DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0149
PALOMINO.
81
from the lime and marble is formed a kind of stucco, such as is used
by modellers in plaster, who with this imitate statues of marble, and
other things, which deceive people by their touch, their lustre, their
coldness, and their hardness.
Of using the palette, brushes, &c.—These things being
prepared, the colours being ground, and each put into its proper vase
or saucer, with a spoon for each, in the manner described in the
chapter on distemper painting, and supposing the palette unnecessary
for general tints, which are prepared in the same way as those used
in distemper painting, we are now going to treat of the use of the
palette, which may consist of a piece of canvass of the length of a
“ vara,”3 or at least three-fourths of a vara, because there will then
be room to mix the tints with the brush, without their running one
into another, and a sufficient quantity of each colour should be put
on the palette at once, in fact more than is required, that the colour
may not dry too soon, and it should even be sprinkled with water
from time to time. For cleaning the palette when necessary, the
painter should have a sponge as large as his fist, with which, being
moistened, the palette should be thoroughly cleaned, and the dirty
water should be suffered to run into a large glazed jar full of water,
which is held in the hand, and which serves for this purpose, as well
as for washing the pencils when the colour is to be changed. There
should also be another jar of clean water to dip the pencil in, in order
to moisten and dilute the colours and the tints which are made,
although this may be dispensed with, by not dipping the pencil to
the bottom of the other jar, where all the colours washed off the
palette or out of the brushes settle. Thus provided, and with a good
stock of large brushes and pencils of the same hair,b (which are the
only kind of brushes that can be used in fresco painting, because the
lime burns all others, except those made of the hair of young hogs,
which are useful for some small delicate purposes), the painter may
begin to paint, putting in first the back ground or skies, which are
behind the figures, and he must always observe this order, beginning
with the more distant objects and approaching gradually until at
length he reaches the figure or figures in the foreground. For the
contrary practice would cost him immense labour, from his having to
a A Vara is about three feet English.
b That is, of hogs’ hair. See Palomino, vol. II, p. 42.
81
from the lime and marble is formed a kind of stucco, such as is used
by modellers in plaster, who with this imitate statues of marble, and
other things, which deceive people by their touch, their lustre, their
coldness, and their hardness.
Of using the palette, brushes, &c.—These things being
prepared, the colours being ground, and each put into its proper vase
or saucer, with a spoon for each, in the manner described in the
chapter on distemper painting, and supposing the palette unnecessary
for general tints, which are prepared in the same way as those used
in distemper painting, we are now going to treat of the use of the
palette, which may consist of a piece of canvass of the length of a
“ vara,”3 or at least three-fourths of a vara, because there will then
be room to mix the tints with the brush, without their running one
into another, and a sufficient quantity of each colour should be put
on the palette at once, in fact more than is required, that the colour
may not dry too soon, and it should even be sprinkled with water
from time to time. For cleaning the palette when necessary, the
painter should have a sponge as large as his fist, with which, being
moistened, the palette should be thoroughly cleaned, and the dirty
water should be suffered to run into a large glazed jar full of water,
which is held in the hand, and which serves for this purpose, as well
as for washing the pencils when the colour is to be changed. There
should also be another jar of clean water to dip the pencil in, in order
to moisten and dilute the colours and the tints which are made,
although this may be dispensed with, by not dipping the pencil to
the bottom of the other jar, where all the colours washed off the
palette or out of the brushes settle. Thus provided, and with a good
stock of large brushes and pencils of the same hair,b (which are the
only kind of brushes that can be used in fresco painting, because the
lime burns all others, except those made of the hair of young hogs,
which are useful for some small delicate purposes), the painter may
begin to paint, putting in first the back ground or skies, which are
behind the figures, and he must always observe this order, beginning
with the more distant objects and approaching gradually until at
length he reaches the figure or figures in the foreground. For the
contrary practice would cost him immense labour, from his having to
a A Vara is about three feet English.
b That is, of hogs’ hair. See Palomino, vol. II, p. 42.