DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52800#0362
342
APPENDIX.
signing their subjects in crayon, which they afterwards
strengthened with the pencil before they began to paint
their pictures; but it has been equally asserted that the
Venetian masters never used this mode, but trusted to
the suavity of their penciling, and fine natural colouring,
to make out the necessary contours. This last remark
has been found to be partly true, and partly not so, from
the observations which Monsieur Hacquin has had the
opportunity of making on the works of Titian and other
Venetian masters. By these masters the black crayon
has seldom been used, but in its place a pencil generally
dipped in red lead or carmine, for the purpose of tracing
a design, as in the case of the St. Peter Martyr, and it
also appears that their white chalk grounds were often
covered with a clear purply gray, previous to tracing
any design with the pencil, while at other times they
were lightly glazed over with a reddish-brown colour in
oil, which was likewise used by Rubens and by Rem-
brandt, in the first preparations for commencing their
pictures.
Mr. Hacquin mentioned that Rubens sometimes ap-
pears to have used red crayon lines for tracing his subject
previous to beginning his picture, but more generally
the grounds of his pictures denote that he had commenced
them with his pencil in hand, and made use of a finished
study only, while his fire, his rapidity, and confidence in
his own strength, would not permit him to use the more
precise and studious details of his art. Hence those
errors into which he has often fallen; having satisfied
himself too much by generalizing forms, although it is
well known that he could draw perfectly well, when he
APPENDIX.
signing their subjects in crayon, which they afterwards
strengthened with the pencil before they began to paint
their pictures; but it has been equally asserted that the
Venetian masters never used this mode, but trusted to
the suavity of their penciling, and fine natural colouring,
to make out the necessary contours. This last remark
has been found to be partly true, and partly not so, from
the observations which Monsieur Hacquin has had the
opportunity of making on the works of Titian and other
Venetian masters. By these masters the black crayon
has seldom been used, but in its place a pencil generally
dipped in red lead or carmine, for the purpose of tracing
a design, as in the case of the St. Peter Martyr, and it
also appears that their white chalk grounds were often
covered with a clear purply gray, previous to tracing
any design with the pencil, while at other times they
were lightly glazed over with a reddish-brown colour in
oil, which was likewise used by Rubens and by Rem-
brandt, in the first preparations for commencing their
pictures.
Mr. Hacquin mentioned that Rubens sometimes ap-
pears to have used red crayon lines for tracing his subject
previous to beginning his picture, but more generally
the grounds of his pictures denote that he had commenced
them with his pencil in hand, and made use of a finished
study only, while his fire, his rapidity, and confidence in
his own strength, would not permit him to use the more
precise and studious details of his art. Hence those
errors into which he has often fallen; having satisfied
himself too much by generalizing forms, although it is
well known that he could draw perfectly well, when he