GLOSSARY-ITALIAN 17TH C.

PAINTING TECHNIQUESNorthern
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LLCSpecializing
in historic painting
and sculpture techniques
PAINTING TECHNIQUES-ITALIAN 17TH C.
Phoebe Dent Weil / Northern Light Studio, LLC
1602 Locust Street, Suite 815-A, St. Louis, MO 63103 / (314) 588-9680/
PDWeil@aol.com
http:/ /www.northernlightstudio.com
Prepared for the St. Louis Art Museum Class on Italian 1 ~ c. Painting
Techniques 31 August-5 October 2002
References: In addition to sources provided in the General Bibiliography: Renate

Woudhuysen- Keller, xeroxed notes provided at the Amsterdam-Maastricht Summer
University Course, "The Painter's Palette" 2000, 2001.; Gettens and Stout,
Painting Materials, a Short Encyclopaedia; and Mary Beal, A Study of Richard
Symonds;
Drawing
Painting
Pigments
DRAWING
References, see: Vasari, Proemio; Armenini, p. 41, pp. 63 if; Borghini, pp. 137
ff; Orfeo Boselli, Osservazioni della Scoltura Antica, ch. 10 "Del Disegno e che

sia", (MS. Rome, 1650's) P.D. Weil, ed.and notes (Florence:SPES) 1978. Crispijn
van de Passe, Della luce deldipingere et disegnare, Amsterdam, 1643; E. H.
Gombrich, Art and Illusion, London, 1966, pp. 156-68 (on teaching practices and
how-to-draw books); J. Watrous, The Craft of Old Master Drawings, Madison, WI,
1957.
Paper: In addition to white or off-white, two popular types of toned paper:
turchina : pale blue
made with indigo dye, which seems to have originated in Venice in the latter
15th c.and used throughout Italy by the 17th c; beretta: greenish-gray. The
paper could also be toned with washes, e.g. with bistre or tinted gesso thinly
applied. Chalk (It. lapis, lapis negro, lapis rosso etc.): black, red, white,
trimmed with a knife and held in a tocha lapis (Fr. porte-crayon) (chalk
holder); also charcoal, graphite, and lead white in watercolor form for
highlights.
Pen: quill
Ink: Lamp black plus gum water; also iron gall ink made from oak galls soaked in

water for several days and then adding some ferrous sulfate to make a deep
violet, browns with age and occasionally eats away the paper if acid content is
too high; bistre made from resinous wood soot. (See photos of iron gall ink
being made in our workshop. http://www.knaw.nl/ecpa/ink/index.html is a website
about iron gall ink)
PAINTING:
with particular reference to the technique of Artemisia and Orazio Gentileschi
Support:
Canvas: typically linen, plain or twill weave, attached by tacks to a strainer.
(Note: The stretcher was invented shortly prior to 1775.) For Rome, 17th c.,
typically plain (tabby) weave with density of7 to 8 threads per cm2, i.e. fairly

coarse weave, giving a craquelure pattern of small squares. For large paintings
canv~ses were typically pieced and sewn together.
Wood panel: prepared with a layer of rabbit skin glue and one or more layers of
gesso. For oil painting, to counteract the excessive absorbency of the gesso
ground, the panel was covered with an imprimatura or priming of ogliaccio (nasty

or dirty oil) probably based on sediment from cleaning the brushes and palette,
to reduce but not totally remove the absorbency of the gesso and to provide a
toned ground, even or streaky.
Copper: prepared with one or more very thin layers of lead white or lead white
plus small amounts of red or yellow ochre and carbon black in linseed oil [see:
Isabel Horovitz, "The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper
1575-1775"
Canvas preparation:
Glue size: applied hot or cold to isolate the oil-based ground from the canvas
Ground:Applied with a priming knife. Preliminary layer to fill interstices of
canvas weave and provide a smoother painting surface, of white gesso in Italy up

to end of 16dt c. Colored grounds were used in the early 16th century in North
Italy by e.g. Correggio, Dosso Dossi and Parmigianino. By 1600 colored grounds
were common practice and available commercially (Orazio's accounts noting
purchase of "tele impremite") throughout Italy and in the North, typically a
double ground, the first (lowest) a red-brown, composed of any or all of the
following: leadwhite, red and/or yellow ochre, umber, chalk, or gesso, and
carbon black; the second, referred to as the imprimatura, applied by the artist
in the studio, was typically a cool gray, composed of lead-white and carbon
black. The second layer is occasionally omitted, typical for Caravaggio, and
often in Artemisia. There were a number of alternatives such as the use of a
white preliminary ground followed by a thin, streaky warm-toned imprimatura
(Rubens), or a white preliminary ground followed by an even-toned pinkish or
buff-colored imprimatura (Vermeer).
Paint layers:
Underdrawing/ undermodeling:
Note on use of sgraffitto outlines:
Dead coloring, (It. sbozzo): blocking in the main areas of color. Dead coloring
could be different from and have a particular desired effect on the surface
color.
Painting / glazing (velare, velatura) / wet-on-wet / oiling out:
Varnish: -"amber varnish"(probably copal and colophony) used selectively and not

overall, in Orazio's paintings for "oiling out" where medium has sunk in
(prosciugare) and to produce smooth effects in paint applied subsequently. Both
drying oils and resins were used. Not much physical evidence remains because of
subsequent cleaning to remove discolored coatings. Various opinions regarding
the use of varnish can be found in the 17th c.(see: Felibien; Marco Boschini, La

Carta del NavegarPittoresco, Venice 1660; Baldinucci, "11 Lustrato"; De Mayerne)

etc.
Brush (It. penello, old English pencill or pensill): -two types: bristle from
hogs 'hair (setola) and those made from finer hair, like the polecat (puzzola),
minever (vaio) and badger (tasso) [see: Rosamond Harley, "Artists'
Brushes-Historical Evidence from the Sixteenth to the Nineteenth Century"]
Mahlstick (or maulstick): stick, about a yard long, with padded end used to
support and steady
the hand while painting.
Palette (It.tavoletta, tavoloua): -fine-grained wood (walnut or boxwood)
Easel (It. palcho)--:
Pincelier: container for solvent for cleaning brushes
Color grinding equipment: grinding slab (preferably porphyry) and grinding stone

or muller
MEDIUMS: DRYING OILS AND RESINS
Linseed oil: from the flax plant. Stand oil is linseed oil thickened by heating
in the absence of oxygen.
Walnut oil:
Poppy seed oil:
"Amber varnish from Venice of the kind used for lutes":-mentioned by de Mayerne
as used by Orazio (and Artemisia) G., "especially for the flesh areas so that
the whites can be applied more easily and give a sweeter effect. In this way he
works at his leisure without waiting for the colors to dry completely." Orazio's

"amber varnish" was probably a combination of colophony and copal resins
recently identified in the Getty Lot (see: Mark Leonard, et.al., "'Amber
varnish' and Orazio Gentileschi's 'Lot and his daughters"')
Various resins: Sandarac, mastic, damar, colophony (pece Greca), Venice
turpentine, etc
ADDITONAL TERMS
cangiante: -literally "changing"--Italian term for shot fabrics-i.e. fabrics
with warp and weft in different colors so that the color changes depending on
angle and direction of light-In painting, drapery has different hues in the
light and dark areas, and shadows are without black, but rather a pure color
contorni: outline, extolled by Pliny, Alberti, Annenini and theoreticians
through mid-17th c. as a great challenge in disegno. The importance of contorno
over ombra (shadow) was an important tenet of the classicists, beginning with
the Carracci, and was used to demonstrate the "erring ways" of Caravaggio.
METHODS OF COPYING, ENLARGING AND TRANSFERRING DESIGNS
calco, calcare, ricalcare, incisione indiretta: stylus tracing or incision.
graticola: -device made with strings stretched on a rectangular frame to form a
square grid The strings could be chalked and snapped against a wall, canvas or
other surface to transfer the grid pattern. A smaller scale drawing could then
be squared off with a ruler and copied with reasonable accuracy to the surface
squared off with the graticola.
lucidi: tracing paper made by applying oil, e.g. walnut oil to paper to make it
translucent According to the Volpato MS., the design could thus be traced in
charcoal or colored chalk. If this design was to be transferred onto canvas, a
piece of paper covered on the lower side with chalk was placed between this
oiled paper and the canvas. 'By means of a bone needle or a metal stylus, the
lines on the oiled paper were pressed onto the canvas, the chalk covered paper
in berween leaving impressed all the marks which were indented with the needle.
In order to transfer the design on to white paper, the middle paper was covered
with charcoal, or with red or black chalk. (See: Beal, M., Symonds)
spolvero: -technique of transferring a drawing to another surface, e.g. cartoon
to canvas or wall. The drawing was perforated along the lines and applied to the

intended surface. The punched lines were pounced with a small bag of charcoal
dust producing a dotted line on the canvas or wall.
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Specializing in historic painting and sculpture techniques