FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103  
104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   >>   >|  
ell to study Mr Eastlake's book, if he would have a ground that might suit his after-work. All grounds made with glues are bad--they not only crack, but change the colours. M. Merimee accurately examined the grounds of some of Titian's pictures--and found starch and paste. It is supposed that grounds in which red-lead and umber have been used darken all the pigments. The Venetians usually preferred painting on cloth, and not unfrequently chose the finest. There was a canvass used in Italy, and chiefly by the Bolognese school, which gives much richness, its peculiar texture being seen even through tolerably thick paint--the threads are in squares, and rather coarse. We are surprised that such is not to be met with in our shops. We have often endeavoured to obtain it without success. On canvass of this kind some painters, and among them Guercino, contrived greatly to raise the lights--so that as seen side-ways they appear to bulge. We are not aware how this was done. We take some credit to ourselves for having in the pages of Maga, so long ago as June 1839--promoted an inquiry into the nature of the vehicles used by the old masters. And this we did, knowing that we should incur some odium and contemptuous disapprobation at the hands of artists, too many of whom were jealous of any supposed superiority in their great predecessors, and were generally satisfied with the meguilp, (mastic varnish, beat up with drying oil,) which had, nevertheless, been proved so deceitful from the first days of its adoption. The readiness with which it was made, the facility of working which it offered, and its immediate brilliancy, were temptations too great to be resisted. The too common use of this vehicle, we confess, led us too far in a contrary direction--to set ourselves against all varnishes whatever; and we laid, perhaps, too much stress upon the authority of Tingry, who speaks strongly against the admixture[12] of varnishes with oil; and, with this bias, we reviewed, in Maga, M. Merimee's work, in which, certainly with mistranslations of the Latin of Theophilus, as well as of Italian quotations, he insisted upon the use principally of copal, though without any distrust of mastic. The difference between the texture of old paint, that is of the good age, both Italian and Flemish, and that which modern practice had exhibited, was too manifest to be overlooked; and we never could bring ourselves to believe that the meguilp in use, by
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103  
104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

grounds

 

varnishes

 

mastic

 

meguilp

 

texture

 
canvass
 

supposed

 

Italian

 

Merimee

 
varnish

drying

 
Flemish
 

modern

 

generally

 

satisfied

 

proved

 

deceitful

 

practice

 

knowing

 

artists


overlooked

 

contemptuous

 

disapprobation

 

exhibited

 

predecessors

 

superiority

 

manifest

 

jealous

 

difference

 

stress


Theophilus

 
authority
 

masters

 

quotations

 

Tingry

 
reviewed
 

admixture

 

strongly

 

speaks

 

mistranslations


direction

 

contrary

 

brilliancy

 

distrust

 

temptations

 

offered

 
working
 

adoption

 

readiness

 

facility