DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0064
liv
OF THE COLOURS USED
authors whose works are translated, and form part of this treatise.
Cennino Cennini has left the following directions for preparing Bianco
Sangiovanni :—
“ Take very white slaked lime; pulverise it, and put it into a little
tub for the space of eight days, changing the water every day, and
mixing the lime and water well together in order to extract from it
all unctuous properties. Then make it into small cakes, put them
upon the roof of the house in the sun, and the older these cakes are,
the whiter they become. If you wish to hasten the process, and
have the white very good, when the cakes are dry, grind them on
your slab with water, and then make them again into cakes, and dry
them as before. Do this twice, and you will see how perfectly white
they will become. This white must be ground thoroughly with
water. It is good for working in fresco, that is, on walls, without
tempera; and without this colour you can do nothing,—I mean, you
cannot paint flesh, or make tints of the other colours which are
necessary in painting on walls, namely, in fresco; and it never
requires any tempera.”—Cennino, p. 31.
The yellow colours, consisting of ochres of various shades, require
no particular notice. Giallorino (Naples yellow) is however some-
times admitted into fresco painting, but it should not be used where
the paintings are much exposed to the air.
The brown colours are also too well known to need a separate notice.
The artist will, of course, remember the tendency of umber to grow
darker with time, and will avoid those pigments which contain
vegetable matter.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Having thus inquired into the nature of the various colours used
in fresco painting, I may be allowed to observe in conclusion that all
writers are agreed in certain general principles, namely, that none
but natural earthy colours can be used with safety and propriety in
fresco painting, that these colours are not brilliant, but rather the
contrary, and that they derive their beauty from the harmony of the
OF THE COLOURS USED
authors whose works are translated, and form part of this treatise.
Cennino Cennini has left the following directions for preparing Bianco
Sangiovanni :—
“ Take very white slaked lime; pulverise it, and put it into a little
tub for the space of eight days, changing the water every day, and
mixing the lime and water well together in order to extract from it
all unctuous properties. Then make it into small cakes, put them
upon the roof of the house in the sun, and the older these cakes are,
the whiter they become. If you wish to hasten the process, and
have the white very good, when the cakes are dry, grind them on
your slab with water, and then make them again into cakes, and dry
them as before. Do this twice, and you will see how perfectly white
they will become. This white must be ground thoroughly with
water. It is good for working in fresco, that is, on walls, without
tempera; and without this colour you can do nothing,—I mean, you
cannot paint flesh, or make tints of the other colours which are
necessary in painting on walls, namely, in fresco; and it never
requires any tempera.”—Cennino, p. 31.
The yellow colours, consisting of ochres of various shades, require
no particular notice. Giallorino (Naples yellow) is however some-
times admitted into fresco painting, but it should not be used where
the paintings are much exposed to the air.
The brown colours are also too well known to need a separate notice.
The artist will, of course, remember the tendency of umber to grow
darker with time, and will avoid those pigments which contain
vegetable matter.
CONCLUDING REMARKS.
Having thus inquired into the nature of the various colours used
in fresco painting, I may be allowed to observe in conclusion that all
writers are agreed in certain general principles, namely, that none
but natural earthy colours can be used with safety and propriety in
fresco painting, that these colours are not brilliant, but rather the
contrary, and that they derive their beauty from the harmony of the