DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0038
xxviii
OF THE COLOURS USED
quemado by Palomino ; vitriolo calcinado, in the Spanish vocabulary
of terms of art before mentioned, and burnt Roman vitriol by the
English.
It is said by Pozzo to be a beautiful colour like lake for fresco, but
it is obvious, that if a natural pigment can be procured, the colour of
which is equally fine, it must be preferable for painting in fresco.
The Amatito of Cennino was not the amethyst. The lightness
and want of body of the colour of the latter, and the fact of that
colour being violet and not lake, sufficiently prove that the two
substances are not synonymous.
It is mentioned in the first Report of the Commissioners on the
Fine Arts p. 28, that Prof. Hess uses oxides of iron for red pigments
in fresco. It would be desirable to ascertain the exact species.
In conclusion, I would observe, that the red Haematite contains
nothing in its composition incompatible with lime and with the pig-
ments used in fresco painting; that lime is a constituent part of it;
that the ore is found in several parts of England, and in great abun-
dance at Ulverstone, in Lancashire, where it occurs in an enormously
thick vein, traversing limestone (see Phillips). That the difficulty of
grinding can be no objection to its use, since pigments are now ground
in a mill purposely constructed, and that it is most important to the
practice of fresco painting, to acquire a permanent pigment of a lake
colour ; that Amatito is not a new pigment now attempted to be
introduced for the first time, but one which has been tried and
approved. It may also be observed, that the colours produced from
iron are always permanent, the natural more so than the artificial,
and that such pigments are of universal application in painting.
I stated the characteristics of Amatito to Mr. Tremayne, of Heligan
in Cornwall, and to his kindness, I am indebted for a copious supply
of two species of red Heematite, from a mine in the parish of Roche
in Cornwall, the hard and the soft; and I caused a specimen of the
hard Heematite to be pulverized, and having washed some of the
powder, and poured off the lighter particles, I found a portion of
iron had sunk to the bottom, the removal of which seemed to render
the colour finer. I also calcined another portion of the stone, and
found it separated into scales, in the manner described. The colour
of the stone when calcined, varies from lake to violet, according
OF THE COLOURS USED
quemado by Palomino ; vitriolo calcinado, in the Spanish vocabulary
of terms of art before mentioned, and burnt Roman vitriol by the
English.
It is said by Pozzo to be a beautiful colour like lake for fresco, but
it is obvious, that if a natural pigment can be procured, the colour of
which is equally fine, it must be preferable for painting in fresco.
The Amatito of Cennino was not the amethyst. The lightness
and want of body of the colour of the latter, and the fact of that
colour being violet and not lake, sufficiently prove that the two
substances are not synonymous.
It is mentioned in the first Report of the Commissioners on the
Fine Arts p. 28, that Prof. Hess uses oxides of iron for red pigments
in fresco. It would be desirable to ascertain the exact species.
In conclusion, I would observe, that the red Haematite contains
nothing in its composition incompatible with lime and with the pig-
ments used in fresco painting; that lime is a constituent part of it;
that the ore is found in several parts of England, and in great abun-
dance at Ulverstone, in Lancashire, where it occurs in an enormously
thick vein, traversing limestone (see Phillips). That the difficulty of
grinding can be no objection to its use, since pigments are now ground
in a mill purposely constructed, and that it is most important to the
practice of fresco painting, to acquire a permanent pigment of a lake
colour ; that Amatito is not a new pigment now attempted to be
introduced for the first time, but one which has been tried and
approved. It may also be observed, that the colours produced from
iron are always permanent, the natural more so than the artificial,
and that such pigments are of universal application in painting.
I stated the characteristics of Amatito to Mr. Tremayne, of Heligan
in Cornwall, and to his kindness, I am indebted for a copious supply
of two species of red Heematite, from a mine in the parish of Roche
in Cornwall, the hard and the soft; and I caused a specimen of the
hard Heematite to be pulverized, and having washed some of the
powder, and poured off the lighter particles, I found a portion of
iron had sunk to the bottom, the removal of which seemed to render
the colour finer. I also calcined another portion of the stone, and
found it separated into scales, in the manner described. The colour
of the stone when calcined, varies from lake to violet, according