Glass Gave Venetian Paintings Their Glow
Greg Reynolds
By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 25, 2:31 PM ET
WASHINGTON - How did paintings by Tintoretto and other Venetian
Renaissance artists get their special glow? Using an electron
microscope, Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at the
National Gallery of Art, discovered one of their secrets: tiny bits of
glass the artists mixed with their pigments.
"By looking beyond the limits of their usual practice and transforming
materials from other trades to their painting, the great artists of the
Renaissance created a palette that gave them an immediate and lasting
reputation as brilliant colorists," Berrie said.
It was long thought that Venetian painters, glassmakers and ceramic
designers each had their own ways of concocting paints and dyes,
probably getting the ingredients through apothecaries, as in most of Europe.
But Louisa Matthew, head of the Visual Arts Departments at Union College
in Schenectady, N.Y., found evidence that Venice developed a special
market for dyes and pigments a century before other European areas did.
She was poring through the Venetian archives for information on how
local artists did business. Among the dusty wills and tax records, she
came upon an inventory of 102 items drawn up after the death of shop
owner Domenico de Gardignano. He is identified in Italian as "dai
colori" — "among the men in the color business."
"There are certain pigments that contain glass mentioned in the 1534
inventory, but by no means all," Matthew said. "Because (customers) were
all buying colorants in the same place, we hypothesize that they traded
ideas and ingredients including materials not on the shelf."
People from many different trades bought supplies at de Gardignano's
shop and were likely to have shared both ideas and materials, Matthew
surmised.
That possibility led to Berrie's examination of paint samples under an
electronic microscope. She discovered rounded bits of powdered glass,
only thousandths of an inch thick, in two paintings by Lorenzo Lotto —
one in a red gown worn by St. Catherine, another in an orange-red coat
worn by Joseph in a Nativity scene.
Glass was also discovered in a yellow pigment used in a Tintoretto
painting of Jesus at the Sea of Galilee.
"They're also teaching me a lesson: to try to go beyond the bounds of
what I know and what I think is right," Berrie said. "It's a good trick
for an old artist to teach a new scientist something."
Art Neuendorffer
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> Glass Gave Venetian Paintings Their Glow
> By CARL HARTMAN, Associated Press Writer Thu Aug 25, 2:31 PM ET
>
> WASHINGTON - How did paintings by Tintoretto and other Venetian
> Renaissance artists get their special glow? Using an electron
> microscope, Barbara Berrie, senior conservation scientist at
> the National Gallery of Art, discovered one of their secrets:
> tiny bits of glass the artists mixed with their pigments.
> "There are certain pigments that contain glass mentioned in
> the 1534 inventory, but by no means all," Matthew said.
>
> People from many different trades bought supplies at
> de Gardignano's shop and were likely to have
> shared both ideas and materials, Matthew surmised.
>
> That possibility led to Berrie's examination of paint samples under an
> electronic microscope. She discovered rounded bits of powdered glass,
> only thousandths of an inch thick, in two paintings by Lorenzo Lotto -
> one in a red gown worn by St. Catherine, another in an orange-red
> coat worn by Joseph in a Nativity scene.
>
> Glass was also discovered in a yellow pigment used in
> a Tintoretto painting of Jesus at the Sea of Galilee.
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I YAMM what I YAMM!
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http://www.hollywoodjesus.com/walking_water.htm
<<[Jesus] was the eschatological battle against the cosmic
enemy, the chaos monster characterized by the sea.
In the original Hebrew the word for sea is Yamm, who is the evil sea
god in ancient Canaan myth. For the Hebrew people Yamm is the chaos
monster.
John 6:14-21 (from The Message Translation)
In the evening his disciples went down to the sea, got in the boat,
and headed back across the water to Capernaum. It had grown quite dark
and Jesus had not yet returned. A huge wind blew up, churning the sea.
They were maybe three or four miles out when they saw Jesus walking on
the sea, quite near the boat. They were scared senseless, but he
reassured them, "It's me. It's all right. Don't be afraid." So they
took him on board. In no time they reached land on the exact spot they
were headed to.
[The story of Jesus walking on water is also found
in Matthew 14: 22-33, and Mark 6:45-52.]
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Mark:6:32: And they departed into a DESERT place by SHIP privately.
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The Winter's Tale (Folio) Act 3, Scene 3
Ant.: Thou art perfect then, our SHIP hath toucht
vpon The DESARTS of Bohemia.
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John 6:19 uses the Greek wording similar to
the Greek version (the Septuagint) of Job 9:8
Job 9:8 (NIV): He alone stretched out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the Sea (Yamm);
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We are the hollow men
We are the stuffed men
Leaning together
Headpiece filled with straw, Alas!
Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless
As wind in dry grass
Or rats' feet over BROKEN GLASS
In our dry cellar.
T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men
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Alice in Wonderland (Carroll): This time there
were two little shrieks, and more sounds of BROKEN GLASS.
Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck, John)
Joad pointed to the BROKEN GLASS and the rocks
King Richard III Shakespeare, (William Shine) out, fair sun,
till I have bought a glass, That I may see my shadow as I pass
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"PIGments that contain GLASS"
'GLASS' = 'VERRE' (French)
'GLASS' = 'WITrin' (Celtic)
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"A liquid prisoner pent in walls of GLASS"
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams "What's
so unpleasant about being drunk?" "You ask a glass of water."
Les Miserables Hugo, (Victor Enjolras presented him with a glass of
water himself, and, as JaVERt was bound, he helped him to drink
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Joyce, James Mr Casey) took
the glass, drank, and placed it near him on the mantelpiece
Walden (Thoreau, Henry David) Many a traveller came out of his way
to see me and the inside of my house, and, as an excuse for calling,
asked for a glass of water
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Art Neuendorffer