A treatise on painting

Front matter

TREATISE OK PAINTING

BY

CENNINO CENNINL

Part The First

Of drawing — commencement — motives for studying the arts — what things are necessary — parts and members of the arts — drawing on panels — the preparation and use of bone-dust — drawing with stiles — of arranging the light to give relief — drawing on parchment with stiles, lead pencils, and pens and ink — how to make a pen — to draw on tinted paper and parchment — to tint paper and parchment — to prepare transparent paper — the importance of practising drawing from nature, and after good masters — how a painter should live — drawing with charcoal — drawing on tinted paper with water-colours — heightening the lights with white — of a stone for drawing resembling charcoal . 1-19

Part The Second

Preparation of the colours — what are natural pigments — grinding pigments. Black pigments. Red pigments — sinopia — cinabrese — cinnabar — minium — amatito — dragon's blood — lake. Yellow pigments — ochre —

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giallorino — orpiment — risalgallo — zafferano — arzica. Green pigments — verde terra — verde azzurro — orpiment and indigo — verde azzurro and giallorino — azzurro oltre marino with yellow — verderame — verde terra with white. White pigments — biacca — bianco sangiovanni. Blue pigments — azzurro della magna — how to imitate it — azzurro oltre marino. Of hair pencils — to preserve the tails of the minever from being moth-eaten . . 20-38

Part The Third

Painting in fresco — to paint the faces of young persons — of old persons — hair and beards — proportions of the human figure. To paint drapery. To paint in secco — proper temperas — mixed colours — purple in fresco and secco — to imitate azzurro oltre marino in fresco — to make purple in fresco. Changeable draperies — green — cignerognolo — lake — ochre — berettino. Mantle for THE Virgin — black drapery. To paint mountains, trees, buildings, &c., in fresco and secco — to draw a mountain naturally ......... 39-55

Part The Fourth

Painting in oil — on walls — to prepare oil by boiling or baking — to grind and use colours in oil — to paint in oil on iron, pictures, and stones — to adorn walls with tin — necessity of using fine gold and good colours — to cut and use gilded tin — to make green tin — to gild tin, and lay on gold with gold size — to cut and attach stars to walls — to make the glories of saints, &c. — to make a glory in relievo with lime — after painting on walls, how to proceed to paint pictures . . . . . .56-62

CONTENTS. iX

Part The Fifth. Pagk

Time required for learning to paint — what things necessary to be learned. To make glue of various kinds — flourpaste — glue for fastening stones — for joining glass vessels — fish-glue — colla di caravella, for tempering grounds on pictures — for tempering azure and other colours — cheese-glue .......... 63-66

Part The Sixth

7'o BEGIN TO PAINT PICTURES — to fastcu Hncn on panels — to prepare grounds of gesso grosso and gesso sottile — to grind and temper the gesso for working in relief — to smooth the surface — to draw on panels with charcoal, and fix outlines with ink — to make outlines of figures when gold grounds are to be used — to execute works in relief on pictures and walls. Gilding on pictures — to lay on bole and verde terra — to gild panels — what stones are proper for burnishing — to burnish gold — what gold is proper — to form glories — to shade the gold, and draw outlines of figures on gold — to represent cloths of gold and colours — to draw and engrave on gold — draperies of gold, silver, or ultramarine — to imitate velvet, silk, or linen. To paint pictures in distemper — to temper the colours. Draperies, blue, gold, or purple. To colour flesh generally — to represent a dead person — a wounded person — to represent water with or without fish. Mordants — to make and temper. Varnishing — how and when to varnish pictures — to imitate varnish. Miniatures — to paint — to make a colour like gold, and to varnish verde terra. How to remove paint from the human face — why women should not use medicated waters on their skins. To take casts from the life — of the face or whole figure — to multiply casts — to make casts of seals, coins, plants, &c. .... 67-107

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PAGE

AUTHORS QUOTED.

Abbecedario (ed. Napoli), 129.

Alberti, Leon Batista, Treatise on

Painting, 142.

Amoretti, Life of L. da Vinci, 140.

Armenini, Gio. Batista, Delli veri

Precetti delta Pittura, xxxiv., 128,

143, 159, 162.

Art-Union, Oct. 1841, v.

xlv. Iv. Ixi., 120. Vocabolario del

Bandini, Catalogo, xxvii. xxviii. Ixi.

Belli, Giambatista, MS. in the Maglia-

bechiana, 109.

Bisagni, Francesco, Trattato della

Pittura, XXXV.

Boccaccio, Decamerone, 113.

Boni, Elogio di Lanzi, Iviii. Ixix.

Borghini, RafFaello, Del Riposo, xxviii.

121, 161.

Boschini, La Carta del Navigare, &c.,

xiii.

Bossi, Giuseppe, Cenacolo di L. da

Vinci, 136.

Bottari, Notes to Vasari, xviii. xxvii.

xxxii.

Bulengero, 122, 123.

Ciampi, Sagrestia Ec, xix.

Cicognara, Storia delta Scultura, vi.

Commissioners of Fine Arts, First Report, 120, 128.

D'Agincourt, Ixvii.

Da Vinci, Leonardo, Trattato della

141, 146.

Davy, Sir Humphrey, Philosophical

IVansactions, 1815, xii. xiii. xv.,

119.

litani, liii. liv. Ixvii.

Democritus of Abdera, 123.

De Piles, Elemens de Peinture, 122,

127, 131, 148, 154, 158. Commentary on Du Fres7ioy's Art of

Painting, ix.

Dioscorides, 118, 145.

tribus, Iv.

Federici, xviii.

Field, Chromatography, xi., 117, 120,

123, 125, 138, 157.

Ghiberti, Lorenzo, Commentaries, Ix.

Ixi., 111.

Guarienti, Abbecedario, Ixvi.

John, Dr., 123.

Lanzi, Storia Pittorica, vii. xii. xvii.

xxix. xlviii. Ixiii. Ixiv. Ixv. Ixvii.

Lazzaroni, Dissertatione della Pittura,

118.

Lib. Ent. Knowledge, Pompeii, 152,

166.

Lomazzo, Paolo, viii.

Malvasia, Felsina Pittrice, xlvii.

Marcucci, Sagg. Anal. Ixii., 125, 129

144, 163.

Mattioli, Erbario, 118.

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AUTHORS QUOTED.

Merimee, Sur la Peinture d rHuile,

161.

Mechel, Description of the Imperial

Gallery/ at Vienna, lii.

Ixviii.

Morelli, Notizie (Toper e di Disegno,

li. Iviii. Ixiv. Ixv.

MS. Letter of Summonzio, collated by

the Abate D. Francesconi, Ixvi.

MS. in the Biblioteca Capitolare at

Lucca, Ixii.

MS. of Massimo Stanzione, preserved

by De Dominici, liii. Ixvi.

MS. in the Library of the Conti Sil-

vestri at Rovigo, 148.

Muratori, Antiq. Ital., Ixii.

miglia, 163.

Piacenza, xvii. Ixv. Ixvii.

Pliny, Natural History, 114, 117,

118, 129, 132, 144.

Pozzo, author of The Jesuit's Perspective, 122, 137.

Raspe, on Painting in Oil, li. lii.

Requenos, Saggi sul Ristabilimento,

&c., Ixii. 138.

Rosa, Trattato delle Porpor, 122, 123.

Rosini, Storia della Pittura, xvii. xix.

Ixvi. Ixvii. Ixviii. Ixix., 109, 111,

155.

Taylor, W. B. Sarsfield, The Fine

Arts in Britain, Ixviii.

Theophilus, Tractatus, MS., li. 129,

147, 159, 161.

Tilesia, Anton. De Colorihus, 120.

Ure, Dictionarg of Arts, &c., 120,

Veneroni, Dictionary, 163.

Vitruvius, 136, 144.

Walpole, Ariecdotes, &c., lii.

Wilson, Mr. A., Letter, 135.

Winkelman, 164.

Zanetti, Pittitra Venexiana, xvii. Ixv.

INTEODUCTORY PREFACE

BY

THE TRANSLATOR.

The Translator was induced to attempt making an English version of the work of Cennino in consequence of the estimation in which it appears to have been held by the Commissioners on the Fine Arts ; and also in consequence of the high commendation of the work by the Italian editor, the learned Signor Tambroni (a member of several academies connected with the arts and sciences). He considers this work of Cennino " as a complete and precious memorial of the fine arts in Italy in the fourteenth century ;" and that " of all the modes of painting used by the masters of these times, and of those who succeeded them, Cennino has composed the most complete treatise that has ever been written." He calls it " a precious and unique treatise ;" and says, " I am firmly of opinion that the publication of this work will prove of inestimable advantage to present and future painters, especially as to the mode of painting in fresco ; this kind of painting being almost, to our shame be it spoken, forgotten and lost." The translation of the work is also recommended in a letter which appeared in the Art-Union (October 1841), suggesting the expediency of procuring translations of several works on painting, in order to obtain practical information on the sub-

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ject generally ; and in particular, to discover, if possible, the whole process observed by the painters of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries in painting those pictures, the colouring and execution of which excite our surprise and admiration even after a lapse of four centuries, and which have survived the trials of exposure to the elements, and injuries sustained from injudicious attempts to clean and restore them. As the work is strictly practical, and, with one exception, entirely free from the metaphysical disquisitions with which the early Italian works on painting so much abound ; and as the book itself is rather a curious specimen, even in its English dress, of the style and manners of the time in which it was written, it has been thought advisable to publish the whole of it. Some extracts from the work have appeared in the Report of the Commissioners on the Fine Arts ; but the Translator believes the entire treatise is but little known in England — certainly not to the extent it deserves.

The Italian editor has commented so largely on the work in his very interesting Preface, that but little remains for the Translator to point out for the observation of the reader.

A few points, however, not remarked upon in the notes, suggest themselves. The first is, the religious feeling which pervades the book, and which, at a cursory glance, and to a Protestant reader, almost assumes the appearance of idolatry. But this impression soon disappears, when we consider that to this feeling of devotion we are principally indebted for the preservation of the arts during the dark ages, and their subsequent revival. This preservation and revival we owe to the monks and rehgious communities of those times ; who, at once the legislators of states (see Cicognara, Storia di Scultura, vol. i.), and directors of the spiritual and temporal concerns of man, kept his mind in the trammels of ignorance and

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superstition, while they addressed themselves to his imagination, and worked upon it by the pageants and pictures which they presented to his senses, and through the medium of painting and sculpture made known the remarkable events recorded in Scripture history. It was principally by this means that the great truths of the Gospel, — tinctured, it is true, with the prevailing errors of the age, — became known to the common people.

For some centuries painters were occupied solely in adorning the walls of churches, chapels, and convents ; and their subjects were entirely limited to illustrations of Scripture stories, pictures of the Virgin and saints, and miracles. At length they began to introduce into their pictures portraits of themselves, and of their patrons and friends ; and this circumstance has been the means of making us acquainted with the personal appearance of many great men of that period, as well as of the painters themselves. Cennino's invocations and addresses to the saints, &c., will therefore cease to astonish us. It will be observed, that he speaks of painting none but religious subjects and persons.

In the pictures of the period of which we are now speaking, we meet with none of the beautiful demi-tints and broken colours observable in pictures of a later period ; every colour is distinct and forcible, and the figures appear as if inlaid upon the ground. There is no harmonising, or lowering, or reflecting of one colour upon another ; no optical arrangement or balancing of the colours, and a glimmering only of the light of perspective and chiaro-scuro. The pictures can scarcely be said to consist of a whole, but of various parts; and we find, accordingly, that they can be, and have been, cut down into smaller pictures without suffering material injury. We are told by Lanzi that a sort of manufacture

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of paintings was carried on in Italy, in which one picture was cut and divided into several ; but that no one ever succeeded in dividing pictures of the Venetian school, the various parts of which were so harmonised together that they could not be separated without destroying the effect.

It is to be observed that Cennino does not once allude to the theory of the art, or give rules for composition ; but this does not diminish the value of his practical instructions, since mechanical dexterity is indispensable to the artist; and the works of the most accomplished theoretical painter would be looked at with contempt, if he did not possess the requisite facility of hand and skill in expressing his conceptions. A practical treatise on the art must be considered as the steps to the temple of painting of which Paolo Lomazzo speaks; every step of which we must climb, if we expect to obtain admission to, and distinction in, the temple to which they lead.

Yet, deficient as the art then was in theory, the painters of the school of Giotto possessed a manual dexterity, and a certainty of producing a good and durable effect, which arose from a knowledge derived from the tradition of preceding artists, and confirmed by experience, of the nature and properties of their colours and materials, to which the modern discoveries in chemistry have been able to make few additions.

It is evident from the work of Cennino, even were other proof wanting, that the colouring of these old pictures was extremely vivid and bright, and of a light tone. The darkest shades are produced by glazings of the pure colour alone, and the lighter gradations by the same colour made lighter with white.

One cause of the purity and beauty of the colours in ancient paintings, is the care with which the grounds were prepared. When these were not of gold, they were inva-

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. IX

riably white ; and we find from the work before us, that no pains were spared to preserve them pure, clean, and bright ; for on this the success of the painting appeared in a remarkable degree to depend. " All they," says De Piles, the commentator on Du Fresnoy's Art of Painting (Dry den's translation), " who have coloured well, have had another maxim to maintain their colours fresh and flourishing, which was, to make use of white grounds, upon which they painted, and oftentimes at tlie first stroke, without retouching any thing, and without employing new colours, Rubens always used this way ; and I have seen pictures from the hand of that great person, painted up at once, which were of a wonderful vivacity. The reason why they made use of those kinds of grounds is, because white not only preserves a brightness under the transparency of colours, which hinders the air from altering the whiteness of the ground, but also repairs the injuries which they receive from the air, so that the ground and the colours assist and preserve each other. It is for this reason that glazed colours have a vivacity which can never be imitated by the most lively and most brilliant colours ; because, according to the common way, the different tints are simply laid on each in its place, one after another. So true it is that white with other strong colours, with which we paint at once what we intend to glaze, gives life, spirit, and lustre to the work. The ancients most certainly found that white grounds were much the best ; for although they were conscious of the injury which their eyes received from that colour, yet they did not forbear the use of it ; as Galen testifies in his tenth book Of the Use of the Parts. ^ Painters,' says he, * when they work upon white grounds, place before them dark colours, and others mixed with blue and green, to refresh their eyes ; because white is a glaring colour.

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which wearies and pains the sight more than any other.' " To this recommendation of white grounds for painting, we must add the precept of Leonardo da Vinci, cap. 100 ; " Sempre a quelle colore che vuoi che habino bellezza, prepararai prima il campo candidissimOf e questo dico de' colori che sono transparenti, perche a quelli che non sono transparenti, non giova campo chiaro :" and the example of Paul Veronese, Correggio, Rubens, and many of the great masters of the Itahan, Flemish, and Dutch schools. The advantages of gold grounds, to which Cennino gives the preference, are stated by the Translator in a note.

Another point worthy of our attention is, the long and perfect grinding of the colours, and their preservation in the state of powder in bottles under water. This must have been attended with the double advantage of shewing the tone of the colours when wet, and also of preserving them from dust. We must also remark the extreme accuracy with which the tints are made and proportioned ; and as the quantities of each may be measured, it is possible to produce, from the descriptions of Cennino, an exact imitation of the shades of colour described by him, as well for complexions as draperies.

It is to be observed also, that Cennino gives particular directions not to torture the colours with the pencil, but to paint them in the proper places at once ; a practice to which, says Lanzi, Titian and the Venetian school were indebted for one of their chief excellences, and which was strictly observed by Rubens, and advocated by Du Fresnoy and De Piles.

On a careful examination of the colours used by Cennino, we shall find that, in addition to the causes above mentioned, the permanence of the colours in ancient pictures may be attributed to the knowledge possessed by the painters of the properties of the pigments they employed, and also to

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. XI

the few colours used by the best painters, and all who were desirous of securing the durability of their pictures.

Cennino enumerates twenty-four pigments in the whole ; but those which he considers his best pigments are but twelve in number, namely, the carbonaceous blacks, sinopia and cinabrese (which were merely two shades of the same colour), ochre and giallorino (Naples yellow), verde terra and verde azzurro (cobalt green), azzurro della magna (cobalt blue), and ultramarine blue, biacca (white lead), and bianco sangiovanni, and amatito ; the last two being only used in fresco. On comparing these pigments with the tables of colours in Mr. Field's Chromatography y it will be observed that all except amatito (which is not known as a modern pigment), giallorino, and azzurro della magna, will be found in table iv., that is, among those pigments not affected by light, oxygen, pure air, or the opposite influences of shade, sulphuretted hydrogen, damp and impure air, the action of lead and of iron. Giallorino is, it seems, liable to change when brought into contact with sulphuretted hydrogen or with iron. Cennino also differs from Mr. Field in regard to the permanence of vermilion, which was found to lose its colour under certain circumstances.

Of the other pigments mentioned by our author, the lac lake, as observed by Mr. Field, is affected by lead ; the kermes lake by light and sulphuretted hydrogen ; while minium, dragon's blood, yellow and red orpiment, and verderame (verdigris), are affected by light, oxygen, sulphuretted hydrogen, and lead ; and orpiment and verdigris by iron also. Of the remaining colours, zafferano, which was a vegetable yellow, and arzica are no longer in use. The caution given by Cennino to preserve all the colours generally from the contact of iron is noticed in the notes to the work. There is no brown pigment among the colours mentioned by Cennino, although

Xll TRANSLATOR S PREFACE.

the moderns possess at least fifteen pigments of this colour. Of the multitude of pigments which the discoveries of chemistry have added to the palette of the painter, the madders and some browns only can be considered as real acquisitions, and pigments upon the durability of which artists may securely depend, and hazard their fame as colourists. The yolk of egg tempera might be used with all the most valuable pigments ; but orpiment, indigo, zafFerano, and verdigris, required to be mixed and diluted with glue only. Bianco sangiovanni, a paint used only in fresco, was diluted with water alone.

In chap. 72 f Cennino gives a list of coloiu's that were used in fresco-painting, namely, verde terra, bianco sangiovanni, giallorino, ochre, cinabrese, sinopia, amatito, and black. The list, it will be observed, contains no blue ; but in chap. 75, we find that indigo with bianco was sometimes used for the first colouring of blue draperies in fresco, and was afterwards glazed in secco with ultramarine ; and in chap. 83, that the dead-colouring of a blue mantle for the Virgin consisted of sinopia and black, and that it was glazed in secco with blue. The greens also in fresco must have been far from brilliant, since verde terra is the only natural green pigment used ; and the brightest that could be formed artificially would arise from the mixture of black with ochre, giallorino, or verde terra. This dull colour of the greens accords with the observation of Sir H. Davy, quoted in the following paragraph : —

" Another cause of the preservation of these ancient pictures is to be found in the few colours used in painting. The earlier Grecian masters used but four colours, namely, Attic ochre for yellow, sinopis (the sinopia of Cennino) for red, the earth of Melos for white, and black." " It is known," says Lanzi (vol. iii. p. 70), " that Titian and Giormone used but

TRANSLATOR S PREFACE. Xlll

few colours, and these they did not seek for or procure from other places, but they were such as were sold by all the shops in Venice." Boschini relates an observation of Titian, that whoever would be a painter should be well acquainted with three colours, and have perfect command over them, namely, white, red, and black. " The azure, the red and yellow ochres, and the blacks, are the colours which seem not to have changed at all in the ancient fresco-paintings. The vermilion is darker than recently made Dutch cinnabar, and the red lead is inferior in tint to that sold in shops. The greens in general are dull. Massicot and orpiment are probably among the least durable of ancient colours. If red and yellow ochres, blacks and whites, were the colours most employed by Protogenes and Apelles, so are they likewise the colours most employed by B.afFaello and Titian in their best style. The St. John and Venus in the tribune of the gallery at Florence offer striking examples of pictures, in which all the deeper tints are evidently produced by red and yellow ochres and carbonaceous substances." — Davy on the Colours used in Painting hy the Ancients ^ — PhiL Trans. 1815. Of this description (with the exception of amatito) were the colours used in fresco-painting by the school of Giotto, and recommended by Cennino.

The propriety of using different vehicles on the same picture has been lately much discussed, and the general opinion appears to be unfavourable to it. Under these circumstances the practical directions of Cennino will be read with much interest. In chap. S5 he informs us that some colours must be used with one vehicle, and some with another; and on referring to the different chapters in which he treats of the colours individually, we find that " some will bear any tempera (vehicle or medium), some can be used with glue

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only, and some with yolk of egg only;'^ while in chaps. 142 and 143, we find that pictures were sometimes painted on a gold ground in distemper (which Count Cicognara thought impracticable, Storia di Scultura, vol. iii.), and the glazings were done with colours ground in oil. The note to chap. 124 contains a description of an ancient picture still in preservation, painted in this manner ; and still more curious on account of the gem-like ornaments in relief which are affixed to it, and which are doubtless the precious stones alluded to by Cennino in this chapter.

The vehicles used with white lead are particularly worthy of remark. Cennino says (chap. 59), " it will bear any tempera;" and we find accordingly, in the course of the work, that it was used with water, with glue, with yolk of egg, and with oil. He says that it is the only white pigment that can be used on pictures ; therefore, as the whites are generally very well preserved in old pictures, we require no further proof of the durability of this pigment when used with other vehicles besides oil. One cause, perhaps, of this durability may be found in a practice mentioned in chap. 62, of shading white draperies with ultramarine, which we know has the property of preserving colours upon which it is used. We have a good example of this in the manner in which Rubens coloured flesh, which in his pictures is always fresh, and the colours well preserved. " He placed white on the lights, next to that yellow, then light red, making the tint darker as he went into the shades, and painting the carnations brighter than nature. He then passed over the whole with a cool grey (ultramarine and white), until he had softened and mellowed the whole." In this he imitated nature ; for if we break or remove the skin, we find the flesh red and high-coloured. It is this skin which gives the semi-transpa-

TRANSLATORS PREFACE. XV

rency observed in flesh, and which Rubens has happily imitated in his cool grey tint, and the flesh tints, in many of his pictures, which, after standing the test of 200 years, are now as bright and transparent as when first painted.

The use made by the early ItaKan artists of lyes (lisciva) is deserving of our notice and consideration. Cennino does not inform us how this lye was prepared ; but it has been ascertained that lye produced from pouring water on woodashes, from solutions of borax, and also of soda in water, were then used. We find from Cennino's book that ultramarine (of which soda is a constituent part) was prepared with it ; that it was also used in preparing azzurro della magna (an ore of cobalt) and zafferano. It has likewise been ascertained that soda has a preserving influence on red, yellow, and black pigments ; and the result of experiments on these colours has been so satisfactory, that a certain quantity of soda, — or, to speak more correctly, of soap, which is a compound of soda with fat or oil (but not drying oil), — is now used in preparing pigments for painting sails for the British navy. It is also used in the manufacture of printing-ink; and we have now Cennino's authority for using it with blue pigments. Sir Humphrey Davy informs us, that the Vestorian or Egyptian azure, the excellence of which is proved by its duration of 1700 years, may be easily imitated by carbonate of soda, opaque flint, and copper filings. The Translator has made many experiments on the effects of the alkalis and neutral salts when mixed with colours, and has every reason to be satisfied with the addition of soda, when properly used.

The question as to the propriety of early or late varnishing has been recently much discussed: it will be seen that in chapter 155 Cennino strongly recommends delaying this as long as possible, and he gives his reasons for so doing.

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It is to be observed, that he dh'ects the pictures to be previously warmed in the sun ; and that the gold, vs^here visible, was not to he varnished. The practice of varnishing parts of a picture, and not the whole, seems a relic of the old Egyptian manner of painting, which passed from Egypt into Greece, and from Greece into Italy ; for we find, within the cases of mummies, coloured drawings on grounds of the purest white. The coloured parts only are varnished with a brilliant and transparent varnish, but the white is left unvarnished.

The practice of painting in encaustic seems to have been discontinued previous to the time of Giotto, since Cennino does not mention wax, except in two places, neither of which has any reference to painting ; and this agrees with the experiments recorded by Lanzi, in which no wax was found in pictures painted after the year 1360. Nor does Cennino mention essential oils, which, we therefore conclude, were not used in painting at that period.

Painting in distemper in this country appears to have been chiefly confined to scene-painting ; but it is still practised in Italy. The great objection to it was, that pictures painted in this manner could not be washed ; but as Cennino informs us that they could be varnished, this can no longer be considered an objection. Of the durability of this kind of painting there can be no doubt ; since Cicognara mentions some old paintings in distemper at Venice, by Maestro Paolo, who was living in 1346; and by the Vivarini da Murano, dated 1445, which are still in excellent preservation.