SolInvictus Press 2013

Stefan C. Arteni and Myriam Sanchez-Posada de Arteni

The Secret of the Masters: historical controversies and hypotheses

7thth Triennial Meeting,

ICOM Committee for Conservation, Copenhagen, 1984, Section 11: History and theory of restoration

(Coordinator: H. Althöfer, Restaurierungszentrum der Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf)

Quinten Massys, Saint Luke painting the Virgin and Child http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-luke-

painting-the-virgin-and-child-115200

Jan Miense Molenaer http://www.wga.hu/art/m/molenaer/painter.jpg

ADDENDA

1. The search for the ‘medium’

Maarten van Heemskerck http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Marten_van_Heemskerck_001.jpg

Xavier de Langlais, Marc Havel, and LEFRANC & BOURGEOIS

Marc Havel, Notes techniques sur la peinture a l‘huile. Les materiaux – leurs emplois, Lefranc et Bourgeois, 1971

An update on LEFRANC & BOURGEOIS mediums (September 13, 2013)

http://www.lefranc-bourgeois.com/beaux-arts/telechargement/A_TELPDF_2010102114343013.PDF

http://www.oldmastersmaroger.com/?gclid=CIuwwdzngLkCFcOe4AodOzcAhQ

The legend of the Maroger mediums survives (September 13, 2013)

Flemish Maroger Medium http://www.oldmastersmaroger.com/flemish-maroger-painting-medium-5oz-tube-now-only/

Italian Wax Medium http://www.oldmastersmaroger.com/italian-wax-painting-medium-5oz-tube/

Le médium flamand Maroger http://mediumpeinturehuile-atelierfontaines.blogspot.com/p/the-

true-flemish-maroger-medium-le.html

Christian Vibert (Atelier des Fontaines) http://mediumpeinturehuile-atelierfontaines.blogspot.com/p/the-

true-flemish-maroger-medium-le.html

C.Roberson & Co, U.K. Modern Maroger Medium: resin/gumArabic/linseed oil

http://www.robco.co.uk/roberson/#14/z

http://www.dickblick.com/products/maroger-medium/

Raoul Dufy, Portrait of Monsieur Maroger http://www.invaluable.com/catalog/viewLot.cfm?afRedir=true&lotR

ef=1cf8cb780f&scp=c&ri=256

Gel-Painting Medium by Claude Yvel Mastic and walnut oil with lead oxide

The long lasting painting medium of the baroque period. Black Oil and a special Mastic Varnish are carefully mixed 1:1. The two

liquid components change into a thick gel. When stirring the gel can be made liquid again.

http://shop.kremerpigments.com/en/mediums--binders-und-glues/mediums-und-varnishes/gel-painting-medium-by-claude-

yvel-50-ml-79098:.html

Tempera grassa

http://www.labottegadelpittore.it/tempera.pdf

Giorgio De Chirico, tempera grassa (egg and oil tempera) on canvas

http://www.lisavenerosipesciolini.it/ViewImage.aspx?url=images/De-Chirico.jpg&title=Giorgio%20de%20Chirico,%20Ritratto%20di%20Elide

Gino Severini, tempera grassa (egg and oil tempera) on panel

Gino Severini, tempera grassa (egg and oil tempera) on panel

2. The scientific examination of paintings: a few responses to the ‘medium’ question (caution is

needed in interpreting the data)

National Gallery Technical Bulletin September 1977 Two Panels by the Master of Saint Giles

David Bomford and Jo Kirby Observations on their cleaning and restoration

David Bomford

Materials, paint structure and techniques Jo Kirby

“…The two panels show few differences, if any, in the techniques discussed so far, and the identical range of pigments is found in each painting. The results of the analysis of the paint medium of the two paintings were thus unexpected and interesting. Several small samples were taken from each picture for analysis by gas chromatography: from the green curtain, the bluish- green robe of the King, the white altar cloth and the red of the carpet in the bottom right-hand corner in ‘The Mass of S. Giles’, and from the pale blue sky, the green foliage at the bottom edge of the picture and the red cloak of the attendant at the left in ‘S. Giles and the Hind’. The results obtained are given in the Table on p.59, in the section on the results of analyses, but it is convenient to summarize them here. They indicate that both egg tempera and drying oil were present in the paint medium of ‘The Mass of S. Giles’, whereas a drying oil, probably walnut oil, alone seemed to be present in the samples taken from ‘S. Giles and the Hind’. It is possible to indicate the presence of protein and lipid components in the paint medium in each paint layer by staining the cross-sections with certain histochemical stains; thus, a layer containing a medium of animal-skin glue is stained by protein stains only, one in which the medium is drying oil is stained by lipid stains only, while a layer containing whole egg or egg yolk is stained by both stains... In order to see whether the egg and oil were present in the same paint layer or in different layers in ‘The Mass of S. Giles', a similar range of samples, excluding the red of the carpet, were stained with Ponceau S (proteins) and Sudan Black B (lipids and certain other materials). The results obtained indicated that the egg and drying oil were present in separate layers. The white paint layer of the altar cloth appeared to be in egg tempera. The results obtained from the cream-coloured underpaint were unclear. In the samples taken from the mid-green of the curtain and the King's robe, it appeared that the lowest layer of underpaint, immediately above the ground, contained egg tempera. It is probable that the upper paint layers in both samples were painted in a drying oil medium…”

The Mass of Saint Giles http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-mass-of-

saint-giles-115756

Saint Giles and the Hind http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-giles-and-

the-hind-115147

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 17, 1996 Analyses of Paint Media

Raymond White and Jennifer Pilc “…The earliest example is particularly interesting from an art historical point of view.

Two panels examined, ‘Saints Jerome and John the Baptist’ … and ‘Saints Liberius(?) and Matthias’ …,are at present attributed jointly to Masaccio and his slightly older contemporary, Masolino…

…Masaccio was largely responsible for ‘Saints Jerome and John the Baptist’, while ‘Saints Liberius(?) and Matthias’ was mostly painted by Masolino. It was therefore particularly interesting that examination of the paint in several areas of the two panels revealed differences in the paint medium used. The handling of the flesh paint appeared markedly different and it was found that whereas egg tempera was used to paint Saint John's flesh, the paint of Saint Matthias's flesh contained egg enriched by the addition of a little drying oil. FTIR-microscopy indicated the presence of both protein and drying oil in discrete areas throughout the sample examined, suggesting that here an emulsion of drying oil in egg was used. Such a paint would have differed from ordinary egg tempera to the extent that it would be rather richer and could be manipulated more freely and with greater flexibility;..

…In the ‘Saints Jerome and John the Baptist’ panel, Saint John's red cloak has been painted in egg tempera, possibly with a trace of drying oil added. In the companion panel, however, Saint Liberius's pinkish-cream cassock and Saint Matthias's olive-green robe have been painted in linseed oil…

1. Red shadow of fold of Saint John's cloak 2. Flesh paint of Saint John's right shoulder 1. Pinkish-cream paint of Pope's cassock 2. Olive-green paint of the cloak of Saint Mathias 3. Pale flesh paint from the back of Saint Mathias's neck

1. Egg (+ trace of oil?) 2. Egg 1. Oil 2. Oil 3. Egg + some oil

Masaccio, Saints Jerome and John the Baptist http://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html

Masolino, Saints Liberius(?) and Matthias http://www.wga.hu/support/viewer/z.html

…The altarpiece of ‘The Trinity with Saints’ … was commissioned from Francesco Pesellino in 1455. On his death in 1457, Fra Filippo Lippi and his workshop in Prato completed the work by 1460. It is thought that Pesellino, who had probably trained in Lippi's workshop, was responsible for the overall design of the altar-piece and perhaps for the two figures on the left, while Lippi was responsible for the right-hand figures, the landscape and various other parts of the work, such as God's hands and the dove. The Lippi workshop is thought to have been responsible for the predella panels... In the main panel, examination of paint from the left- and right-hand figures and parts of the sky and landscape showed that the medium used was egg containing an admixture of drying oil, similar to the paint used in the panel of ‘Saints Liberius(?) and Matthias’ described above. The sky, however, was painted in egg tempera alone. In the paint used in the Trinity altarpiece for the robe of Saint Jerome (on the right), which was slightly richer in texture, the proportion of oil in the emulsion was correspondingly higher... In this case, examination of the paint medium has thrown little light on the problems of attribution of the different parts of the picture: the same medium appears to have been used on the two sides of the painting, although not in the sky. The fact that the white paint of the rocks in the predella panel of Saint Jerome and the Lion (NG 4868.4) contains pure egg tempera may be significant, given that this part of the altarpiece is thought to have been produced by the Lippi workshop in Prato. When egg tempera and drying oil are found in the same picture, it is perhaps most common to find egg tempera used for the underpaint with oil in the paint layers above, or egg used in certain areas of the painting – white, pale blue or flesh paint, for instance – and oil in others – reds and greens perhaps. The reason behind this may be purely visual: egg tempera gives a colder white, for example, and a paint surface with a slight sheen. The glazes of lake pigments and copper-containing green pigments used to model the shadows and folds of clothing are more effective in a medium of drying oil, however. A combination of the two methods of proceeding is found in ‘The Virgin and Child with Saint John’ … painted by Filippino Lippi around 1475–80... The pale blue sky was painted using egg tempera, while drying oils were used for the principal layers of the robes of Saint John and the Virgin. The Virgin's green sleeve lining, for which linseed oil was used, was underpainted in egg tempera, however. The red lake pigment (identified as lac lake) … used for Saint John's robe and the ultramarine used for the Virgin's robe are poor driers; accordingly the walnut oil used for the former and the linseed oil for the latter had both been heat pre-polymerised (partially, in the case of the walnut oil), presumably to assist drying…”

The Trinity with Saints altarpiece http://www.flickr.com/photos/100627767@N04/9737936678/sizes/k/in/photolist-fQvtiY-daFcRh-

d2EuAQ-buUese-9twwmE-9yNduD-9zwisC-9ztiJM-8Mv16G-9zwhxw-dpWG8w-dpWG19-eKhY9R-cHkP9b-d5pJeJ-foBCdw-e3jpEj-e3jpEJ-bBSQeD-7Lu1QC-bWL4oQ-bWKSVh-9332EL-diCFaP-diCF5Z-9FbxCU-ddXX3k-7CLyrU-a5HNmS-di1vdQ-fQvtDE-babVAK-bnQhjX-fQdTXV-fQvvkG-

fQdSRg-fQdV7g-fQdVxp-7zHHwb/

The Trinity with Saints altarpiece, detail, Saints Zeno and Jerome http://www.flickr.com/photos/100627767@N04/9737938810/sizes/k/in/photolist-fQvtWJ-fQvtiY-

daFcRh-d2EuAQ-buUese-9twwmE-9yNduD-9zwisC-9ztiJM-8Mv16G-9zwhxw-dpWG8w-dpWG19-eKhY9R-cHkP9b-d5pJeJ-foBCdw-e3jpEj-e3jpEJ-bBSQeD-7Lu1QC-bWL4oQ-bWKSVh-9332EL-diCFaP-diCF5Z-9FbxCU-ddXX3k-7CLyrU-a5HNmS-di1vdQ-fQvtDE-babVAK-bnQhjX-fQdTXV-

fQvvkG-fQdSRg-fQdV7g-fQdVxp-7zHHwb/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/angel-left-hand-114333

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/angel-right-hand-114334

The Trinity with Saints altarpiece, details

Filippino Lippi http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-virgin-and-

child-with-saint-john-115994

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 8,1984 Raphael’s ‘S. John the Baptist Preaching’

Allan Braham and Martin Wyld

“…landscape and foliage, glazed originally with 'copper resinate‘…

The treatment of the picture Martin Wyld

…The foliage of the trees in the centre and right of the picture, the only parts of the landscape not to have been overpainted, consists mainly of a 'copper resinate' layer, now discoloured, directly on top of the sky. There is also discoloured 'copper resinate' in the darkest parts of the green drapery and in some of the foreground… …The medium was identified as egg tempera, except for a sample of the original green glaze which was walnut oil with a trace of pine resin…”

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 9, 1985 Analyses of Paint Media

John Mills and Raymond White Raphael S.John the Baptist

Preaching 1. Blue sky between trees 2. Green tree foliage, top L.H. edge

Egg Oil + resin

Raphael, Saint John the Baptist preaching http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-john-the-baptist-preaching-

115184

“…The rather weak azelate peak in samples 2 and 3 (about half the height of the palmitate peak) definitely suggests the presence of egg as well as oil, perhaps in the underlayers, but we did not confirm this by staining tests…

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 9, 1985 Analyses of Paint Media

John Mills and Raymond White

Bouts The Virgin and Child No.2595 1. Red damask Oil 2. Virgin's blue robe Oil(+ egg?) 3. Green cushion Oil(+ egg?)”

Dieric Bouts the Elder, The Virgin and Child http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-virgin-and-child-115902

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 26, 2005 Analyses of Paint Media: New Studies of Italian Paintings of

the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries Catherine Higgitt and Raymond White

“Recent examination of the binding medium of a number of Italian school works ranging in date from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century have revealed an interesting, and a rather more sophisticated, approach to the use of egg tempera and oil-based binding media than had previously been assumed. This period corresponds to one of transition in Italy, as artists shifted away from the use of predominantly egg tempera to the use of oil. It is becoming clear that oil was being used earlier and more extensively than had been thought and that egg continued to be used, in various ways, in parallel or in combination with oil throughout this period…

…This egg/oil technique was still in use late into the fifteenth century as the Saint Francis panel … recently reattributed to Botticelli and dated to the 1480s, shows ...The painting has a gilded background and is painted in egg tempera, the use of oil being reserved for the glazes – traces of which remain in the incised lines on the angels’ gilded wings…

…Analysis has shown that during this period, egg and oil were used together by artists in a number of ways. The simplest, and perhaps closest to the older tradition, is the use of egg and oil for different colours or pigments, as seen in the Wemyss Madonna. Typically, egg tempera is found in the lighter coloured passages or in underpaints, while oil was used in other areas, usually the richer, darker colours, or in final glazes. In some works, there is evidence that a little oil has been mixed with egg tempera (enriched egg tempera or tempera grassa) in certain colours, rather than being used in separate colours or layers ... Botticelli may have employed this technique also. While the majority of the samples from his two panels depicting scenes from the life of Saint Zenobius … contain egg tempera, samples from the richer, more glaze-like areas suggest the presence of egg and a little oil (perhaps tempera grassa) ... His Trinity panel (London, Courtauld Institute of Art Gallery, 1490–5) is also mainly in egg, but with a little oil in the red robe and green cloak ... Analysis of two other works on panel, the Primavera and the Coronation of the Virgin (both Florence, Uffizi), suggest that egg and tempera grassa were used here also, with the oil particularly associated with the greens ...

Sandro Botticelli, Saint Francis of Assisi with Angels http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/saint-francis-of-

assisi-with-angels-115138

Sandro Botticelli, Wemyss Madonna (Adoration of the Christ child) http://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/4122063014/sizes/o/i

n/photostream/

Sandro Botticelli and workshop, The Trinity http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-trinity-with-

saint-mary-magdalen-and-saint-john-the-b207061

…The use of tempera grassa has long been postulated (particularly in Italy) by restorers and writers on technique, although no contemporary descriptions are known ... As many analysts examining paint samples will know, it is very easy to obtain results that suggest the presence of egg and oil together, but understanding what this signifies is not so straightforward. In practice tempera grassa is one of the most difficult media to identify and the term is often used without any analytical basis. Before assuming that an artist has employed tempera grassa, it must be established that the media are truly employed as a mixture or emulsion and are not present as two separate layers (note 25). Further, it must be confirmed that the small amounts of oil detected do not simply represent contamination from another layer. Egg-tempera films are often quite leanly bound, with coarse pigment particles, so that the paint surface may be quite uneven or porous. Oil, from surface layers, coatings or oil-containing varnishes, can therefore remain trapped in the paint texture or penetrate a surprisingly long way into a film, making it very difficult to avoid contamination. These paintings often have a long history of past restoration interventions, and therefore the possibility of contamination with materials added during such treatments, including retouching media, is high. Further, old oil glazes may be present at the surface in more or less intact layers, over egg-tempera underpaint …

…Samples from the green lining of the Virgin’s mantle… painted with malachite, from Botticelli’s Wemyss Madonna, reveal that two paint layers are present. Examination of the medium indicated that the darker upper layer, and the lower, lighter coloured green layer both contained traces of pine resin and linseed oil in addition to egg tempera. It was not obvious how components more commonly associated with a varnish layer could have penetrated down into the sample, and even the underlayer, until the sample was examined in cross-section ... This revealed cracks through the paint layers that extended right down into the underlayer, which contained fluorescent material that is likely to be residues of varnish…

…in the majority of cases the oil is thought to be a contamination. However, the Battle of San Romano by Uccello … is an example of a painting where tempera grassa does appear to have been used ... Uccello has mainly used an egg-tempera technique, but seems to have exploited the slightly different characteristics of walnut oil-enriched tempera (tempera grassa) in certain areas, including the more saturated dark foliage greens in the main part of the panel (note 30). There is a dark translucent glaze-like modelling over the silver leaf of the armour. Analysis reveals that the glaze contains a resin or softwood pitch … mixed with walnut oil. Similar pitch glazes have been found in a number of other works .. including the two large altarpieces executed by Marziale ... In the works by Marziale … the pitch is used in the shadows in the vaulting over the figures, again combined with walnut oil. Samples from elsewhere on the two altarpieces also contain walnut oil, tempered with pine resin in the rich transparent reds and greens .... Although slightly later in date than the works by Marziale, very similar materials are used in the two panels depicting Tanaquil and Marcia by the Sienese artist Domenico Beccafumi ... Walnut oil is used, with a little conifer resin added to the more transparent green paints. In the transparent brown shadows, Beccafumi has also used a softwood or resin pitch…”

Note 25 “In a typical chromatographic analysis, the whole sample is derivatised and submitted for analysis. All components are examined together and information about where these components are within the layer structure is lost. It is therefore very important to interpret the analytical data in the light of information from spatially resolved techniques such as the examination of cross-sections (whether by visible or infrared microscopy, or using microchemical tests).”

Note 30 “In Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon (c.1470, NG 6294), walnut oil is used throughout: J. Dunkerton and A. Roy, ‘Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon: Technical Evidence Re-evaluated’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 19, 1998, pp. 26–30. It should be noted that nineteenth - century Italian restorers’ practice might be an alternative explanation for the detection of tempera grassa.”

Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/niccolo-mauruzi-

da-tolentino-at-the-battle-of-san-romano-114789

Paolo Uccello, Battle of San Romano, detail http://www.flickr.com/photos/28433765@N07/5950781142/sizes/o/in/photolist-a4RiUS-9qYyFT-dKoQ8m-aWb34M-

aWb1Y4-aWb1KD-aWbcZn-aWb3HF-aWb6mn-aWb838-aWb516-aWban6-aWbbor-aWbeRt-aWb5QV-8bX3Pv-dtCm7s-fdCNKy-e93GDF-b2BuHz-cuD3ro-fSky7B-bu1Sxx-9iB4gv-9XF7Jf-avfMQc-djEW6q-acqSXo-8Z1xsm-gdxfAy-bS8ZPT-

9MMXYA-fsbaLy-aZAe2H-9qYyKB-aZAjCv-9iB4Ze-dWjxue-aWb9Pn-7WJLpj-eDyxRT-dMGeww-cWuohq-cWukrw-cWuqJ5-b4RckZ-8Pc3XY-9hRHjP-9dGrYi-8nFwuk-eRKKR3/

Marco Marziale, The Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints Gall, John the Baptist, Roch (?) and Bartholomew

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-virgin-and-child-enthroned-with-saints-gall-john-the-115958

Marco Marziale, The circumcision http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-circumcision-

115493

Domenico Beccafumi, Marcia http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/marcia-114737

Domenico Beccafumi, Tanaquil http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/tanaquil-115381

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 7, 1983 'Samson and Delilah': Rubens and the Art and Craft of Painting

on Panel Joyce Plesters

“…the panel…is of oak...‘Samson and Delilah’ has the same sort of white ground as other of Rubens' panel paintings…Chemical microscopy and X-ray diffraction powder analysis of a sample identified it as natural chalk (calcium carbonate) with a binding medium of animal glue, hence in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. De Mayerne describes...how the paste of chalk and glue (the Northern European version of the Italian ‘gesso’ ground) is applied to the panel and scraped smooth with a special curved knife…

…Gas-chromatographic analysis was carried out by John Mills and Raymond White on five samples from different parts of the ‘Samson and Delilah’, and the result in every case indicated linseed oil as the principal component of the medium. In addition, however, the gas-chromatograms gave an extremely small peak for a resinous component. The presence of the resinous component was confirmed by mass-spectrometry, although even by this sensitive means of detection the proportion of resin was estimated to be just a trace, nevertheless it could be identified as being of pine resin…

…It also has to be borne in mind that resinous substances, in the form of surface coatings, adhesives and consolidants have frequently been applied to paintings in the past. It seems unlikely, but by no means certain, that Rubens' use of turpentine distillate as a thinner could have left sufficient resinous solid residue still to be detectable by present analytical methods…”

…The striped ‘imprimatura’, which, from inspection of the picture surface beneath the travelling binocular microscope, and from examination of paint cross-sections, was deduced to go over the whole surface of the chalk ground beneath the paint layers proper, consisted of a yellow-brown earth pigment, similar in appearance to raw umber, with a sparse scattering of comparatively large grains of lead white. Insufficient sample was obtainable for medium analysis by gas-chromatography (the average thickness was 10 - 15 µ, though some of the grains of lead white were so large as to project up into the paint layer;…). However, staining tests for media carried out on paint cross-sections gave staining with Sudan Black indicating that the medium is drying oil, not protein…

Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/samson-and-

delilah-115287

Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah, detail http://25.media.tumblr.com/2e57c32f0a617643228d5d9c3d4e781

0/tumblr_mkcq6afuo81s2nkc5o1_1280.jpg

Peter Paul Rubens, Samson and Delilah, detail http://aegeancenter.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/samson-and-

delilah-ruben.jpg

National Gallery Technical Bulletin Volume 2, 1978 Organic Analysis in the Arts: Some Further

Paint Medium Analyses John Mills and Raymond White

“...Luca Giordano, Homage to Velasquez…c. 1692… Probably linseed but just possibly walnut oil…”

Luca Giordano, Homage to Velazquez http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-homage-to-velazquez-113999