Style: The Use of the Palette by the Seventeenth Century Painter

Index of Contributors

vi

Foreword

One of the first events organized by the Getty Conservation Institute as it began its activities about ten years ago was a symposium on paintings conservation. We felt at that time that our particular approach, based on multiple disciplines looking at a single problem, could contribute signifi cantly to the field of conservation. Over the course of the past years we have continued to develop in that direction and with that belief, so it is particularly appropriate to see these important preprints come to light for the University of Leiden's symposium.

The history of painting techniques is by nature a multidiSCiplinary area of study, combining research in science, conservation, and art history as well as specific expertise in paintings. Members of each one of these pro fessions bring to the area their own detailed knowledge in artists' materials, techniques, or methods, whether it be information specific to pigments, binding media, signature style, or archival research.

The field of history of painting techniques has been evolving very rapidly in recent years and opening enormous opportunities for further research and connOisseurship, as this important group of papers demonstrates. Not only scientific methods of examination but also bibliographical and archival research are making significant contributions.

The authors of these preprints bring a wide array of expert knowledge as well as many fresh points of view that are certain to provoke serious questions and debate. The editors-Arie Wallert, Erma Hermens, and Marja Peek-have assembled this volume with a most inSightful approach and focus. So it is with a great deal of satisfaction and pleasure that we present these papers for the study, and enjoyment, of a fascinating and challenging field.

Miguel Angel Corzo, Director The Getty Conservation Institute

vii

Preface

This volume of preprints, prepared for an international symposium on Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice at the Uni versity of Leiden, the Netherlands, 26-29 June 1995, contains the results of work on historical painting techniques from all parts of the world. The suggestion to organize such a meeting was raised during the symposium on the Technology of Art Works from the Central European Region or ganized by the Archives of Art Technology in Prague in 1993. The Prague symposium emphasized Czech painters and their techniques. To broaden the scope of attention, Erma Hermens of the Art History Institute of the University of Leiden and Marja Peek of the Art Historical Department of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Am sterdam took on the task of organizing a second meeting in Leiden.

The purpose of the symposium and this publication is to promote a greater understanding of the changing boundaries and interaction between art historians, conservators, and conservation scientists working in the fields of historical painting techniques-including wall paintings and poly chrome sculpture-painting materials, and studio practice.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in historical paint ing techniques. The study of the painting techniques and materials used throughout history and in various cultures is by nature an interdisciplinary exercise. In the past such studies were sometimes conducted with little interaction between art historians, conservators, materials scientists, and historians of science, because each discipline tends to present the results of its studies to different forums. This volume aims to present different approaches to the study of historical painting techniques in the hope that it will encourage cooperation among these various disciplines.

Information about painting techniques can be gained in a variety of ways, including the chemical or physical analyses of the materials found in the paintings. Analyses of a large number of paintings attributed to certain regions, schools, workshops, or individual masters can contribute to a history of painting techniques. Analytical results can also help art historians assess attributions and can support or reject their hypotheses. The analysts, however, need the art historians to inform them about the stylistic idiosyncrasies and significance of those schools, workshops, or mas ters.

It is often rewarding to see what artists have said about their own work and to study their written sources on painting techniques. This kind of information has come down to us in diaries, such as Neri di Bicci's Ricor danze; in painting handbooks such as Cennini's Libra dell'Arte, in anony mous recipe books; and even in model books, such as Stephan Schriber's Musterbuch. These recipe books tell scientists what substances to look for in analysis. Both scientific and art historical information help us understand the significance of sometimes rather obscure recipes and tell us whether the methods and materials described are common or exceptional for the particular period. Today it is not unusual to find information from historical sources incorporated in the examination of individual paintings.

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