The Painter's Methods and Materials

Arthur Pillans Laurie

Description

“The Painter's Method and Materials” is a comprehensive guide to all things painting, dealing with everything from how to use use pigments in tempera to water-colour, mural painting, the theories of light and colour, and much more. This timeless volume will prove to be an invaluable resource for painters both new and old, and it would make for a marvellous addition to collections of allied literature. Contents include: “The Mediums Used in Painting”, “The Written Evidence on Early Painting Methods in Oil”, “Wood Panels and Canvas”, “The Pigments Used in Painting (contd.)”, “The Behaviour of White Light”, “Colour and the Prism”, “Linseed Oil, Walnut Oil, and Poppy Oil”, “How to Paint Oil Pictures”, etc. Many vintage books such as this are increasingly scarce and expensive. We are republishing this volume now in an affordable, modern, high-quality edition complete with a specially-commissioned new the original text and artwork.

Informations

• Publié par: Read Books Ltd.
• Date de parution: 14 juillet 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528768115
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE PAINTER S METHODS MATERIALS
THE HANDLING OF PIGMENTS IN OIL, TEMPERA, WATERCOLOUR IN MURAL PAINTING, THE PREPARATION OF GROUNDS CANVAS, THE PREVENTION OF DISCOLOURATION, TOGETHER WITH THE THEORIES OF LIGHT COLOUR APPLIED TO THE MAKING OF PICTURES, ALL DESCRIBED IN A PRACTICAL NON-TECHNICAL MANNER
BY
A. P. LAURIE, M.A.(C ANTAB .)
D.Sc. (E DIN .), F.R.S.E., F.C.S., H.R.S.A.
Professor of Chemistry to the Royal Academy of Arts, London Principal of the Heriot-Watt College, Edinburgh
WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS
Copyright 2018 Read Books Ltd.
This book is copyright and may not be reproduced or copied in any way without the express permission of the publisher in writing
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
PREFACE
T HIS book has been written for the craftsman painter in oil, water colour, tempera, and fresco, not for the scientific chemist or the manufacturer. It therefore deals with methods and the properties of materials rather than their chemical description or methods of manufacture. For example, the chemistry of the drying of linseed oil is so complex as to be unintelligible to anyone who is not a student of chemistry. I therefore treat only with the results of these changes.
Those who wish to pursue their studies further may consult, among standard books, Sir Arthur Church s Chemistry of Paints and Painting and Hurst s Paints, Colours, Oils, and Varnishes , and of modern works, Varnishes and their Components , by Dr. Morrell, Malmaterialien Kunde Als Gr ndlage Der Maltechnik, Die Anorganischen Farbstoffe , and Die Fette le , by Professor Eibner.
For those who wish to study the materials and methods of the Middle Ages to the close of the sixteenth century, the Classic work is still Eastlake s Materials for the History of Oil Painting , to which may be added Hendrie s Translation of Theophilus , Mrs. Merrifield s Fresco Painting and Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting , Lady Herringham s translation of Cennino Cennini, the translation of Vasari on Technique , by Louisa Maclehose, and Professor Berger s Beitr ge Zur Entwickelung s Geschichte der Maltechnik . May I also be permitted to add my Materials of the Painter s Craft and the Pigments and Mediums of the Old Masters? Students should also consult the Transactions of the Tempera Society.
On sitting down to write this book I found so many practical questions arising to which I could discover no answer, that I considered it necessary to carry out a series of experiments in several different directions, the results of which are incorporated in these pages. To the best of my knowledge the experiments on the transparency of pigments in different refractive media and the change in the refractive index of linseed oil in process of drying are new.
In numerous other cases the statements in the text are the results of actual experiments, though no details are given.
A logical order of treatment of the subject proved difficult, and cross-references inevitable. In many cases repetition was found necessary to give completeness to the particular subject under discussion and save trouble to the reader.
Finally, my thanks are due in the first place to Profesor Eibner, not only for his help as a correspondent, but also for the assistance obtained from his publications, an assistance which occurs so often that I have not attempted to acknowledge it in every case in the text. My thanks are also due to Mr. Balsillie, of the Mineralogical Department of the Scottish National Museum; Mr. Batten; Mr. Caw, Custodian of the Scottish National Gallery; Mr. Davidson, of the Cookson Lead and Antimony Company; Mr. John Duncan, R.S.A.; Mrs. Sargent Florence, for permission to reprint her description of Fresco Painting from the Transactions of the Tempera Society; and to Dr. Morrell; Professor Peddie; Mr. Charles Sims, R.A.; Mrs. Traquair; and the Director of the Rijks Museum and the Staffs of the Physical and Chemical Departments of the Heriot-Watt College.
TO THE
HONOURABLE MRS. GREVILLE
IN REMEMBRANCE
OF HER MANY ACTS OF KINDNESS
TO THE STUDENTS OF
THE HERIOT-WATT COLLEGE
CONTENTS
I. T HE M EDIUMS U SED IN P AINTING
II. T HE W RITTEN E VIDENCE ON E ARLY P AINTING M ETHODS IN O IL
III. T HE W RITTEN E VIDENCE ON E ARLY P AINTING M ETHODS IN O IL ( contd .)
IV. W OOD P ANELS AND P APER
V. P RIMING OF P ANELS AND C ANVAS
VI. T HE P IGMENTS U SED IN P AINTING
VII. T HE P IGMENTS U SED IN P AINTING ( contd .)
VIII. T HE B EHAVIOUR OF W HITE L IGHT
IX. C OLOUR AND THE P RISM
X. L INSEED O IL , W ALNUT O IL , AND P OPPY O IL
XI. T HE O PTICAL P ROPERTIES OF O IL
XII. H OW TO P AINT O IL P ICTURES
XIII. B ALSAMS , R ESINS , V ARNISHES , E TC .
XIV. H OW TO P AINT IN T EMPERA
XV. E MULSIONS
XVI. F RESCO P AINTING
XVII. M ODERN M ETHODS OF F RESCO P AINTING
XVIII. O THER M ETHODS OF W ALL P AINTING
XIX. P RESERVATION AND C LEANING OF P ICTURES
XX. C ONCLUSION
I NDEX
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1. P ROFESSOR H AY , By W. Sims, R.A.
2. H OLY F AMILY . By the Master of the Death of the Virgin
3. C HRIST AND THE A POSTLES . By Fra Lippo Lippi
4. U NFINISHED P ICTURE . By Sir David Wilkie
5. O PHELIA . By Millais
6. M ICROPHOTOGRAPH OF W HITE L EAD
7. J. S TUART T RAILL . By John Lonsdale
8. M ADAM P OMPADOUR . By Fran ois Boucher
9. C RACKS IN AN O IL P ICTURE
10. A W OMAN B ATHING . By Rembrandt
11. M AGNIFIED P HOTOGRAPH OF R EMBRANDT S B RUSH -W ORK
12. L ADY AND C HILD . By Romney
13. M AGNIFIED P HOTOGRAPH OF R OMNEY S B RUSH -W ORK
14. A S ECTION THROUGH THE G ESSO OF THE H OLY F AMILY
15. S ANTA B ARBARA . By Jan Van Eyck
16. U NFINISHED P ICTURE . By Cima da Conegliano
17. M ADONNA AND C HILD . By Michael Angelo
18. T HE H OLY F AMILY . Attributed to Correggio
19. P ORTRAIT OF A L ADY
20. T HE R OKEBY V ENUS . By Velasques
21. T HE E NTOMBMENT . By Michael Angelo
22. I NTERIOR OF A D UTCH H OUSE . By Pieter de Hooch
23. S USANNE T OURMENT . By Rubens
24. M ARCHESA G IOVANNI B ATTISTA C ATTANEO . By Van Dyck
25. T HE P HILOSOPHER . By Rembrandt
26. P ORTRAIT OF A G ENTLEMAN . By Gerard Terborch
27. M R . AND M RS . L INDOW . By Romney
28. M AGNIFIED P HOTOGRAPH OF R OMNEY S B RUSH -W ORK
29. P ORTRAIT OF THE A RTIST S S ON , T ITUS . By Rembrandt
30. M AGNIFIED P HOTOGRAPH OF R EMBRANDT S B RUSH -W ORK
31. C HRIST K NOCKING AT THE D OOR . By Holman Hunt
32. T HE A GE OF I NNOCENCE . By Reynolds
33. M ICRO -P HOTOGRAPH OF M ASTIC V ARNISH
34. T HE R APE OF H ELEN . By Benozzo Gozzoli
35. V ENUS AND M ARS . By Botticelli
36. P ORTION OF A F RESCO . By Giotto
37. B UON F RESCO . By Benozzo Gozzoli
38. B UON F RESCO . By Benozzo Gozzoli
39. E VE . By Michael Angelo
40. F RESCO P AINTING . By Ghirlandaio
41. A M AGNIFICENT F RESCO, FROM THE C HAPEL OF THE R ICCARDI . By Benozzo Gozzoli
42. W ALL P AINTING S T . M ARY S C ATHEDRAL , E DINBURGH . By Mrs. Traquair
43. T HE G OVERNORS OF S T . E LIZABETH S H OSPITAL . By Franz Hals
44. T HE G OVERNORS OF S T . E LIZABETH S H OSPITAL (partially cleaned)
THE PAINTER S METHODS MATERIALS
CHAPTER I
THE MEDIUMS USED IN PAINTING
T HE mediums used by artists to mix with their pigments are very much the same to-day as they have been through long periods of time.
For wall-painting the pigments, merely mixed with water, are laid on the wet lime surface of the plaster, the binding medium being the crystallized carbonate of lime, which is slowly formed by the combination of the carbonic acid gas in the air with the lime. Mr. Noel Heaton has shown that this method was used in painting the frescoes in the Palace of Knossos, and the weight of evidence and research is in favour of the same method having been used at Pompeii. The frescoes of the Italian Renaissance were painted by this method. Technical details have varied, but the principle of using the carbonate of lime to form the binding material is very ancient.
Gum-arabic was used by the Egyptians, and is used by artists to-day for water-colour painting, the pigments being ground in this medium.
Size was used by the Egyptians, and by the Greeks and Romans, and throughout the Middle Ages for wall decorations. To-day it is used principally by the house-painter and the scene-painter.
The history of the egg medium is more obscure. Its use for certain special purposes is mentioned by Pliny ( A.D . 23-79) and in manuscripts of the Middle Ages; but it is not till we come to the treatise on Painting by Cennino Cennini, at the beginning of the fifteenth century, that we find a full and detailed description of the use of the yolk of the egg as a painting medium. The pictures of the painters of Italy during the fourteenth and fifteenth century, and probably earlier, were principally executed in this medium.
The first mention of the use of the drying vegetable oils as media for painting occurs in the manuscripts of the eleventh or twelfth century. There is evidence of a long northern tradition in the use of this medium before the fifteenth century, after which it gradually replaced egg and became the universal medium.
Only one medium used in classical times has fallen out of use, namely, beeswax. Pliny tells us how this medium was used. The pigments were stirred in with the melted wax, and the work executed partly with the brush and partly with bronze modelling tools. In order to paint with this medium in