DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62783#0168
100
FRESCO PAINTING.
with a certain Perdaccio, and then covered them over with glazings of
flesh coloured red, and with chiaro scuro, in the same way as in
water colours; this custom, adds Vasari, was afterwards dropped,
and painters began to paint with body colours, making the mixtures
thick. Except in these glazings, he always abstained from liquid
colours ; and as with Schiavone, it was also his custom to let the
colours sometimes dry on the palette and then to use them hard in
that manner, because the colours then remained fresh, and with a
good body, and for this reason his early pictures which have as it
were been painted twice over, and with a good ground underneath,
withstand so much better the injuries of time, than those of other
painters.”—Malv. Pels. Pitt. vol. II. p. 206, 207.
The following are instances of good and rapid painting in fresco
buono, shewing the value always attached to such as were painted
without retouching in fresco, and the advantages of rapid execution.
“ Michael Angelo at first (in 1508) refused to paint the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel, wishing to refer the commission to Raffaello; but
being obliged to accept it, and being unaccustomed to painting in
fresco, he sent to Florence for some of the best fresco painters,
in order to assist, or rather to teach him the art; then he obliterated
what they had done and commenced the work alone. Having com-
pleted one half, he opened it to public inspection for a short time.
Then he began the other half, and proceeded more slowly than was
agreeable to the impatience of the Pope, (Giulio II.) who threatened
him, if he did not make more haste with the work, he would throw
him off the scaffolding. He finished the remaining part alone in
twenty months. Alone I say, because his taste was so refined that
no one could satisfy it, and as in sculpture, every file and every
chisel that he used, he made with his own hand ; so in painting, he
not only made the tints and other necessary preparations and arrange-
ments, but he ground the colours himself, not trusting to artists or
boys. In this chapel are those grand and varied figures of prophets
and sybils, of which Lomazzo, an impartial judge, because he be-
longed to another school, said he considered to be the best in the whole
world.”—Lanzi. vol. I. p. 114.
Vasari’s account of the painting of the same chapel is more
circumstantial; it is as follows :—
FRESCO PAINTING.
with a certain Perdaccio, and then covered them over with glazings of
flesh coloured red, and with chiaro scuro, in the same way as in
water colours; this custom, adds Vasari, was afterwards dropped,
and painters began to paint with body colours, making the mixtures
thick. Except in these glazings, he always abstained from liquid
colours ; and as with Schiavone, it was also his custom to let the
colours sometimes dry on the palette and then to use them hard in
that manner, because the colours then remained fresh, and with a
good body, and for this reason his early pictures which have as it
were been painted twice over, and with a good ground underneath,
withstand so much better the injuries of time, than those of other
painters.”—Malv. Pels. Pitt. vol. II. p. 206, 207.
The following are instances of good and rapid painting in fresco
buono, shewing the value always attached to such as were painted
without retouching in fresco, and the advantages of rapid execution.
“ Michael Angelo at first (in 1508) refused to paint the ceiling of
the Sistine Chapel, wishing to refer the commission to Raffaello; but
being obliged to accept it, and being unaccustomed to painting in
fresco, he sent to Florence for some of the best fresco painters,
in order to assist, or rather to teach him the art; then he obliterated
what they had done and commenced the work alone. Having com-
pleted one half, he opened it to public inspection for a short time.
Then he began the other half, and proceeded more slowly than was
agreeable to the impatience of the Pope, (Giulio II.) who threatened
him, if he did not make more haste with the work, he would throw
him off the scaffolding. He finished the remaining part alone in
twenty months. Alone I say, because his taste was so refined that
no one could satisfy it, and as in sculpture, every file and every
chisel that he used, he made with his own hand ; so in painting, he
not only made the tints and other necessary preparations and arrange-
ments, but he ground the colours himself, not trusting to artists or
boys. In this chapel are those grand and varied figures of prophets
and sybils, of which Lomazzo, an impartial judge, because he be-
longed to another school, said he considered to be the best in the whole
world.”—Lanzi. vol. I. p. 114.
Vasari’s account of the painting of the same chapel is more
circumstantial; it is as follows :—