public edifices ; as it lias a freshness, splen- 
dour, and vigour, unknown either to oil _or 
water-colours. It is at the same time the 
most diflicult of accomplishment, requiring, 
in the opinion of Vasari, “ the greatest force 
of genius, boldness of execution, and readi- 
ness of pencil.” The reasons for such an 
opinion will be seen in the following account 
of the mechanical process of this beautiful 
mode of art. 
Mi thnd of painting in fresco. Before you 
begin to paint, it is accessary to apply two 
layers of stucco on the place where your work 
is to be executed. It you are to paint on a 
wall of brick, the first layer is easily applied; 
rf of free-stone closely joined, it is necessary 
to make excavations in the stone, and to 
drive in nails or pegs of wood, in order to hold 
the laser together. 
The lirst layer is made of good lime and 
a cement of pounded brick, or, which is bet- 
ter, river-sand, which latter forms a layer 
more uneven, and better fitted to attach the 
second smooth layer to its surface. The an- 
tients appear to have possessed the art of 
making this species of mortar superior to any 
Sow in use. 
Before applying the second layer, on which 
you are to paint, it is requisite that the lirst 
is perfectly dry, as the lime while moist 
emits a pernicious effluvium. 
When the lirst layer is perfectly dry, wet 
it again with water, in proportion to its dry- 
ness, that the second layer may more easily 
incorporate with it. 
The second layer is composed of lime, 
6laked in the air, and exposed for a whole 
year, and of river-sand of an equal grain, and 
moderately line. The surface of this second 
layer must be uniformly even. It is laid on 
with a trowel; and the workman is provided 
with a small piece of wood, to remove the 
lai ge grains of sand, which, if they remained, 
might render the surface uneven. 
To give a tine polish to this surface, a sheet 
of paper should be applied on it, and the 
trowel passed and repassed over the paper ; 
this caution will prevent any little inequali- 
ties which might injure the effect of the paint - 
ing at a distance. 
The workman must not extend the layer 
over a greater space than the painter is able 
to finish in a day, as it is necessary that the 
ground should always be fresh and moist 
under his pencil ; and it is on this account 
that the readiness of the artist’s hand be- 
comes so requisite a quality in the execution 
of works in fresco. 
The ground being thus prepared, the 
painter begins his work; but as painting in 
fresco must be executed rapidly, and as there 
is not time to retouch any of the strokes of 
the brush with good effect, he will first have 
taken care to provide himself with large 
finished drawings in chalk, or paintings in 
distemper, of the same size as the work which 
he lias to paint, so that he shall have only to 
copy these drawings on the wall. 
These drawings are generally made on 
large sheets of paper pasted together, and 
have thence been generally termed cartoons 
•(cartoni). 
The painter traces the outlines of the 
figures on the plaister, by passing a steel point 
over them, or pricking them closely and pass- 
ing very finely powdered charcoal through 
PAfN'llNG. 
the pricked holes. He then proceeds to the 
completion of his work, having his chief tints 
ready prepared in separate earthen pots, and 
generally first trying their effect on a dry 
smooth tile, which quickly imbibing their 
moisture discovers the hue which they w ill 
have when dry on the wall. 
All natural earths are good for painting in 
fresco. '1 he colours are ground and tem- 
pered wilh water. It is to be remarked, that 
all the colours used in this method ot paint- 
ing brighten as they grow dry, excepting the 
pavonazzo or red varnish, the brownish red- 
ochre, ruth-ochre, and the blacks, particu- 
larly those that are passed through the fire. 
1 he be-t colours are white, made of old 
lime, and white marble-dust (the propor- 
tional quantity, ot the latter depends on the 
quality ol the lime, and must be found by 
trial, as too great a quantity of marble-dust 
will turn the colour black ;) ultramarine-blue, 
the black of charcoal, yellow ochre, burnt 
vitriol, red earth, green of Verona, Venetian 
black, and burnt ochre. 
Other colours, which require to be used 
with greater precaution, are amel, or enamel- 
blue, and cinnabar. Enamel-blue must be 
applied instantaneously, and while the lime 
is very moist, otherwise it will not incorpo- 
rate; and if you retouch w ith it, you must do 
it an hour or more after the first application 
of it, in order to increase its lustre. 
Cinnabar has a splendour almost beyond 
all other colours, but it loses it when mixed 
with lime. It may, however, be employed 
in places not exposed to the air, if proper 
care is used in preparing it. For this pur- 
pose, reduce a quantity of tire purest cinna- 
bar to powder, put it into an earthen vessel, 
and pour lime-water on it two or three times. 
By this process the cinnabar receives some 
impression from the lime-water, and you may 
then use it w ith greater safety. 
The white of lime is formed by mixing 
lime, slaked a long time before, w'ith good 
water. '1 he lime deposits a sediment at the 
bottom of the vessel ; when the water is 
poured off, this sediment is the wdiite of lime. 
Another kind of white may likewise be 
made from egg-shells, pounded, in great 
quantities, and boiled in w ater, together with 
quick-lime, and afterwards put into a strainer 
and washed repeatedly with spring water. 
1 he shells must be again pounded until the 
water employed for that purpose becomes 
pure and limpid; and when the shells are 
completely reduced to powder, they are 
ground in water, made up in small pieces, 
and dried in the sun. 
The effect of this colour must be ascer- 
tained by experiment. 
Ochres of all kinds make good colours for 
fresco, being previously burnt in iron boxes. 
Naples yellow is dangerous to be used, 
when the painting is much exposed to the air. 
Blacks, from charcoal, peach-stones, and 
vine-twigs, are good; that extracted from 
bones is of no value. 
There is another black used by the Italians, 
which they call fescia da botta. It is made j 
of the lees of burnt wine. 
Roman vitriol gathered at the furnaces, 
and called burnt vitriol, being afterwards 
ground in spirits of wine, resists the air ex- 
tremely well. There is also a red extract 
from this preparation, somewhat like that of 
lac. This colour is a good preparatory for 
331 
the layers where cinnabar is afterwards to be 
used ; draperies painted with these two co- 
lours are as bright as fine lac Used with oil. 
Ultramarine never changes, and' seems to 
communicate its permanent quality to tile 
colours with which it is mixed. 
Distemper . In addition to what has been 
said ot this method of painting under its pro- 
per article, the following particulars are wor- 
thy of notice. 
Until the discovery of oil-painting, the me- 
thods most generally adopted by all Italian 
painters were those of distemper and fresco. 
In distemper, when they painted on . 
boards, they often pasted over the boards a 
piece ot fine cloth, to prevent them from 
parting ; they then laid on a layer of white) 
after which, having tempered their colours 
with water and paste (or rather with water 
and yolks ot eggs beat together w ith little, 
fig-tree branches, the milk of which mixed 
with the eggs), they painted their pictures 
with this mixture. 
All colours are proper for distemper, ex- 
cept the white ot lime, which is used in fresco 
only. 
Azure and ultramarine must be used with 
a paste made ot glove-skin, or parchment, as 
they will turn green when mixed with yolks 
of eggs. 
It the w r ork is on walls, care must be taken 
that they are quite dry. The painter must 
even lay on tu r o layers of hot paste before he 
applies the colours, which; it he pleases, he 
may also temper with paste, the composi- 
tion of eggs and fig-tree branches being 
only retouching, and the paste rendering the 
work more durable. When used, it must be 
kept hot by fire. This paste, as lias beer! 
said, is made of glove-skin or parchment. 
All their designs- for tapestry were made 
on paper, in the same manner as has been 
mentioned in the account of the cartoons 
used for fresco-painting. 
\\ hen a painter in distemper would work 
on cloth, he must chuse that which is very 
old and smooth; then press pounded plaister 
with glove-skin paste, and lay it over th» 
cloth ; when dry, add another layer of the 
same paste. 
AH the colours are pounded with water, 
and as the painter wants them for his work, 
lie tempers each with paste-water; or if he 
will only make use of yolks of eggs, he takes 
of water one glass, to which he adds an 
equal quantity of vinegar, the yolk, white,* 
and shell of an egg, and some ends of fig-tree 
branches cut into small pieces, and beats them 
all w ell together in an earthen pan. 
If he w ishes to varnish his picture when 
finished, lie must rub it with the -white of an 
egg well beaten, and then put on a single 
coat of varnish. 
Oil painting. The principal advantage of 
oil-painting over other methods consists in 
the colours drying less speedily, so that it 
allows the painter to finish, smooth, and re- 
touch his works, with greater care and preci- 
sion. The colours also being more blended 
| together, produce more agreeable gradations, 
and a more delicate etfect. 
The antients are said (see the historical 
part of this article) to have been ignorant of 
the secret of painting in oil, which is only 
the grinding the usual colours in several 
kinds of oil, as poppy-oil, nut-oil, and linseed- 
oil. This method was likewise unknown to 
