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WORKING BIBLIOGRAPHY ON 17th CENTURY ITALIAN PAINTING TECHNIQUES

Phoebe Dent Weil
Northern Light Studio, LLC
1602 Locust Street, Suite 8151 St. Louis, MO 631031 (314) 588-9680
http://www. northernlightstudio. com
updated: April 2003

Treatises and Early Sources General Sources on Painting Techniques Conservation and technical studies Glossaries and technical terms used in regard to 17th c. Italian painting techniques Brushes Ground and imprimatura (priming) layers Pigments Media and Varnishes Basic Sources on Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi Sources Specifically on Gentileschi Techniques Caravaggio's Technique Titian's Techique Van Dyck's Painting Technique

TREATISES AND EARLY SOURCES

• Alberti, Leon Battista, De Pictura (Della Pictura) 1435-6. See: Leon Battista Alberti On Painting, John Spencer,ed. (New Haven:Yale Univ. Press) 1966. Also Leon Battista Alberti On Painting and On Sculpture: The Latin Texts of De Pictura and De Statua, Cecil Grayson, ed.,tr.(London:Phaidon) 1972. -The first modem treatise on the theory of painting.
• Armenini, G. B. (1533?-1609), De veri precetti della pittura, Ravenna, 1586. See: Giovanni Battista Armenini, On the True Precepts of the Art of Painting, Edward J. Olszewski, tr. and ed. (Burt Franklin & Co) 1977.
  
• Beal, Mary, A Study of Richard Symonds: His Italian Notebooks (1649-51) and their Relevance to 17th c Painting Techniques, Outstanding Theses from the Courtauld Institute of Art, NY, 1984.
  
• Borghini, R., Il Riposo, Florence, 1584.
  
• Cennini, Cennino d' Andrea, Il Libro dell'Arte, c. 1400, F. BruneIlo, ed., (Vicenza:Neri Pozza Editore) 1982, 1998.
  
  • Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., tr., The Craftsman's Handbook, 'Il Libro dell 'Arte', (New York:Dover) 1933, 1960.
    
    -on Cennini's manuscript see:
    
  • Thompson, Daniel V., The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting (NY:Dover) 1956.
  • _______, The Practice of Tempera Painting: Materials and Methods (NY:Dover) 1936, 1962.
• Clarke, Mark, The Art of All Colours: Mediaeval Recipe Books for Painters and Illuminators (London:Archetype Publications, Ltd.) 2001
  
• Felibien, Andre, Des Principes de L 'Architecture, de la Sculpture, de la Peinture, et des autres Arts qui en dependent, 1st ed. Paris, 1699 (Famborough,UK:Gregg Press Ltd.) 1966
  
• Lomazzo, G.P., Trattato dell'Arte de laPittura, Milan, 1584.
  
• Mayeme, Sir Theodore Turquet de, Pictoria, Sculptoria & quae subalternarum artium, (1620, with entries dating until 1646) British Library, BL Sloane MS 2052.
  
  • 1. Ernst Berger, Quellen fur Maltechnik wahrend der Renaissance und deren Folgezeit (XVI-XVII Jahrhundert) nebst dem de Mayeme MS. Beitrage zur Entwicklungsgeschichte der Maltechnik, IV Folge, (pp.99-364) Munich, 1901, reprint 1973.
    
  • 2. J .A. Van de Graaf, Het de Mayeme Manuscript als bron voor Schildertechniek van de Barok, Mijdrecht, 1958.
    
  • 3. M. Faidutti and C. Versini, Le manuscript de Turquet de Mayeme, Lyon, n.d. [1968]
    
  • 4. D.C. Fels, Jr., Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting, 2002. (includes English translation of De Mayeme MS B.M Sloane 2052
    
    -on the Mayeme MS see:
    Trevor-Roper, Hugh, "Mayerne and His Manuscript" in Art and Patronage in the Caroline Courts, pp. 264-93, ed. David Howarth. (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press) 1993.
    
• Talley, M. Kirby, 1981, quoted below, chapter 6, pp.72-149.
  
• Merrifield, Mary Philadelphia, Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting, Original Texts with English Translations, 2 vols. bound as one (New York:Dover) 1849, 1967, 1999. -of particular interest is the Volpato Manuscript (p. 719 fl)-contains a useful glossary by Shirley Alexander.
  
• Pliny (Gaius Plinius Secundus or Pliny the Elder, A.D. 23-79), Historia Naturalis (Natural History), 10 vols., tr. D.E. Eichholz, Loeb Classical Library (Cambridge, MA:Harvard University Press, 1971, Bk. 35.
  
• Talley, Mansfield Kirby, Portrait Painting in England: Studies in the Technical Literature Before 1700, published privately by The Paul Mellon Centre for studies in British Art London, 1981. [discussion of de Mayerne MS in chapter 6, pp. 72-149]
  -detailed summaries with extensive quotations from more than twenty technical works on painting between 1573 -1692
  
• Vasari, Giorgio, Vite (numerous editions available) -on Vasari see: Maclehose and Brown cited below, and
  
• Veliz, Zahira, Artists' techniques in Golden Age Spain, Cambridge, 1986. [contains Francisc Pacheco, Arte de la pintura (Seville, 1649)]
  
• da Vinci, Leonardo, Trattato della Pittura, in Rafaelle du Fresne, Trattato della statue di L.B. Alberti, Paris, 1651. Further, see: J.P. and I.A. Richter, eds., The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, London, 1939.
  
• da Vinci, Leonardo, Leonardo on Painting, Martin Kemp, ed., (New Haven:Yale Univ. Press) 2001.

GENERAL SOURCES

General sources on painting techniques

• Bakkenist, T., R. Hoppenbrouwers and H. Dubois, eds., Early Italian Paintings, Techniques and Analysis. Proceedings of the Symposium held at the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, Maastricht, 9-10 October 1996.
  
• Bambach, Carmen C., Drawing and Painting in the Italian Renaissance Workshop: Theory and Practice, 1300-1600 (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press) 1999. ,
• ________"Technique and Workshop Practice in Filippino's Drawings", in George Goldner and Carmen Bambach, The Drawings of Filippino Lippi and His Circle (New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1997, pp.21-28.
  
• Beal, Mary, A Study of Richard Symonds: His Italian Notebooks and their Relevance to 17th c Painting Techniques, Outstanding Theses from the Courtauld Institute of Art, NY, 1984.
  
• Doerner, Max, The Materials of the Artist and their use in Painting (NY : Harcourt Brace) 1934,1984.
  
• Dunkerton, Jill, Susan Foister and Nicholas Penny, Durer to Veronese: Sixteenth-Century Painting in the National Gallery (New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press and National Gallery Publications Ltd.) 1999. [especially chapters 6 through 9] 3
  
• Eastlake, Charles Locke, Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters, 2 vols. [Materials for a History of Oil Painting, London 1847] (NY: Dover) 1960.
  
• Gettens, Rutherford J., and George L. Stout, Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopaedia (New York:Dover) 1942, 1966.
  
• Laurie, A.P., The Painter'sMethods and Materials (NY: Dover) 1926, 1967.
  
• Maclehose, L.S., tr., and Prof G. Baldwin-Brown, ed., Vasari on Technique (New York:Dover) 1907, 1960.
  
• Mayer, Ralph, The Artist's Handbook (NY: Viking) 1940, revised ed. 1991.
  
• Rubin, Patricia Lee, and Alison Wright, Renaissance Florence: The Art of the 1470's (London:National Gallery Publications) 1999.
  
• Van de Wetering, Ernst, Rembrandt: the Painter at Work (Amsterdam:Amsterdam University Press) 1997.
  
• Van Hout, Nico, "Meaning and Development of the Ground-layer in Seventeenth Century
  Painting", Looking Through Paintings, the Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, Erma Hermens, ed. (Leiden:deProm and Archetype) 1998, pp. 199-225.
  
• Veliz, Zahira, Artists' Techniques in Golden Age Spain, (Cambridge:Cambridge U. Press) 1986.

Conservation and technical studies

• Bull, David, and J. Plesters, "The Feast of the Gods: Conservation, Examination, and Interpretation," Studies in The History of Art, 40, Monograph series II, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
  
• Coremans, Paul, L 'AgneauMystique au laboratoire (Antwerp:DeSikkel) 1953.
  
• Coremans, Paul, "La recherche scientifique et la restauration des tableaux, " Bulletin de l'Institut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, IV (1961) III.
  
• Coremans, Paul, R.J. Gettens, and J. Thyssen, "La technique des 'Primitifs Flamands,"'Studies in Conservation, I(1952) 1-29.
  
• Dunkerton, Jill, "Michelangelo as a Painter on Panel", in Michael Hirst and Jill Dunkerton, The Young Michelangelo, Making & Meaning series (London:National Gallery) 1994, pp.83-133.
  
• _________"Modifications to Traditional Egg Tempera Techniques in Fifteenth-Century Italy" in Early Italian Paintings, Techniques and Analysis. Proceedings of the Symposium held at the Stichting Restauratie Atelier Limburg, Maastricht, 9-10 October 1996, ed. T. Bakkenist, R. Hoppenbrouwers and H. Dubois, Maastricht, 1997,; p. 29-34.
  
• _________"North and South: Painting Techniques in Venice", Renaissance Venice and the North, Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Durer and Titian, exh. cat., Bernard Aikema and Beverly Louise Brown, eds, (New York:Rizzoli) 2000, pp. 93-103.
  
• Dunkerton, Jill, and Marika Spring, "The development of painting on coloured surfaces in 16th c Italy," in Painting Techniques, History, Materials, and Studio Practice, Contributions to the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, IIC, 120-135.
  

Glossaries and technical terms used in regard to 17th c. Italian painting techniques

• Alexander, S.M., in M.P. Merrifield, Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting, Original Texts with English Translations (NY:Dover) 1849, 1999.
  
• Baldinucci, Vocabolario Toscano dell' Arte del Disegno (Florence 1681)
  
• Beal, Mary, Richard Symonds, op, cit., pp. 315-332
  
• Bomford, David, Christopher Brown and Ashok Roy, Art in the Making: Rembrandt (London:National Gallery) 1988. [Glossary pp. 144-147; Bibliographical Appendix on Training of Artists and Practice of Painting, pp. 148-149; Select Bibliography, 150-153; Technical Literature, p. 154-155.]
  
• Gettens, R.J. and G.L. Stout, Painting Materials: A Short Encyclopaedia (New York:Dover) 1942, 1966.
  
• Van de Wetering, Ernst, Rembrandt: The Painter at Work, op. cit., pp. 321-325. Vocabolario degli Accademici della Crusca (Venice, 1741)
  

The Education of the Artist in the 17th c

• Children of Mercury: The Education of Artists in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Department of Art, Brown University, Providence, RI, 1984.
  
• Dempsey, Charles, Annibale Carracci and the Beginnings of Baroque Style (Gluckstadt: J.J. Augustin) Villa I Tatti, 1977.
  
• Goldstein, Carl, Teaching Art: Academies and Schoolsjrom Vasari to Albers (New York: Cambridge University Press) 1996.
  
• Lukehart, Peter M., ed., The Artist's Workshop, Studies in the History of Art 38, Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Papers XXII, (Washington:National Gallery of Art) 1993. [peter M. Lukehart, "Delineating the Genoese Studio: Giovani accartati or sotto padre?"37-57; Gail Feigenbaum, "Practice in the Carracci Academy", pp. 59-76.
  
• Mahon, Denis, Studies in Seicento Art and Theory (London: Warburg Institute, University of London) 1947.
  

Brushes

• Harley, R., "Artists' Brushes-Historical Evidence from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century", IIC Lisbon Congress, 1972-Conservation of Paintings and the Graphic Arts, p. 123-126.

Ground and imprimatura (priming) layers

• Dunkerton, Jill, and Marika Spring, "The Development of Painting on Coloured Surfaces in Sixteenth-Century Italy", in Painting Techniques, History, Materials, and Studio Practice, Contributions to the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998, nc, pp.120-35.
  
• Van Hout, Nico, "Meaning and Development of the Ground-layer in Seventeenth Century Painting", Looking Through Paintings, the Study of Painting Techniques and Materials in Support of Art Historical Research, Emma Hermens, ed. (Leiden: deProm and Archetype) 1998, pp. 199-225.

Pigments

• Albus, Anita, The Art of Arts: Rediscovering Painting, tr. Michael Robertson (New York: Alfred A. Knopf) 2000. -beautifully written and fascinating account of historic materials and techniques-See especially chapter VII, part I, "The Devil in the Tube", and part Four, "View with Ten Lost Colors"-includes a useful glossary pp. 363 ff.
  
• Ball, Philip, Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour (London:Penguin) 2001.
  
• Feller, Robert L. (vol. 1), Ashok Roy (vol.2), and Elizabeth West Fitzhugh (vol. 3), eds., Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of their History and Characteristics, 3 vols. (vol. 1, Cambridge and Washington:Cambridge University Press and National Gallery of Art) 1986; (vol.2, Washington and New York:National Gallery of Art and Oxford University Press) 1993; (vol. 3, Washington and New York:National Gallery of Art and Oxford University Press) 1997.
  
• Finlay, Victoria, Color: A Natural History of the Palette (NY:Ballantine) 2003. ,
  
• Harley, Rosamund, Artist's Pigments c. 1600-1835: a study in English documentary sources, 2nd. ed. (London:Butterworth Scientific) 1982.
  
• Hommes, Margriet van Eikema, "Verdigris Glazes in Historical Oil Paintings: Recipes and Techniques", pp. 163-191.
  
• Roy, Ashok and Barbara H. Berrie, "A New Lead-based Yellow in the Seventeenth Century", in Painting Techniques, History Materials, and Studio Practice, Contributions to the Dublin Congress, 7-11 September 1998 IIC, pp. ,-identifies lead-tin-antimonyellow in Orazio Gentileschi's Lute Player and St. Cecilia and an Angel in the National Gallery, Washington
  
• Woudhuysen-Keller, Renate, "Aspects of Painting Technique in the Use of Verdigris and Copper Resinate" Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice, Conference Proceedings, University of Lei den 26-29 June 1995 (J. Paul Getty Trust) 1995
  
• Woudhuysen-Keller, Renate and Paul Woudhuysen, "Thoughts on the Use of Green Glaze called 'Copper resinate' and its Colour-changes", Looking through Paintings, Erma Hermens, ed. (Baarn,NL, and London: de Prom and Archetype) 1998, pp. 133-144.

Media and Varnishes

• Dunkerton, Jill, "Observations on the Handling Properties of Binding Media Identified in European Painting from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Centuries." Bulletin, Institut, Royal du Patrimoine Artistique, No. 27, Brussels, 2000, pp. 287-292.
  
• Feller, Robert L., N. Stolow and E. Jones, On Picture Varnishes and their Solvents, Washington, 1985.
  
• Glanville, Helen, "Varnish, Grounds, Viewing Distance, and Lighting: Some Notes on Seventeenth-Century Italian Painting Technique", Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice, Preprints of conference at University of Leiden, 26-29 ;June 1995, ed. Arie W~ert, Erma Hermens, and Malja Peek, (Getty Conservation Institute) 1996, pp. 12-19.
  
• Mills, J.S., and R. White, "Natural Resins of Art and Archeology: Their sources, chemistry and identification," Studies in Consevation, 22 (1977) pp. 12-31.
  
• White, Raymond, Jennifer Pilc and Jo Kirby, "Analyses ofPaint Media", National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol. 19 (London:National Gallery Publications) 1998.

BASIC SOURCES ON ORAZIO AND ARTEMISIA Gentileschi

• Bissell, R. Ward, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art (University Park, P A:The Pennsylvania State University Press) 1999.
  
• Bissell, R. Ward, Orazio Gentileschi and the Poetic Tradition in Caravaggesqie Painting (University Park, PA:Pennsylvania State University Press) 1981.
  
• Christiansen, Keith, and Judith Mann, Orazio and Artemisia Gentileschi. exh. cat. (New Haven: Yale University Press) 2001.
  
• Finaldi, Gabriele, ed., Orazio Gentileschi at the Court of Charles I, exh, cat. National Gallery, London; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao; Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1999.
  
• Garrard, Mary, Artemisia Gentileschi (princeton:Princeton Univ. Press) 1989.
  
• _________, Artemisia Gentileschi around 1622 (Berkeley:University of California Press) 2001.
  
• _________, "Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting," Art Bulletin, LXII (1980) 97-112

SOURCES SPECIFICALLY ON Gentileschi TECHNIQUE

• Holmes, Melville, "Amber Varnish and the Technique of the Gentileschi", in R. Ward Bissell, Artemisia Gentileschi and the Authority of Art, (University Park, P A: The Pennsylvania State University Press) 1999.
  
• Horovitz, Isabel, "The Materials and Techniques of European Paintings on Copper Supports",Copper as Canvas: Two Centuries of Masterpiece Paintings on Copper, 1575-1775, exh. cat. Phoenix Art Museum (New York:Oxford Univ. Press) 1999, pp. 63-92.
  
• Christiansen, Keith, "The Art ofOrazio Gentileschi", in Keith Christiansen and Judith W. Mann, Orazio andArtemisia Gentileschi, exh. cat. (New York:Metropolitan Museum) 2001, pp. 3-37.
  
• Christie, Nicola, "Technical Examination of Gentileschi' s The Finding of Moses (ex Castle Howard), Apollo, CXLV, no. 424, June 1997, pp. 36-37.
  
• Leonard, Mark, Narayan Khandekar and Dawson W. Carr, "'Amber varnish' and Orazio, Gentileschi's 'Lot and his daughters', The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXLll, no. 1174, January 2001, pp. 4-10.
  
• Massing, Ann, "Orazio Gentileschi's Joseph and Potiphar 's Wife: a 17th century use of 'bituminous' paint", The Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin number I, The first ten years: the examination and conservation of paintings 1977 to 1987, pp. 99-104.
  
• de los Santos, Ana Sanchez-Lassa, "Technique and Materials in the Paintings ofOrazio Gentileschi", in Orazio Gentileschi at the Court of Charles I, Gabriele Finaldi, ed., exh. cat. National Gallery, London; Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao; Museo del Prado, Madrid, 1999, pp.79-97.
On tracing-lucidi, see: -sources cited under Caravaggio and Christiansen in exh. cat.-also:

• Cennino Cennini, Il Libro dell 'arte, chaps XXIII-XXVI
• M.P. Merrifield, Original Treatises, pp.734-38 (Giovanni Battista Volpato, late 17th). On Orazio's use of bitumen, see: Ann Massing, op. cit.
  On Orazio and Artemisia's reported use of amber varnish, see: Melville Holmes; Mark Leonard, et. al.
  
  
• White, R., and J. Kirby in, "Rembrandt and his Circle: Dutch Painting Media
  Reexamined" 'NG Technical Bull, XV, London994, pp. 73-741

CARAVAGGIO'S TECHNIQUE

• Bauer, Linda and Steve Colton, "Tracing in Some Works by Caravaggio", Burlington Magazine, 142 (2000),434-36
  
• Bauer, Linda, "More Evidence of Artists' Tracings", Burlington Magazine, CXXXVII, 1995, p. 38.
  
• _______"A letter by Barocci and the tracing of finished paintings" Burlington Magazine, CXXXV, 1986, pp. 355-7.
  
• Benedetti, Sergio, "Caravaggio' s Taking of Christ, a Masterpiece Rediscovered" Burlington Magazine, CXXXV, 1993, pp. 731-41.
  
• Bernardini, Maria Grazia, A.M. Tantillo, L. Spezzaferro, and C. Strinati, Caravaggio, Carracci, Maderno: La Cappella Cerasi in Santa Maria del Popolo aRoma, Ministero per I Beni e le Attivita Culturali, Soprintendenza per I Beni Artistici e Storici di Roma (Milan: SilvanaEditoriale) 2001.
  
• Christiansen, Keith, A Caravaggio Rediscovered: The Lute Player (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art) 1990.
• _______'Caravaggio and "L 'esempio davanti del naturale", Art Bulletin, 68,
  1986, p. 423.
  
• _______"Some Observations on Caravaggio's Two Treatments of the Lute Player", Burlington Magazine, CXXXII, 1990, pp. 21-6.
  
• _______'Appendix: Technical Report on The Cardsharps", Burlington Magazine, CXXX, 1988, pp. 26-27.
  
• Gregori, Mina, ed., Come Dipingeva il Caravaggio (Milan:Electa) 1996. [procedings from the conference held in Florence, 28 January 1992, in connection with the exhibition "Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. Come nascono I Capolavori, Florence," Pitti Palace, December 1991-March 1992; and Rome, Palazzo Ruspoli, March-May 1992]
• _______ed., Caravaggio: come nascono i capolavori, Milan, 1991. [Exh. Catalogue. Contains: Roberta Lapucci, "La tecnica del Caravaggio: materiali e metodi", pp31-51.
  
• Keith, Larry, "Three Paintings by Caravaggio", National Gallery Technical Bulletin, vol. 19 (London:National Gallery Publications) 1998, pp.37-51.
  
• Schneider, Thomas, 'L 'Orecchio del Caravaggio 0 come distinguere un originale da una copia', Paragone, 39-40, 1993 pp. 21-

TITIAN'S TECHNIQUE

• Bortolaso, Giovanna, "A Study of Various Works from the Period 1542-1576", Titian, Prince of Painters (Venice:Marsilio Editori) 1990 pp. 385-387.
  
• Dunkerton, Jill, "Titian's Painting Technique", Titian, ed. David Jaffe (London: National Gallery Company Ltd.) 2003, pp. 45-59.
  
• Fassina, Vasco, Mauro Matteini, Arcangelo Moles, "A Study of the Binders in Seven Paintings by Titian in Venice", Titian, Prince of Painters op. cit. pp. 388-400.
  
• Lazzarini, Lorenzo, "A Study of Various Works from the Period 1510-1542", Titian, Prince of Painters (Venice:Marsilio Editori, S.p.A.) 1990, pp, 378-384.

VAN DYCK'S PAINTING TECHNIQUE

• Christenson, Carol, M. Palmer, and M. Swicklik, "Van Dyck's Painting Technique, His Writings, and Three Paintings in the National Gallery of Art", Anthony van Dyck, ed. Arthur K. Wheelock, S.J. Barnes, and J.S. Held (Washington, D.C.:National Gallery of Art) 1990, pp. 45-52.

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