The lumps were quite large for a pigment bought by weight, some even larger than a walnut. On the surface, sanguine seems inaccessible because it is as hard as rock. However, all it takes is a stonecutter’s hammer and the crushed lumps become lumps, rubble, aggregate, sand and finally dust. Now more gritting, oil, gritting, […]
The screen of an abandoned painting
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 […]
Extraordinary oil
“Take your linseed oil and in summer pour it into a bronze or brass basin, or into a bowl, and when the sun is in the sign of Leo, expose it to the sun, and this oil, if you hold it so long, that it will be half gone, will be as perfect as possible for painting” (C. Cennini, “A Treatise on Painting”). Cennino Cennini, born in 1370 in Colle di Val d’Elsa, died […]