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CENNINO D’ANDRE/\ CENNINI DA COLLE DI VA.L D’ELSA
IL LIBRO’ DELL ARTE
VOLUME TWO THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
PUBLISHED ON THE LOUIS/ STERN MEMORIAL FUND
CENNINO D’ANDREA CENNINI DACOLLE. DIV VAL DELSA
ISBIbRO DELL ARTE
THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY DANIEL V. THOMPSON, JR.
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF THE HISTORY OF ART IN YALE UNIVERSITY
NEW HAVEN - YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON - HUMPHREY MILFORD + OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 1933
Te ey a) i eae an (4. i ire ? i
Copyright, 1933, by Yale University Press Printed in the United States of America
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced. in whole or in part, in any form (except by reviewers for the public press), without written permission from the publishers.
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TO EDWARD WALDO FORBES
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PREFACE
HE Italian text of the Libro dell’ Arte has been edited four times.’ It has been translated twice into English, twice into German, and once into French.
The first translations, Mrs. Merrifield’s (1844),? and Victor Mottez’ (1858),° were based upon the (1821) edition of Tambroni.* As has been shown,’ Tambroni’s version was incomplete and inaccurate. The manuscript which he edited® was an eighteenth-century copy, and its original,’ our L, has since been published. L, and another independent manuscript," our R, unknown to Tambroni, formed the bases of an improved edition published (1859) by Carlo and Gaetano Milanesi.® Three translations were made from this: the first, by Albert Ilg,*°
1 Giuseppe Tambroni, Di Cennino Cennini trattato della pittura, messo in luce la prima volta con annotazioni (Rome, 1821).
Carlo and Gaetano Milanesi, Il libro dell’arte o trattato della pittura, di Cennino Cennini da Colle Valdelsa; di nuovo pubblicato con molte correzioni e coll’aggiunta di più capitoli tratti dai codici fiorentini (Florence, 1859). A considerable extract from this edition appears in Carlo Linzi, Tecnica della pittura e dei colori . . : (Milan: Hoepli, 1930).
Renzo Simi, Cennino Cennini da Colle Valdelsa, Il libro dell’arte. Edizione riveduta e corretta sui codici (Lanciano: R. Carrabba, 1913).
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., ed., Cennino d'Andrea Cennini da Colle di Val d’Elsa, I/ Libro dell’Arte (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1932), I, Italian Text. See the Preface of that volume, pp. ix—xiii, for an account of the prior editions of this work.
2 A Treatise on Painting, written by Cennino Cennini in the year 1437 [This is an error: see I, Preface, p. ix.]; and first published in Italian in 1821, with an introduction and notes, by Signor Tambroni: containing practical directions for painting in fresco, secco, oil, and distemper, with the art of gilding and illuminating manuscripts adopted by the old Italian masters. Translated by Mrs. [Mary Philadelphia] Merrifield. With an introductory preface, copious notes, and illustrations in outline from celebrated pictures (London, 1844).
3 Le livre de l’art ou traité de la peinture par Cennino Cennini . . . traduit par Victor Mottez (Paris and Lille, 1858). A later edition (Paris, 1911) was issued to include the chapters first published in 1859 by the Milanesi.
4 Cit. supra. Bip bxetace;s pike 8 Rome, Ottobonian MS 2974. 7 Florence, Biblioteca Mediceo-Laurenziana, MS 23, P. 78. 8 Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS 2190. 9 Cit. supra.
10 Das Buch von der Kunst oder Tractat der Malerei des Cennino Cennini da Colle di Valdelsa. Ùbersetzt, mit Einleitung, Noten [most useful ones] und Register versehen . + + (Vienna, 1871).
DI cD hook CO co
x THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
formed the first volume in the Vienna series of “Quellenschriften fiir Kunstgeschichte und Kunsttechnik des Mittelalters und der Renais- sance.” The next translator, Lady Christiana J. Herringham (1899),” found Ilg’s German version “a most valuable book of reference in translating difficult passages.”’* The last translation, that of Willi- brord Verkade (1913),’* preserves the best features of its predecessors, and adds others of its own. I acknowledge freely and gratefully my indebtedness to all. The inadequacy of Tambroni’s edition largely vitiates the translations made from it; and faults in the Milanesi’s edi- tion are reflected in the translations which it underlies. Though my publication of the Italian text’* represents no such major improve- ment as the Milanesi’s wrought over Tambroni’s, it seems to me a sounder basis for translation than has hitherto been available.
The Milanesi edition rendered obsolete Mrs. Merrifield’s transla- tion from Tambroni; and Lady Herringham’s Book of the Art,”° in- corporating the Milanesi’s improvements, became the standard Eng- lish version of Cennino’s work. I venture to criticize it here, not in dispraise of her translation, for it has shown its merit, but rather to justify a new one.
As an example of the disabilities inherited from the Milanesi may be cited the following passage: “Vuole essere la colla più forte di verno che di state; ché di verno il metter di oro vuole essere il tempo umido e piovoso.”** Lady Herringham recognized that this could not be translated as it stood, for it is nonsense; so she took liber- ties with it. Vuole essere la colla più forte becomes “Size is stronger”; and chè di verno, “and in winter.” The resulting translation makes sense, but not the sense of the original. Turning to the source manu- scripts, we find! that L has: Vuole essere la cholla piu forte di verno
11 The Book of the Art of Cennino Cennini, a contemporary practical treatise on quattrocento painting. Translated from the Italian, with notes on mediaeval art methods . . . (London, 1899). The subtitle is based on the erroneous supposition that the Libro dell’ Arte was composed in 1437: what Cennino describes is trecento painting of the Giottesque Gaddi tradition.
12 [bid., Preface, p. v.
13 Des Cennino Cennini Handbiichlein der Kunst, neutibersetzt und herausgegeben
. . (Strassburg: Heitz, 1916). 14 Cit. supra, I. 15 Cir. supra. 16 Milanesi, ed. cit., p. 75; Herringham, op. cit., p. 95. 17 See I, 68, Il. 17, 18.
PREFACE xi
che di state che di verno; but di verno che was canceled, and with it, by mistake, the final di state. Judicious editing thus gives the proper reading: Vuole essere la cholla piu forte di state che di verno. That is, “Size wants to be stronger in summer than in winter.” And this every good craftsman knows, none better than Lady Herringham herself.
Even as a translation of the Milanesi text, however, Lady Herring- ham’s work is not without flaws. Sometimes through misconception based on Mrs. Merrifield’s version,'* sometimes through carelessness, she falls into error. Thus, in Chapter 33,"° she translates aguzza .. . si come stanno i fusi as “sharpen . . . as if they were tin.” Like Mrs. Merrifield, in Chapter 136, she confuses smeriglio with smeraldo. In describing the breathing tubes for casting from life, she translates più aperte che di sotto as “more open below”; and siero spesso forate dal mezzo in su con busetti piccoli as “let a small hole be pierced through the middle of each.”?° It is not necessary to extend this list, and I am too conscious of the possibility of similar errors in my own work to wish to bring a heavy indictment against my predecessor.
Some defects in the Herringham translation must be attributed to a lack of understanding, generally shared by the others. So in the case of stagno dorato, in Chapters 95-99 and elsewhere, the distinction be- tween “golden” and “gilded” has been missed.’* In Chapter 62 the translation “lye or a little roche alum,” for lisciva e un poco d'allume di rocca, may be due to carelessness; but the readings, in the same chapter, “rich and deep,” and “deep” alone, for violante in the origi- nal, betray the translator’s failure to recognize that violante is a color
18 See Herringham, op. cit., Preface, p. v.
19 References are to the chapter numbers of Lady Herringham’s edition, which are given in arabic numerals.
The Roman numerals used for chapter numbers in this volume are printed in the form in which they appear.in the MSS, as that was adopted for the volume of text: the only peculiarities are the use of “IMI” for “IV,” “VIII” for “IX,” “XXXX” for “XL,” and “LXXXX” for “XC.” It seems more important that numerals in this volume should correspond with those in Volume I than that the few affected by these peculiari- ties should be given the more familiar forms.
20 See below, p. 125.
21 See n. 3, pp. 61 ff., below. In general I have translated mezzere d’oro as simply, “gild,” except in one or two cases where the context requires a literal translation. This, I confess, is not for any fault in the expression, “lay with gold,” but rather to throw into relief this very distinction between mettuto d’oro, “gilded,” and dorato, “golden,” vermeillonné.
xii THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
term and means “inclining to violet.” The translation of urina as “wine,” in Chapter 153, is doubtless a typographical error, as is “beat” for “heat,” in Chapter 173.
Another class of error, all too easy to fall into, must be mentioned. From Chapter 47 Lady Herringham has omitted the translation of the sentence “La sua tempera non vuol d’altro che di colla”; from Chapter 107, “E tria bene queste cose insieme, come puoi sottilissima- mente”; from Chapter 138, “E così a poco a poco va’ brunendo un piano prima per un verso, poi”; and, farther on, “per altro verso”; while from the chapter on gilded glass she has left out the important direction “lascialo seccare sanza sole per spazio d’alcuni dì.”??
Lady Herringham makes no pretense of consistency in the trans- lation of technical terms. Her freedom in this respect robs her transla- tion of much weight, and often leads her astray. One or two instances must suffice as illustrations here. “Fatness” and “leanness” of pig- ments are qualities which are sometimes found puzzling. Without entering upon any elaborate discussion, I may say that wet clay would be called “fat,” and wet sand, “lean.” The corresponding adjectives in Italian are grasso and magro. Lady Herringham translates grasso now as “unctuous,”°° which is good; now as “full bodied,”?* which is less good; again as “opaque,”*® which is not good at all; and, finally, as “rich,”°° which is, at the best, ambiguous. She translates magro quite consistently as “transparent,” even in the phrase “transparent and
925
drying,” in translation of magra e asciutta, to characterize sinoper,?” which is as opaque as a pigment can be.
These examples of defects in Lady Herringham’s rendering are ad- vanced, let me repeat, reluctantly, with all gratitude and respect for the good qualities in her work, only to justify the publication of a new translation. It is not to be supposed that my interpretation of the text will prove final in all details, but I hope that it will be found to repre- sent the sense of Cennino’s treatise more accurately than previous translations have done. Such improvement as may be found in it is due partly to close familiarity with the text itself; partly to familiarity
22 See below, p. 112. 23 Ed. Herringham, Chapter 45.
24 Ibid., Chapter 51. 25 Ibid., Chapter 37. 26 Ibid., Chapter 37. 27 Ibid., Chapter 38.
PREFACE Xlil
with other medieval tracts of similar nature; but the real business of translation is a “laboratory” matter, involving a knowledge of each »zule in practice. This knowledge Lady Herringham possessed in some
degree. If my translation reveals a better understanding, the credit be- longs to others: first, and in greatest measure, to Edward Waldo Forbes, to whom these volumes are inscribed, who first expounded Cennino to me, and whose researches are embodied in every page; then to the masters under whom, through the liberality of Mr. Forbes, I carried on my study: Nicolas Lochoff, the peerless copyist of early Italian painting, and Federigo Ioni, master of archaic styles and meth- ods; and, finally, to the students who have carried out Cennino’s pre- cepts under my direction, and translated for me—with their paint- brushes.
The Libro dell’ Arte was “made and composed,” its author tells us,”* “for the use and good and profit of anyone who wants to enter the profession.” I have accordingly tried in my translation to give first place wherever possible to the convenience of the practicing student and painter. It must remain for another volume to analyze Cennino’s materials and methods in detail; but every effort has been made in this to translate them into the resources of modern commerce and the idiom of modern craftsmen. Thus, minio is translated as “red lead,” and verzino, as “brazil.”*® The braccio and the spanna having passed out of fashion, I give equivalents in feet or inches, rather than translate them.*° The “finger,” as a measurement, is too indefinite to be reduced to any fraction of an inch, but is not hard to understand; nor are those rule-oi-thumb proportions, “beans,” “lentils,” etc. Measures of time are dealt with similarly: thus, xv d?, o venti becomes “two or three weeks.” By an extension of the principle, azzurro della Magna appears as “azurite,” ratnersthan “German blue” or, as formerly in English, “asure of Almayne”; and verde azzurro, as “malachite”: these being the names not of modern pigments, for they are not found generally in trade, but of the minerals from witich, as I believe, they
28 See below, p. 1. 29 See n. 5, p. 39, below», 80 These equivalents are based on a braccio of twenty-three inches, and + Sanna of nine. 5.
31 See NED, s.v. “azure,” 2: sub anno 1502.
xiv THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK \ were made, and may be made today. In the same way, campeggiar is translated as “lay in”; raffermare, as “crisp up”; ritrovare, as “shape up,” etc., in the belief that those expressions represent the nearest equivalents to Cennino’s terms which can be found in colloquial use by modern English-speaking painters.”
There are many couplets in the text, such as triare o ver macinare, tavola o vero ancona, bicchiere o ver miuolo, the terms of which have generally been regarded as synonyms.** I do not think that they are quite that, though it is often difficult to define the members. Cen- nino is more likely to indicate a synonym by cioè than by o vero, and I have followed his practice strictly. Thus, triare is translated “work up,” and macinare, “grind.” They are almost interchangeable, but triare is a little more likely to be used than macinare when the case calls for grinding dry, “triturating.” Tavola is translated “panel,” and ancona, being a word in good standing in our fine-arts vocabulary, is kept in the Italian form. Those terms are not synonymous: the “ancona” is a compound panel.** “Goblet” and “glass” serve to dis- tinguish muglizolo and bicchiere, though perhaps the terms are really interchangeable.
In some cases, Cennino’s materials have no modern commercial equivalents. This is true of his bianco San Giovanni, which I translate as “lime white.”*° In other cases, such as his siropia, the meaning is too general to be reduced to any single commercial term. The word “sinoper” is not in common use by painters now, but I have pressed ik into service, because, like its cognate sinopia, though a generic term, it may be used in a specific sense. To translate sinopia, “Venetian red,” would be to fix arbitrarily upon one of many perfectly good earth reds, all of which Cennino would unhesitatingly have called sinopia; and that to no good purpose, for there are almosst as many shades of Vene-
82 That is, of course, barring downrighic slang; for the best translation of raffermare is “bake.” I have often been inclined. xo use slang of this sort, and should have done so, but that fashions in it change <0 quickly. Some idioms almost defy translation without it. Among these is one~inuch used to suggest progressive action: “Va’ raffermando,” “Va’ toccando,” etx. 1 have sometimes devised means to translate this, but usually a simple imperatuve has to serve. Much more like the original would be the studio slang: “Creep utp on it, crisping it up”; and, “Come up on it with your accents.”
33 ‘See Tambroni, ed. cit., Preface, p. xvi. 34 See n. 1, p. 3, below.
35 See n. 2, p. 23, below.
PREFACE XV
tian red in modern trade as there are colormen who sell that universal pigment. The mixed color, verdaccio, likewise, is not a definite quan- tity, but merely a dark, greenish or brownish tone for outlining and shading. The Italian expression seems to fill a want in our painters’ lingua technica, for it is readily adopted by students.
There are a few materials which cannot be identified as yet with per- fect certainty. Among these are giallorino and arzica, both yellows: the former a fairly bright, opaque one; the latter transparent and fugitive. Rather than risk a faulty identification, I have kept Cennino’s names for them. Another question of identity arises in connection with vernice liquida; but whatever its ultimate solution, the phrase must be translated here as “liquid varnish.”
In my efforts to preserve the professional character of this hand- book, I have been forced into some awkwardness at times. Cennino’s verdeterra has no other equivalent among English-speaking painters than the French name ¢erre-verte. This has become, in certain quar- ters, so far anglicized that I am tempted to create the spelling “tur- vurt,” to conform with the pronunciation common in trade. In the same way, the Italian gesso has been assimilated to our tongue as sub- stantive, verb, and adjective. It has bred up a horrid trio: “gessos,” “gessoed,” and “gessoing,” all of which will, I regret to say, be met with in these pages. If they give offense, be it remembered that the root word has still further potentiality for evil! I have consented to the extension of its grip upon us, and kept not only gesso, but two ad- jectives from the Italian as well: grosso and sottile. For this my justi- fication follows.
The obvious translations, “thick” and “thin,” are closed to us, for a reason which does not first appear. The modern practice of gessoing (absit injuria!), as performed commercially by frame-makers and the like (who have the decency to call it “whitening”), involves the use of “thin white” and “thick white,” which might be supposed to paral- lel Cennino’s gesso sottile and gesso grosso, but this is not the case. Modern “thin white” corresponds to Cennino’s second preliminary sizing, but contains a small amount of whiting; the “thick white” is the gesso proper, containing much whiting, and forms the final sur- facing material; whereas Cennino’s gesso grosso simply serves as a
xvi THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
foundation for the gesso sottile which comes after. These tempting modern similia, therefore, differ in application, and also in composi- tion. Furthermore, gesso sottile must refer not only to a thin mixture, but to a material which is by nature “thin” or “subtle.” In practice, this thinness becomes apparent; this subtlety, in comparison with the crude whiting of the modern gilder, or the heavy impasto of the gesso grosso. Painters and gilders who once work with it care not by what outlandish name it may be called; the only sufferers are those who read and do not paint; and this translation is for the painters.
In one section, that on casting, I have balked at consistency in the use of this word “gesso.” Gesso there means “plaster,” “plaster of Paris,” and I have so translated it. (Among modern sculptors, “gesso” in English has this meaning; but painters understand by it a white priming preparation containing size, or the white filling of such preparation.) “Plaster,” alas, has to do heavy duty in this little book: to serve as a noun for gesso here, for intonaco and smalto, and some- times for pasta;*° English, in terms for plasterwork, and I suppose no tongue is richer than Italian.
and for smaltare as a verb. For we are poor, in
I have endeavored, in the main, to avoid this sort of freedom, and to confine myself as far as possible, even at great cost to style, to a single English equivalent for every technical expression of the Italian. In some cases I have had to admit defeat. Colla, for example, just means “adhesive” in general; and no one English word will fit it always. There we are richer than Cennino, and I have been obliged to use “glue,” “size,”*’ and “cement,” to translate the one word colla. So also with penna, which means sometimes “quill,” and sometimes “pen”—“quill pen,” of course. In a few cases the Italian possesses both singular and plural of a word which with us exists in only one. Thus, “charcoal,” for carbone,** has to become “coals,” for carboni.
Some of the matters of which Cennino writes are unfamiliar to the
36 Pasta is also used for “batter.”
37 “Size,” in English, is doubly ambiguous: apart from the idea of dimension, it is the word for a solution of glue or gelatine, and is also the only proper translation of the Italian assiso, in the sense of “gold size.”
38 Carbone is also used by Cennino in the general sense of “crayon,” black or white. (See I, 101, |. 9, and n. 2, p. 106, below.)
PREFACE xvii
general reader, and no ingenuity in translation will make his words clear without comment. The tool called a “slice,” the composition known as “vermeil,” colors in the form of “clothlets,” are likely to need explanation to some readers, at least, though all these words are proper English, and the best translations to be found. In such cases the New English Dictionary is specifically cited; and it may be con- sulted generally as authority for definitions here.
In Cennino’s occasional attempts at rhetoric, as in the first chapter, he is apt to lose himself in complications. He does not always finish his sentences, and has a disconcerting habit of changing persons and tenses and moods in the middle of an instruction. It has seemed to me pointless to preserve lapses of this sort in my translation, when his intention can be understood. In some parts, it must be confessed, a good deal of sympathy is called for; elsewhere, his little slips are easy to understand and overlook. I have tried to keep something of the flavor of his writing, but have felt as free to recast an awkward sentence as to spell correctly the words with which I translate the mis- spelled words of my original.
If I speak slightingly of Cennino’s rhetoric, let it not be supposed that I take no joy in his expression. In the very heart of the tangle of his first chapter®° lies a sentence, defining the “occupation known as painting,” which seems to me as precious as anything in the book. By this definition, painting “calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not actually exist.” And therein lies the secret of much good work.
There are some obvious lacunae in the text, not to be supplied from manuscripts of the Libro dell’ Arte now in existence. Some of these can be filled out fairly satisfactorily; and I have generally attempted to repair them in this translation, either by inserting, in pointed brackets (< >), such words as I think necessary to complete the sense, or by indicating in footnotes the possible character of the omis- sions.*° Pointed brackets are used also for a few words introduced into
39 See below, p. 1. 40 In addition to these minor defects, I suspect that at least one fairly considerable
xviii THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
the translation to make the meaning clearer. The only editorial addi- tions not so bracketed are the chapter headings which I have sup- plied from the point where the titles in the manuscripts cease.**
When Tambroni first published the Libro dell’ Arte, he devised titles and numbers for the chapters which followed Cap. CXL, in his manuscript.’* Seventeen new titles were supplied by the Milanesi to account for chapters in R which they brought to light. These follow the chapter numbered CLX by Tambroni. Tambroni and the Mi- lanesi made up these titles, in most cases, out of extracts from the text itself. They are consequently rather apt to be long, and sufficiently archaic in flavor to convey a false sense of authenticity.** There seems to be some convenience to the reader in having the text divided into chapters and in having these chapters provided with headings of some sort. I have, therefore, made such divisions, and furnished them with titles. These titles are not bracketed, but are printed in italics, to remind the reader that they are modern inventions. In the number and wording of these headings, I have departed freely from the Tam- broni-Milanesi formula.
No chapter numbers are attached to these spurious headings in this edition. As I have pointed out,** neither of the existing systems of numbering is “to be considered as an accepted standard; and the two together constitute a mechanism of more than doubtful utility.” Since, however, references to this work are often made by chapter number, I give in footnotes the numerals attached by Tambroni and the Milanesi to their divisions of the text. Thus, “T., CLXXI; M., CLXXXIX” stands for “the chapter numbered CLXXXIX in the Milanesi edition, the translations of Ilg, Lady Herringham, and Verkade, and the revised edition of Mottez’ translation; and the same chapter, numbered CLXXI in the Tambroni edition, in Mrs. Merri- field’s translation, and Mottez’ as originally published.” More than
portion of Cennino’s text is lost: the beginning of the section on mosaic-painting. See n. I, p. 114, below.
41 The last chapter heading in the MSS is that of CXL. Thereafter neither MS has any original headings or numbers. See I, 84, n. 1; and n. 5, p. 86, below.
42 See n. 6, above.
48 For an example of their misleading effect, see n. 1, p. 114, below.
441, Preface, p. Xvi.
PREFACE xix
this I cannot do: the reader must determine for himself to which series of numbers his reference belongs! In adding these chapter headings, I have gone a step farther, and
continued the division of the work into “sections,”*°
as begun by Cennino. Five of these sections are indicated in the text, and deal with the following subjects: I. Drawing.
II. Colors.
III. Fresco-painting.
IV. Oil-painting and embellishments for the wall.
V. Glues, sizes, and cements.
The conclusion of the fifth section is erroneously marked in the manuscripts as the conclusion of the fourth.*° I have distinguished the following divisions of the remainder, not specifically indicated in the manuscripts:
VI. Panel-painting and gilding. VII. Mordant embellishments. VIII. A short section on varnishing. IX. A short section on illuminating. X. A section dealing with work on cloth. XI. A short section on operations with glass. XII. Part of a section dealing with mosaic.
XIII. A section dealing with miscellaneous incidental operations.
XIV. The final section, devoted to casting.
These divisions are not very significant, but may serve to emphasize the orderly character of Cennino’s composition.
I hope eventually to bring out a digest of the medieval writings prior to Cennino’s which deal with subjects treated in the Libro dell’ Arte. On that account I have been sparing, in my notes, of refer- ences to those sources; preferring to assemble them methodically later. I have not hesitated, however, to anticipate a little, when a quotation would serve to clear up some difficulty in the text, or confirm the accuracy of a rendering pointedly different from my predecessors’. I have likewise postponed for future treatment most of the comments
45 Parti. See I, 1, l. 12, etc. 46 See I, 66, 1. 19.
XX THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
which I have to make upon the theory and practice of the techniques here described. The purpose of the present volume is to translate the text: its fuller interpretation will be undertaken separately.
To this translation my teachers, students, friends, and colleagues have all contributed. Edwin Cassius Taylor, Chairman of the Depart- ment of Painting at Yale, has fostered the modern application of Cennino’s methods, to my great benefit. To my colleague, Lewis E. York, I owe not only the two drawings which illustrate Cennino’s casting methods, but also a great deal of helpful practical criticism. More thanks are due, I fear, than the quality of this work entitles me to render, but I cannot leave unrecorded the generous interest ex- tended over many years by Francis Peabody Magoun, Jr., hortatu praeceptisque.
D.NTizia
Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, March 1, 1933.
CHAPTER
III III
VI VII VIII VIII
XI XII
XIII XIII xv XVI
XVII
XVIII XVIII XX
XXI XXII XXIII
XXIII
XXV
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXVIII
CONTENTS
Preface I
The first chapter of the first section of this book
How some enter the profession through loftiness of spirit, and some, for profit
Fundamental provisions for anyone who enters this profession
How the schedule shows you into how many sections and branches the occupations are divided
How you begin drawing on a little panel; and the system for it
How to draw on several kinds of panels \
What kind of bone is good for treating the panels
How you should start drawing with a style, and by what light
How you should give the system of lighting, light or shade, to your figures, endowing them with a system of relief
The method and system for drawing on sheep parchment and on paper, and shading with washes
How you may draw with a leaden style
How, if you have made a slip in drawing with the leaden style, you may erase it, and by what means
How you should practice drawing with a pen
How to learn to cut the quill for drawing
How you should advance to drawing on tinted paper
How the green tint is made on paper for drawing; and the way to temper it
How you should tint kid parchment, and by which method you burnish it
How you should tint paper turnsole color
How you should tint paper with an indigo tint
How you should tint papers with reddish color, or almost peach color
How you should tint papers with flesh color
How you should tint papers greenish gray, or drab
How you may obtain the essence of a good figure or drawing with tracing paper
The first way to learn how to make a clear tracing paper
A second way to make tracing paper: with glue
How to make tracing paper out of paper
How you should endeavor to copy and draw after as few masters as possible
How, beyond masters, you should constantly copy from nature with steady practice
How you should regulate your life in the interests of decorum and the condition of your hand; and in what company; and what method you should first adopt for copying a figure from high up
PAGE
uM ba BW Ww
a
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CHAPTER XXX
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XXXIII XXXIII
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LII LIII LIMI LV LVI LVII
LVIII LVIIII LX LXI LXII LXIII LXIIII LXV LXVI
THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
How you should first start drawing on paper with charcoal, and take the measurement of the figure, and fix it with a silver style
How you should draw and shade with washes on tinted paper, and then put lights on with white lead
How you may put on lights with washes of white lead just as you shade with washes of ink
How to make good and perfect and slender coals for drawing
About a stone which has the character of charcoal for drawing. This ends the first section of this book
II
The second section of this book: bringing you to the working up of the colors
This shows you the natural colors, and how you should grind black
How to make various sorts of black
On the character of the red color called sinoper
How to make the red called cinabrese, for doing flesh on the wall; and about its character
On the character of the red called vermilion; and how it should be worked up
On the character of a red called red lead
On the character of a red called hematite
On the character of a red called dragonsblood
On the character of a red called lac
On the character of a yellow color called ocher
On the character of a yellow color called giallorino
On the character of a yellow called orpiment
On the character of a yellow which is called realgar
On the character of a yellow called saffron
On the character of a yellow called arzica
On the character of a green called terre-verte
On the character of a green called malachite
How you make a green with orpiment and indigo
How you make a green with blue and giallorino
How you make a green with ultramarine blue
On the character of a green called verdigris
How you make a green with white lead and terre-verte; or lime white
On the character of lime white
On the character of white lead
On the character of azurite
To make an imitation of azurite with other colors
On the character of ultramarine blue, and how to make it
The importance of knowing how to make brushes
How to make minever brushes
How you should make bristle brushes, and in what manner
How to keep minever tails from getting moth-eaten. This ends the
» second section of this book; begins the third
PAGE
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20
20 20 22 23
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CHAPTER
LXVII
LXVIII LXVIIII LXX LXXI LXXII LXXIII LXXIIII LXXV LXXVI LXXVII LXXVIII LXXVIIII LxXxx LXXXI LXXXII
LXXXIII LXXXIIII LXXXV LXXXVI
LXXXVII LXXXVIII
LXXXVIIII
LXXXX
SA eee LXXXXIII
KXXXIIII LXXXXV LXXXXVI
LXXXXVII LXXXXVIII LXXXXVIIII
CONTENTS
II
The method and system for working on a wall, that is, in fresco; and on painting and doing flesh for a youthful face
The method for painting an aged face in fresco
The method for painting various kinds of beards and hair in fresco
The proportions which a perfectly formed man’s body should possess
The way to paint a drapery in fresco
The way to paint on a wall in secco; and the temperas for it
How to make a violet color
To execute a violet color in fresco
To try to imitate an ultramarine blue for use in fresco
To paint a purple or turnsole drapery in fresco
To paint a shot green drapery in fresco
To paint in fresco a drapery shot with ash gray
To paint one in secco shot with lac
To paint one in fresco or in secco shot with ocher
To paint a greenish-gray costume in fresco or in secco
To paint a costume, in fresco and in secco, of a greenish-gray color like the color of wood
To make a drapery, or a mantle for Our Lady, with azurite or ultra- marine blue
To make a black drapery for a monk’s or friar’s robe, in fresco and in secco
On the way to paint a mountain, in fresco or in secco
The way to paint trees and plants and foliage, in fresco and in secco
How buildings are to be painted, in fresco and in secco
The way to copy a mountain from nature. This ends the third sec- tion of this book
IV
How to paint in oil on a wall, on panel, on iron, and where you please
How you should start for working in oil on a wall
How you are to make oil, good for a tempera, and also for mordants, by boiling with fire
How good and perfect oil is made by cooking in the sun
How you should work up the colors with oil, and employ them on the wall
How you should work in oil on iron, on panel, on stone
The way to embellish with gold or with tin on a wall
How you should always make a practice of working with fine gold and with good colors
How you should cut the golden tin, and embellish
How to make green tin for embellishing
How to make the golden tin, and how to lay fine gold with this vermeil
How to fashion or cut out the stars, and put them on the wall
XXiil
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CHAPTER cl
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CXVIIII CxXx
CXXI CXXII CXXIII CXXIIII CXXV CXXVI CXXVII CXXVIII CXXVIIII
CXXX CXXXI
THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
How you can make the diadems of the saints on the wall with this tin gilded with fine gold
How you should model up a diadem in lime mortar on a wall
How from the wall you enter upon panel-painting. This ends the fourth section of this book
Vv
The system by which you should prepare to acquire the skill to work on panel
How you make batter or flour paste
How you should make cement for mending stones
How to make cement for mending dishes of glass
How fish glue is used, and how it is tempered
How goat glue is made, and how it is tempered; and how many pur- poses it will serve
A perfect size for tempering gessos for anconas or panels
A size which is good for tempering blues and other colors
To make a glue out of lime and cheese. This ends the fifth section of this book
VI
How you should start to work on panel or anconas
How you should put cloth on a panel
How the flat of a panel should be gessoed with the slice with gesso grosso
How to make the gesso sottile for gessoing panels
How to gesso an ancona with gesso sottile; and how to temper it
How you may gesso with gesso sottile without having gessoed with gesso grosso first
How you should temper and grind gesso sottile for modeling
How you should start to scrape down an ancona flat gessoed with gesso sottile
How the gesso sottile on the flats should be scraped down, and what these scrapings are good for
How to draw on panel with charcoal, to begin with, and to fix it with ink
How you should mark out the outlines of the figures for gilding the grounds
How to model on a panel with gesso sottile, and how to mount pre- cious stones
How you should cast a relief for embellishing areas of anconas
How to plaster reliefs on a wall
How to model with mortar on a wall the way you model with gesso on panel
How to take reliefs from a stone mold, and how they are good on wall and on panel
How you may model on a wall with varnish
How you may model on a wall with wax
How to lay bole on panel, and how to temper it
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74 74 75 76 76
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CHAPTER CXXXII CXXXIII CXXXIIII CXXXV CXXXVI CXXXVII
CXXXVIII
CXXXVIIII
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CONTENTS
Another way to temper bole on panel, for gilding
How you may gild on panel with terre-verte
How to gild on panel
What stones are good for burnishing this gilding
How to prepare the stone for burnishing gold
How you should burnish the gold, or mend matters in case it could not get burnished
Now I will show you how to burnish, and in what direction, espe- cially a flat
What gold is good for burnish and mordant gilding, and what thickness
How you should begin swinging the diadems and do stamping on the gold, and mark out the outlines of the figures
PAGE
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80 82 82 83 84 84
85
Nore: The following chapter numbers and headings are not original to the Liéro dell’- Arte. The headings have been invented merely to serve as a running guide to the con- tent of the text; the numbers are those attached to the chapters in the editions of Tam- broni and the Milanesi, and are included here for convenience in locating references to those editions or to translations based upon them. (See Preface, p. xviii, above.)
Tambroni Milanesi
CXLI CXLII CXLIII CXLIV CXLV CXLVI CXLVII CXLVIII CXLIX CL
CLI
CLII CLIMI
CLIV CLV CLV
CLVI
CLVII
CLVIII
CXLI CXLII CXLIII CXLIV CXLV CXLVI CXLVII CXLVIII CXLIX CL
CLI
CLII CLI
CLIV CLV CLV
CLVI
CLVII
CLVIII
How to design gold brocades in various colors How to execute gold or silver brocades Several rules for cloths of gold and silver How to do velvet, wool, and silk
“How to paint on panel
How to make draperies in blue and purple “How to paint faces
How to paint a dead man
How to paint wounds
How to paint water
VII
A short section on mordant gilding. How to make a stand- ard mordant, and how to gild with it
How to control the drying of the mordant
How to make a mordant out of garlic
VII
Introduction to a short section on varnishing
When to varnish
How to apply the varnish
How to make a painting look as if it were varnished
IX
A short section on illuminating: first, how to gild on parch- ment Another kind of size: for grounds only
PAGE 86 87 88 89 9I 93 93 94 95 95
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98 98 99 99
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Tambroni Milanesi
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CLXI
CLXII
CLXIII CLXIV CLXV CLXVI CLXVII CLXVIII CLXIX CLXX
CLXXI CLXXII CLXXII CLXXII CLXXII CLXXII
CLXXII
CLXXII CLXXII CLXXII CLXXII
CLXXIII
CLXXIV CLXXV CLXXV CLXXV
CLXXVI
CLXXVI
CLXXVII CLXXVIII
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CLXXX
THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
How to make and use mosaic gold How to grind gold and silver for use as colors Colors for use on parchment
Xx
A section dealing with work on cloth: first, painting and gilding
Various ways to do hangings
How to draw for embroiderers
How to work on silk, on both sides
How to paint and gild on velvet
How to lay gold and silver on woolen cloth
How to make devices out of gilded paper
How to model crests or helmets
How to do caskets or chests
XI
A short section on operations with glass: first, for windows How to gild glass for reliquary ornaments
Arrangements for drawing on this glass
How to draw on the gilded glass
How to scrape the gold off the backgrounds
How to back up the drawing with colors
XII
Part of a section dealing with mosaic: first, a fragment from the end of a chapter otherwise lost
Mosaic of quill cuttings
Mosaic of crushed eggshells, painted
Mosaic of paper or foil
Mosaic of eggshells, gilded
XIII
A section dealing with miscellaneous incidental operations: first, block printing on cloth
How to gild a stone figure
The dangers of a wet wall for fresco
Preliminary precautions against moisture
Waterproofing with boiled oil
Waterproofing with pitch
Waterproofing with liquid varnish
How to distemper inside walls with green
How to varnish terre-verte
How to clean off the paint after you have made up a face
The perils of indulgence in cosmetics
PAGE 101 102 102
103 104 105 106 107 107 108 108 109
III 112 112 113 113 113
114 114 115 115 115
115 118 119 120 120 I2I I2I I2I 122 122 123
1 This chapter in Tambroni’s edition comprises also Cap. CLXXVIII of the Milanesi’s
edition.
Tambroni Milanesi
CLXIII
CLXIV CLXV CLXVI CLXVI CLXVII CLXVIII CLXIX CLXX CLXXI
CLXXXI
CLXXXII CLXXXIII CLXXXIV CLXXXIV CLXXXV CLXXXVI CLXXXVII CLXXXVIII CLXXXIX
Index
CONTENTS xxvii
PAGE XIV
The final section, devoted to methods of casting, begins here 123 How to take a life mask 124 The breathing tubes 125 The operations of casting the matrix 126 How to cast this waste mold 126 How to cast whole figures 127 How to make a cast of your own person 129 Castings in gesso for use on panel 129 How to cast medals 130 How to make a mold from a seal or coin 130
133
PeelbRO DELL ARTE
HERE BEGINS THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK, made and composed by Cennino of Colle, in the reverence of God, and of The Virgin Mary, and of Saint Eustace, and of Saint Francis, and of Saint John Baptist, and of Saint Anthony of Padua, and, in general, of all the Saints of God; and in the reverence of Giotto, of Taddeo and of Agnolo, Cennino’s master; and for the use and good and profit of anyone who wants to enter this profession.
THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE FIRST SECTION OF THIS BOOK.
In the beginning, when Almighty God created heaven and earth, above all animals and foods he created man and woman in his own image, endowing them with every virtue. Then, because of the mis- fortune which fell upon Adam, through envy, from Lucifer, who by his malice and cunning beguiled him—or rather, Eve, and then Eve, Adam—into sin against the Lord’s command: because of this, there- fore, God became angry with Adam, and had him driven, him and his companion, forth out of Paradise, saying to them: ‘Inasmuch as you have disobeyed the command which God gave you, by your struggles and exertions you shall carry on your lives.’ And so Adam, recognizing the error which he had committed, after being so royally endowed by God as the source, beginning, and father of us all, realized theoretically that some means of living by labor had to be found. And so he started with the spade, and Eve, with spinning. Man afterward pursued many useful occupations, differing from each other; and some were, and are, more theoretical than others; they could not all be alike, since theory is the most worthy. Close to that, man pursued some related to the one which calls for a basis of that, coupled with skill of hand: and this is an occupation known as painting, which calls for imagination, and skill of hand, in order to discover things not seen, hiding themselves under the shadow of natural objects, and to fix them’ with the hand, presenting to plain sight what does not actually exist. And it justly deserves to be enthroned next to theory, and to be
1 Fermarle. Perhaps read formarle “give them shape.”
2 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
crowned with poetry. The justice lies in this: that the poet, with his theory, though. he have but one, it makes him worthy, is free to com- pose and bind together, or not, as he pleases, according to his inclina- tion. In the same way, the painter is given freedom to compose a figure, standing, seated, half-man, half-horse, as he pleases, according to his imagination. So then, either as a labor of love for all those who feel within them a desire to understand; or as a means of embellishing these fundamental theories with some jewel, that they may be set forth royally, without reserve; offering to these theories whatever little understanding God has granted me, as an unimportant practic- ing member of the profession of painting: I, Cennino, the son of Andrea Cennini of Colle di Val d’Elsa,—(I was trained in this pro- fession for twelve years by my master, Agnolo di Taddeo of Florence; he learned this profession from Taddeo, his father; and his father was christened under Giotto, and was his follower for four-and-twenty years; and that Giotto changed the profession of painting from Greek back into Latin, and brought it up to date; and he had more finished craftsmanship than anyone has had since),—to minister to all those who wish to enter the profession, I will make note of what was taught me by the aforesaid Agnolo, my master, and of what I have tried out with my own hand; first invoking <the aid of> High Al- mighty God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; then <of> that most delightful advocate of all sinners, Virgin Mary; and of Saint Luke, the Evangelist, the first Christian painter; and of my advocate, Saint Eustace; and, in general, of all the Saints of Paradise, A M E N.
HOW SOME ENTER THE PROFESSION THROUGH LOFTI- NESS OF SPIRIT, AND SOME, FOR PROFIT. CHAPTER II
It is not without the impulse of a lofty spirit that some are moved to enter this profession, attractive to them through natural enthusiasm. Their intellect will take delight in drawing, provided their nature attracts them to it of themselves, without any master’s guidance, out of loftiness of spirit. And then, through this delight, they come to want to find a master; and they bind themselves to him with respect for authority, undergoing an apprenticeship in order to achieve per-
THE PLAN OF STUDY 3
fection in all this. There are those who pursue it, because of poverty and domestic need, for profit and enthusiasm for the profession too; but above all these are to be extolled the ones who enter the profession through a sense of enthusiasm and exaltation.
FUNDAMENTAL PROVISIONS FOR ANYONE WHO ENTERS THIS PROFESSION. CHAPTER III You, therefore, who with lofty spirit are fired with this ambition, and are about to enter the profession, begin by decking yourselves with this attire: Enthusiasm, Reverence, Obedience, and Constancy. And begin to submit yourself to the direction of a master for instruc- tion as early as you can; and do not leave the master until you have to.
HOW THE SCHEDULE SHOWS YOU INTO HOW MANY SECTIONS AND BRANCHES THE OCCUPATIONS ARE DIVIDED. CHAPTER IIII The basis of the profession, the very beginning of all these manual operations, is drawing and painting. These two sections call for a knowledge of the following: how to work up or grind, how to apply size, to put on cloth, to gesso, to scrape the gessos and smooth them down, to model with gesso, to lay bole, to gild, to burnish; to temper, to lay in; to pounce, to scrape through, to stamp or punch; to mark out, to paint, to embellish, and to varnish, on panel or ancona.* To work on a wall you have to wet down, to plaster, to true up, to smooth off, to draw, to paint in fresco. To carry to completion in secco: to temper, to embellish, to finish on the wall. And let this be the schedule of the aforesaid stages which I, with what little knowledge I have acquired, will expound, section by section.
1 By ancona is to be understood a compound panel, one with its moldings integrally attached. It may be large or small; complex, as a polyptych, or merely a “self-framed” panel. The ¢avola, the simple “panel,” has no moldings.
4 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW YOU BEGIN DRAWING ON A LITTLE PANEL; AND THE SYSTEM FOR IT. CHAPTER V
As has been said, you begin with drawing. You ought to have the most elementary system, so as to be able to start drawing. First take a little boxwood panel, nine inches wide in each direction; all smooth and clean, that is, washed with clear water; rubbed and smoothed down with cuttle such as the goldsmiths use for casting. And when this little panel is thoroughly dry, take enough bone, ground dili- gently for two hours, to serve the purpose; and the finer it is, the better. Scrape it up afterward, take it and keep it wrapped up in a paper, dry. And when you need some for priming this little panel, take less than half a bean of this bone, or even less. And stir this bone up with saliva. Spread it all over the little panel with your fingers; and, before it gets dry, hold the little panel in your left hand, and tap over the panel with the finger tip of your right hand until you see that it is quite dry. And it will get coated with bone as evenly in one place as in another.
HOW TO DRAW ON SEVERAL KINDS OF PANELS. CHAPTER VI
For that purpose, a little panel of old fig wood is good; and also certain tablets which tradesmen use, which consist of sheep parchment gessoed and coated with white lead in oil," following the treatment with bone according to the system which I have described.
1The Liber illuministarum pro fundamentis auri et coloribus ac consimilibus, Munich, Staatsbibliothek, MS. germ. 821, compiled about 1500 at Tegernsee (Oby.), contains (fol. 33) a rule for these, quoted by Ludwig Rockinger in “Zum baierischen Schriftwesen im Mittelalter,” Abhandlungen der historischen Classe der kdniglichen bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, XII (1872), 1t¢ Abteilung, p. 18. A transla- tion of this rule follows:
“White parchment tablets are made in this way. Take calf parchment, and put it on the stretcher, and stretch it well; and dry it thoroughly in the sun. And do this thrice. And then take thoroughly powdered white-lead, and mix it with linseed oil until it comes out thin, while still preserving the white color of the white-lead. And paint that calfskin with that liquid color. And then dry it in the sun. And do this nine times; and by all means of the same thickness[?] And one coat is not to be applied unless the previous one be thoroughly dry. This done, you will shape up as many leaves of this calfskin as you wish, and make tablets. And you can write on them with
SILVER-POINT DRAWING 5
WHAT KIND OF BONE IS GOOD FOR TREATING THE PANELS. CHAPTER VII You must know what bone is good. Take bone from the second joints and wings of fowls, or of a capon; and the older they are the better. Just as you find them under the dining-table, put them into the fire; and when you see that they have turned whiter than ashes, draw them out, and grind them well on the porphyry; and use it as I say above.
HOW YOU SHOULD START DRAWING WITH A STYLE, AND BY WHAT LIGHT. CHAPTER VIII
The thigh bone of a gelded lamb is good, too, and the shoulder, calcined in the way described. And then take a style of silver, or brass, or anything else, provided the ends be of silver," fairly slender, smooth, and handsome. Then, using a model, start to copy the easiest possible subjects, to get your hand in; and run the style over the little panel so lightly that you can hardly make out what you first start to do; strengthening your strokes little by little, going back many times to produce the shadows. And the darker you want to make the shadows in the accents, the more times you go back to them; and so, conversely, go back over the reliefs only a few times. And let the helm and steersman of this power to see be the light of the sun, the light of your eye, and your own hand: for without these three things nothing can be done systematically. But arrange to have the light diffused when you are drawing; and have the sun fall on your left side. And with that system set yourself to practice drawing, drawing only a little each day, so that you may not come to lose your taste for it, or get tired of it.
a lead, tin, copper, or silver style, or even with ink, and erase the letters with saliva [not salvia, “sage,” as in ed. Rockinger] and write again. And when all the whiteness has disappeared, whiten them again with white-lead and saliva like the ordinary tablets, or with scrapings of shells, bones, or powder of calcined bones, and saliva.”
1 A convenient device is to obtain from a jeweler an inch or two of silver wire of the same caliper as a pencil lead. This can then be used in place of the lead in a propelling pencil, and needs only a little shaping of the point to make an admirable “silver style” at trifling expense.
6 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW YOU SHOULD GIVE THE SYSTEM OF LIGHTING, LIGHT OR SHADE, TO YOUR FIGURES, ENDOWING THEM WITH A SYSTEM OF RELIEF.
CHAPTER VIIII
If, by chance, when you are drawing or copying in chapels, or painting in other adverse situations, you happen not to be able to get the light off your hand, or the way you want it, proceed to give the relief to your figures, or rather, drawing, according to the arrange- ment of the windows which you find in these places, for they have to give you the lighting. And so, following the lighting, whichever side it comes from, apply your relief and shadow, according to this sys- tem. And if it happens that the light comes or shines through the center straight ahead, or in full glory, apply your relief in the same way, light and dark, by this system. And if the light shines from one window larger than the others in these places, always follow the domi- nant lighting; and make it your careful duty to analyze it, and fol- low it through, because, if it failed in this respect, your work would be lacking in relief, and would come out a shallow thing, of little mastery.
THE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR DRAWING ON SHEEP PARCHMENT AND ON PAPER,* AND SHADING WITH WASHES.
CHAPTER X
To get back to our main track: you may also draw on sheep parch- ment and on paper. On the parchment you may draw or sketch with this style of yours if you first put some of that bone, dry and powdered,
1 In carta pecorina e ’n banbagina. Cennino distinguishes two types of carta: one, parchment, chiefly from sheep- or goat-skins; the other, carta banbagina, paper. The adjective, banbagina, I do not translate as “cotton,” for two reasons.
In the first place, whatever the nature of this carta banbagina may have been, Cen- nino uses the term for no other purpose than to distinguish it from carta meaning “parchment.” I see no indication that Cennino gave any thought to the composition of the material itself, and the distinction between the natural product, parchment, and the artificial one, paper, requires no such expedient in English. To translate banbagina in this phrase would be to impose a specific meaning where, I believe, none was intended.
In the second place, it is not at all certain that banbagina, in this phrase, means “cotton.” Joseph Karabacek, in ““Neue Quellen zur Papiergeschichte,” Mitteilungen aus der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer, IV (Vienna, 1888), Section VI, “Die
LEAD-POINT DRAWING 7
like dust or pouncing rosin, all over the parchment, sprinkling it on, spreading it about, and dusting it off with a hare’s foot. If, after you have drawn with the style, you want to clear up the drawing further, fix it with ink at the points of accent and stress. And then shade the folds with washes of ink; that is, as much water as a nutshell would hold, with two drops of ink in it; and shade with a brush made of minever tails, rather blunt, and almost always dry. And so, according to the darks, you make the wash blacker in this way with more little drops of ink. And you may likewise work and shade with colors and with clothlets? such as the illuminators use; the colors tempered with gum, or with clear white of egg well beaten and liquefied.
HOW YOU MAY DRAW WITH A LEADEN STYLE. CHAPTER XI
You may also draw, without any bone, on this parchment’ with a style of lead; that is, a style made of two parts lead and one part tin, well beaten with a hammer.
HOW, IF YOU HAVE MADE A SLIP IN DRAWING WITH THE LEADEN STYLE, YOU MAY ERASE IT, AND BY WHAT MEANS. CHAPTER XII
On paper you may draw with the aforesaid lead without bone, and likewise with bone. And if you ever make a slip, so that you want to
Entstehung der Fabel vom Baumwollenpapier,” pp. 117-122, maintains that “es hat niemals ein aus roher Baumwolle erzeugtes Papier gegeben,” and that this misconcep- tion arose through the confusion of Latin, bombycina (“cotton”) <Greek BouBUK:voc <BouBvE (“silkworm”), with bambycina, “Bambycene” <Greek Bay BUKy, a city of northern Syria.
Whatever the etymology of Cennino’s banbagina may be, I feel confident that he used it in a traditional, general, uncritical sense, simply to distinguish one application of the generic term carta from another; and that the single English word “paper” translates adequately the whole phrase, carta banbagina. Whenever carta is used un- qualified, the meaning is ambiguous. In such cases I have elected the translation “paper,” except when “parchment” seems in some way indicated by the context, as on p. —, below.
2 NED.
1 Nella detta charta: translated “parchment” because the carta of the preceding rule is specifically pecorina, and because the use of the leaden style on paper, carta banba- gina, is treated separately in the next chapter.
8 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
remove some stroke made by this little lead, take a bit of the crumb of some bread, and rub it over the paper, and you will remove whatever you wish. And you may shade on this paper in the same way with ink, with colors, and with clothlets, using the temperas aforesaid.
HOW YOU SHOULD PRACTICE DRAWING WITH A PEN. CHAPTER XIII
When you have put in a year, more or less, at this exercise, accord- ing to what liking or enjoyment you have taken, you may sometimes just draw on paper with a pen. Have it cut fine; and then draw nicely, and work up your lights, half lights, and darks gradually, going back to them many times with the pen. And if you want your drawings to come out a little more seductive, put some little washes on them, as I told you before, with a blunt minever brush. Do you realize what will happen to you if you practice drawing with a pen?—That it will make you expert, skilful, and capable of much drawing out of your own head.
HOW TO LEARN TO CUT THE QUILL FOR DRAWING. CHAPTER XIIII
If you need to learn how this goose quill should be cut, get a good, firm quill, and take it, upside down, straight across the two fingers of your left hand; and get a very nice sharp penknife, and make a horizontal cut one finger along the quill; and cut it by drawing the knife toward you, taking care that the cut runs even and through the middle of the quill. And then put the knife back on one of the edges of this quill, say on the left side, which faces you, and pare it, and taper it off toward the point. And cut the other side to the same curve, and bring it down to the same point. Then turn the pen around the other side up, and lay it over your left thumb nail; and carefully, bit by bit, pare and cut that little tip;* and make the shape broad or fine, whichever you want, either for drawing or for writing.
1 Apparently the slit in the nib was made with the knife at this stage. This is a delicate operation, and a different method may be followed by members of our post- Gillot civilization with better chances of success.
After the first horizontal cut, which removes the last half inch or so of the lower half of the quill, a small slit is started with the knife at the middle of the end of the
DRAWING ON TINTED PAPER 9
HOW YOU SHOULD ADVANCE TO DRAWING ON TINTED PAPER. CHAPTER XV
To approach the glory <of the profession>* step by step, to start trying to discover the entrance and gateway to painting, you should take up a system of drawing different from the one which we have been discussing up to now. And this is known as drawing on tinted paper; either paper, that is, or parchment. Let them be tinted; for one is tinted in the same way as the other, and with the same tempera. And you may make your tints inclined toward pink, or violet, or green; or bluish, or greenish gray, that is, drab colors; or flesh colored, or any way you please; for they all take the same temperas, the same time for grinding the colors; and you may draw on them all by the same method. It is true that most people generally use the green tint, and it is most usual, both for shading down and for putting lights on. Although I am going to describe later on the grinding of all the colors, and their characters, and their temperas, I will give you briefly a short method now, to get you started on your drawing and your tinting
of the papers.
HOW THE GREEN TINT IS MADE ON PAPER FOR DRAWING; AND THE WAY TO TEMPER IT. CHAPTER XVI
When you want to tint a kid parchment, or a sheet of paper, take as much as half a nut of terre-verte; a little ocher, half as much as that; and solid white lead to the amount of half the ocher; and as much as a bean of bone dust, using the bone which I described to you above for drawing; and as much as half a bean of vermilion. And grind all these things up well on the porphyry slab with well or spring or river water; and grind them as much as ever you can stand grinding them,
upper half. Holding the tip of the right thumb firmly against the top of the quill half or three quarters of an inch from the end, a small stick is inserted a short way into the quill with the left hand, and given a sharp twitch upward. This action normally causes the slit started with the knife to break back neatly to the point where the pres- sure of the thumb arrests it. The rest of the operation follows as Cennino describes.
Detailed practical instructions for pen cutting may be found in Edward Johnston, Writing, Illuminating, & Lettering, 11th ed. (London: Putnam, 1920), pp. 51-60.
1 See Chapter XXXV, p. 20, below.
10 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
for they can never be done too much; because the more you grind them, the more perfect tint it becomes. Then temper the aforesaid substances with size of the following quality and strength: get a leaf of druggists’ glue, not fish glue, and put it into a pipkin to soak, for the space of six hours, in as much clear, clean water as two common goblets will hold. Then put this pipkin on the fire to temper it; and skim it when it boils. When it has boiled a little, so that you see that the glue is all dissolved, strain it twice. Then take a large paint pot, big enough for these ground colors, and put in enough of this size to make it flow freely from the brush. And choose a good-sized soft bristle brush. Then take that paper of yours which you wish to tint; lay some of this tint evenly over the ground of your paper, running your hand lightly, with the brush about half dry, first in one direction and then in the other. And put on three or four coats of it in this way, or five, until you see that the paper is tinted evenly. And wait long enough between one coat and the next for each coat to dry. And if you see that it gets shriveled from your tinting, or horny from the tinting mixture, it is a sign that the tempera is too strong; and so, while you are laying the first coat, remedy this. How?—Put in some clear warm water. When it is dry and done, take a penknife, and rub lightly over the tinted sheet with the blade, so as to remove any little roughness that there may be on it.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT KID PARCHMENT, AND BY WHICH METHOD YOU SHOULD BURNISH IT. CHAPTER XVII
When you want to tint kid parchment, you should first soak it in spring or well water until it gets all wet and soft. Then, stretching it over a board, like a drumskin, fasten it down with big-headed nails, and apply the tints to it in due course, as described above. If it should come about that the paper or parchment is not smooth enough to suit you, take this paper, and lay it on a walnut board, or on a flat, smooth slab; then put a sheet of good clean paper over the one which you have tinted; and, with the stone for burnishing and working gold, burnish with considerable strength of hand; and so, in this way,
TINTING THE PAPERS II
it will get soft and smooth. It is true that some people like very much to burnish directly on the tinted paper, that is, to have the burnishing stone touch it and penetrate it, so that it acquires a little polish. You may do as you please, but that first method of mine is better. The reason is this: that rubbing the burnishing stone over the tint offsets, by reason of its polish, the polish of the style when you draw; and furthermore the washes which you put on with your ink* do not look so well blended and clear on this as in the method first described. But, nevertheless, do as you please.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT PAPER TURNSOLE COLOR.’ CHAPTER XVIII
Now apply yourself to the making of these tints. To tint your paper turnsole color, or purple, for the number of sheets which I mentioned before, that is, . . .,° take half an ounce of coarse white lead; and as much as a bean of hematite; and grind them together as much as ever you can; for ample grinding will not spoil it, but improve it con- stantly. Temper it in the regular way.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT PAPER WITH AN INDIGO TINT. CHAPTER XVIII
The indigo tint. Take the number of sheets mentioned above; take half an ounce of white lead, and the size of two beans of Bagdad
1 This reading, with R, is probably to be preferred. L omits “with your ink.” (See Trlo:r03)
2 Morella. Ilg, in his edition of Cennino, Das Buch von der Kunst, in “Quellen- schriften fiir Kunstgeschichte . . .,” I (Vienna, 1871), 144, insists that this is the solatrum hortense. (NED, s.v. “morel,” solanum nigrum.) I believe, however, that it is rather to be identified with the morella, or folium, of the Liber diversarum artium (in Catalogue général des MSS des bibliothéques publiques des départements, I | Paris, 1849], 756, 757), the Liber de coloribus illuminatorum siue pictorum from Sloane MS 1754 (§ VII: ed. D. V. Thompson, Jr., Speculum, I [1926], 298), the torna-ad-solem of the Naples De arte illuminandi (§ 10, ed. A. Lecoy de La Marche, /’Art d’enluminer [Paris, 1890], pp. 80-81), etc. This is the “annual euphorbiaceous plant, Crozophora tinctoria,” of NED, “turnsole,” 2, a. For this identification, consult bibliography in O. Stapf, Iconum botanicarum Index Londinensis . . . (Oxford, 1929), s.v. “Chrozo- phora tinctoria.” The plant is known also as Croton tinctorium.
3 A numeral seems to: have been omitted. The direction in Chapter XVI might be understood to apply to one parchment, or one sheet of paper.
12 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
indigo;* and grind them together thoroughly, for thorough grinding will not spoil the tint. Temper it with your tempera as described above.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT PAPERS WITH REDDISH COLOR, OR ALMOST PEACH COLOR. CHAPTER XX If you wish to tint with a reddish color, take, for the number of sheets mentioned above, half an ounce of terre-verte; the size of two beans of coarse white lead; and as much as one bean of light sinoper.” Grind in the usual way; and so temper it with your size or tempera.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT PAPERS WITH FLESH COLOR. CHAPTER XXI Likewise, to make the tint a good flesh color, you should take, for the number of sheets mentioned, half an ounce of coarse white lead; and less than a bean of vermilion. And you should grind everything together; and temper in the regular way described above.
HOW YOU SHOULD TINT PAPERS GREENISH GRAY, OR DRAB. CHAPTER XXII
You will make a greenish gray, or drab, in this manner. First take a quarter of an ounce of coarse white lead; the size of a bean of light ocher; less than half a bean of black. Grind these things well together in the regular way. Temper as I have taught you for the others, always putting in, for each batch, at least as much as a bean of calcined bone. And this must suffice you for papers tinted in various ways.
1 Coupled with the doubtful zxdacho macchabeo of L, the meaningless macalico of R suggests a joint heritage of illegibility, and we may venture to rationalize these read- ings as Baccadeo, “Bagdad,” to correspond with the form found in I, 34, |. 5.
The Liber diversarum artium, in a chapter “De cognitione indici . . .,” ed. cit. supra, p. 750, states: “Diversis nominibus nominatur, quia in diversis partibus confici- tur; ergo bagadeus eligatur, et quod magis agurinum est.”
2 See NED, s.v. “sinoper,” 2, a.
TRACING PAPER 13
HOW YOU MAY OBTAIN THE ESSENCE OF A GOOD FIGURE OR DRAWING WITH TRACING PAPER. CHAPTER XXIII
You should be aware’ that there is also a paper known as tracing paper which may be very useful to you. To copy a head, or a figure, or a half figure, as you find it attractive,” by the hand of the great masters, and to get the outlines right, from paper, panel, or wall, which you want to take right off, put this tracing paper over the fig- ure or drawing, fastening it nicely at the four corners with a little red or green wax. Because of the transparency of the tracing paper, the figure or drawing underneath immediately shows through, in such shape and manner that you see it clearly. Then take either a pen cut quite fine or a fine brush of fine minever; and you may proceed to pick out with ink the outlines and accents of the drawing underneath; and in general to touch in shadows as far as you can see to do it. And then, lifting off the paper, you may touch it up with any high lights
and reliefs, as you please.
THE FIRST WAY TO LEARN HOW TO MAKE A CLEAR TRACING PAPER. CHAPTER XXIIII If you do not find any ready-made, you will need to make some of this tracing paper in this way. Take a kid parchment and give it to a parchment worker; and have it scraped so much that it barely holds together. And have him take care to scrape it evenly. It is transparent of itself. If you want it more transparent, take some clear and fine lin- seed oil; and smear it with some of this oil on a piece of cotton. Let it dry thoroughly, for the space of several days; and it will be perfect and good.
1I, 12, 1. 30 should begin: “Bisogniati essere,” and the corresponding footnote should be: “30. L Biisongniati esere.”
2 L aromo: literally, “savory.” The meaningless huon’ of R was corrected by the Milanesi to buono. The reading L is doubtless the right one.
14 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
A SECOND WAY TO MAKE TRACING PAPER: WITH GLUE. CHAPTER XXV
If you want to make this tracing paper in another way, take a good smooth slab of marble or porphyry. Then get some fish glue and some leaf glue, which the druggists sell. Put them to soak in clear water, and arrange to have one porringerful of clear water to six leaves. Then boil it until it is all melted, and after boiling strain it two or three times. Then take this size, all strained, melted, and warm, and a brush; and lay it on these slabs just the way you tint tinted papers. The slabs must be clean; and they should be greased with olive oil previously. And when this size which is laid on them has dried, take the point of a penknife, and start to pry this size far enough away from the slab here and there for you to get a grip on the skin or paper thus formed. And work cautiously, so as to pry this skin off the slab in the form of a paper, without damaging it. And if you want to find this skin or paper <more durable>* before you pry it off the slab, take some linseed oil, boiled the way I shall teach you for mordants; and with a soft brush lay a coat of it all over. And let it dry for two or three days, and it will be good tracing paper.
HOW TO MAKE TRACING PAPER OUT OF PAPER. CHAPTER XXVI This same tracing paper which we have been discussing may be made out of paper, the paper, to begin with, being made very thin, smooth, and quite white. Then grease this paper with linseed oil, as described above. It becomes transparent, and it is good.
HOW YOU SHOULD ENDEAVOR TO COPY AND DRAW AFTER AS FEW MASTERS AS POSSIBLE. CHAPTER XXVII
Now you must forge ahead again, so that you may pursue the course of this theory. You have made your tinted papers; the next thing is to draw. You should adopt this method. Having first prac-
1 Something seems to have been dropped from the text here. What follows is a method intended to overcome the tendency of “gelatine tracing paper” to cockle.
THE STUDY OF DRAWING 15
ticed drawing for a while as I have taught you above, that is, on a little panel, take pains and pleasure in constantly copying the best things which you can find done by the hand ot great masters. And if you are in a place where many good masters have been, so much the better for you. But I give you this advice: teke care to select the best one every time, and the one who has the greatest reputation. And, as you go on from day to day, it will be against nature if you do not get some grasp of his style and of his spirit. For if you undertake to copy after one master today and after another one tomorrow, you will not acquire the style of either one or the other, and you will inevitably, through enthusiasm, become capricious, because each style will be distracting your mind. You will try to work in this man’s way today, and in the other’s tomorrow, and so you will not get either of them right. If you follow the course of one man through constant practice, your intelligence would have to be crude indeed for you not to get some nourishment from it. Then you will find, if nature has granted you any imagination at all, that you will eventually acquire a style individual to yourself, and it cannot help being good; because your hand and your mind, being always accustomed to gather flowers, would ill know how to pluck thorns.
HOW, BEYOND MASTERS, YOU SHOULD CONSTANTLY COPY FROM NATURE WITH STEADY PRACTICE. CHAPTER XXVIII
Mind you, the most perfect steersman that you can have, and the best helm, lie in the triumphal gateway’ of copying from nature. And this outdoes all other models; and always rely on this with a stout heart, especially as you begin to gain some judgment in draftsman- ship. Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is it will be well worth while, and will do you a
world of good.
1 This unconventional figure of speech is fairly typical of Cennino when he aban- dons exposition for rhetoric. He seems to have had some half-formed conception of his course of study as an architectural layout, with steps rising and gates opening; but this is confused with ideas of journeys, by land and, as here, by sea.
16 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW YOU SHOULD REGULATE YOUR LIFE IN THE IN- TERESTS OF DECORUM AND THE CONDITION OF YOUR HAND; AND IN WHAT COMPANY; AND WHAT METHOD YOU SHOULD FIRST ADOPT FOR COPYING A FIGURE FROM HIGH UP.
CHAPTER XXVIIII
Your life should always be arranged just as if you were studying theology, or philosophy, or other theories, that is to say, eating and drinking moderately, at least twice a day, electing digestible and wholesome dishes, and light wines; saving and sparing your hand, preserving it from such strains as heaving stones, crowbar," and many other things which are bad for your hand, from giving them a chance to weary it. There is another cause which, if you indulge it, can make your hand so unsteady that it will waver more, and flutter far more, than leaves do in the wind, and this is indulging too much in the company of woman. Let us get back to our subject. Have a sort of pouch made of pasteboard,” or just thin wood, made large enough in every dimension for you to put in a royal folio, that is, a half; and this is good for you to keep your drawings in, and likewise to hold the paper on for drawing. Then always go out alone, or in such company as will be inclined to do as you do, and not apt to disturb you. And the more understanding this company displays, the better it is for you. When you are in churches or chapels, and beginning to draw, con- sider, in the first place, from what section you think you wish to copy a scene or figure; and notice where its darks and half tones and high lights come; and this means that you have to apply your shadow with washes of ink; to leave the natural ground in the half tones; and to
apply the high lights with white lead.
1See Filippo Baldinucci, Vocabolario toscano dell’arte del disegno, s.v. “palo,” in his Opere (Milan, 1809), III, 33, 34.
2 Fogli inchollati: literally, “sheets glued,” or “sized,” or “pasted.” I understand this to mean sheets of paper pasted together for greater thickness and strength. Sheets of paper glued together at the edges to produce a large surface for a full-sized cartoon are called for in I, 106, ll. 10, 11: sfogli di charta inchollati insieme. (See p. 111, below.)
CHARCOAL AND WASH DRAWING 17
HOW YOU SHOULD FIRST START DRAWING ON PAPER WITH CHARCOAL, AND TAKE THE MEASUREMENT OF THE FIGURE, AND FIX IT WITH A SILVER STYLE.
CHAPTER XXX
First take the charcoal, slender, and sharpened like a pen, or like your style; and, as the prime measurement which you adopt for draw- ing, adopt one of the three which the face has, for it has three of them altogether : the forehead, the nose, and the chin, including the mouth. And if you adopt one of these, it serves you as a standard for the whole figure, for the buildings and from one figure to another; and it is a perfect standard for you provided you use your judgment in estimat- ing how to apply these measurements.” And the reason for doing this is that the scene or figure will be too high up for you to reach it with your hand to measure it off. You have to be guided by judgment; and if you are so guided, you will arrive at the truth. And if the propor- tion of your scene or figure does not come out right at the first go, take a feather, and rub with the barbs of this feather—chicken or goose, as may be—and sweep the charcoal off what you have drawn. That drawing will disappear. And keep starting it over from the be- ginning until you see that your figure agrees in proportion with the model. And then, when you feel that it is about right, take the silver style and go over the outlines and accents of your drawings, and over the dominant folds, to pick them out. When you have got this done, take the barbed feather once more, and sweep the charcoal off thor-
oughly; and your drawing will remain, fixed by the style.
HOW YOU SHOULD DRAW AND SHADE WITH WASHES ON TINTED PAPER, AND THEN PUT LIGHTS ON WITH WHITE LEAD. CHAPTER XXXI
When you have mastered the shading, take a rather blunt brush; and with a wash of ink in a little dish proceed to mark out the course of the dominant folds with this brush; and then proceed to blend the dark part of the fold, following its course. And this wash ought to be
1 See n. 6, p. 43, below.
18 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
practically like water, just a little tinted, and the brush ought to be almost always practically dry. Without trying to hurry, go on shading little by little, always going back with this brush into the darkest areas. Do you know what will come of it?—If this water is just a little tinted, and you shade with enjoyment, and without hurrying, you will get your shadows well blended, just like smoke. Remember always to work with the flat of the brush. When you have gone as far as you can with this shading, take a drop or two of ink and put it into this wash, and mix it up well with this brush. And then in the same way pick out the very bottoms of those folds with this brush, picking out their foundations carefully; always remembering your <system of> shading, that is, to divide into three sections: one section, shadow; the next, the color of your ground; the next, with lights put on it. When you have got this done, take a little white lead well worked up with gum arabic. (I will explain this to you later on, how this gum is to be dissolved and melted; and I will explain about all the tem- peras.) Ever so little white lead is enough. Have some clear water in a little dish, and moisten this same brush of yours in it; and rub it over this ground white lead in the little dish, especially if this is dried up. Then dress it on the back of your hand or your thumb, shaping and squeezing out this brush, and getting it empty, practically draining it. And begin rubbing the brush flat over and into the areas where the high light and relief are to come; and proceed to go over them many times with your brush, and handle it judiciously. Then, for the ac- cents of the reliefs, in the greatest prominence, take a pointed brush, and touch in with white lead with the tip of this brush, and crisp up the tops of these high lights. Then proceed to crisp up with a small brush, with straight ink, marking out the folds, the outlines, noses, eyes, and the divisions in the hairs and beards.
HOW YOU MAY PUT ON LIGHTS WITH WASHES OF WHITE LEAD JUST AS YOU SHADE WITH WASHES OF INK.
CHAPTER XXXII
I advise you, furthermore, when you get to be more experienced, to try to put on lights perfectly with a wash, just as you do the wash of
HOW TO MAKE CHARCOAL 19
ink. Take white lead ground with water, and temper it with yolk of egg; and it blends like an ink wash, but it is harder for you to handle, and more experience is needed. All this is known as drawing on tinted paper, and it is the path to lead you to the profession of painting. Follow it constantly as much as you can, for it is the essence of your study. Apply yourself to it enthusiastically, and with great enjoyment and pleasure.
HOW TO MAKE GOOD AND PERFECT AND SLENDER COALS FOR DRAWING. CHAPTER XXXIII
Before going any farther, I want to show you in what fashion you should make the coals for drawing. Take a nice, dry, willow stick; and make some little slips of it the length of the palm of your hand, or, say, four fingers. Then divide these pieces like match sticks; and do them up like a bunch of matches. But first smooth them and sharpen them at each end, like spindles. Then tie them up in bunches this way, in three places to the bunch, that is, in the middle and at each end, with a thin copper or iron wire. Then take a brand-new casserole, and put in enough of them to fill up the casserole. Then get a lid to cover it, <luting it> with clay,* so that nothing can evaporate from it in any way.Then go to the baker’s in the evening, after he has stopped work, and put this casserole into the oven; and let it stay there until morning; and see whether these coals are well roasted, and good and black. If you find that they are not roasted enough, you must put the casserole back into the oven, for them to get roasted. How are you to tell whether they are all right? —Take one of these coals and draw on some plain or tinted paper, or on a gessoed panel or ancona. And if you find that the charcoal takes, it is all right; and if it is roasted too much, it does not hold together in drawing, but breaks into many pieces. I will also give you another method for making these coals: take a little earthenware baking pan, covered as described above; put it under the fire in the evening, and cover this fire well with ashes; and go to bed. In the morning they will be roasted. And you may
1 Crea. See n. 3, p. 129, below.
20 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
make big coals and little ones in the same way; and make them to suit yourself, for there are no better coals anywhere.
ABOUT A STONE WHICH HAS THE CHARACTER OF CHARCOAL FOR DRAWING. CHAPTER XXXIIII ENDS THE FIRST SECTION OF THIS BOOK.
Also for drawing, I have come across a certain black stone, which comes from Piedmont; this is a soft stone; and it can be sharpened with a penknife, for it is soft. It is very black. And you can bring it to the same perfection as charcoal. And draw as you want to.
THE SECOND SECTION OF THIS BOOK: BRINGING YOU TO THE WORKING UP OF THE COLORS. CHAPTER XXXV
To approach the glory of the profession step by step, let us come to the working up of the colors, informing you which are the choicest colors, and the coarsest, and the most fastidious; which one needs to be worked up or ground but little, which a great deal; which one calls for one tempera, which requires another; and just as they differ in their colors, so do they also in the characters of their temperas and their working up.
THIS SHOWS YOU THE NATURAL COLORS, AND HOW YOU SHOULD GRIND BLACK. CHAPTER XXXVI
Know that there are seven natural colors,* or rather, four actually mineral in character, namely, black, red, yellow, and green; three are
1 Cennino makes his bow to an old tradition in mentioning the number “seven” here. As Albertus Magnus says, “si quis . . . ad speciem et materiam descendat, erunt amplioris diversitatis.”” (Liber de sensu et sensato, Tract. II, Cap. VII, in ed. A. Borgnet, Opera Omnia [Paris, 1890], IX, 60, col. 2.) Albertus explains (op. cit., Tract. Il, Cap. V, ed. cit., IX, 53) that colors are divided arbitrarily into seven in order to bring them into harmony with the classifications of “saporum et sonorum et aliorum sensi- bilium. . . . Una ratio est de omnibus.” The number of colors was linked also with the number of planets. (See J. LeBegue, Tabula etc., s.v. “color,” in Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield, Original Treatises Dating from the xiith to xvitith Centuries, on the Arts of Painting . . . [London, 1849], I, 23.) The De arte illuminandi, ed. cit., p. 68, men- tions seven colors, “naturales . . . ac necessarii ad illuminandum.” The theoretical
GRINDING THE COLORS 21
natural colors, but need to be helped artificially, as lime white, blues— ultramarine, azurite’"—giallorino.* Let us go no farther, but return to the black color. To work it up properly, take a slab of red porphyry, which is a strong and solid stone; for there are various kinds of slabs for grinding colors, such as porphyry, serpentine, and marble. Serpen- tine is a soft stone and is not good; marble is still worse, for it is too soft. But porphyry is best of all; and it will be better if you get one of those which are not so very much polished, and a foot* or more in width, and square. Then get a stone to hold in your hand, also of porphyry, flat underneath, and rounded on top in the shape of a porringer, and smaller than a porringer, shaped so that your hand may be able to guide it readily, and to move it this way and that, at will. Then take a portion of this black, or of any other color, the size of a nut; and put it on this stone, and with the one which you hold in your hand crush this black up thoroughly. Then take some clear river or fountain or well water, and grind this black for the space of half an hour, or an hour, or as long as you like; but know that if you were to work it up for a year it would be so much the blacker and better a color. Then get a thin wooden slice,” three fingers broad; and
arrangement of seven is described as follows by Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Liber de proprietatibus rerum, XIX, 5:
“Nigrum et album concurrant equaliter ad compositiones coloris medii, et tunc erit color equedistans inter extremos ut rubedo. Inter album vero et rubeum non possunt esse nisi duo, unus magis appropinquabit albo, et alius rubeo. Inter rubeum vero et nigrum erunt similiter duo.”
The distinction between “natural” and “artificial” colors is also an ancient one. Vin- cent of Beauvais, Speculum naturale, VII, 97, points out that “colores . . . quidam ex terra vel in terra nascuntur. . . . Quidam vero finguntur: aut arte, aut permixtione.” (Pliny, Historia naturalis, XXXV, 6, is his authority. See also Isidore of Seville, Etym., XIX, 17, 2.)
2 R: “ultramarine or azurite.” For “‘azurite” see above, Preface, p. xiii.
$ See above, Preface, p. xv; also n. 2, p- 28, below.
4 Mezzo braccio. See above, Preface, p. xiii.
® Steccha di legnio. For the tool “slice,” see NED, s.v., Il, 5. (Cf. also idem, Il, 4, a; 4, b, and 7, a.) Sfecca, “spatula,” must be distinguished from mella, also a “spatula,” for which I reserve that word. In the stecca, “slice,” the edge of the blade runs at right angles to the axis of the handle, as in a putty knife, or painter’s “broad knife.” The mella, on the other hand, has a blade with its edges parallel with the axis of the handle, like a table knife. The stecca is handled in a position roughly vertical; the media, rather horizontal. The use of this word “slice,” for the implement in question here, I owe to the designer of this volume, Mr. Carl P. Rollins, who informs me that just such a tool is used by printers to handle ink on the slab. An illustration of a slice, ready for the
22 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
it should have an edge like a knife; and scrape over the slab with this edge, and gather the color up neatly; and always keep it liquid, and not too dry, so that it may run well on the stone, and so that you may be able to grind it thoroughly, and gather it up well. Then put it into the little jar, and put enough of the aforesaid clear water in with it to fill up the jar; and always keep it under water in this way, and well covered from dust and all contamination, say in a little chest arranged to hold several jars of liquors.°
HOW TO MAKE VARIOUS SORTS OF BLACK. CHAPTER XXXVII
Know that there are several kinds of black colors. There is a black which is a soft, black stone; it is a fat color.* Bearing in mind that every lean color is better than the fat one (except that, for gilding, the fatter the bole or terre-verte which you get for gilding on panel, the better the gold comes out), let us leave this section. Then there is a black which is made from vine twigs; these twigs are to be burned; and when they are burnt, throw water on them, and quench them; and then work them up like the other black. And this is a color both black and lean; and it is one of the perfect colors which we employ; and it is the whole. . . .* There is another black which is made from burnt almond shells or peach stones, and this is a perfect black, and fine. There is another black which is made in this manner: take a lamp full of linseed oil, and fill the lamp with this oil, and light the lamp. Then put it, so lighted, underneath a good clean baking dish, and have the little flame of the lamp come about to the bottom of the dish, two or three fingers away, and the smoke which comes out of
color grinder’s use, may be found in the Titelbild of the first book of Valentin Boltz von Ruffach’s Illuminierbuch, wie man allerley farben bereitte, mischen, schattieren unnd ufftragen soll . . . (Basel, 1549); in C. J. Benziger’s edition in Sammlung mal- technischer Schriften, \V (Munich: Callwey, 1913), facing p. 32.
® R, “several jars of varied colors.” I have ordinarily translated vaselli as “dishes,” and vasellini as “little dishes”; but here something in the nature of a jar is surely in- tended. (Very convenient little wide-mouthed bottles holding an ounce or two, provided with screw caps of non-rusting material, can be obtained nowadays for the purpose.)
1 See Preface, p. xii.
2 The conclusion of this sentence has been lost from the text; and there seems to be no evidence for reconstructing it.
SINOPER AND CINABRESE 23
the flame will strike on the bottom of the dish, and condense in a mass. Wait a while; take the baking dish, and with some implement sweep this color, that is, this soot, off on to a paper, or into some dish; and it does not have to be worked up or ground, for it is a very fine color. Refill the lamp with the oil in this way several times, and put it back under the dish; and make as much of it in this way as you need.
ON THE CHARACTER OF THE RED COLOR CALLED SINOPER. CHAPTER XXXVIII A natural color known as sinoper, or porphyry, is red; and this color is lean and dry in character. It stands working up well; for the more it is worked up, the finer it becomes. It is good for use on panel or anconas, or on the wall, in fresco or in secco. And I will explain this “fresco” and “secco” to you when we discuss working on the wall.
And let this do for the first red.
HOW TO MAKE THE RED CALLED CINABRESE, FOR DOING FLESH ON THE WALL; AND ABOUT ITS CHARACTER. CHAPTER XXXVIIII A color known as light cinabrese is red, and as far as I know this color is not used anywhere but in Florence; and it is very perfect for doing flesh, or making the flesh colors of figures on a wall; and use it in fresco. This color is made of the handsomest and lightest sinoper obtainable;* and it is mixed and worked up with lime white;* and this white is made from very white and well-purified lime. And when these two colors are well worked up together, that is, the two parts
1 There seems to be a distinction intended in this chapter between “cinabrese” and “light cinabrese.” The color cinabrese proper seems to have been a reselected light va- riety of sinoper, perhaps corresponding to Pozzuoli red of modern trade. Two parts of this ground with one of lime white produced the color light cinabrese. Cennino does not make very clear this distinction, which may possibly boil down to a mere slip of the pen: cinabrese for sinopia in the next sentence. (See I, 23, |. 22.) But “light cina- brese” is specified several times in Chapter LXVII, pp. 42, 47, below.
2 Literally, “with St. John’s white, as it is called in Florence.”
24 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
cinabrese® and the third lime white, make little cakes of it, like halves of nuts, and let them dry. Whenever you need some, take what you think fit; for this color does you great credit in painting countenances, hands, and nudes on the wall, as I have said. And you can make handsome costumes with it sometimes, which, on the wall, will seem to be vermilion.*
ON THE CHARACTER OF THE RED CALLED VERMILION; AND HOW IT SHOULD BE WORKED UP. CHAPTER XL
A color known as vermilion is red; and this color is made by al- chemy, prepared in a retort. I am leaving out the system for this, be- cause it would be too tedious to set forth in my discussion all the methods and receipts. Because, if you want to take the trouble, you will find plenty of receipts for it, and especially by asking of the friars. But I advise you rather to get some of that which you find at the drug- gists’ for your money, so as not to lose time in the many variations of procedure. And I will teach you how to buy it, and to recognize the good vermilion. Always buy vermilion unbroken, and not pounded or ground. The reason? Because it is generally adulterated, either with red lead or with pounded brick. Examine the unbroken lump of ver- milion; and at the top, where the structure’ is most spread out and deli- cate, that is the best. Then put this on the aforesaid slab, and grind it with clear water as much as ever you can; for if you were to grind it every day for twenty years, it would still be better and more perfect. This color calls for various temperas, according to the situations in which you have to use it, which we shall deal with later on; and I will teach you where it is most appropriate. But bear in mind that it is Not its nature to be exposed to the air, but it stands up better on panel than on the wall; because, in the course of time, from exposure to the air, it turns black when it is used and laid on the wall.
8 Read sinoper? See n. 1, p. 23, above.
4 The name of this color, cinabrese, suggests its resemblance to vermilion (cinabro), for which it was used as a substitute in fresco. (At the end of this chapter XL, Cennino mentions the fact that vermilion should not be used in fresco.)
1 Tiglio. This refers to the crystalline formation. See n. 1, p. 25, and n. 4, p. 82, below.
RED LEAD AND HEMATITE 25
ON THE CHARACTER OF A RED CALLED RED LEAD. CHAPTER XLI
A color known as red lead is red, and it is manufactured by alchemy. This color is good only for working on panel, for if you use it on the wall it soon turns black, on exposure to the air, and loses its color.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A RED CALLED HEMATITE. CHAPTER XLII
A color known as hematite is red. This color is natural, and it is a very strong and solid stone. And it is so solid and perfect that stones and crooks are made of it for burnishing gold on panel;” and they acquire a black and perfect color, dark as a diamond.* The pure stone is the color of purple or turnsole, and has a structure like vermilion.* Pound this stone in a bronze mortar at first, because if you broke it up on your porphyry slab you might crack it. And when you have got it pounded, put on the slab as much of it as you want to work up, and grind it with clear water; and the more you work it up, the better and more perfect color it becomes. This color is good on the wall, for working in fresco; and makes a color for you like a cardinal’s,’ or a
1 Amatisto, o ver amatito: “hematite” >Greek Al0oc aiuatitnc, from alua, “blood.” This is the stone from which Cennino’s burnishers were made. (See Chapter CXXXVI, p. 82, below.) It is still used for making burnishers (though, as far as I know, now only for gold- and silver-smiths), and these appear in trade as “Bloodstone burnishers.”
Bloodstone, properly called hematite, consists principally of ferric oxide, Fe2Os, sub- stantially pure. It occurs in several well-marked forms in nature: (1) amorphous, as a sort of reddle or sinoper; (2) “kidney ore,” which, as the name implies, is reniform in structure; (3) ‘pencil ore,” which has a straight grain; (4) “specular iron-ore,” a tabular, crystalline form which corresponds exactly with Cennino’s description in Chap- ter CXXXVI, p. 82, below. It is this crystalline form which Cennino uses for making burnishers; and the same form which he pounds and grinds up for use as a color. This is made certain by his statement in this chapter that it “has a structure like cinnabar,” for specular iron ore, like most native cinnabar, crystallizes in the hexagonal system, with rhombohedral symmetry.
2 See Chapter CXXXVI, p. 82, below. Note that dentelli, “crooks,” are made from this hematite: these are not to be confused with burnishers made of animals’ teeth, denti. See n. 2 on Chapter CXXXV, below.
8 Perhaps “as adamant”? See n. 4, p. 83, below.
4 See n. 1, above.
5 See Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield, Original Treatises . . . (London, 1849), II, 327. (Cf. also, ibid., p. 453, “Bolognese Manuscript,” $ 136: “A fare perfecto collore de grana cardinalesco cum verzino. . . .”’)
26 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
purple, or lac color. It is not good to try to use it for other things, or with temperas. |
ON THE CHARACTER OF A RED CALLED DRAGONSBLOOD. CHAPTER XLIII
A color known as dragonsblood is red. This color is used occasion- ally on parchment, for illuminating. But leave it alone, and do not have too much respect for it; for it is not of a constitution to do you much credit.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A RED CALLED LAC. CHAPTER XLIIII
A color known as lac is red, and it is an artificial color. And I have various receipts for it; but I advise you, for the sake of your works, to get the color ready-made for your money. But take care to recognize the good kind, because there are several types of it. Some lake? is made from the shearings of cloth,* and it is very attractive to the eye. Be- ware of this type, for it always retains some fatness in it, because of the alum,* and does not last at all, either with temperas or without temperas, and quickly loses its color. Take good care to avoid this;
1 Lacca. I translate this “lac,” rather than “lake,” because of the indefinite character of the latter. Cennino meant specifically “lac lake,” that is, a lake which is made from the gum Jac, “the dark-red resinous incrustation produced on certain trees” (resiniferous species of the genera Schleichera, Butea, Ficus, etc.) by an insect, Coccus or Carteria lacca. (See NED, s.v. “lac,”1 1, 2; also Merck’s Index [1930], s.v. “shellac.”) “Lake” originally signified the color made from “lac,”1 1, but gradually took on a wider mean- ing, and the original connection with lac proper is now almost wholly forgotten.
2 Here lacca is used in the general sense of a “lake” color, an organic coloring matter precipitated out on a metallic base, in this case, alumina.
No general classification of medieval receipts for “lakes” can be attempted here, but two rules may be cited: the first, found in Merrifield, op. cit., 1, 63, in the Experimenta de coloribus, § 37, may serve to represent the manufacture of what Cennino calls “the good kind”; while the second, ibid., p. 53, § 13, “Ad faciendum lacham finissimam,” may stand for the type which he condemns.
8 Cimatura di drappo, o ver di panno. Drappo seems to imply a silk material, as zendado does; panno may refer to wool or linen.
4 The “Bolognese Manuscript,” $ 110, in Merrifield, op. cit., Il, 433-435, mentions specifically that “quando [sic] se fa quella purgationi de lo allumi, tanto e piu bella, piu viva, et melglio.”
YELLOW OCHER 27
but get the lac which is made from gum;° and it is dry, lean, granu- lar, and looks almost black, and contains a sanguine color. This kind cannot be other than good and perfect. Take this, and work it up on your slab; grind it with clear water. And it is good on panel; and it is also used on the wall with a tempera; but the air is its un- doing. There are those who grind it with urine; but it becomes un- pleasant, for it promptly goes bad.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW COLOR CALLED OCHER. CHAPTER XLV
A natural color known as ocher is yellow. This color is found in the earth in the mountains, where there are found certain seams resem- bling sulphur; and where these seams are, there is found sinoper, and terre-verte and other kinds of color. I found this when I was guided one day by Andrea Cennini, my father, who led me through the territory of Colle di Val d’Elsa, close to the borders of Casole, at the beginning of the forest of the commune of Colle, above a township called Dometaria. And upon reaching a little valley, a very wild steep place, scraping the steep with a spade, I beheld seams of many kinds of color: ocher, dark and light sinoper, blue, and white; and this I held the greatest wonder in the world—that white could exist in a seam of earth; advising you that I made a trial of this white, and found it fat, unfit for flesh color. In this place there was also a seam of black color. And these colors showed up in this earth just the way a wrinkle shows in the face of a man or woman.
To go back to the ocher color, I picked out the “wrinkle” of this color with a penknife; and I do assure you that I never tried a hand- somer, more perfect ocher color. It did not come out so light as gial- lorino; a little bit darker; but for hair, and for costumes, as I shall teach you later, I never found a better color than this. Ocher color is of two sorts, light and dark. Each color calls for the same method of working up with clear water; and work it up thoroughly, for it goes on getting better. And know that this ocher is an all-round color,
5 See n. 1, p. 26, above.
28 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
especially for work in fresco; for it is used, with other mixtures, as I shall explain to you, for flesh colors, for draperies, for painted moun- tains, and buildings and horses, and in general for many purposes. And this color is coarse by nature."
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW COLOR CALLED GIALLORINO.? CHAPTER XLVI
A color known as giallorino is yellow, and it isa manufactured one. It is very solid, and heavy as a stone, and hard to break up. This color is used in fresco, and lasts forever, that is, on the wall; and on panel, with temperas. This color is to be ground, like the others aforesaid, with clear water. It does not want to be worked up very much, and, since it is very troublesome to reduce it to powder, you will do well to pound it in a bronze mortar, as you have to do with the hematite, before you work it up. And when you have made use of it, it is a very handsome yellow color; for with this color, with other mixtures, as I will show you, attractive foliage and grass colors are made. And as I understand it, this color is actually a mineral, originating in the neighborhood of great volcanoes; so I tell you that it is a color pro-
duced artificially, though not by alchemy.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW CALLED ORPIMENT. CHAPTER XLVII
A color known as orpiment is yellow. This color is an artificial one. It is made by alchemy, and is really poisonous. And in color it is
1 In choosing between the readings grasso, with R, and grosso, with L, it is neces- sary to weigh several factors. In the neighborhood of Colle, Cennino might well have found the color which we know as “Raw Sienna.” This is generically an ocher, and it is characteristically a “fat”? color. Against this must be set the insistence of Cennino upon the virtue of “lean” colors (Chapter XXXVII, p. 22, above); his remark just above, that there are “two sorts, light and dark” (well marked in the ochers proper); and the fact that ocher is actually “coarse by nature.” I think that the reading grosso, with L, must be preferred. É
2 The identification of this color must be attempted in a future study. For practical purposes, massicot, a yellow oxide of lead, prepared by roasting white lead, may be employed. Natural massicot, of volcanic origin, is known; but it is not generally avail- able.
REALGAR AND SAFFRON 29
a handsome yellow more closely resembling gold than any other color. It is not good for use on a wall, either in fresco or with tem- peras, because it turns black on exposure to the air. It is very good for painting on shields and lances. A mixture of some of this color with Bagdad indigo gives a green color for grasses and foliage. Its tempera calls for nothing but size. Sparrowhawks are physicked with this color against a certain illness which affects them. And this color is, to start with, the most refractory color to work up that there is in our profession. And so, when you want to work it up, put the amount you want on to your stone; and, with the one which you hold in your hand, proceed to coax it, little by little, so as to squeeze it from one stone to the other, mixing in a little of the glass of a broken goblet, because the powder of the glass attracts the orpiment to the roughness of the stone. When you have got it powdered, put some clear water on it, and work it up as much as you can; for if you were to work it for ten years, it would constantly become more perfect. Beware of soiling your mouth with it, lest you suffer personal injury.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW WHICH IS CALLED REALGAR. CHAPTER XLVIII
A yellow color known as realgar is yellow. This color is really poisonous. We do not use it, except sometimes on panel. There is no keeping company with it. When you want to work it up," adopt those measures which I have taught you for the other colors. It wants to be
ground a great deal with clear water. And look out for yourself.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW CALLED SAFFRON. CHAPTER XLVIIII A color which is made from an herb called saffron is yellow. You should put it on a linen cloth, over a hot stone or brick. Then take half a goblet or glass full of good strong lye. Put this saffron in it; work it up on the slab. This makes a fine color for dyeing linen or cloth. It is good on parchment. And see that it is not exposed to the
1], 28, footnote, “20. L Volendolo . . . macinare”: for “20” read “30.”
30 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
air, for it soon loses its color. And if you want to make the most perfect grass color imaginable, take a little verdigris and some saffron; that is, of the three parts let one be saffron; and it comes out the most perfect grass-green imaginable, tempered with a little size, as I will show you later.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A YELLOW CALLED ARZICA. CHAPTER L
A color known as arzica is yellow; and this color is made alchemi- cally, and is but little used. Working with this color is chiefly a matter for illuminators; and it is used more in the neighborhood of Florence than anywhere else. This is a very thin color. It fades in the open; it is not good on the wall; it is all right on panel. It makes a lovely green if you mix in a little azurite and giallorino. Like the other choice colors it wants to be ground with clear water.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A GREEN CALLED TERRE-VERTE. CHAPTER LI
A natural earth color which is called terre-verte is green. This color has several qualities: first, that it is a very fat color. It is good for use in faces, draperies, buildings, in fresco, in secco, on wall, on panel, and wherever you wish. Work it up with clear water, like the other colors mentioned above; and the more you work it up, the better it will be. And, if you temper it as I shall show you <for> the bole for gilding, you may gild with this terre-verte in the same way. And know that the ancients never used to gild on panel except with this green.
1 The pigment intended here is probably a preparation of weld, “dyers’ weed,” Reseda luteola. A rule “A fare |’arzica bona et bella” occurs in the “Bolognese Manu- script,” § 194 (Merrifield, op. cit., II, 483-485), which very likely represents the manu- facture of the pigment known to Cennino by the same name. A pound of the chopped plant is soaked in water sufficient to cover it, and boiled down to a half. Then two ounces of finely ground travertine, or an equal weight of white lead, together with a half ounce of rock alum, are added gradually to the hot tincture. The precipitate is allowed to settle, and is then dried off in a hollowed brick, and then on a board. Reseda luteola is a common weed in Europe, and has been reported as growing wild on Long Island, N. Y.
MALACHITE GREEN 31
ON THE CHARACTER OF A GREEN CALLED
MALACHITE.*
CHAPTER LII A half natural color is green; and this is produced artificially, for it is formed out of azurite; and it is called malachite. I will not tell you how it is produced, but buy it ready-made. This color is good in secco, with a tempera of yolk of egg, for making trees and foliage, and for laying in. And put the lights on it with giallorino. This color is rather coarse by nature, and looks like fine sand. For the sake of the color, work it up very, very little, with a light touch; for if you were to grind it too much, it would come out a dingy and ashy color.” It should be worked up with clear water; and when you have got it worked up, put it into the dish; put some clear water over the color, and stir the water up well with the color. Then let it stand for the space of one
1 Verde azurro: literally, “blue green.” The following chapter serves to identify Cennino’s verde azurro as malachite, and also Cennino’s azurro della Magna as azurite. It is curious to note that all translators of this chapter have overlooked the force of the che in the opening sentence: “. . . questo si fa artifitialmente, chessi fa d’azurro della Mangnia.” (All the Italian editions interpret this correctly as “‘ché si fa.””) Cen- nino’s point is based on the fact that in nature the green hydrated copper carbonate, malachite, CuCO;- Cu(OH)2, is formed gradually out of the blue carbonate, azurite, 2CuCO;- Cu(OH)2, the two being often found blended in a single sample of ore. Just as in the case of giallorino, in Chapter XLVI, p. 28, above, Cennino drew the line at calling any material “natural” which was produced by anything so alchemical in char- acter as a volcano, so here he attempts a subtle distinction: “I cannot say that this green is absolutely a natural color,” he implies, “because it is formed out of this blue. I re- gard the blue as natural enough, but I cannot allow that a green formed from it is more than half natural, even though it be found in nature.” Mrs. Merrifield and Lady Her- ringham translate: “There is a green [pigment] which is partly natural, but requires artificial preparation. It is made of azzurro della magna.” Ilg translates: “Griin ist auch eine Farbe, welche natirlich ist, die man aber auch kiinstlich erzeugt, dann macht man sie aus Azzurro della Magna.” I think that Cennino was simply quibbling. No artificial preparation is required for malachite, beyond the simple process of grinding and washing which Cennino describes. There are relatively few references to it in the literature; and none, so far as I know, to any method for manufacturing it artificially from the blue.
2 This caution makes certain the identification of verde azurro with malachite. The green color of this pigment practically disappears if the crystals are ground too fine. Malachite green is easily recognized by its blue-green color, and sandy, crusty surface. No other green pigment, known to have been used in the Middle Ages, and possessing the characteristics assigned to verde azurro in this chapter, stands in the close relation to a blue pigment which Cennino specifies for this, as malachite does to azurite. I therefore feel justified in translating verde azurro as “malachite,” and azurro della Magna, as “‘azurite.” (See n. 1, p. 35, below.)
32 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
hour, or two or three; and pour off the water; and the green will be more beautiful. And wash it this way two or three times, and it will be still more beautiful.
HOW YOU MAKE A GREEN WITH ORPIMENT AND INDIGO. CHAPTER LIII
A color which is made of orpiment, two parts, and one part indigo, is green; and it is worked up well with clear water. This color is good for painting shields and lances, and is also used for painting rooms in secco. It does not want any tempera except size.
HOW YOU MAKE A GREEN WITH BLUE AND GIALLORINO. CHAPTER LIIII
A color which is made of azurite and giallorino is green. This is good on wall and on panel. It is tempered with yolk of egg. If you want it to be more beautiful, put in a little arzica. And also it will be a handsome color if you put into the azurite some wild plums,* crush- ing them up; and make a verjuice of them, and put four or six drops of this verjuice on this azurite; and it will be a beautiful green. It will not stand exposure to the air; and in the course of time the juice of the plums will eventually disappear.
1 Prungnole salvatiche: These are not necessarily the fruit of any tree known to mod- ern botany as a Prunus. They may be identical with the pruni meroli or prugnamerolt, of the De arte illuminandi (ed. de La Marche, cit. supra, pp. 71, 83, 84), which the author tells us were found near Rome. Petrus de Sancto Audemaro, § 159 (Merrifield, op. cit., 1, 127), speaks of adding some succum cerosium to a mixed green, apparently to improve the color. So far, a member of the large family of Prunus seems to be sug- gested: possibly P. spinosa.
As far as I have been able to learn, no Prunus fruits produce a juice of a strong yellow color (I have every reason to believe that that of P. spinosa is a rich red); and it is evident from the use made of them by Cennino that the prungnole salvatiche were either very yellow or green. The “Bolognese Manuscript,” § 96 (Merrifield, op. cit., II, 423-425), “Affare verde azurro” (not to be confused with the verde azurro of Cen- nino), describes a green made from blue stained with saffron, and mentions as alterna- tives to the saffron, “quella terra gialla tenta cum lo sugo de spino gerbino et vira verde; o vero cum lo sugo de spino gerbino.” This spino gerbino, the use of which parallels so closely that of the prugnole in Cennino’s rule, is a variety of Rhamnus. Niccolo Tommaseo, Dizionario, s.v. “cervino,” states: “Per lo piu è aggiunto d’una
MIXED GREENS 33
HOW YOU MAKE A GREEN WITH ULTRAMARINE BLUE. CHAPTER LV
A color which is made of ultramarine blue and orpiment is green. You must combine these colors prudently. Take the orpiment first, and mix the blue with it. If you want it to incline toward light, let the orpiment predominate; if you want it to incline toward dark, let the blue prevail. This color is good on panel, but not on the wall. Temper it with size.
ON THE CHARACTER OF A GREEN CALLED VERDIGRIS. CHAPTER LVI
A color known as verdigris is green. It is very green by itself. And it is manufactured by alchemy, from copper and vinegar. This color is good on panel, tempered with size. Take care never to get it near any white lead, for they are mortal enemies in every respect. Work it up with vinegar, which it retains in accordance with its nature. And if you wish to make a most perfect green for grass . . .,' it is beauti- ful to the eye, but it does not last. And it is especially good on paper or parchment, tempered with yolk of egg.
HOW YOU MAKE A GREEN WITH WHITE LEAD AND TERRE-VERTE; OR LIME WHITE. CHAPTER LVII
A sage color which is made by mixing white lead and terre-verte is
specie di Ramno detto Spincervino . . . (RAamnus infectorius, L.) che è pianta delle cui coccole non mature [compare “Paduan Manuscript,” $ 29, Merrifield, op. cit., II, 663] si fa il Giallo santo, e colle mature [compare “Bolognese Manuscript,” § 89, ibid., p. 421] il Verde di vescica.” (See also Vocabolario . . . della Crusca, s.v. “cervino,” $ II.)
The question must be left open for the present, but there is a fair possibility that the prugnolo which bore Cennino’s prugnole salvatiche was a Rhamnus, and that its fruits were “plums” only in a popular, unscientific sense. Rhamnus infectorius is not the only possibility: R. alaternus and R. catharticus might easily have been available, or even, perhaps, the superior oriental varieties, R. saxatilis, R. amygdalinus, and R. oleoides. These are the kinds which until fairly recent years found considerable use under the name of “Persian berries” as yellow dyestuffs. “Yellow berries” was the name applied generally to the whole group, and it is tempting to translate Cennino’s prungnole salvatiche in that way.
1 Something seems to have been omitted here: probably a direction to mix the verdi- gris with saffron. See Chapter XLVIIII, p. 30, above.
34 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
green. It is good on panel, tempered with yolk of egg, or on the wall, in fresco, with the terre-verte mixed with lime white, made from white, prepared lime.
ON THE CHARACTER OF LIME WHITE. CHAPTER LVIII
A natural color, but still artificially prepared, is white, and it is made as follows: take good white air-slaked lime; put it, in the form of powder, into a pail for the space of eight days, adding clear water every day, and stirring up the lime and water thoroughly, so as to get all the fatness out of it. Then make it up into little cakes; put them up on the roofs in the sun; and the older these cakes are, the better the white will be. If you want to make it quickly and well, when the cakes are dry, work them up with water on your stone; and then make it into little cakes and dry them again; and do this twice, and you will see how perfect the white will be. This white is worked up with water, and it wants to be ground thoroughly. And it is good for working in fresco, that is, on a wall without any tempera; and without this you cannot accomplish anything in the way of flesh color and other mix- tures of the other colors which you make for a wall, that is, for fresco; and it never wants any tempera whatever.
ON THE CHARACTER OF WHITE LEAD. CHAPTER LVIIII
A color made alchemically from lead is white, and it is called white lead. This white lead is very brilliant; and it comes in little cakes like goblets or drinking glasses. And if you wish to recognize the choicest sort, always take some of that on the top of the lump, which is shaped like a cup. The more you grind this color, the more perfect it will be. And it is good on panel. It is even used on walls, but avoid it as much as you can, for in the course of time it turns black. It is ground with clear water; it is compatible with any tempera, and it serves you as your whole standard for lightening all colors on panel, just as lime white does on the wall.
AZURITE BLUE 35
ON THE CHARACTER OF AZURITE. CHAPTER LX
Natural blue is a natural color which exists in and around the vein of silver. It occurs extensively in Germany, and also in that . . .* of Siena. It is quite true . . ., or plastic, it wants to be brought to per- fection. When you have to lay it in, you must work up some of this
1 Jt is hard to estimate the extent or character of these lacunae, and any reconstruc- tion of this passage must be too much a matter of conjecture for inclusion here.
A rule for preparing the pigment from mineral azurite may be found in the “Bolognese Manuscript,” § 17, Merrifield, op. cit., Il, 365-369. But for practical pur- poses I may mention here that it is necessary only to crush and grind a piece of the stone, and to wash the resulting powder by decantation. By saving the washings and allowing them to settle separately, numerous grades of pigment, varying in fineness and color, will readily be secured. (See p. 93, below, for the use of a set of these graded blues.) This process is described by Ambrogio di Ser Pietro da Siena in his Ricepte daffare piu colori, appended to a Confessional, Siena, MS. I, 11, 19 (dated 1462), fol. 101. A translation of this passage follows:
“When you want to refine azurite (/’agurro de la Magna), take three ounces of honey, as light as you can get, and cut it with a little hot lye, not too strong. And then put in a pound of blue, and mix it up. Get it tempered so that you can grind it. Then take a little of this blue; put it on the porphyry, and grind it well. And put all the ground part into a glazed porringer by itself, and put into it some lye as hot as your hand can bear. And get the blue well spread through it, and mix it and stir it up thoroughly with your hand. Then let it settle until all the blue goes to the bottom. Then draw off all the water; and if you find that the water is charged with blue, put it into another porringer, and let it settle thoroughly. And then take some hot water and put it on to the blue, mixing it up with your hand as described above so as to get all the honey out of it. And then divide it up in this way:
“Take some warm water and put some on to the blue, and mix it up with your hand, as stated. Then let it settle for a while, and promptly put this water so tinted into another porringer; and keep all the substance of the coarse blue which stayed in the bottom separate, because that is the first grade, that is, the coarsest. And do the same with the second porringer which has settled for a while. Put that tinted water into another porringer. And this grade will be the best. And treat the second, third and fourth in this way.
“When you have divided the blue by this means, take it out of the porringers, and put it to dry on a clean plate, or a little panel, well cleaned. And know that the second will be sky blue, which is good for pen-flourishing with the addition of a clothlet. The fourth is not good for much, but it is fit for making a green color with arzica when you are working with the brush or pen.”
I have translated the isolated word pastello here as “plastic,” as in Chapter LXII, passim; but it is quite possible that it should be read “‘woad”’ (French, pastel), the herb Isatis tinctoria, much used in imitation of indigo. My chief reason for preferring the translation “plastic” lies in the following passage from the Liber Dedali Philosophi, Florence, Biblioteca Riccardiana, MS. L.III.13, 19, foll. 195%, 1967, quoted from ed. J. Wood Brown, in An Enquiry into the Life and Legend of Michael Scot (Edinburgh, 1897), Appendix III, §14, pp. 245, 246:
“. . + Invenitur quedam vena terre iuxta venam argenti. Illa terra optime teritur
36 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
blue with water, very moderately and lightly, because it is very scorn- ful of the stone.’ If you want it for working on draperies, or for mak- ing greens with it as I have told you above, it ought to be worked up more. This is good on the wall in secco, and on panel. It is compatible with a tempera of egg yolk, and of size, and of whatever you wish.
TO MAKE AN IMITATION OF AZURITE WITH OTHER COLORS. CHAPTER LXI
A blue which is a sort of sky blue resembling azurite is made in this way: take some Bagdad indigo, and work it up very thoroughly with water; and mix a little white lead with it, on panel; and on the wall, a little lime white. It will look like azurite. It should be tempered with size.
ON THE CHARACTER OF ULTRAMARINE BLUE, AND HOW TO MAKE IT. CHAPTER LXII
Ultramarine blue is a color illustrious, beautiful, and most perfect, beyond all other colors; one could not say anything about it, or do anything with it, that its quality would not still surpass. And, because of its excellence, I want to discuss it at length, and to show you in de- tail how it is made. And pay close attention to this, for you will gain great honor and service from it. And let some of that color, combined with gold, which adorns all the works of our profession, whether on wall or on panel, shine forth in every object.
et distemperatur cum aqua calida et ponitur super linteum positum super aliquo vase, et colatur subtiliter. Et quod grassum et feculentum cadit in vase, proice. Quando autem fuerit purum vel iuxta illud, exsiccabitur et recondetur. Si autem non fuerit bene pu- rum, terantur adhuc bene, et ponantur in aqua calida, et accipiatur pix, cera et mas- ticis. Et dissolvatur et ducatur ita cum manu per vas ubi est azurum. Et depurabit eum a superfluitatibus terreis. Et si vena fuerit bona, azurium erit bonum. Si male, azurium erit malum.”
2 See the similar caution, p. 31, above, against grinding malachite too much. As these pigments depend for their color on light transmitted through them, it follows that excessive grinding, by increasing the reflecting surface and resultant scattering of light, will reduce their effectiveness as colors in any medium of low refractive index.
1 That is, of course, the mixture with white lead, for use on panel.
MAKING ULTRAMARINE 37
To begin with, get some lapis lazuli. And if you want to recognize the good stone, choose that which you see is richest in blue color, be- cause it is all mixed like ashes. That which contains least of this ash color is the best. But see that it is not the azurite stone, which looks very lovely to the eye, and resembles an enamel. Pound it in a bronze mortar, covered up, so that it may not go off in dust; then put it on your porphyry slab, and work it up without water. Then take a cov- ered sieve such as the druggists use for sifting drugs; and sift it, and pound it over again as you find necessary. And bear in mind that the more finely you work it up, the finer the blue will come out, but not so beautifully violet* in color. It is true that the fine kind is more useful to illuminators, and for making draperies with lights on them.’ When you have this powder all ready, get six ounces of pine rosin from the druggists, three ounces of gum mastic, and three ounces of new wax, for each pound of lapis lazuli; put all these things into a new pipkin, and melt them up together. Then take a white linen cloth, and strain these things into a glazed washbasin. Then take a pound of this lapis lazuli powder, and mix it all up thoroughly, and make a plastic of it, all incorporated together. And have some linseed oil, and always keep your hands well greased with this oil, so as to be able to handle the plastic. You must keep this plastic for at least three days and three nights, working it over a little every day; and bear in mind that you may keep it in the plastic for two weeks or a month, or as long as you like. When you want to extract the blue from it, adopt this method. Make two sticks out of a stout rod, neither too thick nor too thin; and let them each be a foot long; and have them well
1Non si bello violante. The translation violante as “‘violet’—or, better, “inclining toward violet’”—in this connection is justified by the context. Further evidence that a violet cast was held in general esteem may be seen in the direction given by “Bolognese Manuscript,” $ 19, in Merrifield, op. ciz., II, 371: “Accipe lapis lazuli . . . et sit colora- tus colore violatii”’; and in many rules similar to Cennino’s, on p. —, below, for mixing a crimson color with the blue. (Examples of these may be seen in the Liber diversarum artium, Montpellier, Ecole de Médecine, MS 277, in Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques des départements, \ [Paris, 1849], 746, and in the “Bolo- gnese Manuscript,” § 70, Merrifield, op. cit., II, 411-413.)
2 See below, p. 93, and Chapter LXXII, pp. 51, 52. These draperies are biancheggiati, “modeled up,” in contrast to the type of blue drapery described in Chapter LXXXIII, PP- 54, 55; below, in which the only modeling is darker than the ground of blue.
38 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
rounded at the top and bottom, and nicely smoothed. And then have your plastic in the glazed washbasin where you have been keeping it; and put into it about a porringerful of lye, fairly warm; and with these two sticks, one in each hand, turn over and squeeze and knead this plastic, this way and that, just as you work over bread dough with your hand, in just the same way. When you have done this until you see that the lye is saturated with blue, draw it off into a glazed por- ringer. Then take as much lye again, and put it on to the plastic, and work it over with these sticks as before. When the lye has turned quite blue, put it into another glazed porringer, and put as much lye again on to the plastic, and press it out again in the usual way. And when the lye is quite blue, put it into another glazed porringer. And go on doing this for several days in the same way, until the plastic will no longer color the lye; and then throw it away, for it is no longer any good. Then arrange all these porringers in front of you on a table, in series: that is, the yields, first, second, third, fourth, arranged in succession; and with your hand stir up in each one the lye with the blue which, on account of the heaviness of this blue, will have gone to the bottom; and then you will learn the yields of the blue. Weigh the question of how many grades of blue you want: whether three or four, or six, or however many you want; bearing in mind that the first yields are the best, just as the first porringer is better than the second. And so, if you have eighteen porringers of the yields, and you wish to make three grades of blue, you take six of the porringers and mix them together, and reduce it to one porringer; and that will be one grade. And in the same way with the others’ But bear in mind that if you have good lapis lazuli, the blue from the first two yields will be worth eight ducats an ounce. The last two yields are worse than ashes: therefore be prudent in your observation, so as not to spoil the fine blues for the poor ones. And every day drain off the lye from the porringers, until the blues are dry. When they are perfectly dry, do them up in leather, or in bladders, or in purses, according to the di- visions which you have. And know that if that lapis lazuli stone was not so very good, or if you worked the stone up so much that the blue did not come out violet, I will teach you how to give it a little color.*
3 See n. 1, p. 37, above.
COLORING ULTRAMARINE 39
Take a bit of pounded kermes* and a little brazil;> cook them to- gether; but either grate the brazil or scrape it with glass; and then cook them together with lye and a little rock alum; and when they boil you will see that it is a perfect crimson® color. Before you take the blue out of the porringer, but after it is quite dry of the lye, put a little of this kermes and brazil on it; and stir it all up well with your finger; and let it stand until it dries, without sun, fire, or wind. When you find that it is dry, put it in leather, or in a purse, and leave it alone, for it is good and perfect. And keep it to yourself, for it is an unusual ability to know how to make it properly. And know that making it is an occupation for pretty girls rather than for men; for they are always at home, and reliable, and they have more dainty hands. Just beware of old women. When you get around to wanting to use some of this blue, take as much of it as you need. And if you have draperies with lights on them‘ to execute, it ought to be worked up a little on the regular stone. And if you want it just for laying in, it wants to be worked over on the stone very, very lightly, always using perfectly clear water, and keeping the stone well washed and clean. And if the blue should get soiled in any way, take a little lye, or clear water; and put it into the dish, and stir it up well; and you will do this two or three times, and the blue will be purified entirely. I am not discussing its temperas for you, because I shall be showing you about all the temperas for all the colors later on, for panel, wall, iron, parchment, stone, and glass.
4 Grana. See NED, s.v. “grain,” III, 10, a; also zbid., s.v. “kermes.”
5 Verzino appears in medieval Latin manuscripts in various forms, among others: versinum, berxinum, berxilium, brexilium, brasilicum. | translate as NED, “brazil,” I, 1, a; though the commonest equivalent in trade is probably “Pernambuco” or “Fernam- buco.” Botanical distinctions among the Caesalpiniae which yield the sort of wood known to Cennino as verzino are not very carefully regarded nowadays, and were probably still less so in Cennino’s time. The matter has no great significance, however, for the coloring principle, Brazzlin, is common to them all. Any of the group (classifica- tion attempted by F. Ullmann, Enzyclopddte der technischen Chemie, V [1930], 143- 144) will pass as verzino; possibly Caesalpinia echinata, or C. cristata, is, all told, most likely to be the one Cennino knew.
6 Vermiglio. Not “vermilion,” but crimson, the color of kermes, the “Vermiculus, color rubeus . . . qui fit ex frondibus silvestribus . . . et Grece ipsum dicunt coctum,” of J. LeBègue’s “Tabula de vocabulis sinonimis et equivocis colorum, etc.” (Merrifield, op. cit., I, 38).
7 See n. 2, p. 37, above.
40 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
THE IMPORTANCE OF KNOWING HOW TO MAKE BRUSHES. CHAPTER LXIII
Now that I have spoken in detail about all the colors which are used with the brush, and about how they are worked up, and these colors ought always to be kept standing in a little chest, well covered up, always soaking and wet, I now want to show you how to use them, with tempera and without tempera. But you still need to know how to work with them: and this you cannot do without brushes. So let us drop everything, and first have you learn how to make these brushes; and you use this method for them.
HOW TO MAKE MINEVER BRUSHES. CHAPTER LXIIII
In our profession we have to use two kinds of brushes: minever brushes, and hog’s-bristle brushes. The minever ones are made as fol- lows. Take minever tails, for no others are suitable; and these tails should be cooked, and not raw: the furriers will tell you that. Take one of these tails: first pull the tip out of it, for those are the long hairs; and put the tips of several tails together, for out of six or eight tips you will get a soft brush good for gilding on panel, that is, wetting down with it, as I will show you later on. Then go back to the tail, and take it in your hand; and take the straightest and firmest hairs out of the middle of the tail; and gradually make up little bunches of them; and wet them ina goblet of clear water, and press them and squeeze them out, bunch by bunch, with your fingers. Then trim them with a little pair of scissors; and when you have made up quite a number of bunches, put enough of them together to make up the size you want your brushes: some to fit in a vulture’s quill; some to fit in a goose’s quill; some to fit in a quill of a hen’s or dove’s feather. When you have made these types, putting them together very evenly, with each tip on a line with the other, take thread or waxed silk, and tie them up well with two bights or knots, each type by itself, according to the size you want the brushes. Then take your feather quill which corresponds to the amount of hairs tied up, and have the quill open, or cut off, at the end; and put these tied-up hairs into this tube or quill. Continue
MAKING BRUSHES 4I
to do this, so that some of the tips stick out, as long as you can press them in from outside, so that the brush will come out fairly stiff; for the stiffer and shorter it is the better and more delicate it will be. Then take a little stick of maple or chestnut, or other good wood; and make it smooth and neat, tapered like a spindle, and large enough to fit tightly in this tube; and have it nine inches long. And there you have an account of how a minever brush ought to be made. It is true that minever brushes of several types are needed: some for gilding; some for working with the flat of the brush, and these should be trimmed off a bit with the scissors, and stropped a little on the por- phyry slab to limber them up a little; one brush ought to be pointed, with a perfect tip for outlining; and another ought to be very, very tiny, for special uses and very small figures.
HOW YOU SHOULD MAKE BRISTLE BRUSHES, AND IN WHAT MANNER. CHAPTER LXV
The bristle brushes are made in this style. First get bristles of a white hog, for they are better than black ones; but see that they come from a domestic hog. And make up with them a large brush into which go a pound of these bristles; and tie it to a good-sized stick with a plowshare bight or knot. And this brush should be limbered up by whitewashing walls, and wetting down walls where you are going to plaster; and limber it up until these bristles become very supple. Then undo this brush, and make the divisions of it as you want, to make a brush of any variety. And make some into those which have the tips of all the bristles quite even—those are called “blunt” brushes; and some into pointed ones of every sort of size. Then make little sticks of the wood mentioned above, and tie up each little bundle with double waxed thread. Put the tip of the little stick into it, and proceed to bind down evenly half the length of this little bundle of bristles, and farther up along the stick; and deal with them all in the same way.
1 Con groppo o ver nodo di bomare o ver versuro. For my translation of bomare and
versuro see W. Meyer-Libke, Romanisches etymologisches Wérterbuch (Heidelberg, I9II), $$ 9447 and 9245.
42 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW TO KEEP MINEVER TAILS FROM GETTING MOTH-EATEN. CHAPTER LXVI ENDS THE SECOND SECTION OF THIS BOOK; BEGINS THE THIRD.
If you wish to keep the minever tails from getting moth-eaten or losing their hairs, dip them in wet earth or chalk. Smear them well with it, and tie them up, and let them stand. When you wish to use them, or make brushes of them, wash them well with clear water.
THE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WORKING ON A WALL, THAT IS, IN FRESCO; AND ON PAINTING AND DOING FLESH FOR A YOUTHFUL FACE. CHAPTER LXVII
In the name of the Most Holy Trinity I wish to start you on paint- ing. Begin, in the first place, with working on a wall; and for that I will teach you, step by step, the method which you should follow.
When you want to work on a wall, which is the most agreeable and impressive kind of work, first of all get some lime* and some sand, each of them well sifted. And if the lime is very fat and fresh it calls for two parts sand, the third part lime. And wet them up well with water; and wet up enough to last you for two or three weeks. And let it stand for a day or so, until the heat goes out of it: for when it is so hot, the plaster which you put on cracks afterward. When you are ready to plaster, first sweep the wall well, and wet it down thor- oughly, for you cannot get it too wet. And take your lime mortar, well worked over, a trowelful at a time; and plaster once or twice, to begin with, to get the plaster flat on the wall. Then, when you want to work, remember first to make this plaster quite uneven and fairly rough. Then when the plaster is dry, take the charcoal, and draw and
1 Calcina: in this case “lime”; but generally to be rendered “lime mortar,” or “mortar” for brevity. In this text it is, I think, impossible to render calcina always as either “lime” or “mortar.” Cennino’s plastering terms in general present considerable difficulty: I cannot find precise English equivalents for calcina, intonaco, smalto, and smaltare. “Plaster” and “mortar” do heavy duty in English. “Parget” (see NED) might be pressed into service, but it is scarcely familiar enough in the United States to admit its use here.
COMPOSING A FRESCO 43
compose according to the scene or figures which you have to do; and take all your measurements carefully, snapping lines first, getting the centers of the spaces.” Then snap some, and take the levels from them. And this line which you snap through the center to get the level must have a plumb bob at the foot. And then put one point of the big compasses on this line,’ and give the compasses a half turn on the under side. Then put the point of the compasses on the middle inter- section of one line with the other,* and swing the other semicircle on the upper side. And you will find that you make a little slanted cross on the right side, formed by the intersection of the lines. From the left side apply the line to be snapped, in such a way that it lies right over both the little crosses; and you will find that your line is horizontal by a level.° Then compose the scenes or figures with charcoal, as I have described. And always keep your areas in scale, and regular.° Then take a small, pointed bristle brush, and a little ocher without tempera, as thin as water; and proceed to copy and draw in your fig-
2 Diagonal lines from corner to corner would, of course, intersect at the center of the whole area. If the composition were a large one, plumb lines might be dropped, other sets of diagonals snapped, and the “centers of the spaces’”’ determined ad lib. See n. 3, below.
3 The construction which follows is perfectly general. The arcs may be swung from any center on any plumb line, according to where the horizontal is wanted: near the edges, for borders, or well up in the composition for a horizon. Short horizontals might be required across a subdivision of the total area, as for an architectural subject (see pp- 56, 57, below), and these would be constructed on the vertical axis of that subdivi- sion. It should be remembered that very large areas might be involved, and that the size of compasses is somewhat limited in practice. Even with a two-foot radius, which would be cumbersome, the points on the horizontal would be only about three and a half feet apart; so for a horizontal border thirty or forty feet long it would be wise to repeat the construction on lines snapped plumb through several sections.
The space to be decorated may readily be “squared up” in this way, for enlarging a drawing; but Cennino :'oes not seem to have had this in mind.
4 That is, the intersection of the arc with the vertical axis, as I understand it.
5 Modern practice would pro.ably rely on a long spirit level to determine points on the horizontal to be snapped; but failing that instrument, Cennino’s geometry might be trusted safely.
6 Literally, “And arrange your areas always even and equal.” Cennino was not always successful in theoretical expression, and I have taken some liberty in interpreting this precept. I do not wish, however, to minimize the difficulty of conveying the idea.
In painting of the sort which Cennino describes, form is indicated conventionally in terms of modeling, light and dark, applied over clearly marked areas of local color. Each of these areas, besides being a unit in. .e whole design, possesses in itself a separate entity. The edges of these areas, the shapes and sizes of the areas themselves, are con-
44 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
ures, shading as you did with washes when you were learning to draw. Then take a bunch of feathers, and sweep the drawing free of the charcoal.
Then take a little sinoper without tempera, and with a fine pointed brush proceed to mark out noses, eyes, the hair, and all the accents and outlines of the figures; and see to it that these figures are properly adjusted in all their dimensions, for these’ give you a chance to know and allow for* the figures which you have to paint. Then start making your ornaments, or whatever you want to do, around the outside; and when you are ready, take some of the aforesaid lime mortar, well worked over with spade and trowel, successively, so that it seems like an ointment. Then consider in your own mind how much work you can do in a day; for whatever you plaster you ought to finish up. It is true that sometimes in winter, in damp weather, working on a stone wall, the plaster will occasionally keep fresh until the next day; but do not delay if you can help it, because working on the fresh plaster,” that is, that day’s, is the strongest tempera and the best and most de- lightful kind of work. So then, plaster a section with plaster, fairly thin, but not excessively, and quite even; first wetting down the old plaster. Then take your large bristle brush in your hand; dip it in clear water; beat it, and sprinkle over your plaster. And with a little block the size of the palm of your hand, proceed to rub with a circular motion over the surface of the well-moistened plaster, so that the little block may succeed in removing mortar wherever there is too much, and supplying it wherever there is not enough, and in evening up your plaster nicely. Then wet the plaster with that brush, if you need to; and rub over the plaster with the point of your trowel, ~-. y straight and clean. Then snap your lines in the same system and dimensions which you adopted previously on the plaster underneath.
And let us suppose that in a day you have just one head to do, a
spicuous; and they must be designed for perfection in themselves as well as in relation to the whole. The idea of “scale,” achieved through the repetition of a uniform meas- ure throughout the composition, has been brought out by Cennino in Chapter XXX, p- 17, above.
7 That is, the preliminary layout on the rough plaster, over which the finish plaster and final painting are applied.
8 Or “foresee.” 9 Il lavorare in frescho.
PAINTING FLESH IN FRESCO 45
youthful saint’s, like Our Most Holy Lady’s. When you have got the mortar of your plaster all smoothed down, take a little dish, a glazed one, for all your dishes should be glazed and tapered like a goblet or drinking glass, and they should have a good heavy base at the foot, to keep them steady so as not to spill the colors; take as much as a bean of well-ground ocher, the dark kind, for there are two kinds of ocher, light and dark: and if you have none of the dark, take some of the light. Put it into your little dish; take a little black, the size of a lentil; mix it with this ocher; take a little lime white, as much as a third of a bean; take as much light cinabrese!° as the tip of a penknife will hold; mix it up with the aforesaid colors all together in order,” and get this color dripping wet with clear water, without any tempera. Make a fine pointed brush out of flexible, thin bristles, to fit into the quill of a goose feather; and with this brush indicate the face which you wish to do, remembering to divide the face into three parts, that is, the fore- head, the nose, and the chin counting the mouth. And with your brush almost dry, gradually apply this color, known in Florence as verdac- cio, and in Siena, as bazzèo. When you have got the shape of the face drawn in, and if it seems not to have come out the way you want it, in its proportions or in any other respect, you can undo it and repair it by rubbing over the plaster with the big bristle brush dipped in water.
Then take a little terre-verte in another dish, well thinned out; and with a bristle brush, half squeezed out between the thumb and fore- finger of your left hand, start shading under the chin, and mostly on the side where the face is to be darkest; and go on by shaping up the under side of the mouth; and the sides of the mouth; under the nose, and on the side under the eyebrows, especially in toward the nose; a little in the end of the eye toward the ear; and in this way you pick out the whole of the face and the hands, wherever flesh color is to come.
Then take a pointed minever brush, and crisp up neatly all the outlines, nose, eyes, lips, and ears, with this verdaccio.
There are some masters who, at this point, when the face is in this
10 See Chapter XXXVIIII, p. 23, above, and zbid., n. 1. 11 L, per ragioni, might be interpreted as “by values.” R has per ragione.
46 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
stage, take a little lime white, thinned with water; and very systemati- cally pick out the prominences and reliefs of the countenance; then they put a little pink on the lips, and some “little apples” on the cheeks. Next they go over it with a little wash of thin flesh color; and it is all painted, except for touching in the reliefs afterward with a little white. It is a good system.
Some” begin by laying in the face with flesh color; then they shape it up with a little verdaccio and flesh color, touching it in with some high lights: and it is finished. This is a method of those who know little about the profession.
But you follow this method in everything which I shall teach you about painting: for Giotto, the great master, followed it. He had Taddeo Gaddi of Florence as his pupil for twenty-four years; and he was his godson. Taddeo had Agnolo, his son. Agnolo had me for twelve years: and so he started me on this method, by means of which Agnolo painted much more handsomely and freshly than Taddeo, his father, did. | First take a little dish; put a little lime white into it, a little bit will do, and a little light cinabrese, about equal parts. Temper them quite thin with clear water. With the aforesaid bristle brush, soft, and well squeezed with your fingers, go over the face, when you have got it in- dicated with terre-verte; and with this pink touch in the lips, and the “apples” of the cheeks. My master used to put these “apples” more toward the ear than toward the nose, because they help to give relief to the face. And soften these “apples” at the edges. Then take three little dishes, which you divide into three sections of flesh color; have the darkest half again as light as the pink color, and the other two, each one degree lighter. Now take the little dish of the lightest one; and with a very soft, rather blunt, bristle brush take some of this flesh color, squeezing the brush with your fingers; and shape up all the re- liefs of this face. Then take the little dish of the intermediate flesh color, and proceed to pick out all the half tones of the face, and of the hands and feet, and of the body when you are doing a nude. Then take the dish of the third flesh color, and start into the accents of the shadows, always contriving that, in the accents, the terre-verte
12 I, 43, l. 12: read with R, A/cuni campeggiano.
FEATURES AND HAIR 47
may not fail to tell. And go on blending one flesh color into another in this way many times, until it is well laid in, as nature promises. And take great care, if you want your work to come out very fresh: contrive not to let your brush leave its course with any given flesh color, except to blend one delicately with another, with skilful han- dling. But if you attend to working and getting your hand in prac- tice, it will be clearer to you than seeing it in writing. When you have applied your flesh colors, make another much lighter one, almost white; and go over the eyebrows with it, over the relief of the nose, over the top of the chin and of the eyelid. Then take a sharp minever brush; and do the whites of the eyes with pure white, and the tip of the nose, and a tiny bit on the side of the mouth; and touch in all such slight reliefs. Then take a little black in another little dish, and with the same brush mark out the outline of the eyes over the pupils of the eyes; and do the nostrils in the nose, and the openings in the ears. Then take a little dark sinoper in a little dish; mark out under the eyes, and around the nose, the eyebrows, the mouth; and do a little shading under the upper lip, for that wants to come out a little bit darker than the under lip. Before you mark out the outlines in this way, take this brush; touch up the hair with verdaccio; then with this brush shape up this hair with white. Then take a wash of light ocher; and with a blunt-bristle brush work back over this hair as if you were doing flesh. Then with the same brush shape up the accents with some dark ocher. Then with a sharp little minever brush and light ocher and lime white shape up the reliefs of the hair. Then, by marking out with sinoper, shape up the outlines and the accents of the hair as you did the face as a whole. And let this suffice you for a youthful face.
THE METHOD FOR PAINTING AN AGED FACE IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXVIII When you want to do the head of an old man, you should follow the same system as for the youthful one; except that your verdaccio wants to be a little darker, and the flesh colors, too; adopting the sys- tem and practice which you did for the youthful one; and the hands
48 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
and feet and the body in the same way. Now, assuming that your old man’s hair and beard are hoary, when you have got it shaped up with verdaccio and white with your sharp minever brush, take some lime white mixed with a small amount of black in a little dish, liquid; and with a blunt and soft bristle brush, well squeezed out, lay in the beards and hairs; and then make some of this mixture a little bit darker, and shape up the darks. Then take a small, sharp, minever brush, and stripe delicately over the reliefs of these hairs and beards. And you may do minever <fur> with this same color.
THE METHOD FOR PAINTING VARIOUS KINDS OF BEARDS AND HAIR IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXVIIII
Whenever you wish to make different hair and beards, ruddy, or russet, or black, or any kind you please, do them with verdaccio still, or shaped up with white,’ and then lay them in in the regular way as described above. Just consider what color you want them; and thus the experience of seeing some of them finished will teach you this.
THE PROPORTIONS WHICH A PERFECTLY FORMED MAN’S BODY SHOULD POSSESS. CHAPTER LXX Take note that, before going any farther, I will give you the exact proportions of a man. Those of a woman I will disregard, for she does not have any set proportion. First, as I have said above, the face is divided into three parts, namely: the forehead, one; the nose, another; and from the nose to the chin, another. From the side of the nose through the whole length of the eye, one of these measures. From the end of the eye up to the ear, one of these measures. From one ear to the other, a face lengthwise, one face. From the chin under the jaw to the base of the throat, one of the three measures. The throat, one measure long. From the pit of the throat to the top of the shoulder,
1 The reading of R may be preferred: “Just make them with verdaccio and shaped up with white, at first.” This corresponds more closely to the practice described in the previous chapters.
PAINTING DRAPERY IN FRESCO 49
one face; and so for the other shoulder. From the shoulder to the elbow, one face. From the elbow to the joint of the hand, one face and one of the three measures. The whole hand, lengthwise, one face. From the pit of the throat to that of the chest, or stomach, one face. From the stomach to the navel, one face. From the navel to the thigh joint, one face. From the thigh to the knee, two faces. From the knee to the heel of the leg, two faces. From the heel to the sole of the foot, one of the three measures. The foot, one face long.
A man is as long as his arms crosswise. The arms, including the hands, reach to the middle of the thigh. The whole man is eight faces and two of the three measures in length. A man has one breast rib less than a woman, on the left side. A man has. . .* bones in all. The handsome man must be swarthy, and the woman fair, etc. I will not tell you about the irrational animals, because you will never discover any system of proportion in them. Copy them and draw as much as you can from nature, and you will achieve a good style in this respect.
THE WAY TO PAINT A DRAPERY IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXXI
Now let us get right back to our fresco-painting. And, on the wall,’ if you wish to paint a drapery, any color you please, you should first draw it carefully with your verdaccio; and do not have your drawing show too much, but moderately. Then, whether you want a white drapery or a red one, or yellow, or green, or whatever you want, get three little dishes. Take one of them, and put into it whatever color you choose, we will say red: take some cinabrese and a little lime white; and let this be one color, well diluted with water. Make one of the other two colors light, putting a great deal of lime white into it. Now take some out of the first dish, and some of this light, and make an intermediate color; and you will have three of them. Now take some of the first one, that is, the dark one; and with a rather large and fairly pointed bristle brush go over the folds of your figure in the darkest areas; and do not go past the middle of the thickness of your figure. Then take the intermediate color; lay it in from one dark strip
1 A numeral is omitted here: the omission is marked in L. 21, 47, 1. 8, read: “fresco. E, in muro, <s>e.”
50 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
to the next one, and work them in together, and blend your folds into the accents of the darks. Then, just using these intermediate colors, shape up the dark parts where the relief of the figure is to come, but always following out the shape of the nude. Then take the third, lightest color, and just exactly as you have shaped up and laid in the course of the folds in the dark, so you do now in the relief, adjusting the folds ably, with good draftsmanship and judgment. When you have laid in two or three times with each color, never abandoning the sequence of the colors by yielding or invading the location of one color for another, except where they come into conjunction, blend them and work them well in together. Then in another dish take still an- other color, lighter than the lightest of these three; and shape up the tops of the folds, and put on lights. Then take some pure white in another dish, and shape up definitively all the areas of relief. Then go over the dark parts, and around some of the outlines, with straight cinabrese; and you will have your drapery, systematically carried out. But you will learn far better by seeing it done than by reading. When you have finished your figure or scene, let it dry until the mortar and the colors have dried out well all over. And if you still have any drapery to do in secco, you will follow this method.
THE WAY TO PAINT ON A WALL IN SECCO; AND THE TEMPERAS FOR IT. CHAPTER LXXII
You may use any of those colors which you used in fresco, in secco as well; but there are colors which cannot be used in fresco, such as orpiment, vermilion, azurite, red lead, white lead, verdigris, and lac. Those which can be used in fresco are giallorino, lime white, black, ocher, cinabrese, sinoper, terre-verte, hematite. The ones which are used in fresco call for lime white as an adjunct, to make them lighter; and the greens, when you want to keep them as greens, call for gial- lorino: when you want to leave them as sage greens, use white. Those colors which cannot be used in fresco require white lead and giallorino as adjuncts, to make them lighter, and sometimes orpiment: but orpi- ment very seldom. Now if you are to execute a blue with lights on it,*
1 See n. 2, p. 37, above.
SECCO-PAINTING SI
follow that three-dish system which I taught you for the flesh color and the cinabrese; and the system will be the same for this, except that where you took lime white before, you now take white lead; and you temper everything. There are two good kinds of tempera for you, one better than the other. The first tempera: take the white and yolk of the egg; put in a few clippings of fig shoots; and beat it up well. Then put some of this tempera into the little dishes, a moderate amount, neither too much nor not enough, just about as a wine might be half diluted with water. And then use your colors, white or green or red, just as I showed you for fresco; and carry out your draperies the same way you did in fresco, handling it with restraint, allowing time for it to dry out. Know that if you put in too much tempera the color will soon crack and peel away from the wall. Be reasonable and judicious. I advise you first, before you begin to paint, if you want to make a drapery of lac or any other color, before you do anything else, take a well-washed sponge; and have a yolk and white of egg together, and put them into two porringerfuls of clear water, mixing it up thor- oughly; and go evenly over the whole work which you have to paint in secco and also to embellish with gold, with your sponge half squeezed out in this tempera; and then proceed to paint freely, as you please. The second tempera is simply yolk of egg; and know that this tempera is a universal one, for wall, for panels, or for iron; and you cannot use too much, but be reasonable, and choose a middle course. Before you go any farther with this tempera, I want you to carry out a drapery in secco. Just as I had you do with cinabrese in fresco, I now want you to do with ultramarine. Take three dishes as usual; put the two parts of blue and the third of white lead into the first one; and into the third dish, the two parts white lead and the third blue; and mix and temper them as I have told you. Then take the empty dish, that is, the second; take as much out of one dish as out of the other, and make up a mixture, stirring it thoroughly.” With a bristle brush, or a firm, blunt minever one, and the first color* that is, the darkest, go over the accents, shaping up the darkest folds. Then take the medium color, and lay in some of those dark folds, and shape up the light folds in the relief of the figure. Then take the third color, and lay it in, and
21, 49, l. 26, read: “rimenata. Con.” 3 [bid., |. 27, read: “sodo, ecchol.”
52 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
make the folds which come on top of the relief; and work one well into the other, blending and laying in, as I taught you for fresco. Then take the lightest color, and put some white lead into it, with some tempera; and shape up the tops of the folds in the relief. Then take a little straight white lead, and go over certain strong reliefs as the nude of the figure requires. Then shape up the limits of the dark- est folds and outlines with some straight ultramarine; and in this way stroke over the drapery the colors corresponding to each area, with- out mixing or contaminating one color with another, except deli- cately. And work with lac in the same way, and with every color which you use in secco, etc.
HOW TO MAKE A VIOLET COLOR. CHAPTER LXXIII
If you wish to make a pretty violet color, take fine lac and ultra- marine blue, in equal parts. Then, when it is tempered, take three dishes as before; and leave some of this violet color in its little dish, for touching up the darks. Then, with what you take out of it, make up three values of color for laying in the drapery, each stepped up lighter than the others, as described above.
TO EXECUTE A VIOLET COLOR IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXXIIII If you want to make a violet for use in fresco, take indigo and hematite, and make a mixture like the previous one, without tem- pera; and make four values of it in all. Then execute your drapery.
TO TRY TO IMITATE AN ULTRAMARINE BLUE FOR USE IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXXV If you want to make a drapery in fresco which will look like ultra- marine blue, take indigo and lime white, and step your colors up to- gether; and then, in secco, touch it in with ultramarine blue in the accents.
SHOT DRAPERIES 53
TO PAINT A PURPLE OR TURNSOLE DRAPERY IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXXVI If you want to do a purple drapery in fresco which will look like lac, take hematite and lime white, and step up your colors as de- scribed. And blend them and work them well together. Then, in secco, touch it in with pure lac, tempered, in the accents.
TO PAINT A SHOT! GREEN DRAPERY IN FRESCO. CHAPTER LXXVII
If you want to make a shot drapery for an angel in fresco, lay in the drapery in two values of flesh color, one darker and one lighter, blend- ing them well at the middle of the figure. Then, on the dark side, shade the darks with ultramarine blue; and shade with terre-verte on the lighter flesh color, touching it up afterward in secco. And know that everything which you execute in fresco needs to be brought to completion, and touched up, in secco with tempera. Make the lights on this drapery in fresco just as I have told you for the rest.
TO PAINT IN FRESCO A DRAPERY SHOT WITH ASH GRAY. CHAPTER LXXVIII
If you want to make a shot drapery in fresco, take lime white and black, and make a minever color which is known as ash gray. Lay it in; put the lights on it, using giallorino for some and lime white for others, as you please. Apply the darks with black or with violet or with dark green.
TO PAINT ONE IN SECCO SHOT WITH LAC. CHAPTER LXXVIIII If you want to make a shot one in secco, lay it in with lac; put on the lights with flesh color, or with giallorino; shade the darks either with straight lac or with violet, with tempera.
1 NED, s.v. “shot,” 5, c; Cennino’s word is cangiante. See DuCange, Glossarium, s.v. “cangium.” J. Karabacek, “Neue Quellen zur Papiergeschichte,” in Mitteilungen aus
54 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
TO PAINT ONE IN FRESCO OR IN SECCO SHOT WITH OCHER. CHAPTER LXXX If you wish to make a shot one either in fresco or in secco, lay it in with ocher; put on the lights with white; and shade it with green in the light; and in the dark, with black and sinoper, or else with hematite.
TO PAINT A GREENISH-GRAY COSTUME IN FRESCO OR IN SECCO. CHAPTER LXXXI If you wish to make a greenish-gray drapery, take black and ocher, that is, the two parts ocher and the third black; and step up the colors as I have taught you before, both in fresco and in secco.
TO PAINT A COSTUME, IN FRESCO AND IN SECCO, OF A GREENISH-GRAY COLOR LIKE THE COLOR OF WOOD. CHAPTER LXXXII If you want to make a wood color, take ocher, black, and sinoper; but the two parts ocher, and black and red to the amount of half the ocher. Step up your colors with this in fresco, in secco, and in tempera.
TO MAKE A DRAPERY, OR A MANTLE FOR OUR LADY, WITH AZURITE OR ULTRAMARINE BLUE. CHAPTER LXXXIII
If you wish to make a mantle for Our Lady with azurite, or any other drapery which you want to make solid blue, begin by laying in the mantle or drapery in fresco with sinoper and black, the two parts sinoper,’ and the third black. But first scratch in the plan of the folds with some little pointed iron, or with a needle. Then, in secco, take some azurite, well washed either with lye or with clear water, and worked over a little bit on the grinding slab. Then, if the blue is good
der Sammlung der Papyrus Erzherzog Rainer, lV (1888), 119, offers ingenious argu- ments for deriving this word from the name of the “durch ihre satinirten Stoffe beruhmten chinesischen Stadt Chanfd (arab.).”
17, 53, 1. 6, read: “di nero, [mal]le due.”
PAINTING MOUNTAINS 55
and deep in color, put into it a little size, tempered neither too strong nor too weak (and I will tell you about that later on). Likewise put an egg yolk into the blue; and if the blue is pale, the yolk should come from one of these country eggs, for they are quite red. Mix it up well. Apply three or four coats to the drapery, with a soft bristle brush. When you have got it well laid in, and after it is dry, take a little indigo and black, and proceed to shade the folds of the mantle as much as you can, going back into the shadows time and again, with just the tip of the brush. If you want to get a little light on the tops of the knees or other reliefs, scratch the pure blue with the point of the brush handle.?
If you want to put ultramarine blue on a ground or on a drapery, temper it as described for the azurite, and apply two or three coats of it over the latter. If you wish to shade the folds, take a little fine lac, and a little black, tempered with yolk of egg; and shade it as deli- cately and as neatly as you can, first with a little wash, and then with the point <of the brush>; and make as few folds as possible, because ultramarine wants little association with any other mixture.
TO MAKE A BLACK DRAPERY FOR A MONK’S OR FRIAR’S ROBE, IN FRESCO AND IN SECCO. CHAPTER LXXXIIII If you want to make a black drapery, for a friar’s or monk’s robe, take pure black, stepping it up in several values, as I have already told you above, for fresco; for secco, mixed with a tempera.
ON THE WAY TO PAINT A MOUNTAIN, IN FRESCO OR IN SECCO. CHAPTER LXXXV
If you want to do mountains in fresco or in secco, make a verdaccio color, one part of black, the two parts of ocher. Step up the colors, for fresco, with lime white and without tempera; and for secco, with
2 This roughing of the surface gives a lighter value without the use of white. It is, as Cennino suggests, of limited application, even in secco; in panel-painting it is not to be practiced, for varnish nullifies the optical effect upon which the lighter value depends. The point of this ingenious trick is to keep the blue at its maximum intensity in the lights, in contrast to the technique described in Chapter LXXII, pp. 50-52,
56 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
white lead and with tempera. And apply to them the same system of shadow and relief that you apply to a figure. And the farther away you have to make the mountains look, the darker you make your colors; and the nearer you are making them seem, the lighter you make the colors.
THE WAY TO PAINT TREES AND PLANTS AND FOLIAGE, IN FRESCO AND IN SECCO. CHAPTER LXXXVI
If you wish to embellish these mountains with groves of trees or with plants, first lay in the trunk of the tree with pure black, tem- pered, for they can hardly be done in fresco; and then make a range of leaves with dark green, but using malachite, because terre-verte is not good; and see to it that you make them quite close. Then make up a green with giallorino, so that it isa little lighter, and do a smaller number of leaves, starting to go back to shape up some of the ridges. Then touch in the high lights on the ridges with straight giallorino, and you will see the reliefs of the trees and of the foliage. But before this, when you have got the trees laid in, do the base and some of the branches of the trees with black; and scatter the leaves upon them, and then the fruits; and scatter occasional flowers and little birds over
the foliage.
HOW BUILDINGS ARE TO BE PAINTED, IN FRESCO AND IN SECCO. CHAPTER LXXXVII If you want to do buildings, get them into your drawing in the scale you wish; and snap the lines." Then lay them in with verdaccio, and with terre-verte, quite thin in fresco or in secco. And you may do some with violet, some with ash gray, some with green, some
above. There, the maximum intensity is found only in the deep shadows; the lights are neutralized progressively, by the addition of white. Here, all is to be pure blue except such portions as are neutralized, in the direction of black, by the thin surface modeling of the shadows. The only light modeling regarded as consistent with the display of this fair field of valuable color is achieved by the optical trick described. A clear under- standing of this distinction is necessary to grasp the significance of the vestiri biancheg- giati mentioned in Chapter LXXII. See n. 2, p. 37, above. 1 See Chapter LXVII, p. 43, above.
OIL-PAINTING 57
with greenish gray, and likewise with any color you wish. Then make a long ruler, straight and fine; and have it chamfered on one edge, so that it will not touch the wall, so that if you rub on it, or run along it with the brush and color, it will not smudge things for you; and you will execute those little moldings with great pleasure and delight; and in the same way bases, columns, capitals, facades, fleu- rons, canopies, and the whole range of the mason’s craft, for it is a fine branch of our profession, and should be executed with great de- light. And bear in mind that they must follow the same system of lights and darks that you have in the figures. And put in the build- ings by this uniform system: that the moldings which you make at the top of the building should slant downward from the edge next to the roof; the molding in the middle of the building, halfway up the face, must be quite level and even; the molding at the base of the building underneath must slant upward, in the opposite sense to the upper molding, which slants downward.
THE WAY TO COPY A MOUNTAIN FROM NATURE. CHAPTER LXXXVIII ENDS THE THIRD SECTION OF THIS BOOK.
If you want to acquire a good style for mountains, and to have them look natural, get some large stones, rugged, and not cleaned up; and copy them from nature, applying the lights and the dark as your system requires.
HOW TO PAINT IN OIL ON A WALL, ON PANEL, ON IRON, AND WHERE YOU PLEASE. CHAPTER LXXXVIIII Before I go any farther, I want to teach you to work with oil on wall or panel, as the Germans are much given to do; and likewise on iron and on stone. But we will begin by discussing the wall.
HOW YOU SHOULD START FOR WORKING IN OIL ON A WALL. CHAPTER LXXXX Plaster the wall the way you do for fresco; except that where you do the plastering little by little, here you are to plaster the whole job
58 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
all at once. Then draw your scene with charcoal, and fix it either with ink or with tempered verdaccio. Then take a little well-diluted size. A still better tempera is the whole egg beaten up in a porringer with fig-tree latex; and pour a goblet of clear water over this egg. Then, either with a sponge or with the soft, rather blunt brush, apply one coat of it all over the ground which you have to execute; and let it dry for at least one day.
HOW YOU ARE TO MAKE OIL, GOOD FOR A TEMPERA, AND ALSO FOR MORDANTS, BY BOILING WITH FIRE. CHAPTER LXXXXI
You ought to know how to make this oil, since it is one of the use- ful things which you need to understand; for it is used for mordants, and for many purposes. And therefore take one pound, or two, or three, or four, of linseed oil, and put it into a new casserole; and if it is a glazed one, so much the better. Make a little stove; and make a round opening so that this casserole will fit into it exactly, so that the flame cannot come up past it; because the flame would be glad to get to it, and you would jeopardize the oil, and also risk burning down the house. When you have made your stove, start up a moderate fire: for the more gently you make it boil, the better and more perfect it will be. And make it boil down to a half, and it will do. But to make mordants, when it is reduced to a half,’ put into it one ounce of liquid
1 Bollire per mezo: Dr. A. P. Laurie, The Painter’s Methods and Materials (Philadel- phia: Lippincott, 1926), pp. 31, 32, and 41, in discussing the related passage in Chap- ter LXXXXII, se v’el tieni tanto che torni per mezo, brands the translation “reduced to one-half” as “nonsense.” Dr. Laurie suggests the alternative translation of mezzo as “bleached.” A simpler explanation will serve: the total volume of oil does not diminish, it is true, but upon exposure to sun and air a pellicle of “dried” oil forms, and as the drying process advances the volume of oil available for painting purposes is reduced. In this sense, a quantity of oil may be “reduced to a half” by exposure to the sun. Simi- larly, in boiling, waste takes place, and a quantity of oil may be “boiled down to a half.” If any doubt remained, the unequivocal order, “Fac bullire tam diu donec medietas olei sit consumpta,” from the Secreta magistri Johannis ortulani vera et pro- bata, should remove it. (See Ludwig Rockinger, “Zum baierischen Schriftwesen im Mittelalter,” Abhandlungen der historischen Classe der kéniglichen bayerischen Akade- mie der Wissenschaften, XII [1872], 1'€ Abteilung, p. 47. See also I, 65, 1. 12; and p. 66, 1. 10, bollire chettorni per terzo, and compare with this p. 67, l. 23.)
2 Quando ettornato per mezo: see n. I, above.
FAT OIL AND ITS USE 59
varnish which is bright and clear for each pound of oil; and this sort of oil is good for mordants.
HOW GOOD AND PERFECT OIL IS MADE BY COOKING IN THE SUN. CHAPTER LXXXXII When you have made this oil, some may be cooked in another way besides; and it is more perfect for painting, but for mordants it has to be cooked with fire. Take your linseed oil, and during the summer put it into a bronze or copper pan, or a basin, and keep it in the sun when August comes. If you keep it there until it is reduced to a half,” this will be most perfect for painting. And know that I have found it in Florence as good and choice as it could be.
HOW YOU SHOULD WORK UP THE COLORS WITH OIL, AND EMPLOY THEM ON THE WALL. CHAPTER LXXXXIII
Go back to working up or grinding, color by color, as you did for work in fresco; except that where you worked them up with water you now work them up with this oil. And when you have got them worked up, that is, some of every color, for all the colors will stand oil except lime white, get little lead or tin dishes into which to put these colors. And if you cannot find those, get glazed ones. And put in these ground-up colors; and put them into a little box to keep clean. Then when you wish to make a drapery in three values, as I have told you, mark them out and set them in their places with minever brushes, working one color well into another, keeping the colors quite stiff. Then wait a day or so, and go back, and see how they are covered, and lay them in again as necessary. And do the same for flesh-painting, and for doing any sort of work which you may care to carry out; and mountains, trees, and every other subject in the same way. Then have a plate of tin or lead which is one finger deep all around, like a lamp; and keep it half full of oil, and keep your brushes in it when idle, so that they will not dry up.
1 See n. 1, p. 58.
60 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW YOU SHOULD WORK IN OIL ON IRON, ON PANEL, ON STONE. CHAPTER LXXXXIIII And work on iron in the same way, and on stone; and on panel, always sizing first; and on glass likewise, or wherever you wish to work.
THE WAY TO EMBELLISH WITH GOLD OR WITH TIN ON A WALL. CHAPTER LXXXXV Now, since I have taught you the method of working in secco, in fresco, and in oil, I wish to show you how you should embellish the wall with tin, golden and white,” and with fine gold. And know that above all you are to work with as little silver as you can, because it does not last; and it turns black, both on wall and on wood, but it fails sooner on a wall. Use beaten tin or tin foil instead of it hence- forth. Also beware of alloyed gold, for it soon turns black.
HOW YOU SHOULD ALWAYS MAKE A PRACTICE OF WORKING WITH FINE GOLD AND WITH GOOD COLORS. CHAPTER LXXXXVI
Most people make a practice of embellishing a wall with golden tin,’ because it is less costly. But I give you this urgent advice, to make an effort always to embellish with fine gold, and with good colors, especially in the figure of Our Lady. And if you wish to reply that a poor person cannot make the outlay, I answer that if you do your work well, and spend time on your jobs, and good colors, you will get such a reputation that a wealthy person will come to compen- sate you for the poor one; and your standing will be so good for using good colors that if a master is getting one ducat for a figure, you will be offered two; and you will end by gaining your ambition. As the old saying goes, good work, good pay. And even if you were
1 See p. 113, below.
2 So R: dorato e bianco. L has dorato in bianco, which might be interpreted as “white made golden.” See n. 1, pp. 61 ff., below.
8 See n. 3, pp. 61 ff., below.
EMBELLISHMENTS WITH TIN 61
not adequately paid, God and Our Lady will reward you for it, body
and soul.
HOW YOU SHOULD CUT THE GOLDEN TIN, AND EMBELLISH. CHAPTER LXXXXVII
When you are embellishing with tin, either white or golden," so that you have to cut it with a penknife, first get a good, smooth board of nut or pear or plum wood, not too thin, the size of a royal folio in each dimension. Then get some liquid varnish; smear this board well; put your piece of tin on it, spreading it out and smoothing it down nicely. Then proceed to cut it with a penknife, well sharpened and. . .” at the point. And with a ruler cut the little strips of what- ever width you wish to make the ornaments, whether just of tin, or wide enough for you to embellish them afterward with black or other colors.
HOW TO MAKE GREEN TIN FOR EMBELLISHING. CHAPTER LXXXXVIII
Again, to embellish these ornaments, take some verdigris ground with linseed oil; and spread some all over a sheet of white tin, so that it will be a fine green. Let it dry well in the sun; then spread it out on the board with varnish. Then cut it with a penknife; or first make little rosettes, or any pretty trifles, with dies; and smear the board with liquid varnish, and set those rosettes out on it: then fasten them to the wall. Furthermore, if you wish to make stars with fine gold, or to apply the diadems of the saints, or to embellish with the knife as I have told you, you should first lay the fine gold on the golden tin.
HOW TO MAKE THE GOLDEN TIN, AND HOW TO LAY FINE GOLD WITH THIS VERMEIL.’ CHAPTER LXXXXVIII
Golden tin is made as follows. Set up a nice, smooth board, six
1 See n. 3, below.
2 A word seems to be missing here: perhaps “thin.” In the apparatus, I, 59, for “3” read “24.”
8 Doratura, that is, deauratura; see NED, s.v. “vermeil,” 4, a. The ancient and widespread tradition represented here must be made the subject of a separate study; but
62 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
or eight feet long; and have it smeared with fat or tallow. Some of this white tin is laid out on it; then a liquid known as vermeil is put on the tin, in three or four places, a little in each place; and you pat over this tin with the palm of your hand, so as to get this vermeil as even in one part as in another. Let it dry well in the sun. When it is almost dry, so that it is just a little bit tacky, take your fine gold, and sys- tematically overlay and cover the tin with this fine gold. Then clean it up with some very clean cotton; separate the tin from the board. When you want to use it, work with liquid varnish; and make those stars with it, or any devices you wish, just as you do with the golden tin.
some instances are cited below in support of my translation of dorato as “golden,” and also to indicate the general character of the material, doratura.
Two rules in the Compositiones ad tingenda . . ., “De tinctio petalorum,” and “De inductio exorationis” (ed. Muratori, Anziquitates [Milan, 1739], II, 385, B-C, and 381, D; ed. also, with translation, in J. M. Burnam, A Classical Technology Edited from Codex Lucensis, 490 [Boston, 1920], pp. 67, 68, and 129; 58 and 120, 121), reappear with variants in the Mappae clavicula. (See ed. T. Phillipps, Archaeologia, XXXII [1847], 212, § cxvi; 227, § ccviii; 211, § cxv.) Theophilus’ Schedula, MSS L? and P (see my article, “The Schedula of Theophilus Presbyter,” Speculum, VII [1932], 203), outlines the use of gold leaf laid over varnished tin for use on walls. (See ed. A. Ilg, in Quellenschriften, VII [ Vienna, 1874], 55.) The Schedula gives also (ed. cit., pp: 57-59) a rule of somewhat different character for coloring “tabulas stagneas tenua- tas ut tanquam deauratae videantur” to be used “loco auri quando aurum non habetur,” allied to Cap. XIII, “De deauratura petulae stagni,” in Heraclius, De coloribus et artibus Romanorum. (See Merrifield, op. cit., I, 221.) (In this chapter Heraclius describes as deauratura an amalgam of tin with mercury; and in Cap. XIV the term seems to be applied to an amalgam of gold with mercury; but neither of these is the doratura of Cennino.)
Petrus de Sancto Audemaro, Liber de coloribus, devotes five sections to the sub- ject ($$ 205-209 in Merrifield, op. cit., I, 161-165): “De modo attenuandi [read tinguendi?] laminas stanni ut auratae videantur, ex carentia auri utendas in operibus” —the very argument discounted by Cennino in Chapter LXXXXVI; “De modo deau- randi folia seu laminas stanni attenuatas,”’ etc. The recipe “Ad ponendum aurum finum super stagno aurato” in J. LeBeégue’s Experimenta de coloribus, § 105 (Merrifield, op. cit., 1, 95), involves still a different type of procedure, but confirms the distinction be- tween “golden” and “gilded” tin.
Cennino’s doratura was evidently a sort of transparent yellow oil-gold-size, which could be used as a lacquer on tin, to produce a golden effect; or, alternatively, as a mordant for gilding with leaf over tin foil, either plain or previously lacquered with doratura. Montpellier, Ecole de Médecine, MS 277, approximately contemporary with the Libro dell’Arte, contains (No. 17) a Liber diversarum artium (published in Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothéques publiques des départements, | | Paris, 1849], 739-811), which preserves (II, 8; fol. 967, col. 1; ed. cit., p. 789) a rule, “De confectione dorature,” which probably represents the sort of compound which Cennino knew under this name:
“Doratura is made in this way. Take hepatic aloes, one ounce; linseed oil, two
MURAL EMBELLISHMENTS 63
HOW TO FASHION OR CUT OUT THE STARS, AND PUT THEM ON THE WALL. CHAPTER C
First you have to cut out all the stars with the ruler; and wherever you have to put them on, first put a little lump of wax on the blue, wherever the star comes; and shape the star on it, ray by ray, just as you cut it on the board. And know that much more work can be done with less fine gold than can be done by mordant gilding.
HOW YOU CAN MAKE THE DIADEMS OF THE SAINTS ON THE WALL WITH THIS TIN GILDED WITH FINE GOLD. CHAPTER CI
Likewise, if you want to make the diadems of the saints without mordants, after you have painted the figure in fresco, take a needle, and scratch around the outline of the head. Then after it is dry smear the diadem with varnish, put your tin on it, either golden or gilded with fine gold; put it over this varnish, pat it down well with the palm of your hand; and you will see the marks which you made with the needle. Take a well-sharpened knife point, and trim the gold up carefully; and put the surplus aside for your other jobs.
HOW YOU SHOULD MODEL UP A DIADEM IN LIME MORTAR ON A WALL. CHAPTER CII
Know that the diadem wants to be modeled up with a small trowel on the fresh plaster, as follows. When you have drawn the head of the
pounds; a little saffron; and boil them all up in a pot until the aloes are well dis- solved; then strain them through a cloth into another dish, and vermeil (deaura) thinly with your hand two or three times with this doratura; and gold will be improved, and tin most of all, and silver. But that color is applied only once, thinly, over gold.”
(For the composition and use of a similar preparation in the eighteenth century, see articles “Vermeil” and “Vermeillionner” in Sieur Watin, L’art du peintre, doreur, vermisseur . . . [2d ed., Paris, 1773], pp. 144, 159. It is recommended to “reléver l’éclat de l’or et lui donner un plus beau lustre,” as in the rule just quoted.)
A similar rule in the same chapter of the Liber diversarum artium may be noted, though it is not specifically labeled doratura. Fol. 985%, col. 2 (ed. cit., p. 798), II, 5, states that “cum doratura pictorum potest vas stagneum deaurari.”
Instances might be multiplied, but the above should suffice to demonstrate the jus- tice of translating doratura as “vermeil,” and stagno dorato as “golden tin.”
64 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
figure, take the compasses, and swing the halo. ‘Then take a little very fat lime mortar, made into a sort of ointment or dough, and plaster this lime mortar rather thick around the outside of the circle, and thin in toward the head. Then when you have got the lime mortar quite smooth, take the compasses again, and with the penknife’ cut away the mortar along the path of the compasses; and it will come out in relief. Then take a little slice? of strong wood, and indent the radi- ating beams of the diadem. And this wants to be the system for the wall.
HOW FROM THE WALL YOU ENTER UPON PANEL-PAINTING. CHAPTER CIII ENDS THE FOURTH SECTION OF THIS BOOK.
When you do not want to embellish your figures with tin, you may embellish them with mordants, which I shall discuss thoroughly in due course, later on: which ones you may use for wall, for panel, for glass, for iron, and for every kind of material; and the ones which are strong, and adequate to stay outside in the wind and wet; and the ones which are to be varnished, and the ones which are not. But still I must get back to our painting, and from the wall go on to panels or anconas, the nicest and the neatest occupation which we have in our profession. And bear this well in mind, that anyone who learns to work on the wall first, and then on panel, will not get such per- fect mastery by his bargain as one who starts learning on panel first, and then on the wall.
THE SYSTEM BY WHICH YOU SHOULD PREPARE TO ACQUIRE THE SKILL TO WORK ON PANEL. CHAPTER CIIII
Know that there ought not to be less time spent in learning than this: to begin as a shopboy studying for one year, to get practice in drawing on the little panel; next, to serve in a shop under some mas- ter to learn how to work at all the branches which pertain to our
1 Sc., “fastened to one beam.” 2 See n. 5, p. 21, above.
MAKING PASTE 65
profession; and to stay and begin the working up of colors; and to learn to boil the sizes, and grind the gessos; and to get experience in gessoing anconas, and modeling and scraping them; gilding and stamping; for the space of a good six years. Then to get experience in painting, embellishing with mordants, making cloths of gold, getting practice in working on the wall, for six more years; drawing all the time, never leaving off, either on holidays or on workdays.’ And in this way your talent, through much practice, will develop into real ability. Otherwise, if you follow other systems, you need never hope that they will reach any high degree of perfection. For there are many who say that they have mastered the profession without having served under masters. Do not believe it, for I give you the example of this book: even if you study it by day and by night, if you do not see some practice under some master you will never amount to anything, nor will you ever be able to hold your head up in the company of masters.
Beginning to work on panel, in the name of the Most Holy Trinity: always invoking that name and that of the Glorious Virgin Mary.
HOW YOU MAKE BATTER OR FLOUR PASTE. CHAPTER CV
To begin with we have to make . . .,° that is; and they are known as various sorts of size. There is one size which is made of cooked batter, and it is good for parchment workers and masters who make books; and it is good for pasting parchments together, and also for fastening tin to parchment. We sometimes need it for pasting up parchments to make stencils. This size is made as follows. Take a pipkin almost full of clear water; get it quite hot. When it is about to boil, take some well-sifted flour; put it into the pipkin little by little, stirring constantly with a stick or a spoon. Let it boil, and do not get it too thick. Take it out; put it into a porringer. If you want to keep it from going bad, put in some salt; and so use it when you need it.
1 Cf. Othloh, Liber de Temptatione . . ., in Pertz, Monumenta germaniae his- toriae scriptorum, XI, 392: “ . raro nisi in festivis diebus aut in aliis horis incom- petentibus ab hoc opere cessaret.”
2 We can only guess at the words omitted here: perhaps “the necessary adhesive ma- terials” might be supplied.
66 THE CRAFTSMAN’S HANDBOOK
HOW YOU SHOULD MAKE CEMENT FOR MENDING STONES. CHAPTER CVI
There is a cement which is good for mending stones: and this one is made of mastic, fresh wax, sifted pounded stone; and then all melted up thoroughly together on the fire. Take your broken stone, and warm it well; put some of this cement on it. It will last forever, in the wind; and in water if you were to mend sharpening or grind- ing wheels, or millstones, with it.
HOW TO MAKE CEMENT FOR MENDING DISHES OF GLASS. CHAPTER CVII
And there is a cement which is good for mending glasses, or hour- glasses,