DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0086
18
FRESCO PAINTING.
or birds, or representations of other objects, are drawn on a
dry wall, the wall must be immediately sprinkled with water until
it is quite wet. And all the colours which are to be put on,
must be mixed with lime, and laid on at one wetting, in order that
they may dry along with the wall, and may adhere to it. Under
ultramarine and green the colour called veneda, which is composed
of black mixed with lime, must be put as a ground ; and upon this
colour, when it is dry, must be laid, in the proper place, a thin coat of
ultramarine, tempered with the yolk of an egg mixed with plenty of
water: and after this a thicker coat must be laid, to make it look
well. Green also must be mixed with succus a and black.”—Chap. xv.
From these distinctions it is evident that ceilings were painted in
secco, and that paintings on walls were begun in fresco, and finished
in distemper or secco.
Theophilus concludes the sixteenth chapter in the following
manner:—
“ All colours which are placed under others on a wall must be
mixed with lime, to give them more firmness; under ultramarine
and meneschf and green, veneda must be laid; under vermilion, burnt
ochre; under ochre and folium,c the same colours mixed with lime.”
The following summary of these instructions of Theophilus for
painting on walls may not be uninteresting to the reader. It is
copied from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Royal, at Paris, written
by Jehan le Begue, “ licentiatum in legibus, Anno Domini,
MCCCCXXXI.”
“ Pour peindre murs, mettez un po de chaux avec ocre pour avoir
plus grant clarte, ou vous la mettez avec rouge simple, ou avec prasin,
ou avec une couleur qui est nommde posce, qui est faite de ocre vert
et de membrayne, ou vous pouvez prandre dune couleur qui soit faite
de synople et docre, et de chaux, et de posce, &c.; et doivent estre
murs paint plus moiste que autre chose, pour ceque les couleurs se
tiennent mieulx ensembles, et soient plus formes. Et doivent toutes
couleurs pour murs estre melles avecques chaux vive.”
a A green colour prepared from vegetables.
b Menesch—The nature of this colour is not known.
e A vegetable pigment from which three different colours were prepared,
FRESCO PAINTING.
or birds, or representations of other objects, are drawn on a
dry wall, the wall must be immediately sprinkled with water until
it is quite wet. And all the colours which are to be put on,
must be mixed with lime, and laid on at one wetting, in order that
they may dry along with the wall, and may adhere to it. Under
ultramarine and green the colour called veneda, which is composed
of black mixed with lime, must be put as a ground ; and upon this
colour, when it is dry, must be laid, in the proper place, a thin coat of
ultramarine, tempered with the yolk of an egg mixed with plenty of
water: and after this a thicker coat must be laid, to make it look
well. Green also must be mixed with succus a and black.”—Chap. xv.
From these distinctions it is evident that ceilings were painted in
secco, and that paintings on walls were begun in fresco, and finished
in distemper or secco.
Theophilus concludes the sixteenth chapter in the following
manner:—
“ All colours which are placed under others on a wall must be
mixed with lime, to give them more firmness; under ultramarine
and meneschf and green, veneda must be laid; under vermilion, burnt
ochre; under ochre and folium,c the same colours mixed with lime.”
The following summary of these instructions of Theophilus for
painting on walls may not be uninteresting to the reader. It is
copied from a MS. in the Bibliotheque Royal, at Paris, written
by Jehan le Begue, “ licentiatum in legibus, Anno Domini,
MCCCCXXXI.”
“ Pour peindre murs, mettez un po de chaux avec ocre pour avoir
plus grant clarte, ou vous la mettez avec rouge simple, ou avec prasin,
ou avec une couleur qui est nommde posce, qui est faite de ocre vert
et de membrayne, ou vous pouvez prandre dune couleur qui soit faite
de synople et docre, et de chaux, et de posce, &c.; et doivent estre
murs paint plus moiste que autre chose, pour ceque les couleurs se
tiennent mieulx ensembles, et soient plus formes. Et doivent toutes
couleurs pour murs estre melles avecques chaux vive.”
a A green colour prepared from vegetables.
b Menesch—The nature of this colour is not known.
e A vegetable pigment from which three different colours were prepared,