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)

VITRUVIUS AND GUEVARA.

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autempars, quee adpavimentum spectat, testaprimum cum calce trussiletur,
deinde opere tectorio sive albario poliatur. The meaning of these words
is, that the front part of the roof that corresponds with the floor,
should be first plastered with lime and the powder of baked pottery,
such as bricks, tiles, &c., and afterwards the whitewash should be
applied. This coat of lime and powdered brick having been applied,
the roof should receive three other coats of lime and sand? After
having applied the first, time should be given for it to dry, then the
second should be applied and suffered to dry, and then the third coat
should be given, so that after the first coat of plaster there should
be three coats of lime and sand. These having been applied and
suffered to dry, three other coats of lime and marble dust should
be given, the first thick, the second thinner, and the third thinner
still.b After the application of these three coats, the wall should be
smoothed or polished with pieces of smooth wood or other instru-
ment used for burnishing, not liable to injure the surface. All these
coats of plaster should be applied by rule and plummet, that no
difficulties should afterwards arise when the wall has to be painted.
The plastering, says Vitruvius, which has been applied with care,
will be firm and durable, and will never crack, because the burnishing
will have given it great firmness and a polish of wonderful brilliancy,
and the colours which are applied on it will be very bright and beau-
tiful ; for colours which are employed and used upon roofs and walls
that are fresh and just finished will last for ever, and will not fade,
because the moisture which was in the lime when it was burnt in the
kiln, is dried up and consumed in such a manner that it remains porous,
and ready to receive and absorb anything added to it; and thus
mixed and united with substances possessing other properties, and
the materials and principles of the one being united with those of
the others, when dry, the whole solidifies and hardens in such a man-
ner after the mixture, that the lime seems to have recovered its
peculiar properties and pristine hardness.
For this reason walls that are well finished, neither become soiled
by age, nor, if rubbed or cleaned, do the colours come off or fade,
a The sand coat, (for one only is applied,) is called in Italian, Arricciato, in
Spanish, Arenado.—Ed.
b The Intonaco. One coat only is applied in modem fresco painting. Mr. Wilson
(II. Rep. p. 38,) thinks that lime with marble dust does not make a good
intonaco; and he cites the arabesques, painted by Giovanni da Udina in the
upper Loggia of the Vatican, in support of his opinion.—Ed.