Underneath the paint there is a “screen”, or single-colour underpainting.
The light must break through the layers of translucent coatings – and return to the viewer.
Only when it reflects off the screen and reaches the eye, it can tempt the viewer with the luminosity of the mixed pigments. Just as a stained glass window needs illumination for the colour to show its charms, so glaze does not exist without a screen to reflect the light.
Tadeusz Piotrowski showed us Rembrandt’s paintings as the most spectacular and bravura examples of glaze. More than once he told us how enchanted he was when viewing the originals in museums. In his school, he tried to make us learn the master’s workshop and apply his technique, and thus better understand how glase works.
The screen of an abandoned painting
