<264? 



Conjectures to 

 fliow that the 

 foregoing vehi- 

 cles were ufed 

 by the older 

 painters. 

 Lomazzo. 



Leonardo da 

 Vinci. 



ON THE NATURE OF DRYING OILS. 



No. III. Conjectures tending to Jkotu that the Vehicle which I 

 have defcribed, is fimilar in Principle, if not identically the 

 fame, as that ufed by feveral of the older Painters, who were 

 eminent for their Skill in colouring. 



Lomazzo, an eminent painter, and pupil of Leonardo d» 

 Vinci, publifhed a Treatife on Painting, in which it is men- 

 tioned that linfeed or nut oil was generally ufed for painting : 

 he likewife obferves, that powdered glafs was ufed as a dryer. 

 As Lomazzo was blind when he publifhed his treatife, he 

 could have no motive for keeping any thing which he knew 

 fecret; whence it is to be concluded, that thofe oils were 

 generally ufed for painting in his time, and that he knew of 

 no exceptions to the practice. 



In one part of L. da Vinci's Treatife on Painting, he men-, 

 tions nut-oil and amber. As we know that amber gives 

 peculiar brilliancy to colours, that L. da Vinci was peculiarly 

 celebrated for the richnefs of his colouring, and are informed 

 from his own writings that he was acquainted with folution 

 of amber in nut-oil, it is to be prefumed that was the vehicle 

 he ufed. If this fuppofition is not to be admitted, we muft 

 believe that he knew how to diflblve amber in nut-oil (a pro- 

 cefs at that time both tedious and troublefome), without 

 knowing the belt ufe to which he could poflibly apply it. 



Leonardo's biographer fays, (< When he was at Rome, 

 Leo X. refolved to employ him. Leonardo hereupon fets 

 himfelf to the diftilling of oils, and the preparing of vainifhes 

 to cover his paintings withal : of which the Pope being in- 

 formed, faid, pertly enough, that he could expect nothing of 

 a man who thought of finifliing his works before he had begun 

 them. Leonardo therefore left Rome without having been 

 employed/' 



I muft beg leave to diffent from his Holinefs's opinion. If 

 my idea of Leonardo's vehicle be juft, it was natural for him 

 to begin the preparation of it as foon as he knew that he was 

 to be employed as a painter : and as the fpirit of that time 

 led every one who made any ufeful difcovery, to preferve it 

 as a valuable fecret, it was equally natural for him to account 

 for his employment by faying that he was preparing varnifhes. 

 Whatever his fecrets were, they remained unknown to the 

 world till 1651, when his Treatife on Painting was pub- 

 lifhed. 



The 



