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)

42

FRESCO PAINTING.

both mixed and pure, there will arise a well devised and harmonious
composition, no part of which, however insignificant it may be,
will be discordant from the rest; and therefore the composition
will not then be glaring and disagreeable, and appear like coloured
tapestry, nor yet so much sobered down and shaded that the flesh is
scarcely distinguishable from the other objects near it. The best
plan will be to observe a medium between the glaring and the dull;
and to let the colours and mixtures be neither too bright nor too
languid, but pure and clean, softly and delicately united with each
other, so as to produce a pure and exquisite beauty. We shall not
stop to consider the nature of the colours one by one, nor give an
account of the different sorts and qualities of them, because these are
supposed to be known to every one, but we shall speak of some
of their particular properties, and give other cautions concerning
their effects, on account of some contrarieties among them which are
not to be despised.
Of the purity of colours and mode of preparation.—All
the colours therefore, should, as much as possible, be used bright,
pure, and fine; and besides this, it is necessary to be very clean and
careful about them, in order to preserve them pure and distinct,
because, by every slight mixture that falls into them, and which
generally consists of the dust of other colours, they become soiled,
and lose a great part of their purity and brightness. There is also
much practice and diligence required in applying them properly, but
in using colours in fresco, we must remember that, as has been before
remarked, the wall will not take any other than the natural colours
which are found in the ground, and which consist of earths of seve-
ral colours, which, I think, must be well known, since they are
common enough in all parts of Italy; these are, for the most part,
ground with pure water, excepting smalt and other similar blues.
For the white which is used in fresco, they take, as is well known,
the powder of very white lime, such as that of Genoa, Milan, and
Ravenna, which, before it is used, must be well purified, and this
purification is performed in different ways by different painters; there
are some who make it first boil well on the fire, keeping it clear from
scum, which is done to get rid of the saline parts, and which prevents
its settling and drying too fast when applied to the wall; they then
let it cool in the open air, and pouring off the water from it, they
put it in the sun on baked bricks and suffer it to dry upon them. The