The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting

by Thompson, Daniel V.

• ISBN13: 9780486203270
• ISBN10: 0486203271
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1956-06-01
• Publisher: Dover Publications

Summary

Sums up 20th-century knowledge: paints, binders, metals, surface preparation. Based on mss. and scientific investigation.

Table of Contents

  FOREWORD BY BERNARD BERENESON
  PREFACE
  INTRODUCTION
I. CARRIERS AND GROUNDS
    Terminology
    The importance of book painting
    Parchment-making
    Vellum
    Qualities of parchment
    Preparations
    Wooden surfaces
    The functions of gesso
    The use of gesso
    The construction of a polyptch
    Variations of method
    Other Grounds
    Canvas
    Walls and plasters
    Structural woodwork
II. BINDING MEDIA
    The three orders of binding
    Functions of vehicles
    Viscosity effects
    Effects of transparency
    Quantity relations
    Optics and art history
    Abuses of wax
    Media for illumination-Glair
    Craftsmanship and aethetic
    Craftsmanship and conscience
    Craftmanship and industry
    Preservation of glair
    Glair v. gums
    Gum arabic
    Gum tragacanth
    Size
    Adjuncts to glair
    Media for panel painting-Egg tempera
    Size
    Oil glazes
    Oils and Varnishes
    Media for panel painting-Lime
    Origin of true fresco
    Palimpsests
    Secco painting
    Media for structural wood painting
    Oil and size
III. PIGMENTS
    Classifications
    Elements
    Minerals
    Vegetable extracts
    Manufactured salts
    BLACK COLOURS
      Inks
      Lampblack
      Vine-charcoal black
      Colour grinding
      Other carbon blacks
      Graphite
      Ivory black
    BROWN COLOURS
    WHITE PIGMENTS
      Manufacture of white lead
      Modern and medieval white leads
      Qualities of white lead
      Bone White
      Othe inert whites
      Lime whites
    RED COLOURS
      Sinopia
      The range of ochres
      Appetites for colour
      Minium-orange lead
      Minium-cinnabar
      Natural cinnabar
      Vermilion
        The invention of vermilion
        Early experimental chemistry
        Supply and demand
        Influence of vermilion
        A defect of vermilion
      Tempering
      The red lakes
      Lac Lake
      Hedera and lacca
      Grain
      Confusion of Nomenclature
      Confusion of Materials-Kermes
      Grain Lakes
      Brazil wood
      Brazil lakes
        Transparent
        Opaque
      Brazil extracts
      The importance of brazil colours
      Madder
      Dragonsblood
      Folium
    BLUE COLOURS
      Effects of age
      Neutrals
      Azurite
        Preparation of azurite
        Characteristics of azurite blues
      Indigo
      Woad
        Woad indigo
        Woad cultivation
        Manufacture
        Social and economic consequences
      Compound indigo pigments
      Other vegtable blues
      Turnsole
        Identification
        Manufacture
      Clothlets
      Ultramarine azure
        Manufacture
        Intrinsic value
        Distribution
      Artifical copper blues
      Blue bice
      Copper-lime-ammonia compounds
      The silver-blue mystery
      The azure-vermilion tangle
    PURPLE COLOURS
      The whelk reds
      Folium and archil
      Mixed purples
    GREEN COLOURS
      Malachite green
      The green earths
      Verdigris
      Effects of age
      Verdigris in books
      Salt Green and Rouen green
      Incompatibilities
      Sap Green
      Iris Green
      Other colours from iris
      Honeysuckle and nightshade greens
      Mixed greens
    YELLOW COLOURS
      Medieval use of yellow
      Yellow ochres
      Orpiment
      Realgar
      Incompatibilities of orpiment
      Bile yellows
      Giallorino-Massicot
      Substitutes for gold
      Mosaic gold
      Other imitations of gold
        Celandine
        Aloes
      Saffron
      Preperation and use
      Other organic yellows
      Rhamnus yellows-Extracts and lakes
      Weld lakes-Arzica
      Fustic and others
IV. METALS
    Gold in powder
    Fire gilding
    Amalgams
    Gold in leaf
    Thickness of medieval gold
    Reflecting surfaces-Burnishing
    River gold
    Chrysography with gold inks
    Unburnished pigment gold
    The beginnings of mordant gilding
    Composition of a water mordant
    Burnished water-mordant gilding
    The binders
    The colouring agents
    The bulk-formers
    Other ingredients
    Unburnished water mordants
    Gilding by attrition
    The background of craftsmanship
    Burnishers and burnishing
    The metallic ground
    Gold-the original intent
    Preperation of surfaces
  &nbs