40 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[February, 



5. Sun diiod oil, tlie real antipodes of boiled oil. 

 C. Sun dried varnish, bringing the picture to justa-position with 

 modern j ipanning. 



7. The well recommendedp racfice of Cennini, of mixing uUramarine 

 with all lead white. 



8. The rapid fixing of the leads and oxides, before their action on 

 oil became detrimental, from difference of climate. 



9. The use of soft or lead glass, first used to divide the colours m 

 grinding only, but subiequently, ex necessitate rei, as a dryer, and bv 

 inferior masters pumice instead. 



10. A perfect superiority of the glassa varnish over all others, from 

 the very qualities a modern varnish maker would laugh at : Correggio 

 and Rubens as the proofs, not forgetting Michael Angelo Anselmi. 



Togetlier with the casual aid gained, by the same means as in 

 water, from density of mass, as in Chinese painting, Chilian pictures, 

 Egvptian mural decoration, &c., and as exemplified in the famous early 

 liic'lure by Andreas Rico, now preserved in the Museo Mediceo, in 

 whicli little or no blending appears, poor composition and defective 

 drawing, but a mighty purity and imperishable splendour of colouring 

 as to permanence alone; and which picture chi|>s off in scales, jire- 

 cisely as the landscape painted for me by Mr. Birch does now, only 

 two years after date. And some little gained empirically, at times, 

 in Cennini's day, by using different tempt ras in the same picture, a 

 practice liowevernot advisable; and, permanence, again, in the mixed 

 style of water painting glazed in oil ; all of which 1 consider cantial, 

 because not inherent in, or necessary to legitimate oil painting; and, 

 excepting the pictures of Correggio or his pupils, or Anselmi (Michael 

 Angelo), we have no examples of such an accumulation of so many 

 causes of permanence. 



Let us now turn to the moderns — for. In -difiance of the actual degree 

 of brightness and permanence of the school of Van Eyck, and the 

 absurd encomiums frittered away by tritlers over Ids own accredited 

 pictures, I broadly assert that no one picture exists of the Flemish 

 school to be compared with Correggio's, they arc dross to pure gold; 

 and Rubens, with all his beauty, with all the taking splendour of his 

 style, lias no permanence but what the poor German clock makers of 

 the Black Forest, however rudely, very nearly approach A pure 

 white ground, a brilliant and universal light from within, a thin 

 resinous vehicle, and a glaze of glassa, will give permanence to any 

 lake, either vegetable or animal, if that lake be not, in itself, in deliaiice 

 of nature's laws, that which it should not be— that is to say, if a 

 cochineal hike, as Gay Lusac and .Alorveau made it were purple toned, 

 whereas no vehicle can perpetuate the gossamer tint and yellow tone 

 of the beauty certainly, but deceptive syren scarlet lake; hence the 

 error into wliich even Mr. Field and many other valuable men have 

 fallen, whose names I mention only with resi)ect, namely, that cochineal 

 lakes are inferior to kermes, lac, or madder, from some inherent defect 

 in the cochinellin. Bleached oil will yellow ; bleached linen will de- 

 teriorate from the same cause and by the same rule, to udiich the 

 painter adds a dozen auxiliary causes, but we will examine them in 

 the same tabular form. 



The Causes of Failure in Modern Pictures. 



1. Inferior painting grounds, made for show and sale, to suit the 

 caprices of the worst of painters and worst of judges, by men totally 

 ignorant of the real requirements of the Art, and who actually laugh 

 at the demands of the minority — those qualitied men who, by years of 

 labour and enquiry, know what they o?ight to have — men who consider 

 any ground, even though it yellows before the month is out, will do, if 

 it can but leave the shop and be daubed over. 



2. An intinity of colours which, tortured into each other without 

 any knowledge of what Bacon would have called their sympathies and 

 antipathies, become a muddled conglomerite. 



3. A mania for body, as if one dense dab could imitate the cloud 

 which is almost black and yet transparent ; a fine example of which 

 is seen in the moons of what are vcleped moonlights, and the so called 

 moonliflits of what no more resembles light than chalk resembles 

 clieese. Nature has no body colours, neither in an Italian sunrise nor 

 when, in northern forests — 



" The western waves of ebbing day 

 Roll o'er the glen their level way, 

 Each purple peak, each flinty spire " 



4. The miserable abuse of boiled oil and Macgelp, dryers and 

 oxides, which increase the disposition to skin, yellow, and horn, the 

 tine bleached oil of the quack, of which Wilkie will be, like Reynolds, 

 a sad proof. His abuse of Macgelp and asphaltum will leave his 

 pictures, in a few years, like the Algerine pile of sculls, the crumbling 

 memento of human genius in decay. 



5. A total ignorance of that manipulation which taught the grand 

 secrets of the Art. 



6. A bad atmosphere; often the worst of lights, and therefore de- 

 manding the more knowledge of the true source of permanence ; and 

 the prevalence of coal fires. 



7. An absurd reliance on alleged permanence of colour, in defiance 

 of palpable examples in pictures abounding in lead, and of bleached 

 oils. 



8. Varnishing too early by half. And finally, a reliance on the so- 

 called chemists; as if the teacher of the elements of chemistry knew 

 a particle, practically, of what the painter requires. 



W. Mareis Dinsd.^le, 

 January 10th, 184o. 



SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS. 

 Sir, — I enclose some further memoranda, from Sir Joshua's book. 



17G7. — Lord Townsend, prima con Macgylp, poi olio, poi verniciata 

 con vermilion. 



Dr. Armstrong, painted first in olio, poi verniciato, poi cera solo, 

 poi cera e vernicio. 



Speaker — the face colori in olio, mesticato con Macgylp, poi ver- 

 niciato. 



Cielo (sky), con Macgilp e poi per tufto verniciato con colori in 

 pulvere (in powder), senza olio o Macgylp. (Delicious. — B. R. H.) 



Master Burk, finito cou vern, senza olio o cera, carmine. 



Dutchess of Ancaster, prima Macgylp, secunda olio, terza olio. 



Lady Amelia Carpenter, Mrs. Chohnondely, with Macgylp senz', 

 olio. 



This dry rubbing in of colour in powder, over a sky whilst it was 

 tacky and gummy, produced a gemmy splendour as if sprinkled with 

 gold dust. Sir George Beaumont told me, once when Sir Joshua had 

 placed a woman's portrait by the fire to warm, some soot fell down on 

 the fire, splashed out and sprinkled the neck all over. Sir Joshua on 

 turning it round and seeing the condition said "It will make a capital 

 half tint," and immediately rubbed the whole into the neck, and turned 

 it into an exquisite tint. 



The following extracts are selected, and not regular. 



April 29, 1776. — Mr. Basset — Asphaltum and verm, solo glazed and 

 retouched. 



May 3. — Naples — cinnabar — red lead, Cologne earth and black. 



(These two above remarks are crossed out by Sir Joshua.) 



June, '7G. — Blue, light red, verm, white, perhaps black. 



Dnke of Dorset, finito cou cera solamente poi vernicato con cera e 

 turp. Venetia. 



1778, ) Hope, cera solamente. 



j La meliu maniera, con cera mesticato con turp. di Venetia — 

 Juslitia, ma di panni cera solamente. 



Strawberry Girl, cera sol. 



Doctor Barnard — 1, black and white; 2, verm, and white (dry); 

 3, varnished and retouched. 



Farther irregular extracts. 



Samuel + red, flesh glazed with gaiubo. and verm. Drap, gamboge 

 and lake, sky retouched with orpinient. 



Appresso Perino del Vago — Saint Joseph depinto con verm, e nero 

 velato con gamboge e lacca, e asphaltum, poco di turchino nella barba, 

 panni turchino e lacca. 



My own Picture sent to Plimpton, cera, poi vernicato, senza olio, 

 colori, Cologne earth, verm, white and blue, on a common colourman's 

 cloth, first varnished over with copal varnish. 



