Merrifield, Mary P.: The art of fresco painting, as practised by the old Italian and Spanish masters, with a preliminary inquiry into the nature of the colours used in fresco painting: with observations and notes (London: Charles Gilpin, 1846)

xxxii

OF THE COLOURS USED

very wet stucco, they have often deceived people, appearing to be
carmine. He adds that Pabonazo is one degree lower in tone than
Albin, and that it is not sold in shops, but is brought from the
copper mines in the kingdom of Jaen, and there, and in all
Andalusia, it is much valued by painters and gilders, and is even
sold under the name of Almagre. This passage identifies Pabonazo
with Almagre.
I think it will appear, from the preceding extracts, that the
pigments called Majorica, or Majolica and Almagre, are of the same
nature as Sinopia. But it is probable the latter was the finer colour ;
since Pacheco always distinguished it by the name of Almagre de
Levante, thus shewing the similarity of its nature, and a preference
for the oriental pigment, although, as before mentioned, Strabo
says, that the kind produced in Spain was not inferior to the true
Sinopia. Palomino has distinctly informed us that Pabonazo was
also called by the Arabic name Almagre. It is probable that
Sinopia was superseded by Terra Rossa d’ Inghilterra in Italy, since
P. Lomazzo does not mention Sinopia, and by Pabonazo or Almagre
in Spain. Georgius Agricola, speaking of the colour called Arme-
nian blue, observes, that it had been very scarce since the Turks
had been masters of the country. The same influence may also
have prevented the introduction of Sinopia into Europe in sufficient
quantities for the use of painters, and occasioned them to have
recourse to the productions of other countries for their pigments.
The French translator of Pliny mentions that a kind of Bol d’
Espagne, called vermilion, was sold about 1725. Benvenuto
Cellini mentions (Opere. vol. iii. p. 145.) among ingredients used
to give a colour to gold, “ Ferretta di Spagna;” now Ferretta di
Spagna, or Ferretta simply, is a kind of Haematite which is a true
ore of iron (see Alberti Diz. Enc.) There is also an artificial kind
described by Neri, (Art. Vit.) made by calcining copper with sul-
phur. I merely mention this fact to shew that the two were not
synonymous. The appellation Ferret was applied by the French to
the Haematite.
The soft species from Cornwall, which appears to be formed from
the decomposition of the harder species, and which I have examined,
is heavy, dense, of the colour of liver, without any strong or gritty