RENAISSANCE PAINTING (for Homer@aol.com)
TRISTAN CLAIR DE LUNE/KEN MONDSCHEIN
Why, sure, B., I'd be glad to post my paper on Renaissance art for
you!
Methods and Techniques
of
Painting
in
Early 15th Century Italy
I: Introduction
Though much scholarly attention has been paid to the
composition, subject matter, and rhetoric of the masterworks of
the early Quintociento in Florence, particularly as to how these
works and their philosophy foreshadowed the developments of the
High Renaissance, there has been comparatively little written on
how the works were physically created-- the techniques and
materials used, the methods of work, and even the sources of
patronage.
Such a study would be significant and worthwhile for a
multitude of reasons. Besides being interesting in its own right,
on the most practical level, it would aid in the conservation of
such works, thus helping to preserve them for posterity. However,
it would also help to add to our understanding of the works, for
it places us in the position of the master who painted them and
allows us to see their meaning from his point of view. In other
words, it shows the work in the light of a far wider social,
economic, and artistic perspective-- not only the what of the
philosophy behind the art, but also the why. For instance, we
know that the Virgin Mary's mantle is traditionally blue, but how
was this deep shade of azure achieved, and what is its
significance?
In the process of learning this, the developing thought of
the world of the Italian Renaissance is illustrated, not only as
reflected in the art of the time, but in the mind of the painter
and his world. The idea is parallel to what Edwin Panofsky
referred to in a broad humanistic manner as "mental habits" in
his essay Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism in reference to
the connection between the architecture of the Gothic cathedral
and the Scholastic philosophical tradition. By exposing the
underlying techniques used by the artists, the methods that
underpinned the visual development of the works themselves, and
the artist's world, we witness physical testimony to the trends
in thought. It is the intention of this paper to provide an
expository introduction to this, and, in this context, shed light
upon the interlinked artistic and mundane worlds of the Italian
Renaissance.
For the sake of brevity, we will focus on the three major
forms of work in early fifteenth century Florence, Mainly, the
concern will be with panel painting, though we will of necessity
touch upon the miniatures of illuminated manuscripts and the
fresco. The reason for discussing these three is self-evident, as
a master who worked on one of these was likely to also produce
two or three of the forms. Notably, the artist known to us as Fra
Angelico provides an excellent illustration of this. Though we
can only briefly touch on his significance (a task of volumes
itself), Fra Angelico and his work will hopefully serve as an
exempla for some of the techniques discussed herein.
II: Fra Angelico and Panel Painting
Before the popularity of oil and canvas paintings, panel
painting was an art form of prime importance in early Renaissance
Italy. From the Byzantines, the Italians had inherited the custom
of decorating their churches with icons of saints and the Holy
Family. These icons, placed over the altarpiece, were objects of
veneration and supplication, carried on processions and used, in
many ways, as a focus of civic pride and identification. Many
were also executed for private individuals as objects of
veneration or meditation.
From the art historian's point of view, many of these panel
commissions still survive, and are excellent examples of the
trends in art of the time. One of the most famous artists of the
period to work in this medium was Guido di Pietro, who changed
his name to Fra Giovanni upon becoming a friar of the Observant
branch of the Dominican order, but who is best known as Fra
Angelico.
Born in about 1400 (probably before), Angelico was
recognized in his own time as one of the finest painters of his
generation. He was, by all accounts, a man of great faith and
piety. This spirituality is reflected in the ephemeral quality of
the figures in his paintings. Even before entering the monastery
at Fiesole in about 1420, Angelico had been a member of a
religious confraternity, probably that of St. Luke, who was the
patron saint of doctors and painters and whose members were
largely drawn from the guild of the Medici e Speciali, to which
painters and illuminators belonged.
The notion of a monk holding a secular job or taking
commissions from outside the walls of the monastery may seem
strange to the modern reader, but such an occurrence was nothing
unusual in early fifteenth century Italy. The brothers of the
various orders around Florence often participated in the outside
world, especially as painters and illuminators, with all profits
going to the monastery. This was symptomatic of, and perhaps even
helped to build, the developing idea of the "active life" as not
inferior to the "contemplative life." A strong work ethic has
been with the monastic tradition ever since St. Benedict wrote
that a monk ought to engage in gainful toil. The notion that this
might have germinated or given support to Salutati and Brunei's
writings on the vita activa is a very logical and intriguing one.
Angelico was greatly influenced in his work by Masaccio, as
is especially shown by his use of perspective and placement of
figures in a realistic space.1 Another great influence was
Lorenzo Monaco, in whose workshop it is speculated that Angelico
trained.2 As Strehlke points out in his essay in Painting and
Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence, Angelico's Penitent
St. Jerome also shows many compositional similarities to the
reliefs on Ghiberti's Porta Paradisi, notably in the humanistic
rendering of the saint set against the flat background against
which he is placed.3 Angelico no doubt would have been familiar
with his contemporary's work, which was displayed on the doors of
the Baptistery, close by the cathedral that was the spiritual and
psychological center of Florence.
The art of panel painting itself is preserved by il Libro
dell'arte, written in Padua by the Tuscan painter Cennino Cennini
in about 1400. Il Libro dell'arte is the only manual of painting
known to exist from this era, and, short of taking apart an
actual tempera painting, is our best primary source. It also
shows the beginnings of the methodological and practical manual
as a literary form, one that would later be echoed by Machiavelli
in his The Prince. As such, it is an example of the humanistic
Renaissance literary tradition.
The first step, naturally, was to obtain the panels upon
which the painting would be executed. This was the job of a
carpenter or cabinet maker. The woods favored for the job were
poplar, linden, or willow, which was finely mortised and sanded
smooth.4 This provided the basic framework on which the painter
spread gesso as a base for the pigments. Gesso is an
extraordinarily sticky and messy mixture of glue (made from
boiling down the hooves and bones of animals) and finely ground
plaster. It dries hard and can be given a smooth polish. Multiple
layers were sometimes used, sometimes with linen cloth added as
an underpinning to give additional structure and support. Cennini
states that this gesso was usually obtained from apothecaries,
though he also gives instructions on how to prepare it oneself.5
Again, we see the dependence of the painter upon other
specialized professions, reflecting the urban world in which he,
by necessity, dwelt and which could not help but to influence his
art.
The next stage was to trace the basic elements of the
paintings onto the gessoed panel. These were usually done using
preliminary sketches as a guide. Like artists today, Florentine
painters had various sorts of sketches, from rough compositions
to detailed figures studies. Due to their relative lack of
importance to everyone save art historians, as well as the wear
and tear that they were put through, few of these survive.
Frederick Hart speculates in the section on tempera painting in
his History of Italian Renaissance Art that such standard objects
as crucifixes were drawn directly to the panel, while detailed
figure studies were sketched or studied in detail.6 Another
likely possibility is that painters worked from pattern books, as
medieval illuminators did (such as the sketchbook of Villard de
Honnecourt).
Sketches were transferred to the panel either visually, or,
by the mid-fifteenth century, by a technique called spolvero, or
"dusting." A full-scale drawing of details or complex figures was
made, with the outlines pricked out with a stylus. The back was
then brushed with charcoal dust, and the raised outlines
transferred by patting the front side down with a sponge. Though
no spolvero remains today, we can sometimes make out the dotted
outlines on period works.7 This technique was later replaced by
the cartoon, a full-scale representation of the finished work
which was transferred by means of tracing with a stylus.
In his book, Cennini instructs that the underdrawing should
be executed by means of a piece of charcoal tied to a reed or
stick, so as to gain a greater vantage upon the whole work while
composing. Again, we see a practical, step-by-step guide to the
creation of a work of art, a technique which had traditionally
been passed down by apprenticeship. The charcoal sketch could
then be erased by means of a feather, which allowed the artist to
modify his design if elements did not please him. Finally, the
underdrawing was completed by going over the charcoal with a
brush made from the hair of a minever (squirrel) dipped in an
ink-and-water wash. The charcoal was erased, the drapery folds
were shaded in, and so was some of the shading. What was left was
the basic form of the painting.8
Bibliography
Primary Sources:
Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting (Della Pittura, trans.
John Spencer). Yale University Press: New Haven. 1966.
Cennini, Cennino D'Andrea. The Craftsman's Handbook ((Il
Libro dell'Arte, trans. Daniel V. Thompson). Yale University
Press: New York. 1933.
Tertiary Sources:
Alexander, Jonathan J.G. Medieval Illuminators and their
Methods of Work. Yale University Press: New Haven. 1992.
Hart, Frederick. Italian Renaissance Art. Prentice Hall,
Inc: New York. 1987
Painting and Illumination In Early Renaissance Florence. The
Metropolitan Museum of
Art: New York. 1994.
1 1 Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence,
26
2 2 Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence,
31
3 3 Painting and Illumination in Early Renaissance Florence,
27
4 4 Cennini, The Craftsman's Handbook 71
5 5 Cennini, 73
6 6 Hart, History of Italian Renaissance Art, 35
7 7 Hart, 35
8 8 Cennini, 75
Sandy
Renaissance Painting was not going to copy it. That is the impression
that I got. I am all for sharing information, but I do not think
giving someone a ready made paper for school is approriate.
TRISTAN CLAIR DE LUNE/KEN MONDSCHEIN
It was a joke, dig? Nobody was copying anything. It was just a parody
of a common occurrence on soc.history. Both posts-- the papers and the
request-- came from me. Notice the reply-address? (B. Simpson? Homer@aol,com?)
The request was a lead-in to the paper. As I can't possibly plagarize myself,
no harm done...
--Tristan
(Well, maybe KEN can plagarize TRISTAN, but...)
fnkl...@acfcluster.nyu.edu
sorry.
Good one Tristan!
(check the signature on the original post )
Nahum