Scarica Giotto to durer1 e più Tesi di laurea in PDF di Arte solo su Docsity! CHAPTER THREE _
4
CRAFT
AND PROFESSION
RANGE AND STATUS
«i
Painters did not confine their work ro cliapel and palace walls. 10
altarpieces and smaller devotional panels, to portraits and
decorated finiture. They also gilded candlesticks; painted book
covers (Fig. 94); decorated the curtains protecting paintings and
organs; gilded and decorated leather for saddlers (who some
times belonged to the seme puild) as well as sculpture of wood,
terracotta, gesso (Fig. 143), stone and alabaster.
Painters and sculptors were also involved in otherarts. In those
in which there was an obvious division berwcen conception and
execution between model or drawing on the one hand and the
task ofembroidery, weaving, glass-making or metal casting on
che other — it was understandable that the model or drawing
should be made in anoiber workskop, and sometimes in the
workshop of painter or sculpror.
The panels illustrating scenes from che Life ofthe Virgia andof
Christ on che copc of Saint Zenobius as painted by Benozzo Gor-
zolì (Fig. 165), or those or the cope of Saiat Marcin as painted by
Gerard David (Fig. 160), are examples of he kind of work which
painters often designeò. In Dovid's painting the crozier and
morse of Saint Martin and che cross and mosse of Saint Donatian,
all’of which include figures (Figs. 167 and 168), represen
of goldsmichs” work likcly to have been designed by painters da
the Necherlands.
* There was often friction over the del
petence, roected as we shell see in the guild regulations. The re-
Jationship between painters and sculpiors- more particularly be-
specially liasle to be
sort
ition of arcas of com-
tren painters and woodcarvers — wr
difficult in chose pares of Europe where altarpivces corsisteri of
122
Both polychrome sculpture and painting. g. One salution was for
Both arts to be practised by the same man, or ac least in the same
workshop 15 wes the cise in Michael Pacher's workshop in dhe
Tyrol. Alternatively some sort of parmership like those fourd i
Augsburg iu che lare fifrcench century could be adopted.
In Florence in the fourteenth contuy Andrea di Cione
(Orcagna} produced both painting and scalprure. In the follow-
ing century the Pollaiuolo brothers were probabiy more active as
sculptors chan painters, and this was certainly true of Verrocchio
whose bronze sculpiures were among the most famous in Italy.
These sculptors were not principally woodcarvers, but the terra-
cotta sculprure whick they made was often painted, which may
explain che origin of their involvement in painting. Their paint
ing could certainly De affected by their experience 25 modellers.
The executioners in the Martyrdoni of Saini Sebastian veffece che
three-dimensional models in dynamic poses wirich the Pol-
laiuolo brothers popularised as studio aids (Fig. 109)
The distinction between ar: and crafi would nor have been
recognised in the thirteenth, fourteenth and fiftecnth centuries,
but the origins ofthe distinction can be traced back to Iraly andin
particular to Florence in the fifieent century. Writers extolling
the powers of narrative painting and expounding the science of
perspective made claims for paiuters, sculptors and architecss as
the tivals - and equais— of historians, poets and matlematicians.
This elevated intellectual status could be matched by social emi-
nence, especially when a famous painter was attached to a courr
Trwas partofthe magnificence ofa raler thathe had pocts, his-
torians, mathemaricians, musicians, painters and sculptors in lis
cople wo could
protection. It was also useful to have at hand
greet a visiting prince in Latin, defend dynastie claims, devise
nery, report on a possible bride, make an equestrian
siege maci
i
anove ceet Fig, 165. Deva of cope
from The Vigin aud Child Estironed
among Angels and Saiu by Benozzo
Gozzoli (Fig. 79)
anove uiegr Fig. (66. Domail of
cope from Canon Bermandius de
Salviatîs nd Thres Szinis by Gerard
David (Fig. 58).
peLOW Lett Fig. 165. Devil of
Saint Martis ero
Bernardi de Salviatis dn Three
Saints by Gerard David Fig. 5).
ram Carr
seLow miGer Fig. (68. Detail of
Saînt Donazian's morse from Canon:
Bertiaraims de Salviais and Three
Soinis by Gerard David (Fig. 58).
Î
{
Î
CRAFT AND PROFESSION
with che decoration in the Doge's Palace. For this Giovanni was
promised fis expenses, an annuity, a remunerative perquisito
and, when this curned out to be an insufficient incentive, the offi-
cial titie of painter to the stace, freedom from other obligarions,
and exemption from paying fees to his confraternity.
THE GUILDS
a;
Most artisans in this period were town deweliers, and most -
painters included — were organised into trade associations or
guilds, af which there might be only a few within asingle own,
each comprising a number of trades. By the end of the fificenth
century, however, most guilds represented a single craft.
The guilds often played an important role in town govern-
ment, with guild representatives serving on city councils,
Nuremberg, where there were no guilds but the city council had
direct control of the various crafts, and Venice, where con-
fraternicies were the most socially and politically significant asso-
diations, were important éxceptions. Florence was unusual in
thar guild membership was not compulsory. The guilds served
vero mejor functions: to keep the crafts profitable, especially by
limiring competition, and to provide social benefits — such as
loans, financial support for tke old and sick, and funerals and
Masses for the dead. In some towns, where the painters were
members of large guilds comprising several crafts iney also
organised themselves into confraternities of Saini Luke, che
painters’ patron saint.
Guild regulations which survive for towns in both Northem
and Southera Europe shed light on the painters' traialag, mat-
eriais, professional conduct and aiso on the social and economic
forces with which they had to contend. The similarities in the
regulations are perhaps more striking chan the differences, end
the differences are not always along geographical lines. Thus
Horence, Nuremberg and Antwers were more liberaì in allow=
ing outsiders to practise their crafts within the city boundaries
than Siena, Cologne and Bruges. And similar regulations con-
ceming materials are found botk north and south of the Alps: in
Horence in 1315/16 ard in Munich in 1462, for instance, the sub-
stitucion of the infezior blue pigment azurite for the more ex-
pensive ultramazine is probiibited. Almost all guilds had regula-
tions couceming training and, as with most of the regulations,
there were fines for contravening them. The periods of appren-
ticeship were laid down here: three vears were prescribed in
Florence and Louvaia, but detveeen five and seven in Venice, and
in Coiogne - alchough these changed and were not
dhered to.
The number of apprentices employed by each master was also
regulated and was often limited to as few as two aca time, oreven
one, as in Florence, Bruges and Brussels: Presumably too many
apprentices in a single workskop coulé have led to inadequare
training and a decline in the quality of work in a patticular town.
More important, it could have resulted in there being more
masters in 2 town than was comfortable for chose established in
the profession, But not ali apprencices becarne masters with their
own workshops: ofthe seventy apprentices registered în Tournai
berween 1440 and 1480 less than a third ever became masters
theze. Some may have started workshops elsewhere but many
would have remained journeymen - that is, teained artists, often
itinerant, who were not masters, The number of joumeymen
which a master could eriploy was not restricted, but cheir activi-
ties were watched vigilantly. In Germany they were not allowed
to take on commissions without their master's permission, and
often not aliowed to carry out such work outside the masters
premises. Journeymen seem, however, to have prospered ar the
large avinual fairs in the Netherlands where che guilds had no
control.
To become a master involved a substantial payment to che
guild and, in some cases, the submission of a masterpicee — a
work of prescribed character representing an official test of skill.
These conditions again were designed to limit the number of
workshops in the towm. Masterpieces were not always insisted
upon- by the fifteenth century especially — but in early sixteenth-
century Strasburg painters had to submit chree of them and the
fees were also exceptionaliy high. Unsurprisingly, a major con-
igners', chat is, artists from other towns,
essablishing workshops. In Padua, Cologne and Bruges very
strict measures were taken to discourage such competition. In
Bruges a foreigner had to pay nearly thirzy titnes as much as the
sonofa local nsaster (sons commorily enjoyed preferential ratesì.
In Cologne che guiid statutes of 1449 declared that only those
‘who served four years apprenticeship there, or paid a fee, could
become a master. By contrast in Antwerp, and in Nuremberg
where, as has been mentioned, there were no guilde, foreigners
were not discouraged. In Florence there were double fees for
forsigners and they were noc permitted to hold office in the
quild, but in 1346 there were forty foreign painters inscribed in
the guilé and ce town remained open throughout the fifteerth
century ro talent from elsewhere in Ital; and beyond the Alps.
In addition to kecpiag foreign painters our of the town, chere
cem wasto prevoni for
'
was the problem of keeping foreign paintings out. The Paduan
guilé was particularly concemned to prevent the import of paint
ings. This perlaps helps to explain the parmership formed by the
Venetian Giovanni d'Alemagna and che Paditan Antonio Viva
rini, which presumably circumvented this probibition. Venice
too was worried by imported paintings. An altarpiece brought ro
the city by a German merchant was confiscated in 1457, altiough
numerous sinaller paintings by Netherlandish paioters are
recorded there by the end of the century. The most casily trans-
porred paintings were those on cloth, produced in specially large
numbers in Bruges. Fifteenth-centory inventories reveal that
many such paintings were found in Italian homes and The Eu-
totmbnier by Bouts (No. 32), a painting on cloth has, perhaps sig-
nificanely, an Italian provenance. They were also exported to
London
Ta Bruges che painters on panel were represented in a separate
section of their guild from that of the painters on cloth, and in
1458 they went to law to stop the painters on cloth from ex-
hibiting or selling their work other chan in their bomes or work-
shops. They were evidently worried by che popularity oflighter
anc presumabiy cheaper altematives to panel painting since they
had.in the previous year endeavoured to prevent theilluminators
selling unbound sheets which might de hung on a wall ike paint-
ings (Fig. 140). In 1463 it was agreed thac the painters on cloth
were permitted co exhibit cheir work for sale, but they werc cx-
pressly forbidden to work in oil puint on cloth. Furthermore, it
would appear tac painters on cloth were not oniy taking, or
threatening t0 take, business away from che painters on panel
{who worked in oil), but were enc:oaching on the monopoly of
panel'paiate:s by themselves producing and selling paintings not
only on cloth but also on panel.
When the guild in Brussels forbade tapestry weavi
drawing cartoons thet was to protect the monopoly ofthe painter
as designer. The preoccupation wit boundaiy disputes of this
Kind is reflected ia lists of materials and rools specific 0a particu-
Jar cratì, such as are found in the statutes of the Tournai guild of
1480. Whether or ni inter worked on cloth or panel was,
as we have seen, crucial in Bruges. The tension between sculp-
tors and painters is also often evident. German painters for in-
stance were concerned to prevent sculptors employing iourney-
men painters. One response to this was to permit painters to
compete on equal terms by employing joumeymen scuiptors.
The guild regulations of Base! in 1463 and of Munî
allowed for precisely this solution.
The control of che raw materials of the crait alse feacures in
s from
the pi
im 1475
CRAFT AND PROFESSIONI
de
Jteamarine
guild statutes. One aspect pasticulariy i
puriry of materials, especially the most expensive -
and gold. As we kave seen, there were special probibitions on the
use of substitutes for ultramarine. The regulations of the
Cologne painters’ guild, drawn up in 1371, begin with a ban 0a
the secret sale of raw materials, which, when scarce, provided
opportunities for profitéering. To avoid this, comniumal pur-
chasing was frequent, Stockpiliag raw materials which might
then be sold was also frared because this conld strike at che in-
dependence of the craftsman' Indeed some crafts, particularly
those associated with metalwork and cloch production, were
drawn into a factory system in this period. Under this system
botk che supply of rave materials and the labour were controlled
by merchants, who profited from the consequent large scale of
piocuetion. Paiaters hoped to maintain their independence and
their prosperity by preventing such a situation from arising. Un-
comfortable competi
tions, resulting in very large workshops producing both sculp-
ture and painting, such as thar of Michaei Pacher in the Tyrol for
instance, or associations betwcen workshops.
In Florenee one of the leading painting workshops of the late
fifteenth century was run by Verrocchio, who was primiarily a
sculptor. There is no evidence there of the sort of dermarcation
disputes involving painters which were so prevalent elsewhere
and indeed there was a tradition of paiaters moving easily from
one craftto another. There seems to have been no move to proti
bit or limit che import of popular Netkerlandish paintings on
cloth. Forcign painters, as we have seen, werc also present in
high numbers. Indeed in Florence in the seconé half of the
fiftcenth century there is some reason to suppose that rhe Arte dei
Medici e Speziali, the guild of the physicians, apothecaries and
spice-merchants (who also sold artists’ pigments) to which
painters, along with saddlers, bacbers, stacioners and some other
crafts, were affiliated, was more or less dormant, at least as re-
gards paînters, Botticelli is not entered as a paid-up member of
the guild until 1499, alchough hc had been one ofthe rown's lead-
ing painters for a quarter of a century and certainly had a large
workshop. The fact that Porugino was recorded as a member in
the same year has been taken 1o indicate that the guild had sud-
denly been revived.
Perugino was e foreigner and may well have maintained a
workshop in Soth Florence and Perugia. He not onìy ad im-
red upon we
ion must often have stimulateà combina-
portant commissions in both towns and also for major centres
elsewhere, but he is said ro have produced numerous works for
the exvore mail
In revicwing Perugino's work, the dedline in
i
CRAFT AND PROFESSION
quality becomes appareat and may be connected with a decision
to mass produce work for the marketplace rather than seek to
satisfy exacting patrons.
CONTRACTS AND COMMISSIONS
4
Many painters in this period probably made their living from the
supply of uncommissioned paintings. and even workshops
wilich received prestigious commissions, such as Perugino's, are
Hikely to have had a line in ready-inade pictures. Commissioned
works were less usual har: is sometimes sapposed today; but
mostofthe major works ofast, and almostall of the altarpieces of
this period in the National Gallery, fall into this category. When a
commission was reccived ît was likely to be che subject of a con-
tract, particularly when che work was to be made for an in-
stitution. The survival of contracts is sporadie: more survive
from the fifteenth century chan from earlier centuries, and far
eze in
more from Îtaly and sourhem Frarce than from elsen
Europe because in these areas the notazies who drev up the cone
iracts had to keep their records.
Contrac:s survive for several of the Italian alcarpieces of which
the whole or parts are in the National Gallery Collection. A few
were drawn up after work had begun, as with Duccio's Maestà
for Siena Cathedral (No. 3), and as was probably the case with
the Pisa Polyptyck by Masaccio (No. 15). But most, as sras usual;
were for initial commissions, as with Sassetta's high altarpiece
for che church of San Francesca, Sansepolcso (No. 59), under-
taken in 1437; Piero della Francesca's high altarpiece for
Sant'Agostino, also at Sansepolcro (No. 33). contracted for in
seuow Fig. 171. Diezie Bouts, AMarpice of dhe Plesso Sacrament, 1464-7. Wood,
cenere pancì rBOXi sorm, cach shiueer 86.571. jam. Lowsaia, St Peter's
128
Sacrament commissioned for St Peter's, Louvaia, in 1464 from
Dieric Bowts (Fig. 172), which is not laid down in detail in the
contract, had to be approved by two theologians in what must
have constituted a separate agrecment. This was certainly
because the subject matter was unusual, and there îs no reason to
suppose that ihcologians were commenty involved.
Coniracts might avoid lengehy specifications of subject matter
2 two principal ways: by use of separate written instruction or
drawing, or by the inclusion ofa clause stating that the work was
to resemble another ‘în manner and form’ (‘modo et forma?
There are several reasons why such a clause might be used. The
first and most obvious is when the work being commissioned
was requized to replace one already extant, as with Piero's altar-
piece of 1445 for the Conftaterniz of the Misericordia in Borgo
Sansepolcro. Similarly, his banner for the Confraternity of the
Avnunciation in Arezzo was to replace one already in existence,
presumably worn gut, and therefore Piero was required to paint
one of exacily the same proportions. When Sassetta was come
missioned to paint the altarpiece of the Life of Saint Francis for
the church of Sen Francesco in Sansepalero, he was asked to
make the altarpiece the same height, breadth and form as au altar-
piece which had been constructed and even gessoed, but then
abandoned because the painter who had signed an earlier contract
in 1430 did not carry out the work, for reasons unknown today.
According to the contract of 1430, that altarpiece was to be simi-
Tar to the high altarpiece of the Badia at Sansepolcro.
Sometimes a religioits community might want a tepetition ofa
painting which had been commissioned by another branch of che
same Order. An instance of such an imiration: may be the Core-
natiortofihe Virgin by Lorenzo Monaco (No. IC). When che mem-
bers of the Domi the Compagnia di Santa
Maria della Purificazione e di San Zanobi, commissioned an
altarpiece from Benozzo Gozzoli.in 1461 (Fig. 71), they asked chat
the enthroned Virgin should preciscly resemble chat by Fra
Angelico in the high altarpicce (Fig. 174) of the Dominican con-
vent of San Marco - although in the event the resemblance was
not all chat close (Fig. 175). Such a clause was nor uncommon
nocth of the Alps: in 1444 in Ghent che painter Nabur Mactins
contracted with a burgess of Ghent to exccute a Last Judgernent
‘comparable in execution and figures' to a painting of the same
subject hanging in the hall of the Bakers' Guild
In many cases the subject matter or compositico may have
been clarified by a drawing. Relatively few identifiable contract
drawings survive, althougk there are ma: i
CRAFT AND PROFESSION
which Filippo Lippi sent ro Giovanni di Cosimo de’ Medici in
1457 was intended as a model for che patron to consider (Fig.
176). There were no doubr also pre-contract drawings, giving
patrons an idea of the sort of models availabic. The ereasurer of
the Company of Priests which commissioned Pesellino's altar-
piece of the Trinity (Fig. 57) had'obtaineé drawiags in Florence
in advance of the meeting at wirich his fellow members decided
to commission the painting and discussed whar it shouli depic
Petrons expected che artist to do the very best hic could and this
was often written into the contract. Contracts sometimes say
that the paintiag is to be very beauciful. In the altarpiece for
Borgo Sansepolcro, fos instance, Sassetta agreed to work ‘with
all his powers of invention and skill of execution to make the
finished work as beautiful as he was able’, (*
» (‘secundum subtile in-
genium et sue artis pictorie periciam et quanto plus venustius
sciet et poterit').
Tn many contracts chese rather genera] exbortations are made
more explicit by the introduction of a clause specifying chat the
painter was to carry out che work with his own hands {ide suis
manibus'). It is unlikely that this required che painter to do the
work entirely by himself, which in the case of" large works would
have becn unrezlistic. Rather it was a formula to ensure the active
participation of the master and to prevent subcontracting be-
twecn workshops, a prectice which had become common in the
Netherlands and in Germany ir che fifteenth century. The clause
is also found in Italy în a document concerning Duocio"s Maestà
(sce No. 3), where che painter agreed to work on the altarpiece
with his own hands, and în the contract for Piero della Frances
ca's Madonna della Misericordia alrarpicce, where he agreed chat
no other painter would work on it. The evidence of the paintings
rhemsclves strongly suggests that che artisti workshop did assist
in their production.
One anziety frequently expressec concerns che length oftime
the wrork would take, particularly if che painter was in great
demand. In Germany and the Netherlands ir was usual to find a
year specified, even for a painting of great size and complexity,
and fines were commorly insissed on if the deadlines were not
met. In the case of both Duccio's Muesià and Masaccio's Pisa
altarpiece of 1426 (see No. Is) che undertaking not to work on
anything else seems to have been part of an interim agreement,
and suggests that the artists ivcre busy on other things when
work on the aîtarpi
sary to extract a commitment. Similarly, in the contract for the
alrarpiece of the Blessed Sacramentin 1464, Botts agreed not to
enti] it had been completed,
s was already uncerway, making it neces
undertake another aajor w
ui
Getting a paiiiter 10 Keep a contract was not necessarily casy.
Sassetta agreed to complete the Borgo Sansepolero aitarpisce
within four years but he in fact delivered it only after seven years
And this is not unusual. There wete predictable problems with
painters who lived in different cities from their patrons, or indeed
che Immaculate Con-
ception in Milan mus: have cespaîred of scttling their differences
in different states. The Confraternity
Iced it was
Se sorted out
{No. 68). The Cestosa a: Pavia was in Milanese terriLory but two
with Leonardo when he moved to Flore
ce, a
only wker: he returned Lo Milan that they could
132
Florentine painters, Filippino Lippi and Pietro Perugino, agreed
to make altarpieces (No. 59) for che Carthusian monks there.
This was in about 1496. On 10 Octoberot'that year, jacopo dAn-
tonio, a Fiorentine woadcarver who had agreed to furnish frames
for the altazpieces, wrote to Fra Gerolamo at Paviaio exasperated
terms: ‘You say you haven't had any teply from me. I tell youl
have writsen many times. Pyc had no reply whatever.” He said he
cotld certainly do rhe job but only sehen Ne got the money, ‘And
the same goes for the puinters.' The best way of getting things
done in a case like this was to get a powerful individual to exert
uerr Fig. i74. Fr Angelico,
anthroned with
1438-40. Wood,
Moseo di
The Viggii nd
Aigle and Salute
220X2270m. Floea
San Marco.
'
Fig. t7s. Benozzo Gozzoli, eta
fcora The Virgin and Chili
Snrlironed auiong Angels and Saints.
SeeFig. 71
some political pressure. Evidently the guili was not asked to
intervene.
The monks must ave appealed to che Duke of Milan, Locov=
ico il Moro, who wrote on 1 May 1499 to Dis representative iu
Florence, Taddz0 Vicomereato. Lodovico was angry because ke
had recommended che artists in che first place:
three years have gone by since we
venzione) and little evidence there is
che said painter. To the brothers end ro us he has done ro;
He instructed Taddeo to fix a firmi coadli
: seems now tha:
ade tae agesement (eo
en ofzie pi
mentis made ifit was not adhered to. ‘The al
were “dear to his heart”. Lodovico was driven out of Milan later
that vear and taken captive by che French in April 1500, so his
threa: would not have bad much effect, and Filippino at his death
in 1504 had hardly started his painting. Perugino did finish parts
nf his altarpiece (see No. 59), probably in about 1500, dut other
parts seem to have been by another artist o whom the desperate
forced to apply.
The distance of some churches from che city where che paint-
rs ofthe monastery
monks
ing vas likely to 22 made often involved ) problems and
CHAPTER FOUR
e;
THE WORKSHOP
THE WORKSHOP MEMBERS
e
The members of a workshop might include apprentices,
joumeymen and other assistants, and sometimes even fellow
masters. Most painters probably took on an apprentice and their
names were entered in guild registers. Regulations vazied: in
Florence the apprentice had to be over fourteen but nor older than
twenty-five. The relationship between master and apprentice
was controlled by che guild statutes, and both the painter and che
apprentice, or his parents, entered into an agreement concerning
the conditions of work and the obligations on each side. A num-
ber of Florentine contcacts from the end of the thirtcenth century
list the master's obligation to feed and clothe the apprentice, who
in turri promises to serve che master faithfuliy and not to steal or
run away, Similar conditions occur in Northem Buropean con-
tracts of apprenticeship; in addition, the apprentice often scems
to have paid fees to the master during the early years of his
apprenticcship, che position only being reversed towards che end
of the term, when the apprentice was presumably reasonably
useful and productive.
As has been pointed cur, the lengrh of an apprenticeship as
stipulated by the guilds of the different towns varied: generally it
was about four years, but it couid de as little as two or as many as
eight years. Iris doubeful whether such regulations were always
striccly enforced. In Florence, Neri di Bicci records an agreement
in 1456 with a certain Cosimo di Lorenzo who was taken or for
only one year co learn the art of painting; he had to work when-
ever the master wished, day or night (although the latter was for-
bidden in guild regulations), even on holidays if so required. The
agreement also mentions the fact that Cosimo (who not surpris-
136
ingly lett before the completion of his term) had already worked
for Neri in the past.
Similarly, the painter Jacques Daret seems to have spentat least
ten years in the Toumai workshop of Robert Campin before he
was eventually registered as an apprenticè in 1428, Although
Daret was evidently practising as a painter before his registration
(suggèsting considerable irregularities in the Tournai guilé
registers at the ume), sometimes boys may have begun their
careers more as servants, employed to perform menial tasks such
as the cleaning of the workshop, leaving the apprentices free to
concentrate on learning cheir craft. Certainly, in the sixteenth
century, when Lorenzo Lotto took on a fourteen-year-old boy,
he was to spend the first three years hetpingin the bouscas well as
the workshop, doing the cleaning, cooking and shopping; after
that he would be ‘more free to study the art”.
Little is Known about the teaching of apprencices, but initially
priority seems to have been placed on learning how to draw. In
fifreentli-century Toumai an apprentice who wished to study
drawing had to serve only one or two years, whereas ifhe wanted
to paint as well he had to serve for four ycers. Cennino Cennini,
in his famous treatise, The Crafisntan's Handbook, written at the
end ofthe fourteenth century, recommends that a traince painter
should first spend a year drawing, presumably to sec ifhe has any
aptitude for the profession, followed by six years leaming to
grind colours, prepare panels and to apply gold leaf (keeping up
his drawing all the while). Quly then can he begin to paint. To
master the techniques of fresco and tempera painting would ap-
parentiy take a further six years, Cennino himself claims co have
spent twelve years with his master, Agnolo Gaddi, but in his
efforts to promote his craft he is almost certainly guilty of ex-
aggerating che cime necessary to leam the various skills.
Towards the end of the period, patsiculariy in Italy, these may
have been a change of emphasis in the training of painters. An
agreement of 1467 between the Paduan artist Francesco Squar-
cione— teacher, and adoptive facher of, among others, Mantegna
— and a certain ‘master Guzon, painter”, specifies that the later’
son is to be taughe subjects such as perspective, foreshortening
and the measured proporsions ofthe naked human body. As the
son of a painter, the boy had probably been apprenticed ro his
father and had therefore already learn the practical details ofhis
craft, A period of further study on completion ofthe official term
of apprenticeship is likely to have been quite usual and guild
records show that very few painters immediately registered as
masters. Indecd those young painters who were not the sons of
painters and therefore did not benefit from preferential rates of
entry to the guilds may have needed to work as assistants for
several years to raise the sums of money necessary to become a
master, And many probably never did become masters.
Kris assiscants, and not, as is frequently thought, apprenticcs,
who are likely to have been the most numerous members of è
workshop staff. As assisrants were not required to be registered
with the guilds, it is seldom known how many were in a work-
shop at any one rime. For decorative projects at Lille in 1454 and
at Bruges in 1468 Jacques Daret had four and three assistants re-
spectively; animportant painter like Rogier van der Weyden may
well have had many more. Masaccio, when he was working on
the Pisa altarpiece (No. 15) in 1426, had atlcast ruwo assistants — his
brother Giovanni and a certain Andrea di Giusto, both of whom
had previously worked in the shop of Bicci di Lorenzo - and pos-
sibly a third, umnamed assistant who on one occasion collected a
paymette due to Masaccio. Again, an artist like Verrocchio, run-
ning a workshop engaged în the production of painting, sculp-
ture and goldsmiths” work, is likely ro have had a larger work-
shop staff; many of che painters who are thought to heve been
associated with Verrocchio at various times may have worked as
assistants rather than as apprentices. For some painters a rela-
tively short spell with a master in the capacity of an assistant may
have had more influence on their development as an artist chan
their several years of apprenticeship with a previous master. In
spite of the fact that in his early works Raphael seems to have
completely absorbed the manner of Perugino, there is no evi-
dence thar he was ever apprenticed to him (sce No. 61).
Tn 1504 Raphael was proposing to go to Florence ‘to study’. He
was by then well established as a painter, but the idea ofassistants
using the interim period between being an apprentice and a
master to further their experience is suggested by the Florentine
THE WORKSHOP
Giusto d'Andrea, who, writing in about 1440-57, describes how
he worked as an assistant to Neri di Bici fox two years at satary
of ta florins che first yearand 18 florins the second, as wellasa pair
ofhose a year. He was then selfemployed for a year and camed
well, but in order to improve his skilis in fresco painting he went
to work for Benozzo Gozzoli.
In Northern Europe and especially in Germany there wasa tra-
dition of travelling assistants orjourneymen in many crafts, and
the young craftsman was encouraged to travel when he had com-
pleted his training. Diirer, on completion ofa three-year appren-
ticesnip in Nuremberg with the painter Michael Wolsemut,
travelled in the Upper Riineland and possibly Holland. He fol-
lowed this with visits to Colmar {where he had hoped to meet che
painter and engraver Martin Schongauer) and Basel before re-
turning to Nuremberg.
The past played by these assistants = and also perhaps by the
more precociously ralented apprentices — in the production of
paintings would have varied greatly. Sometimes they may have
been responsible for virtually the entire execution of a painting,
evenifit was chen sold under the name ofthe master painter and
perhaps signed by him. The painting techniques of the four-
teenth and fifteenth centuries, with theic carefully plannea de-
signs invariably divided into distinct colour areas, allowed many
opportunities for collaboration. With the aid of scientific and
photographie methods of examination, ir is sometimes possible
to suggest ways in which che labour may have been divided (for
example see p. 188 and No. 3), but often, particularly in the cast
of the malti-layered techniques of early oil painting, the contri-
bution of the workshop assistant may no longer be discernible.
Another important duty of the workshop would have been to
assìst in the laborious preperatory stages in the production of a
painting, for example the application of grounds to panels {see
pp. 162-4), and the grinding and mixing of pigments to make
paine (Fig. 178). While learning to prepare colours was clearly an
important part of an apprentice’s training, there is evidence that
in some workshops more experienced assistants may have been
employed as specialist colour makers. A surprising number of
apprentices named in guild records never seem to have registered
as masters (although some may have moved to towns where no
records survive); perhaps through lack of talent or initiative they
were condemned to work in this essential but subsidiary role.
The accounts for frescoes painted în the chapel of San Jacopo in
the cathedral ar Pistoia ia 1347 show chatan assistant, described as
a painter by profession, was taken on at much the lowest daily
rate of pay solely to grind colours; and in 1493 Fran
dl
1
18F7 Fig. 178, Nidous
Mancel Deutsch, Safar
Lao printing the Virgin,
1515. Wood,
121.5X84 sem. Bere,
Kensttnusenm, On che
left are some of Saint
Lukc' paîucing matesiele
Io che background an
apprentico or assistant ha
ben grinding colonzs
and is setting
ou
qua pale.
nickT Fig. 179. Followe:
of Quiniten Massys, Saia
Luke printing the Vizgii,
gariy sixccenzh century.
Ck, painted sueftce
113.734.901
ING 3902)
illustrated in some manuscript illuminations showing painters at
work, or small carthenware pots. Fifty such pots weze paid foras
part of the expenses incurred in the execution of the San Pier
Maggiore Altarpiece. Oil paints could be stored for a short while
in jars covered writh a membrane made from pigs’ bladders,
When ready to paint, che painter would set the colours out on a
wooden palette (sce Fig. £78). The palettes shown in depictions
of Saint Luke are much like those in use today, differing only in
that some have a handle like a paddle instead of a hole cut for the
painter's thurab. For vil painting, a useful additional tool woulé
have been a mahlstick, a long stick with a padded end which
could be lentagainst the picture so that the paintes could support
and steady his hand when painting fine details.
Paintbrushes were made of haîrs from the tips ofthe tails ofrhe
minever (or ermine). The hairs were bunched together and in-
serted into cut sections of quills, che size of the quill determining
that of the brush. A wooden handie could then be finied to the
other end af tke quill. Larger, stiffer brushes of hogs” bristles
were made in much che same way. They werc used in wall paint
ing and for the application of gesso but also, on occasion, in cil
painting for the blocking in of backgrounds and underlayers (see
Fig. 265). Cennino gives detailed instructions on the manufac-
ture of brushes, and the accounts for a chapel at Brescia decorated
by Gentile da Fabriano in 1414-19 include payments for bristle
and cord for brushcs, but it seems that, in major art centres at
Jeast, they could also be bought réady-made. Forexample, in the
careful accounts Baldovinetti kept for the frescoes of 1471 in the
Gianfigliazzi Chapel in Santa Trinità, Florence, he records buy
ing fifty-cight brushes of varions sizes from a brushmaker.
Thè application and decoration of gilding required further
items of equipment. The inventory of Neroccio”s workshop in-
cludes his gilder's cushion — the padded leather cushion on which
the gold leaf is cut to size — and severa! buznishers, the smooth
polished stones uscd to burnish the gilding (see p. 174}. Equally
important were the tools used for drawing, Neroccio owned a
special desk for drawing, and Jean Lemaite de Belges has
equipped his imaginary workshop with charcoal, drawing
chalks, brushes, quili pens and metalpoints, all employed in
drawing during the fiftecnth century.
DRAWINGS AND PROPS
«4
Drawings would have beer: an important part of a workshop's
equipment, although few have survived from the fourteenth
THE WORKSHOP
century, and none that can be linked with any known panel
painting. The chief reason for chis is chat until the mid-fifteenth
and was nor manufactured in suffi
cient quantities for painters to use it to any great cxtent. Many
century, paper was expensì
drawings may have been lost to us because they were drawn on
re-usable surfaces, such as a wooden block. Cennino describes
how such a block, preferably of boxwood or some other close
textured wood, should be prepare. with a thin coating of ground
bone. Alternatively he suggests erasable ‘tablets
men use’ of parchment, prepared with. gesso and lead white in
vil, and presumably obtainable ready-made. Later, paper coatcd
with different coloured pigments incorporated into the prepara-
tion to rint the surface was employed. The drawing would be
made with a metalpoînt, usually ofsilver, which deposited on the
slightly rough surface a thin coating of metal which rapidly tar-
nished, producing a fine grey line, in appearance rather like that
of a hard graphite pencil. The only way to shade a metalpoint
drawing is to build up the tones by repeated hatched strokes. As
this rechnique is analogous to the careful hatched application of
paint when working in egg tempera (see p. 188). drawing in
metalpoint was an excellent training for the tempera painter,
which was one reason why Cennino insisted on the traince
painter's need to keep ‘drawing all the rime, never leaving off,
either on holidays or workdays”.
Of those few drawings which have survived from the four-
teenth and early fifteench centuries, some arc on paper but most
are on parchment. Parchmene is prepared from the skins of
calves, sheep and goats, with the finest quality, vellum, being
made from the skin of young animals. Drawings on parchment
are usually in pen and ink, and are detailed and highly finished,
often with washesin watercolour (Fig. 180}. Although some sur-
vive only as single shects, originally they were bound into
volumes known as pattern or model books. These pattern books
contained collections of designs, motifs and individual figures to
be referred co in assembling 4 composition for a painting. A pat-
ter book known as the ‘Vienna Vademecum’, which was prob-
ably compiled by a Bohemian or Austrian painterin che late fowr-
tcenth or early fifteenth century, includes heads of different cy pes
(among them figures intended for usc in a Crucifocon), cach
carefully drawn in metalpoint on prepared paper pasted to thin
wooden panels (Fig. 187).
Jacopo di Cione had to depict forty-eight differer
San Pier Maggiore Altarpicce (No. g). At first sigat the heads
seem individually chatacterised, but they are unlikely to have
been painted, or drawr, direcrly from life. They are probably
‘ich trades-
ints in the
14T
THE WORKSHOP
taken from types stored in a pater book (or in the artist”
memory}. Some in fact are mirsor images, so chat the features of
the youthful Saint Stephen in the front row on the left reapoeat,
reversed, for Saint Lawrence in che same position on the right,
vvrhile the saints in Jacopo"s Coronation ofihe Virgin painted for the
Zecca (the mint) in Florence in 1372-3 beara close resemblance to
their predecessors in the San Pier Maggiore Altarpiece. The bar
tered condition of most surviving pattern books indicates that
they were in constant use, and the often variable quality of the
drawings suggests that apprentices and other members of the
workshop added to the compilation of deawings, filling ia any
Blank spaces. Those chat survive should therefore be regarded as
anthologies of useful ideas rather than a collection of personal in-
ventions.
Most pattem-book drawings give the impression of having
Been copicd from other drawings, However, iis sometimes pos-
sibie, particularly iu the case of studies of animals, to trace them
back to a drawing which has so much more sense oflife thatit can
be taken as the original on which the others are based. Drawing
was of course the only way chat artists could record the work of
their predecessors and contemporaries, and until the introdue-
ceeT Fig. 190. Lombard Scheol, Tivo Cheetafis,
watercolour on parchment, 16.#xtr.5cm. London, British Museum
1200. Brush drawing ind
arow Fig. 181 Austrian School}, Hesds from a model book (lie Vici
Vardermzann, fisst quarte: of the filicenth century. Metalgoint on prepared
papers pasted to wooden panels, cach panel 9. 90m. Viena,
Exusthistorisches Museum.
tion of printmaking in che later fifteenth ceatury chere was no
other way oftransmitting visual ideas and information, Cennino
disousses the difficulties of drawing in an ll-Hir church. Drawings
from a wxavel sketchbook, probably associated initially with the
workshop of Gentile da Fabriano and then taken over on his
deathin the iate 1420s by Pisanello, indude 4 careful record ofone
of the frescoes by Altichieco in the Oratorio di San Giorgio ar
Padua (Fig. 182), together with a copy of the Navicella, Giotto's
famous mosaic in Old St Peter's in Rome - drawn by other artists
as uecll — and several stridies from antique sculprure which seem
to have been made on the spot. In 1469 when arrangements were
being made for Cosimo Tura to see the chapel ar Brescia painted
by Gentile da Fabriano some fifty years areviously (sce p. 141), it
was siiggested that he would need tliree or four days ‘to enjoy it”
but also, no doubt, to makc drawings 25 2 record.
A group of German drawings of the lete fifteenth century,
generally associated with an arcist known as the Master of che
Coburg Rounde!s, seem to have been made to record che appear-
ance of works of art, including the now dismembered altarpiece
by Rogier van der Weyden, of wlrich The Magdelen Reading may
de a firaement (sce No. 22). The desigrs may also have been in-
tended for adoption by the painter.
patterns continued well into the sixteenth century. Models based
on designs by leading painters like Rogier van der Weyden and
Hugo van der Goes coule be assembleg and reassembled in what
amounzed to mass producrior. of religious images (see p. 72).
Among the items concerned in a legel dispute of 1519-20 at
Bruges berween the Italian painter Ambrosivs Benson and
Gerard David — a dispute which resulted in a brief spell injaî for
To che Netherlands che use of
THE WORKSHOP
Fig. 182, Workshops of Genile da
Fabriano and Pisaoello, Drawings
after ona of Allichicro" frescaes in she
Oratorio ci Sar Giorgio, Dada, and
Ciotto* Navicelle, Rome, lac 14308
or early 14305. Pen and ink with
wrash on parchiment, 33X%56cm.
Milan, Ambrosiina
the elderiy and distinguished David — were several pattems,
some of which Benson claimed as his; others had been borrowed
for a fee from another painter, Aelbrecht Cornelis.
Patterns were sometimes left in wills as part of a workshop
stock. Vrancke van der Stockt, who had inherited his workshop
frora his father (scc p. 140), in tum left his sons his ‘patterns and
everything else that is drawn on paper’. Dieric Boucs divided his
workshop contents, including presumably patterns, between his
sons. When Goosen van der Weyden kad to represent a figure in
old-fashioned dress for his Donation of Kalmehout of about 1511 he
seems to have had recourse to a drawing made for, orafter, a pi
trait by his grandfather Rogier. Jacopo Bellini's books of draw
ings, which survive still in their original bindings, were
bequeathed by his widow in L47I co their son Gentile. However,
these drawings, which consist mainly of elaborate architectural
and landscape settings, often involving tiny narratives, are per-
haps not so much patteras bur rather a series of compositional
ideas for paintings.
Before any paint was applied to a medieval or early Renais-
sance panel or canvas the design had almost always been carefully
planned. Working oura composition during the process of paint-
ing was inadvisable for several technical reasons. The egg tem-
pera medium used in che fourteenth and much of the Éificenth
centuries cracks anc flakes ifit is built up too thickly, making re
peated alterations impossible. At tie same time, che cîl painting
techuigues which evolved i: Netherlands in t
ficentà century depend for their effects on retaining some ofrhe
reflective propesties of che underlying white ground, easily lost
when too many layers of colour are applied. Furthermore, if
ye
early
143
THE WORKSHOP
arr Fig. 187, Leona:do da Vindi,
dhe Kisgs, e. 1482, Pen and ink over
metalpoine ca paper wai wash and
vite icightenirg, 16.5290m0.
Florence, Ufizi,
tiv sud for dhe Adorarion of
Lerr Fig, 188. Albrecht Direr,
Sbrdy of water, shy and pine trees,
probahly 1455 or 1496. Watercolone
and hodycolonr on piper,
26.236, 5cm, London, British
i
Ì
Museun,
i
i
146
scape drawings seem to have been made. Many of these were
probably drawn with the backgrovnds of paintiugs in mind — in
marked contrast to Cennino's idea of copying mountains ‘from
nacute” by basine them on small rocks and stones brought into
the studio. However, by the end ofthe fifteenth century, Diirer
seems to have bcen drawing landscapes while on his travels
purely to record locations, wcether conditions and so on (Fig.
188). It is casy to suppose that studies of this kind had been
adapted by paînters such 25 Bouts or Pollaiuolo (Nos. 32 and 40)
at an carlier date for the backgrounds of their paintings.
Ta Italy studies from life were often made using members of
the workshop as models, for example that by Perugino for
Tobias and the Angel from che altarpiece for the Certosa di Pavia
Fig. its. orugine, Suudls for Tobias and he Angel, c. 1500, Mecalpcint vrich
white heightening (oxidizeé) on prepared paper, 23.8x18.30m. Oxford,
Aslunolean Musei.
THE WORKSHOP
(Fig. 189 and No. 59). The nude figure was also drawn, either
from life or from antique sculpture: listed ia Nesoccio”s work-
shop inventoty are three plaster cast of Apollo, together wit
casts of heads and a foot, all presumably from the antiguc. For
difficule subjects such as babies and lying angels, models made
from wood, clay or plaster would have been employed. Models
which could be suspended are mentioned among the contents of
Fra Bartolommeo's workshop in the early sixtecnth centery, and
the eight ‘models for painting figures’ owned by Neroccio may
have served similar purposes. The Florentine sculptor and archi-
tect Antonio Filarete in his treatise compiled in r460-4 describes
the use of jointed wooden figures, which could be dressed in
linen soaked in glue and then allowed to dry so that the arrange-
ment of the folds conld be studied.
Studies of draperits sciffoned with dilute gesso were made by
membe:s of Verrocchio” workshop, in particular Lorenzo di
Credi ami Leonardo, It is perhaps significant that Verrocchio,
like Filarete, was a sculptor, for this practice may have been sug-
gesced by the methods of making ephemeral statuary. These
studies were often on fine linen rather than paper, using brown
and white pigments applied with a brush (Fig. 190), 2 technique
nor ulike the monochrome undermodelling seen on Leonardo's
panel paintings (see pp. 171 and 203). For sketches and some
studies, quill pers and ink - usually iton-gall writing ink which,
although black when first applied, discolours to brown through
ageand exposure to light — were still employcd, but metalpoint
was gradually being replaced by biack drawing “hall, a carbo-
naccous shale which came, according to Cennino, from Pied-
mont. The advantages of black chalk (and red chaik, introduccd
at the very end of the fifteenth century) were chat the paper no
longer needed to be prepared and the drawn lines cond be
smudged în a way that saggests parallels with the softer, more
blended effects obtuinable with cil paint, The soft modelling of
the drawing Porirait ofa Man attributed to Giovanni Bellini (Fig.
191) can be compared with chat in Bellin?s painted portrait of
Doge Leonardo Loredan (No. 60).
These specific studies could at any rime become patterns ifte-
used by the painter or a riember of the workshop. Thus there is
often disagreement now 25 10 whecher a drawing is a study for a
painting or whetherit has been made after the painting (orafter a
study for it}. This is the case with the drawings of sai
ciaced with Peseltino's Trinity Altarpiece, while those drawings
vehich must once have existed for the foreshortened flying angels
seem to have been emploved as patterns in a Nativity (Paris,
Louvre) varivusty ascribed to members of Peseli i
asso=
THE WORKSHOP
Fig. go. Leonardo ca Vinci, Draper «hd, 1470-80. Brown and white
pigrents applicd with a brush on linea, 28.3%19.3cm. London, British Museum.
Similarly, the drawing which musthave been made by Giovanni
Bellini in revising che poses of Saint Peter and his assailant in the
Assassination of Saint Peier Martyr (Fig. 192) has been re-used, and
on exactly the same scale, in a variation ofthe composition in the
Courtanid Institute collection (Fig. 193).
Some of the naturalisticaliy painted objec:s and details which
appear in fifreenth-century paintings, firstin the Netherlands and
fater in Italy, may have been painted directly from studio props
either belanging to the painter or botrowed for the purpose. The
“polishee marbles as clear as beryl' in the imaginary workshop
described by Jean Lemaire de Belges may possibly be poetically
described and enusually clean grinding stones, but they can also
be interpreted more literaîly as pieces of polished marble and
148
Fig, 193. Actributed 10 Giovanni Belui, Perali ofa Mas, c. 1495. Black chelk
with grey wash on paper, 19.2%23cm, Oxford, Chuist Church.
transluceat stone kept for copying in paint, and resulting in the
astonishingly convincing representations of marble to be seen in
paiutings by, among others, Gerard David (Fig. 144 and No. 69).
Other props would have included textiles — even che highly styl-
ised patterns offourteenth-century cloths of gold execured by the
technique of sgraffito (see p. 176) were originally based on real tex-
tiles; precious oriental carpets — those shown in paiutings being a
eruicial source of information for their early history; and jewel-
Jery.
Fora goldsmith and sculptor like Verrocchio, finding suitable
Jewellery for copying would not have been a problem. The iden-
tical brooca worn by the Virgin and by one of the angels in. The
Virgin and Child wich Two Angels (Figs. 195, 196. 197) is likely to
i
have been copied from a real one available in the workshop. Gio-
vanni Bellini, on che other hand, working in Venice where chere
was not the same tradition of painters practising che other arts,
had to borrow a silver crowm from the Dominicans of $$ Gio-
vanni anc Paolo presumably for a painting of the Virgin.
However, the artist in the late fifteenth century, especially in
Italy, seas faterested in painting mucì that could be stndicd only
ourside che workshop. The new concern to represent movement
in the human figure and in: nature gave greater importance to
drawings made quickly. A wriggling baby, a reariag horse or 2
turbulent river can only be recorded in this sway, and skercay
Fig. 198. Raphael,
Stadies of gini
ani Chili, e. 1507-8.
Pen und ink over red
dlulk on paper,
15.418.400,
London. British
Musco.
‘awings were also essential for working out compositions in
whichevery figure was active, asia. a Holy Famiiy by Leonardo -
or by Raphael (Fig. 198) after he had studied Leonardo's work.
Leonardo”s concept of pictorial unity also entailed a revolution in
the nature of drawing, for it meant that a composition could not
be compiled ont af separate parts but had to evolve in an organic
sense. The loose compositional sketch, instead of being merely
preliminary, came to possess a new importence. In Leonardo”s
drawing of the Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the infant
Saint John (No. 66), for example, passages which ate exploratory
ide othexs which are highly finished.
and vague are preserv
GI
CHAPTER FIVE
al
TECHNIQUES
PANELS
4;
Most surviving paintings from the chirteenth 10 the early six»
teenth centuries are on wooden panels. The type of wood
depended on the available trees. In Italy the wood most com-
mordy used was poplar — then usually the white poplar — which
grows to a considerabile size, yielding very large plauks. Oxwing
to its rapid growth, however, popiar has many faults: it is soft
and weak, so the planks have ro be cut thickly for strength; its
grain is erratic, and it'is particularly susceptible ro damage by
woodworm and to warping with changes in humidity. Never-
theless, deforestation, and the need to use the quality timbers for
more important purposes such as shipbuilding, left: Italian
painters with litele choice. Occasionally they obtained panels of
better quality woods such as walnut. Although walnut was
employed mainly for making furniture, Leonardo mentions its
useand it has been identified as che support fora few works in the
Louvre by Leonardo and his followers and for some ofthe Mila-
nese paintings from the lare fifteentà century in the National Gal-
lery. Other alternatives co poplar induded lime — suggested by
Cennino and used by Antonello for his Saint Jerome in his Study
(No. 41) and by Crivelli for some, but curiousty not forall, ofthe
panels of the Demidoff Altarpiece (No. 46) — and cypress, a rare
example being Pollaiuolo”s Apollo and Daphne (Fig. 257).
North of the Alps painters had access to a wider range of
rimbers. Inthe Netherlands, France and Englatid strong and dur-
able cak panels were generally used. Even though cak is in-
digenous ro these countries it was sull worth importing supplics
from the Hansa towns on the Baltic. In 1467 the carpenter who
made the panels for Tie Last Judgement and the rwo scenes show»
ing the Justice of Otto painted by Dieric Bouts for the town hall
at Louvain went to the port of Antwerp to obttin timber for
work on the church of St Bavo, and also to buy forty=five large
planks of oak suitable for painting. In Germany and Austria, as
well as oak (used mainly for North German panels), lime, beech,
chestnut, cherry, and softwoods such as pine and silver fir were
employed. Similarly, in the Spanish peninsula several different
woods were used but with regional variations so that, for
example, chesmur was common in Portugal and che western
regions of Spain, poplar in Catalonia, and pine in Valencia,
Castile and Aragon.
To make panels, planks of wood were glued together, some
times with wooden dowels or other devices to reinforce the
joins. Large pancls, and Italian altarpieces in particular, werc
strengthened with battens nailed to their backs (Fis. 199}, bothto
restrict warping of the panel and to support che structure when it
was set up on an altar. Few of these battens have survived on the
panels in the National Gallery: at best only che nails and che clean
marks left by the battens remain to provide clnes as to the original
construction. Large Netherlandish and German panels + of
which comparatively few survive intacc and none in the National
Gallery - do not seem to have needed such extensive reinforce-
ment, probably because of the greater stengih and stability of
the vak used in their construction.
If they were not intended to be visible, the reverses of Italian
panel paintings were usually left rough: faults in the wood such as
knots and small splits were often ignored, and in raking light the
marks made by the tools used to work the timber can be scen.
(Fig. 200), Northem European panels, on the other hand, even
when large, are generally beautifully crafted and finished: the
planks were cut from che more dimensionally stable parts of the
j
i
TECHNIQUES
i Fig. 199. Francescò Borcicni, Saini Jerone i P
i (Fig. 56). Reverse ofche main panci,
that of Filippino Lippi includes a number of wood-werking
tools, among them a plane and two saws. However, contracts
and payments (see p. 130) show that forlarge altarpisces, partica-
larly those incorporating complex framing elements (see below),
e i
t
Fr ti
n i i
) i Fig. 201. Gerard David, Au Ecciesastie raying (Fig. 136). Reverse of the pavel. !
- log, the cdges often neatly bevelied for insertion into the frame !
e (Fig. 201), and the backs planed smooth and occasionally coated
e i to reduce the dangers of the wood warping and splitting. Pancis i
o i originating from Brussels and Antwerp werc often marked with
it ì astamp indicating their place oforigin and, presumably, a certain
e i approved level of craftsmanship.
n Small panels of simple construction may sometimes have been i
al made up in the painter” workshop. The inventory of Neroccio”s i
N workshop lists several planks of poplar and one of walmut, while i
a z î
n specialist: carpenters and woodearvers were almost always
, employed, either directly by the patron or through subcon- !
le tracting by the painter. The names of many carpenters and
1 woodcarvers are recorded, The surviving panels of che Monte
n i Oliveto Alkarpiece painted by Spinello Aretino in 1384-5 are
ne © Fig 200. Jacopo di Cione, The Sk Pier Maggie Altanice (No. g) actually inscribed with the names of the caxpenter and che gilder,
ne 1 Reverse of the righe panel ofthe main tier in raking light. and all three crafismen were party to the original contract.
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Fig. 205. Florentine School, Tondo: The Virgin and Child sith Sulnt Joh dhe
Bapist and n ciel, second half of he Afteentà century. Wood, diameter ofthe
printed surface 60.92m (NG 1199).
ever, there was still close consultation between the painter and
tienwoodcarver or stonemason who made the frame and some-
times the panel itself (sce p. 154). Contracts and payments show
that a considerable proportion, sometimes as much es a half, of
the cost of an altarpiece lay in che frame. Even in Venice, where
painters were traditionally little involved in che sister arts, the re-
lationship between the altarpiece and che architectural frame was
often carefully worked out—as in some altarpieces by Giovanni
Bellini, for example - so that the real flanking pilasters could be
repeated within the painting and thus appear to belong to the
same space. This would seem likely to have been the case wich
the altarpiece by Cosimo Tura (No. 44).
The continued use of built-in frames on sraaller {
suggested by rhe fact that traces of bole and gilding from the
frameare often visible around che edges of panels which have lost
their frames; in 1464 Mantegna refused to varnish some panels on
the erowrds that che frames had not yet been gilded — presumably
he wras afraid of the gold leafsticking co the still-tacky varnisk, A
alian panels is
156
Fig: 206, Follower of Botticelli, Tie Vigin and Child citi an Angel, c. 140.
Poplar, painted surface 60.9%48.3cm (NG 599). The frame is on loan from che
Victoria and Albert Museum.
plain narrow moudding has survived around three sides ofthe late
fifseenth-century Portrait of Costanza Caetani by a follower of
Ghirlandaio (NG 2490); and the more omate carved frame on
Baldovinetti's Portraitofa Lady in Yellow (Fig. 116) also appears to
be original, although completely regilded.
Round panels - tondi — toa, often had integral frames. The
frame of the Florentine School fondo The Virgin and Child wiih
Scint John the Baptist and an Angel (Fig. 205) has been built up on
the panel using both carved wood and patterns of raised gesso or
pastiglia (sce p. 177). Onthe other hand, che tando of che same sub-
jeci from the workshop of Botticelli (Fig. 85) must have always
had an independent frame, [nscribed ina contemporary hand on
the reverse of the panel is the name of Giuliano da Sangallo, the
architect and sculptor. This has been taken.to indicate that he was
the first owmer of che tondo, but iris much morc likely that the in-
the panel was to be sent to Giu-
liano for framing, He is known to have made frames for eltar-
pieces by Domenico Ghirlandaio and Botuicelli: Giuliano
scription was a note to record
was paid nearly as much for the frame ofan altatpiece of 1485 for
Santo Spirito, Florence (now in Berlin}, as Botticelli wes for the
paintivig.
Most National Gallery paintings are not in their original
frames, but some are in frames fiom other paintings of their
period. One ofthese, a painting by a pupi! or follower of Botti»
celli, is in a tabernacle frame (l ig. 206), superbly carved, espe-
cially in che feathery acanthus which sws ‘ps up under the flured
serolls ofthe corbel support. Itis cypical of fames of devorional
palotings hung in the Florentine camere {sce ©. 108}, It may be
compared with the frames used for sculptrai cabernacles — the
gesso Wirgin and Child (Fig. 143) and the marble eucharistic taber-
nacle (Fig. 4).
On a larger scale the altarpiece by Mantegna of the Virgin and
Child with the Magdalen and Saint John the Baptist (Fig. 207) has
a carved and gilded frame with finely casved capitale and ex
quisite ornamental ettering in pastiglia, buc che columns nave
been shortened to make it fit. Neirher of theNNacional Gallery
Fig. 207, Andrea Mantegna, The
Virgin and Chit sid dhe agile
Canees, 139. t6.dom (NG 274).
The frame, although of the
period, is no: origini.
original frames om altarpieces of che fifteenth century, the Saint
Jerome by Borricini (Fig. 56) and the Madonna della Rondine by
Crivelli (Fig. 208), show this degree of sophistication in design or
execution. Bothare tabernacle frames with the carvedand gilded
relief patterns on the Banking pilasters and crowning cornice set
against a background of dull blue, probably azurite 25 suggested
in cercain contracts {see p. 129). The Crivelli altarpiece is forther
ornamented along the predella with painted bands of piùk,
green, red and marcon, speckled and flecked to imitate porphyry
and other coloured stones.
In the fifteenth centary smaller frames, both in che Nether-
Janis and in Italy, were sometimes marbied=as were the backs of
panels (see Fig. 102). Some frames in Northem Burope were
coloured, often with vermilion decorated with quatrefoil orna-
ment, a scheme of decoraticn typical of che fourteench century
srhich can be seen on the altarpiece represented in the Exchumation
of Saint Hubert (Fig. 17). Itremainedin Avourinsome towns such
as Cologne during the fifteeath century. Borders dividing parts
integral or not, were chought ofas intimately related to the image
they contained; moreover in some Netherlandish frames che
painting was permitted to spill out on che sloped sill (sec No. 28)
thus deliberately confusing thesc categories.
CANVAS PAINTING
Of tie few fourteenth- and fifteenthi-century paintings in che
National Gallery which are not on wooden panels, a bandfu] arc
fragracats of frescoes and the remainder have been painted on
fabric supports, in one instance possibly silk (Figs. 73 and 74).
Butmore often a linea canvas. The small number of canvas paint-
ings which survive might suggest that canvas vas scidom used at
this time. Documentary sources, however, demoustrate that
canvas paimtings were common. Many of them may not have
been intended to have any permanence: descriptions of festivals
and thrcatrical events in both Northern Furope and Îtaly show
that the scenery and other ephemeral decorations supplied by the
painters {see p. 125) were often painted on canvas. For reasons of
weight, canvas was also a suitable support for painted banners to
be carried in religious processions (see p. 63). The earliest surviv-
ing canvas painting in che Nacional Gallery, the much damaged
and repainted Madonna af Humility by Lippo di Dalmasio (Fig.
47), may have been one such banner. In addition, as has been
pointed out earlier, paintings on canvas were exported in large
quantity, especially it seems from the Netherlands in the fifteenth
century,
Perhaps stimulated by the influx ofNetherlandish paintings ox.
canvas, certaîn Italian painters seem to have turned with in
creasing frequency to canvas as a support for works intended to
serve similar fimorions to works painted on pancl. This de
velopment may have begun in north-east Italy: an altarpisce of
1446 by Antonio Vivarini and Giovanni d'Alemagna showing
the Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints (Venice, Accademia)
isoncanves, and one ofthe earliest painters whose surviving out-
put includes a relatively high proportion of canvases is Man-
tegna. En a letter ke commented on the convenience of canvas for
‘works to be transporred since it “can be wrapped around a rod'.
His works on canvas range from small paintings such as Sarsoni
and Delilah (Fig. 164), painted on a canvas so finely woven hate
appears more like a handkeschief or bed linen, to large and im-
portant alvarpieces like che Trivulzio Madonna (Milan, Castello
Sforzesco) and the Madonna della Vittoria (Paris, Louvre). In
fiftcenth-century Venice, where the damp environment was not
‘TECHNIQUES
ideal for che preservation of wall-paintings nor indeed of wooden
panels, canvas began to de used extensively for large-scale works
and in particular for the cycles of paintings which decorated the
meeting halls of ehe Scuole (confraternitics). Unfortunately, the
National Gallery" few carly Venetian canvases- for example the
large votive Madonna wifi Doge Giovanni Mocenizo and those
attributed to Carpaccio and to Gentile Bellini (Fig. tg) — are in
such poor condition that little can bc determined of their tech
nique.
While double-sided canvas paintings, such as organ shutters,
and processional banaers like chat by Barnaba da Modena (Figs.
63 and 69), have obviously alswnys been stretched over a wooden
framework orstretcher, there is evidence that when a canvas was
to be used as analternative to a panel it may have been painted on
a temporary stretcher, but when ready for installation it was
piuned cut over 2 solid wooden support. Mantegna's altarpiece
ins Barbara and
Catherine, first quarter of che sixteent century. Canvas,
(NG 369.
2. 7G10cm
The Virgin and Child with the Magdelen and Saint John the Baptist
(Fig. 210} was described soon after its acquisition in 1855 as
having escaped lining and as being nailed to a panel. apparenti y of
chestnut. Sadly it was immediately lined and the panel lost.
However, another of his canvases, The Presentatiot in the Temple
(Berlin, Staatliche Museen), fas retained svhat appears zo be its
16r
i
i
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original supporting panel, as have a few works of the sixteent
century, particularly in Spain.
Nernerlandish canvascs are also documented as havine some-
times been stretched over panels; and woocworm exit holes sca
tered over the entire surface of The Visgin and Child with Sainis
Barbara and Catherine by Massys (Fio. 211) indicete that it must
once have been overa panel, since woodworm could not have in-
fested a canvas suspended over a seretcher Mantegna's National
Gallery altarpiece nas the remains of a painted bord black,
fiecked erith red, presumaily in imitation ofporphyiy (Fig. 212),
and many early canvas paintings, including The Entombneni by
Bouts (No, 22), have similar painted borders. These may nave
been partly decorarive, perhaps reflecring the borders of che tap-
estries for svhich some early canvas paintings Welt substitutes,
tut they swould also have served to guide those responsible for
g the canvases over paneis when {ney reached their de
stretchia;
162
showing che paiaced
aoove ig. ara. Andrea Mantegna, dell af ig. >
order, The mill sveave of che cunvas is also visible
tinztions. The nails were obviously to be inserted outside the
borders, but, equally important, the painted lines would have en-
sured that the canvas was re-stretched cvenly without cusping
ard distortions being introduced into the main field of the com-
position. Therows ofnailsandsome ofthe painted border would
ten have been covered by the frame.
GROUNDS
«
With che exception of certain canvases {discussec below), all the
fourteenta- and fifteenth-century paintings in the National Gal-
lery have had some form of preparatory layer applied asa ground
forsubsequent layers of paint and gilding. Untreated woods t00
rough and absorbent for painting upon, while ifgilding was to be
useditwas essential for the surface to be ivory smooth eo emulate
the effect of solid gold. To this end Cermino gives detailed in-
structions on the application of grounds ro panels: having filled
or cur cut and plugged any knors or flaws on che front face of the
panel, the sunfoce was to be sizcd with an animal-skin glac and
then covered with fine linen canvas {Fig. 213). This would have
furcher disguised che faults in the panel and reinforced any joîns.
It may also have improved the adhesion of the ground layers and
delayed or reduced later cracking. X-radiographs confirm chat
most fourteenth-century Italian panels have been covered with
canvas, eicher in large pieces or as tora strips and scraps as sugo
gested by Cennino. During the fifreenth century che canvas
began to be omitted, so chat by che end of the century itis seldom
found and then only when used to reinforce joins or to cover par
ticular faults in the wood.
vas has bees cxposcd by che removal of the gesso and gildine fremm tie
area below te arch, original: the top of one ol the ssints frona che maia sir of
te altazpiere.
TECHNIQUES
The ground described by Cennino, and identified on all Italian
panel paintings so far examined, consists of layers of gesso.
Gesso is made by combining the powdered white mineral
Ryerated calci sulphace, commonly called eypsum, with an
animal-skiu glue. The Italian for gypsun is gesso, hence che name
for this type of ground, Cennino applied his ground in two
stages: the fixst consisted of gesso grosso, è coarse anhydrite form
of calciura sulphate made by roasting che rav: gypsum in a kiln;
Fig. 214. SEM micrograph ofa sample of gesso and giling frora the San Pie:
Maggiore Altarpicce (No. 9). Four layers are visible: ov ft to righi, gesso
grosso; gesto stile; bole; and gold leaf, Maguification, r006K
and che second of gesso sottile, where the calcium sulphate is
slaked by proionged soaking in water until it is ‘soft as silk.
Examination by the high magnification scaaning eleciron micro
scope (Fig. 214) and analysis by X-tay diffraction of samples of
gesso from fourteenth-century Tuscan panels have confirmed
that both forms of gesso were indeed used
Tu the fifteench century, however, paimters may have begun to
dispense with one form or other. Neri di Bicci actually records
having prepared one crucifix with gesso grosso and another wità
gesso sottile; and analysis of samples shows, for example, that
north of the Apennines, particularly in Venice and Ferrara, che
gesso is nearly always of the dihydrate form, suggesting char
either slaked gesso sottile alone or possibly sven mineraì eypsum
in its raw state was used. As the amount of gilding was reduced
there was no longera need fora flawlessiy
smooth surface; gesso
163
Ì
i
fig, 217. Ducco, detail of che Angel from The Annunciation (No. 3) Infrared
photograph.
Child's drapery fcont The Virgin and Chikd wioh
ro.
Duccio, ceil of tie
No. 4}. Inferzed refiea
asove Pig, 220. Infa-red phovograph detail of Saiat John the Baptist.
wuoir Fig. 259. Nazdo di Clone, SciniJolm Jhe Boprist sd Saint Joh se
Evangelit(?} and Suine James. Wood, 159.5*1aBem (NG 581). The frame is
modem.
Drawing executed with a quill pen also appears on Saint John
the Baptist sith Saint John the Evangelist(?) and Saini James by
Nardo di Cione (Figs. 219 and 220). Here the volume of the
figures and the main aress of shadow have been defined using
parallel ‘harched strokes, somerimes linked in a series of cal
ligraphic loops. Such extensive underdrawing seems to be
unusyalin early Italian painting in spite of Cennino's exhortation
to ‘shade your drawing so carefully that you come out with such
a handsome drawing that you srill make everyone fall iu love
with your production’, More often underdrawing at this time
scems to consiste of a basic outliaing, somerimes with a few
strokes of hatching 10 piace a fold or co indicate a shadow.
A simple but meticolous outlining of forms and detaile can be
seen on the Wilton Diptych (Fig. 221 and No. to), the only
Northern European painting daring from the fourteenth century
in the Collection. The drapery folds have been indicated but ina
linear and schematic fashion. This contrasts with the elaborately
shiaded underdrawing usually found on works by Jan van Eyck.
Areas of che Amolfini double portrait (No. 18) have been drawn
inimmense detail (Fig, 222), although, in common with many of
van Eyck's works, che drawing has not always been followed
closely in che paioting (Fig. 223). On the Man i e Red Turbas
(No, 17) no trace of drawing can de derected, ilustrating the
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a
16
TECHNIQUES
asove Fig, 221. French School? detail of he Angel with foldel arzos to the
right of the Virgin frora The Wiltor Dipiydi (No. 10), Infra-tod reflectogram.
asove meet Fig, 222, Jan van Eyck, derail of he head of Giovanna Cenaini
from. The Ansolfi Porti: (No. 18). Infra-red photograph.
changes to dhe position of
ntcow nicht Fig, 223. jan van Eyck, detal showi
Giovanni Amolfinis righe band from The Amoifini Portrait (No. 18). infra-red
photegraph
point that artists are seldom absolutely consistent în their under
drawing practices. The apparent lack of'underdrawing here may
be connected with the fact ther it is a portrait and is cherefore
likely co have been painted from life or from a detailed drawing.
Other Netherlandish portraits, including van Eyck's Portrait of
Cardinal Albergati, for which a study on paper survives (see p
145), have been found to have simple, quite summary unter-
drawings when compared with more claborate compositions
featuriag areas of deapery, architecture and.so on. The exrentard
complexity ofthe underdrawings found on many Netheriandish
and German paintings suggest thet underdrawing played anim-
portant parc in early oil painting techniques
The methods adopted by Italian painters of the first Balfofthe
fifteenth century svere cssentialiy those of their predecessors.
Tuey included the use of a generally lincar and uashaded under-
drawing, even fot a relatively complex forma such as the fluccer-
ing drapery (Fig. 224) in Sassetta's Saini Framsis renoiates his
Earthly Father (No. 19). Piero della Francesca, in spire of his in-
168
While the use oflighely rinced priming layers to modify the bril-
liance of the white ground has been discovered on paiutings by,
amorg others, che van Eycks and Rogier van der Weyden (see p.
196), there is no eviionce as ver that the layers were modulated to
indicare shading end form. Judging from paintings examined :0
date, wash underdrawing appears to belong more to sixtcenthe
century practice, but it is not impossible that it originated in
fifteenth-century Italy and specifically in the work of Leonardo
da Vinci. However, in the unfinished passages of Leonardo's
rraniy incomplete paintings, it is not really mossible to separate
underdrawing as such from che painted monocheome
important part in the
Ro
undermodelliag which was to play suck
techniques of subsequert centuries.
neri Fig. 229, Cosimo Tura, Sab Jerome, <. 1475. Fragment, Wood,
101%52.76m (NG 273)
Another process in the fixing of a design on a panel is the in-
cising of lines into the gesso or chalk with a metal stylus. When
gold or silver leaf was ro be used, lines were scored into the
ground ro demarcate those arcas to be gilded (Fig. 240). Any
straight lines or arcs needed for che depiction of architectural
features were also usually incised. An incised line provides a
Better guide than a drawn one if crisp edges arc to de achieved in
the application of the paint. In Jesus open the Eyes of a Man born
Blind from Duccio's Maestà (No. 3), the lines of the architecture
have not only been ruled and incised at the uniderdrawing stage,
bit: cr: completicn 0 the paiatinz they were reinforced by re-
peacing the process using 2 lead-point stylus (Fig. 235). Such pre-
tie of Duccio's ov dravi
cision does not seem to be a char
anove Fig, 232. Iufia-red photograp]
restoration) of Fig. 231
user Fig. 251. Cima da Conegliano, Christ Croned with Therms, e. 1510. Wood,
painted sueface 36.3x29.20m (NG 1310)
suvow Fig, 235. Gerard David, The Adoration ofibe Kings, «1515. Wood,
prited surizce 59.758.401 (NG 1097)
d redectegram compirer assembly.
Fig. 334. Detail of Fg, 235, Inftote
ing and painting of architecture (for example, chatin The Amum»
ciatioti), so the architectural background of this scene is now
thought ro have been exscuted by a member of his workshop,
perhaps Pietro Lorenzetti.
In fifteenthi-century Italy che increased emphasis on accurate
rendering of perspectival recession made che use of incised lines
virtually essential. The perspective lines and arcs ofthe complex
architecture of Botticelli”s Adoration of the Kings (No. 38) have
asove Fig. 235. Duccio and
Workshop, detail in raking ight
fora Jesus cpens le Eyes of a Man
fora Blind (No, 3), showing rale
and incisod lines across a capita!
from the loggia.
nicht Fig. 236. Bramaniino, Te
Adovazion gfthe Kings, c. 1505.
Poplax, painted surfece 56,6%55cm
(NG 3073).
TECHNIQUES
been scored into the gesso, as have the cutlines af the broken
lances used to indicate me recession in Uccelio”s Bate of San
Romaro (No, 26). Inciscd lines occur less frequently on Nether-
landish and German paititios, but they can be scen on works by
Bouts, one of the first Northem painters to use something
approachiog the single-point perspective system. Perhaps the
most elaborate example in che National Gallery of a pancing
where incised lines have becn employed as an aid to construcriag