Part the sixth: of preparing grounds for pictures

PART THE SIXTH.
Chap. 113. How to begin to paint pictures.
Now we are really going to paint pictures. In the first place, a panel of the wood of the poplar, lime, or willow-tree, must be prepared, on which to paint the picture. Let it be made quite smooth : if it be defaced with knots, or if it be greasy, you must cut it away as far as the grease extends, for there is no other remedy. The wood must be very dry ; and if it be such a piece that you can boil in a cauldron of clean water, after the boiling it will never split. Let us now return to the knots, or any other defect in the smoothness of the panel. Take some glue (colla di spicchi) , and about a glassful of clean water, melt and boil two pieces (spicchi) in a pipkin free from grease ; then put in a porringer some sawdust, and knead it into the glue; fill up the defects or knots with a
wooden spatula, and let them remain. Then scrape them with the point of a knife, till they are level with the rest of the panel. Examine if there be any nail, or other thing, that renders the panel uneven, and knock it into the panel ; then provide some pieces of tin-plate, like quattrini (small pieces of money), and cover over the iron with them. And this is done that the rust of the iron may not rise through the ground (1). The surface of the panel cannot be too smooth. Boil some glue, made of parchment-shavings, till the water be reduced to one-third of what it was at first ; and
when put on the hands, if one hand stick to the other, it is sufficiently boiled. Strain it two or three times. Put half this glue into a pipkin, add a third part water, and boil well together. Then with a hog's-hair pencil, large and soft, pass a coat of the glue over the panel, or foliage, or pyxes (civori), or columns, or whatever you work upon, that is to be covered with a ground (ingessare), and let it dry. Then take some of your first strong glue (colla forte), and pass twice over your work, letting it dry well between each coat of glue, and it will be glued to perfection. Do you know
the effect of the first glue ? A weak water or liquor is absorbed from it by the wood, which operates exactly as if, when fasting, you eat a few comfits and drank a glass of wine, which gives you an appetite for dinner. So this glue prepares the wood for the glue and grounds to be applied afterwards.
Chap. 1 14. How to fasten linen on panels.
Having thus spread the glue, get some linen-cloth, old, fine, and white, and free from grease. Take your best glue, cut or tear this linen into large and small strips, soak these in the glue, and spread it with your hands over the surface of the panel ; remove the seams, and spread it well with the palms of the hands, and leave it to dry for two days. And remember, it is best to use glue when the weather is dry and windy. Glue is stronger in the winter. For gilding, the weather should be damp and rainy.
Chap. 115. How to lay grounds of gesso grosso on the surface of a picture with a spatula (1).
Where the panel is very dry, take the point of a knife like a rasp (mello), rasp it well, and make the surface quite even. Then take some gesso grosso, that is to say, volteranno, purified, and sifted like flour. Put a porringer full on the porphyry slab, grind it well with this glue, as you would grind colours, collect it, and put it on the surface of the pictures, and, with a very smooth and rather large spatula, cover the whole surface, and wherever you can use the spatula do go. Then take some of this ground plaster (gesso), warm it, take a soft hog's-hair pencil, and give a coat on the
cornices and foliage, and on the even surfaces with the spatula. Give three or four coats on the other parts of the cornices; but on the level parts you cannot use too much.
Leave it to dry for two or three days. Then take the iron rasp (mesella) (2), and level the surface; procure some small iron rods, which are called raffiette, such as you will find at the painters', who use several kinds of them. Pick out all the cornices and foliage which are not flat, and with these make every part of the surface of the ground smooth and free from knots.
Chap. 1 16. How to prepare a fine ground (gesso sottile) for pictures.
You must now prepare a plaster for fine grounds, called gesso sottile. This is made from the same plaster as the last, but it must be well washed (purgata), and kept moist in a large tub for at least a month ; stir it up well every day until it almost rots (marcise) and is completely slacked, and it will become as soft as silk. Throw away the water, make it into cakes, and let it dry ; and this plaster (gesso) is sold by the apothecaries to our painters. It is used for grounds for gilding, for working in relief, and other fine works.
Chap. 117. How to prepare a ground of gesso sottile on a picture, and how it is to be tempered.
Having laid on the gesso grosso, rubbed down the surface, and polished it well and delicately, put some cakes of the gesso sottile into a pipkin of water, and let them absorb as much as they will. Put a small portion of it at a time on the porphyry slab, and, without adding any water to it, grind it to an impalpable powder. Put it then on a piece of linencloth, strong and white. When you have ground as much of it as you want (for you must consider what quantity you will want, that you may neither have to make two portions of tempered plaster nor to throw away any good plaster),
take some of the same glue with which you tempered the gesso grosso. You must make sufficient at one time to temper both kinds of gesso. The gesso sottile requires less tempering than the gesso grosso ; the reason for this is, that the gesso grosso is the foundation of all your work, and that how much soever you press the gesso grosso, a little water will still remain in it. For this reason make the same kind of glue for both. Take a new pipkin which is free from grease, and if it be glazed so much the better. Take a cake of this gesso sottile, and scrape it fine with a knife, as you would cheese, and put it into the pipkin. Put some of the glue on it, and stir the gesso as you would a paste for making fritters, smoothly and evenly, until there are no longer any lumps.
Procure a cauldron of water, and make it very hot, and put into it the pipkin containing the tempered gesso. Thus the gesso will become warm, but will not boil ; for if it should boil, it would be spoiled. When it is warm, take your picture, and a large and very soft pencil of hog's bristles, dipped in the pipkin, and taking up a proper quantity at a time, neither too much nor too little, spread it evenly over the level surfaces, the cornices, and the foliage. It is true that in doing this the first time you should spread and rub the gesso with your fingers and hand wherever you can, and this will incorporate the gesso grosso with the gesso sottile. When you have done this, begin again, and spread it with the brush, without touching it with the hand. Let it rest a little, but not so long as to dry thoroughly ; then pass over it a third time with the brush, and let it dry as usual. Then give it a coat on the other side ; and in this manner, always keeping your gesso warm, give the panels eight coats. Foliage and relievos require less, but you cannot put too much on cloths. This is on account of the rasping or rubbing down, which is done afterwards.
Chap. 118. How to prepare grounds of gesso sottile, not having previously laid on a ground with gesso grosso.
You may first, as I formerly directed you, pass glue two or three times over the panel, and all small and delicate works ; then give them as many coats of gesso sottile as you find from experience they will require.
Chap. 119. How to temper and grind gesso sottile for working in relief
There are, nevertheless, some persons who grind gesso sottile with water and glue. This is proper for grounds where no gesso grosso is used, which require to be more diluted. This same kind of gesso is good for raising foliage and other works in relief, which are frequently necessary to be done. But when you are going to execute works in relief with this gesso, add to it enough Armenian bole to give it a little colour.
Chap. 120. How to begin to smooth the surface of a panel on which you have laid a ground of gesso sottile.
When you have finished laying the ground (which must be done in one day, even if you work at it in the night, in order to complete it in the usual way), let it dry in the shade for two days and nights at least. The drier it is the better. Tie some powdered charcoal in a piece of linen, and sift it over the ground of the picture. Then, with the feather of a hen or goose, spread this black powder equally over the ground, because the panel cannot be made too smooth, and because the iron with which you rub the picture is smooth also. When you remove it, the ground will be as white as milk, and you will then see whether it require more rubbing with the iron.
Chap. 121. How to plane surfaces on which gesso sottile has been laid, and of what use the planing is.
Take a flat raffietto, about as wide as a finger, and gently rub the surface of the cornice once ; then with a sharp rasp (metta arrotata), which you must hold as freely and lightly as you possibly can, rub over the surface of the panel with a very light hand, brushing away the loose gesso with the feather. And know that this dust is excellent for removing grease from the pages of books (carte de libri). In the same manner rub smooth the cornices and foliage, and polish them as if they were ivory. And sometimes (for you may have many kinds of work) you may polish cornices and foliage, by rubbing them with a piece of linen, first wetted and then squeezed almost dry.
Chap. 122. How you should first draw on the panels with charcoal, and fix your outlines with ink.
Having well planed the surface of the ground, and made it as smooth as ivory, the first thing that you should do is, to draw on your panel with those crayons made of charcoal of the willow, which I formerly taught you to make. But you must fasten the charcoal to a stick about the length of your face, which will better enable you to hold it. Have a feather ready, that when any stroke appears to you to be badly drawn, you may efface it with the feather, and draw it again. Draw with a light hand, and shade the hollow parts and the faces as you did with the pencil, and with the same pen with which you made drawings (penneggiasse). When you have finished drawing your figures (especially if the picture be of great value, and you expect it to bring you gain and honour), leave it for a day, return many times to examine it, and improve it wherever you find it necessary. When it appears to you correctly drawn (if possible copy from, or look at, any thing like it in pictures painted by good masters, which is no shame to you, if you copy the figures well), gently rub away the charcoal with the feather from the design, so that it may be just seen, and do not rub away too much, lest you should not understand your design. Put a few drops of ink into a glass half full of water, and with a pointed pencil of minever mark over the outline of your design. Then with the feather part of the pen brush away the charcoal. With some more of the ink, and a flatpointed pencil of minever, shade the depths and the shadows of the face, and you will have made an agreeable design, which will cause all men to fall in love with your works.
Chap. 123. How you should draw the outlines of the figures when you are going to make a gold ground.
When you have sketched your design on the panel, mark out, with a needle fixed into a small stick, the outlines of the figure, into the ground which you are going to cover with gold, and the ornaments which you intend to make on the figures, and certain draperies which are to be of cloth of gold.
Chap. 124. How works in relief are executed on pictures with gesso sottile (1), and how precious stones are affixed to them.
Besides this, take some of the same gesso for relieving, if you would raise ornaments or foliage, or fix precious stones to certain ornaments before or to the figure of God the Father (2), or our Lady, or certain other ornaments which embellish your work, and which are stones of various coloured glass (3). Arrange them with judgment, having your gesso in a vase upon some hot ashes, and another vase of hot water, because you must wash your pencil frequently; and this pencil must be of minever, the hairs fine and rather long. Take a little of the gesso on the point of the pencil, and with that raise what figures you wish to make in relief; and if you raise any foliage, draw the design previously, and be careful not to relieve too much, or to make your design con-
fused ; for the clearer you make your foliage, the better will you be able to display the design, and to burnish it with the stone. There are some masters who, having relieved all they wish, give one or two coats of the gesso which they have used for the ground of the picture, and also of gesso sottile, with a soft pencil of bristles. But if you relieve but a small quantity, it appears to me that it will be better, and that the work will be firmer and more secure, without the gesso, for the reason I have before given you, not to use different kinds of gesso on the same picture.
Chap. 125. How to make casts in relievo, to adorn some parts of the picture.
There are many different ways of working in relief, therefore I will teach you some of them. With the same kind of gesso, or with a portion of stronger glue, you may cast heads of lions or of any thing, modelled in earth or in chalk. Oil the mould with lamp-oil (olio da brucciare), fill it with the gesso well diluted, and let it cool ; then remove the gesso with the point of a knife, and blow (soffiare) it strongly. It will come out quite clean; let it dry. Afterwards, when ornamenting any thing with the same gesso, you must proceed in this manner, with the same gesso which you used for
the ground, and with the same casts, first oiling the part with the pencil where the heads are to be fixed, then press them with the finger, and fix them in the usual manner. Afterwards, with a pencil of minever lay a coat or two of the same kind of gesso on the parts you mean to appear in relief, and which you have previously marked out. Afterwards remove with the knife any irregularities.
Chap. 126. How to put mortar (smaltare) on relievos on walls.
I shall also teach you how to raise designs in relievo on walls. In the first place, there are certain parts of the wall that are either circular or enriched with foliage, on which the mortar cannot be spread with the trowel. Take some lime and sand, both well sifted. Put them into a basin, and, with a large hog's-hair pencil, make them into a paste with water, and apply several coats of this mortar with the same pencil on these places. Then polish the parts with the trowel, and the work will be done. You may paint on it in fresco or in secco, as I directed you when speaking of fresco painting.
Chap. 127. How to make relievos in lime on walls like relievos of gesso on pictures.
Grind a little of the before-mentioned lime on the stone, then make what parts you please in relief on the walls, as I have told you to do with regard to pictures, especially when the lime is rather fresh.
Chap. 128. How relievos may be cut out in stone , and how they may be used on walls.
You may also cut any devices you please on stone, then grease the design with lard. Procure some beaten tin, wet every part with a piece of tow, place the tin on the engraven stone, and beat it well with a mallet of willow as long as you can. Then provide some gesso grosso, ground up with glue, and fill up the moulds with it; you may use it to adorn walls, trunks, stones, or any thing you please ; then apply the mordant to the tin, and, when it is a little tacky, cover it with fine gold. When dry attach it to the wall with pitch.
Chap. 129. How to execute relievos on walls with varnish.
You may also relieve on walls in this manner : Mix liquid varnish thoroughly with flour, and execute your relievos with the point of a pencil of minever.
Chap. 130. How to execute relievos on walls with wax.
In the same manner you may also make relievos on walls with melted wax and pitch mixed together - two parts wax and the third pitch. Use it warm, and make your figures in relief with a pencil.
Chap. 131. How to lay bole on panels, and how to temper it (1).
Let us return to our subject. When you have finished the relievos of your picture, procure some Armenian bole, and try whether it be good. Touch your under-lip with it; if it stick to it, it is good. You must now learn the best tempera for gilding. Put the white of an egg into a very clean glazed porringer. Make some twigs of broom into a rod, and beat up the white of egg with it until the porringer is full of thick froth, which appears like snow. Then take a common drinking-glass, not too large nor too full of water ; pour it on the white of egg into the porringer. Let it stand from night till the next morning, to clarify itself. Then grind the bole in this tempera as perfectly as you can. Next dip a clean soft sponge into clean water, and squeeze it dry ; rub lightly with the sponge (not too wet) on those parts on which the gold is to be laid. Then pass over it, for the first time, with a large pencil of minever, a coat of this tempered bole as liquid as water, and, wherever the gold is
to be used (having first sponged the part with water), spread the bole very evenly, being careful not to stop, so that you may leave no hard edges with your pencil. Then wait a little ; put a little more bole into your porringer, and let the second coat of colour have a little more body. Give it this second coat, and let it again rest a short time ; put more bole into the vase, and give it a third coat in the same manner, making no hard edges. Put more bole still into the vase, and give it a fourth coat, and then you will have finished laying on the bole. Now you may cover over your panel
with a cloth, to keep it as much as you can from dust, sun, and water.
Chap. 132. Another mode of tempering bole on panels, and of gilding.
This tempera may be tempered in a different way. In order to grind the bole, put the whole white of an egg on the porphyry slab, and work the pulverised bole into the albumen. Grind it very fine, and, when it dries between your hands, add to it, while on the stone, a little clean water. When it is well ground, dilute it until it flow with the pencil like clean water, and give the panel four coats, in the manner above directed. Until you have had some little practice, you will find this a better plan than that first described. Cover your picture, and keep it well from dust, as I have told you
before.
Chap. 133. How to gild with verde terra on panels. You may also adopt the same process as that used by the ancients, namely, to stretch linen over the panel before you lay on the ground (1), and then put on gold with verde terra, grinding the verde terra in either of the before-mentioned temperas.
Chap. 134. How to gild panels.
When the weather becomes damp and cloudy, and you wish to lay on any gold, place your panel flat on two trussels. Sweep it well with a feather, and, with a raffietto, pass very lightly over the ground of bole, and if you find any knots or roughness remove them. Burnish the bole very carefully with a piece of coarse linen. If you afterwards burnish it with a tooth, it cannot look otherwise than well.
When you have thus cleaned and burnished it, put into a glass nearly full of clean water a little of the white of egg tempera; if it be quite fresh so much the better. Mix it thoroughly with the water. Take a large pencil of minever, made, as I have previously taught you, of the hairs of the tip of the tail. Take up your fine gold with a pair of small pincers, lay it on a square piece of card larger than the piece of gold, and turned up at each corner, which you are to hold in your left hand, and, with the pencil which you hold in your right hand, wet the bole sufficiently to hold the piece of gold you have in your hand. Wet the bole equally, that there may not be more water on one part than on another ; then let the gold slip off the card, taking care not to wet the card. Now, as soon as the gold has touched the wet part, withdraw the card quickly and suddenly; and if you perceive that the gold does not adhere to the panel, press it down as gently as you can with a piece of clean cotton, and in this manner gild the other parts of the panel ; and when you wet it, preparatory to laying on the second piece of gold, be careful that the pencil does not go so near the first
piece as to make it wet; and let the two pieces join, first breathing on it, that the gold may adhere where you wish it to unite with the other piece. When you have laid on three pieces, pass the cotton again over the first piece, and see whether any part requires mending. Provide a cushion as large as a brick, made of a smooth piece of board, covered with soft leather, very clean and not greasy, of the same kind as that of which boots are made. Stretch it very evenly, and fill the space between the wood and the leather with shreds of cloth ; spread a piece of gold evenly on this cushion, and with a knife cut the gold into pieces as you want it, to make the necessary repairs. Wet the parts to be repaired with a minever pencil, and then, wetting the handle of the pencil
with your lips, the piece of gold will adhere to it sufficiently to enable you to apply it on the part to be mended. When you have laid as much gold on the level surface as you can burnish in one day (for which I shall give you directions when you have to gild cornices and foliage), be careful to collect the small pieces of gold, as those masters do who are economical, so that you may save the gold as much as you can, being sparing of it, and always covering the gold you have laid on with a clean handkerchief.
Chap. 135. What stones are proper for burnishing gold.
When you mean to burnish gold you must procure a stone called lapis amatisto, which I will shew you how to prepare. If you have not this stone, sapphires, emeralds, balas rubies, topases, rubies, and granite, are still better for those who can afford the expense, and the finer the stone the better it is for the purpose. The teeth of dogs, lions, wolves, cats, leopards, and generally of all carnivorous animals, are equally good.
Chap. 136. How to prepare stones for burnishing.
Procure a piece of lapis amatisto ; take care to select one that is sound and without veins, and which is one entire crystal. Grind it on the grindstone, and make it very smooth and polished, and about the width of two fingers. Then take some of the dust of emeralds, and rub the stone until no inequalities remain. Round off all the corners, and put it into a handle of brass or copper, and let the handle be round and polished, so that the palm of the hand may rest well upon it. Then give it a lustre in the following manner : - Put some charcoal powder upon a porphyry slab, and rub the
stone on it exactly as if you were burnishing with it, and your stone will become firm, dark, and shining as a diamond. You must be careful not to break it, or to let it touch iron ; and when you would burnish gold or silver with it, put it first into your bosom, to get rid of any dampness, which would soil the gold.
Chap. 137. How to burnish gold, and what to do if you cannot burnish it when ready for burnishing.
You must now burnish gold, for the time is come that you should do so. It is true that in winter you may gild whenever you please, during damp and cloudy weather, but not during dry weather. In summer it will take one hour to lay on the gold, another to burnish it; but should the weather be too damp, and, from some cause or other, you are unable to burnish it, keep it in a place where it is ex- posed to heat and air ; but if it be too dry, keep it in a damp place, always covered ; and when you would burnish it, uncover it carefully, for the smallest scratch will blemish it. Put it in a cellar at the foot of the casks, and it will be ready to burnish. But should you be prevented from burnishing it for eight or ten days, or a month, take a very clean handkerchief or a towel, lay it over your gold in the cellar, or wherever it may be ; then take another handkerchief, dip it in clean water, wring and squeeze it very dry ; open it, and spread over the first handkerchief that you laid over the gold, and the gold will then be in a proper state for burnishing.
Chap. 138. How to burnish gold, especially when laid on even surfaces.
Take your picture, or any thing on which you have laid gold. Place it level upon trestles, or on a bench. Take your burnisher, rub it on your breast, or on any part of your clothes that is not greasy. Warm it well ; then try whether the gold be fit for burnishing, by feeling it carefully. If you feel no powder under the stone, as you would feel powder between your teeth, sweep the gold with a minever's tail. Then burnish it gradually, first on one side and then, on the other, with the stone; and if the scratching of the stone should break the surface of the gold (which should be as
smooth as a looking-glass), take a piece of gold, and put it on the defective part, first breathing on it, and immediately burnish with the stone. And if it should happen that the surface of the gold be disturbed, so that you do not succeed well in burnishing it, you may remedy it in the manner I have just described ; and, if you can afford the expense, you will add materially to the perfection of your work, and to your own honour, if you gild in this manner the whole of your ground (1). When it is properly burnished, the gold will appear brown, from its own brightness.
Chap. 139. What gold, and of what thickness, is proper to be used for burnishing and mordants.
You should know that the gold proper to be laid on flat surfaces is that of which 100 leaves only are made from the ducat, and not that from which they make 145 pieces, because the gold for gilding flat surfaces requires to be dead gold (1). And if you would know good gold when you see it, purchase it of those persons who are good goldbeaters ; and look at the gold, if it appear dull, like parchment (carta di cavretto), then consider it good. Cornices and foliage require thinner gold ; and for the delicate fringes and ornaments laid on with mordants, the gold should be very thin indeed.
Chap. 140. How to form glories (volgere le diademe), shade the gold, and draw the outlines of the figures.
When you have burnished and completed your picture, you must take the compasses and turn the circles for the glories or crowns. Engrave (granare) them with lines and fringes on the edges, adorn them with stamped and sparkling ornaments, and, if there be foliage, mark the veins in it, and shade all with strokes (granare). Practice is necessary in this branch of the art. When you have thus formed the glories and ornaments, put into a glazed vessel a little biacca (white lead), well ground with some thin glue; and, with a small minever pencil, cover and mark over the outlines of the figures on the ground, as you find them marked out by the lines which you scratched with the needle, before you put on the bole. Again, if you would dispense with the biacca and
pencil, scrape away the gold from the outlines of the figures, and this will be the best plan.
Chap. 141 (1). How to represent a cloth of gold, or blacky or green, or of any colour you please, on a ground of gold.
Before you begin to colour, I should like to shew you how to make a cloth of gold. If you would have a mantle, or a woman's petticoat, or a little cushion, of cloth of gold, put on the gold-leaf with bole, and scratch the folds of the drapery in the manner I have formerly shewn you. Then, if you wish to make a red drapery, lay a flat tint of cinnabar upon the burnished gold. For the shading, use lake ; for the lights, minium (red lead), all tempered with the yolk of an egg y without disturbing the surface or touching it too many times. Let it dry, and go over it at least twice. In the same
manner you may make green or black draperies, if you please.
But if you would make a beautiful drapery of ultramarine blue, first lay a flat tint on the gold of biacca, tempered with the yolk of an egg. When it is dry, temper your ultramarine with a little glue, and a little yolk of egg, perhaps two drops. Pass it over the white two or three times, and let it dry. Then, according to the drapery you intend to paint, prepare your powders, by putting them into pieces of linen ; make your design on paper, and then prick the design on the paper with fine needles, holding a piece of linen under the card ; or you may prick the holes upon a board of poplar or lime, which is better than the cloth. When the holes are pricked, have your powders ready, according to the drapery which is to be powdered (spolverare). If the drapery be white, powder
it with the powder of charcoal, tied up in a piece of linen. If the drapery be black, powder it with biacca, tied up in a piece of linen ; and sic de singulis make your (paper) models
so that they may do for either side (2).
Chap. 142. How to draw, to scrape vp (grattare), and engrave (granare) (1) a drapery of gold or silver.
Having powdered your drapery, and procured a stiletto of birch or any strong wood, or bone, pointed like a proper stile for drawing at one end, and flat at the other (2), for scraping up (grattare), draw all the outlines of your drapery with the point of the stile, and, with the other end of it, scrape and scratch up the colour, so that the brilliancy of the gold may appear, but so as not to disturb the gold, and you may scrape up whatever you please, whether the ground or the pattern drawn on it (allacciato) (3) ; and whatever you uncover, you must afterwards engrave (grana) with the rosetta. And if, in certain parts, you cannot use the rosetta, you must use an iron point only, like a stile for drawing, and in this manner you must begin to learn to make gold draperies. If you
would make draperies of silver, you must proceed exactly in the same manner as you do in making gold draperies. I also recommend you, if you teach boys or children to gild, to let
them begin by laying on silver, until they have acquired some practice, because silver is less expensive than gold.
Chap. 143. How to make rich draperies of gold, or silver, or ultramarine blue, or of tin, gilded and laid on walls.
1. Again, if you wish to make a rich drapery of gold, you must ornament with foliage in relief, and attach precious stones to the drapery you intend to paint ; then cover it with fine gold, and engrave (granare), and burnish it.
2. Ad idem. Cover the whole ground of the drapery with gold, burnish it, draw the drapery or other subjects on it. Then grain the ground, and afterwards the ornamental parts (lacci, cioè i lavori disegnati).
3. Ad idem. Gild the ground of the drapery, burnish it, and grain it in relief.
4. Ad idem. Gild the ground of the drapery, draw what patterns you please, lay on a flat tint of verdigris and oil (1),
shade every fold twice, and then pass the colour evenly over the ground, and over the pattern drawn on it also.
5. Ad idem. Make the drapery of silver, draw your drapery when you have burnished it (for this you must always do), cover the whole ground of the drapery, or the pattern on it, with cinnabar, tempered with the yolk of an egg. Then, with fine lake, mixed with oil, go once or twice over the whole work as well as over the figures drawn on it.
6. Ad idem. If you would make a beautiful drapery of ultramarine, ground your drapery with burnished silver ; draw your outlines ; paint either the ground (campi) or the figures drawn on it (lacci) with ultramarine, tempered with glue. Then spread the colour equally over the whole ground (campi), and over the patterns also (lacci), and it will look like a velvet
drapery.
7. Ad idem. Lay on the ground. Draw the pattern of whatever colour you please, and shade it. Then take a fine minever pencil and the mordants. When you have powdered (spolverato) the draperies and the pattern on it (lacci) according to your intention, apply the mordants as I shall hereafter direct you. And with these mordants you may lay on gold
or silver, and they will make beautiful draperies, if you rub and burnish them with cotton.
8. Ad idem. Having painted your drapery any colour you please, as I have before directed you, if you wish it to be a changeable drapery, work upon the gold with any colour you please, mixed with oil, to vary the colour of the drapery.
9. Ad idem. On walls make the ground of the drapery of gilded tin, cover it with any colour you please, powder it, paint a pattern on it, and scratch the drapery with the wooden stile, temper the colours with the yolk of an egg, and it will be a very good drapery for walls ; but you may use mordants as well on walls as on pictures.
Chap. 144. How to imitate velvet or linen on walls, and also silks on walls or pictures.
If you would imitate velvet, paint the drapery of any colour you please, tempering your colour with the yolk of I egg. Make the down on the velvet with a pencil of minever : with colour tempered with oil. Imitate the pile of the velvet. And in this manner you may imitate red, black, or any other coloured velvet, tempering your colours as before.
Sometimes it is necessary to shew on a wall the wrong side of a garment or drapery which appears to be made of linen. And to imitate this, when you have laid on the mortar, smoothed and coloured it (except what you are now going to do), provide a small stick, and then sprinkling water with the pencil on the part, move it round with the stick. The lime will become rough and ill polished. Let it remain so. Colour it as it is without being smoothed, and it will appear like real linen.
Ad idem. If you would make a silk' drapery either on pictures or on walls, lay on the ground with cinnabar, and over that minium; use dark and light sinopia, or cinnabar, and giallorino on walls ; and on pictures, orpiment, or green, or any colour you please. Lay the ground dark, and finish it with the light colour.
Ad idem. On walls in fresco. Lay on a ground of indigo, and finish with indigo and bianco sangiovanni mixed together. And if you would use these colours on pictures or in heraldic painting, mix indigo with biacca, tempered with glue ; and in this manner you may make many kinds of drapery, according to your abilities and inclination (1).
Chap. 145. How to colour pictures, and to temper the colours, I think that with the instructions I have given you, combined with practice, your good understanding will enable you to teach yourself to paint skilfully many kinds of drapery. And now, by the grace of God, I should like to teach you to colour pictures (1). You must know that painting pictures is the proper employment of a gentleman ; and that with velvet on his back, he may paint what he pleases. It is true that pictures are painted in the same manner as paintings in fresco, with three exceptions (2). One is, that you must always paint the draperies and buildings before the faces.
The second is, that you must temper your colours properly with yolk of egg, always putting as much of the yolk as of the colours which you would temper with it. The third, that the colours must be ground very fine, like water (that is, to an impalpable powder). And in order to give you pleasure, I will begin by describing the painting of a drapery of lake, in the same manner as that I taught you in fresco painting, namely, to leave the first gradation of pure colour, and take two parts of lake and one of biacca. And of this, when tempered, make three gradations, but little varying from
each other; temper them well, and make them lighter with biacca, finely ground. Then take your panel before you, and always keep it covered with a cloth to preserve the gold and the ground from being soiled by the dust ; likewise wash your hands very clean. Then take a pencil of minever without a point, and begin to lay on the dark colour, and make out the shadows in what should be the dark part of the figure. Then in the usual manner take the middle tint, and paint the backs and relievos of the dark folds, and advance with the same towards the shades of the parte in relief, towards the light part of the figure. Then with the lightest colour paint the relievos and backs of the light part ; and in this manner return to the first dark folds of the drapery with the dark
colour. And thus, as you have begun, go many times over with these colours, painting and uniting them skilfully, and softening them tenderly. And now it is time to leave your work and to rest yourself for a short space, and then return to the work you have in hand. You should always take pleasure in your work. When you have covered the ground properly with these three gradations of colour, take the lightest, and prepare another still lighter, always washing the former colours from the pencil. Make another colour still lighter than this, and let them vary but little from each
other. Then touch with pure white, tempered as above, on the high lights ; and thus paint the shades one after the other, in regular gradation, until they reach the deepest shades: of these you are to make two gradations, and put them in different vases that you may not mistake one for the other. And in this manner you may paint drapery of any colour you please, either red, or white, or yellow, or green. But if you would make a beautiful purple (bisso) colour (3), take fine lake and the best ultramarine blue, finely ground, and of this mixture, with biacca, properly tempered, make
your gradations of colour. If you would make a light blue colour, add white (biacca), and paint it in the manner above described.
Chap. 146. How to paint draperies of blue, gold, or purple.
If you would make a blue drapery, neither too light nor too dark, take several shades of ultramarine, of which there are many, one lighter than the other. Colour them according to the lights and shades of the figure, in the manner I have shewn you. And you may paint on walls in the same manner in secco. And if you cannot afford the expense of using ultramarine, you may use azzurro della magna (German or cobalt blue) ; or if you choose to make the drapery of gold, you may do so, putting a little purple (bisso) both on the shades and on the lights, touching lightly on the gold, and so making out the folds. These draperies will please you much, particularly in the draperies in which you paint God (1). If you would clothe our Lady in a purple drapery, paint the drapery white, and shade it with a very light purple but little removed from white ; or make the drapery of fine gold, and shade it with a little dark purple. This will be a beautiful drapery.
Chap. 147. How to colour faces, hands, feet, and flesh generally.
Having drawn and coloured draperies, trees, buildings, and mountains, you should next colour flesh, which you should begin in the following manner. With a little verde terra and biacca tempered well together, go twice over the face, hands, feet, and all the naked parts. But this first tint of colour (cataletto) must, when painting the faces of young persons with fresh complexions, be tempered with the yolk of a town-laid egg ; because high-coloured yolks of eggs, laid by hens fed in the country, are only fit to colour faces of old and dark persons. Now bear in mind, that when paint- ing on walls you made your rosy tints (rossette) with cinabrese ; but when painting pictures, you must use cinnabar ; and the first rosy tints must not consist of pure cinnabar, but you
must add a little white (biacca) to it, and also to the verdaccio with which you first shade it. You must prepare, as you did in painting on walls, three gradations of flesh-colour, one lighter than the other, laying every tint in its right place on the proper part of the face, taking care not to cover over the whole of the verdaccio, but shading partially on it with the darkest flesh-colour (which must be very liquid), and softening off the colour in the tenderest manner. Pictures require to be covered with more coats of colour than walls, yet so that the green tint under the flesh-colour
should just be visible through it. When you have painted your flesh-colours, and the face begins to look well, make a flesh-tint still lighter, and paint the prominent parts of the face, putting on the lights in the most delicate manner, until you touch the highest lights over the eyebrows, and on the tip of the nose, with a little pure white. Paint the outlines of the upper eyelids with black, also the lashes and the nostrils. Then take a little dark sinopia with a little black, and make the outlines of the nose, eyes, eyebrows, hair, hands, and feet, and generally of every part, as I directed
you when painting on walls, always tempering the colours with the yolk of an egg.
Chap. 148. How to colour a dead man, his hair and beard.
Now we shall speak of colouring a dead man, - that is to say, his face, his body, or any naked part that may be visible, either on pictures or walls; except that on walls you need not first lay a tint of verde terra. If it be laid on the half-tints, between the lights and shades, that will be sufficient. But for pictures you must lay it on in the mode I have directed for colouring living faces, and also shade it in the same manner with verdaccio. You must use no rosy tints (rossette), because dead persons have no colour; but add a little light ochre to your three gradations of flesh-colour
with white, and temper in the usual manner, laying each tint in its proper place, and softening them into each other as well on the face as on the body. And in the same manner, when you have nearly covered your ground, make the lightest flesh-tint still lighter, reducing it to pure white, as you did when painting the face of a living person. Then mark the outlines with dark sinopia, mixed with a little black, which is called sanguine; and in the same manner the hair (but so that it shall appear to be that of a dead person), with several shades of verdaccio. I have shewn you how to paint several kinds of beards on walls, these you may adopt on pictures; and when you have to paint the bones of Christians or other rational creatures, make them of the flesh-colour incarnazioni), as I have above directed you.
Chap. 149. How to paint a wounded person.
Having to paint a wounded person, you must lay a tint of pure cinnabar wherever the blood is to appear. Then glaze and shade this and the drops of blood with fine lake, tempered in the usual manner.
Chap. 150. How to colour water, or a river, with or without fish, on walls or on pictures.
When you would paint a river or any other water, either with or without fish, on walls, or on pictures, - for walls, take the same verdaccio with which you shaded faces on the lime (calcina), draw the fish, and shade them with the verdaccio; but I must inform you that fish, and irrational animals generally, have their dark parts upwards, and their light parts beneath. When you have finished shading with the verdaccio, whiten them beneath with bianco sangiovanni on walls, on pictures with biacca, and then pass some touches of the same verdaccio over the fish and the water. If you
would make a variety in your fish, let some have spines on their backs. In secco and on pictures lay a tint of verdigris, ground in oil, over the water ; or if you do not choose to use oil, take verde terra, or verde azzurro, and cover every part equally, not making the tint so dark but that you may see the fish and waves of the water. And if it be required to put the lights on the water, use bianco on walls, and tempered biacca on pictures. This is sufficient information to you on colouring. We shall now proceed to the art of embellishing. But we must first speak of mordants.
Chap. 151. How to make good mordants to put on gold draperies and ornaments.
A perfect mordant for walls, pictures, glass, iron, and every other thing, may be as follows (I). With your oil (either boiled on the fire, or baked in the sun, in the manner before directed) grind a little biacca and verdigris ; and when you have made it flow like water, add a little varnish, and boil all together for a short time. Take a glazed vessel, pour it in, and let it stand. When you use it either for draperies or ornaments, put a little into a vase. Then make a pencil of minever, very firm and pointed, introduce it into the quill of a dove or a hen, and let the point project but
very little. Dip the tip only into the mordant, and make your ornaments and fringes ; and do not load the pencil too much, because your strokes should, when well done, be as fine as hairs. Then wait until the next day. Try it with the ring-finger (2) of the right hand. If it be then a little tacky, take the pincers, cut off half a piece of fine gold, or common gold, or silver (though the last is not durable), and lay it on the mordant. Press it with cotton. Then, with the same finger, raise the piece of gold, and lay it on the mordant where you find none. Do not use any other finger of the hand, because this is most convenient ; and let your hands be always clean ; and I must tell you, that gold which is put on with mordants, especially in very fine works, should be the thinnest beaten gold that can be procured, and that if it be thick, you cannot use it so well, unless the whole ground is to be covered with it. If you like, you may let it remain another day. Then take a feather and brush it off; and if you choose to preserve the gold you brush off, do so, it will be useful to goldsmiths, or in other works. Then burnish your gold fringes with clean and new cotton.
Chap. 152. How to temper this mordant so as to put the gold on more quickly.
If you wish to keep the above-mentioned mordant for eight days, do not put any verdigris with it before you lay on the gold. If you wish to keep it for four days, put a little verdigris. If you wish to keep it only from one day to another, put to it plenty of verdigris and a little bole. And if any one blame you for using the verdigris on account of its contaminating the gold, tell them that I have tried it, and that it does not injure the gold.
Chap. 153. How to make another mordant with garlic, and when it is proper to use it.
Another mordant may be made in this manner. Take two or three clean cloves of garlic ; pound them in a mortar. Strain them through linen two or three times ; grind up as fine as possible a little biacca and bole with the juice ; collect it, and put it into a vase, cover it up, and preserve it ; the older it is the better. Do not choose young cloves of garlic, but those about half grown. And when you would use this mordant, put a little of it into a glazed pipkin, with a little urine, and stir it well with a skewer until it become sufficiently liquid to flow with the pencil. With this mordant you may lay on gold in the course of half an hour. And it has this property, that you may lay the gold on it in half an hour, an hour, a day, a week, a month, a year, or any time you please. Keep it well covered, and free from dust. This mordant is not proof against water or the damp of churches when laid upon bricks ; but it may be used with propriety on pictures, or on iron, or on any thing which is to be afterwards varnished with liquid varnish. It will be sufficient for you to know how to make these two different kinds of mordants.
Chap. 164. Of varnishing.
I think I have said enough on the subject of painting on walls in fresco, in secco, and on pictures. But we shall add, by way of supplement to painting and gilding, a few words on miniature-painting on paper. But first, let me shew you how to varnish pictures and other works, except walls.
Chap. 155. How and when to varnish pictures.
You must know that the longer you delay varnishing your picture after it is painted, the better it will be. And I speak truth when I say, that if you delay for several years, or at least for one year, your work will remain much fresher. The reason of this is, that the colouring naturally acquires the same condition as the gold, which shuns a mixture with other metals ; so the colours when mixed with their proper tempera dislike the addition of other mixtures to their own tempera. Varnish is a strong liquor (1), which brings out the colour (e dimostrativo) , will have every thing subservient to it, and destroys every other tempera. And suddenly, as you spread it over the picture, the colours lose their natural strength, and are powerfully acted upon by the varnish, and their own tempera has no longer any effect upon them. It is therefore proper to delay varnishing as long as you can; for if you varnish after the tempera has had the proper effect on the colours (2), they will afterwards become more fresh and beautiful, and the greens will never change (3). Then take liquid and clear varnish, the clearest you can obtain ; place your picture in the sun; wipe it as clean as you can from dust and dirt of every kind. And varnish it when there is no wind, because the dust is subtle and penetrating ; and every time that the wind blows over your picture you will have more difficulty in making it clean. It will be best to varnish it in a green meadow or by the sea-side, that the dust may not injure it. When you have warmed the picture and the varnish also in the sun, place the picture level, and with your hands spread the varnish well over the surface. But be careful not to touch the gold with it, for varnish and other liquors injure it. If you do not choose to spread the varnish with your hand, dip a piece of clean sponge into the varnish, and spread it over the picture in the usual manner. If you wish the varnish to dry without sun, boil it well first, and the picture will be much better for not being too much exposed to the sun.
Chap. 156. How in a short time you can make a picture look as if it had been varnished.
If you would have your picture appear in a short time to have been varnished when it has not really been varnished, take the white of an egg, beat it thoroughly until it form a froth. Let it stand one night to clear itself. Put the clear part into a clean vessel, and spread it with a minever pencil over your work, which will appear as if varnished, and will be durable. This varnish is applicable to detached figures either of wood or stone. In this way you may varnish the faces, hands, and flesh, of such figures generally (1). And this is enough for you to know about varnishing. We will
now speak of painting miniatures on paper.
Chap. 157. How to paint miniatures and put gold on paper.
If you would paint miniatures, in the first place you must draw with a lead-pencil (piombino) figures, foliage, letters, or whatever you please, on paper, - that is to say, in books; fix the outlines of what you have drawn with a pen. Then you must have a kind of plaster (gesso), called asiso (1), made in this manner; namely, a little fine plaster (gesso) and a little biacca - less than the third part is to be of gesso ; then add some sugar of Candia, less in quantity than the biacca ; grind these ingredients perfectly with clean water, scrape them together, and let them dry in the shade. When you wish to put on gold with this mixture, cut off a piece as large as you want, and mix it thoroughly with the white of an egg, well beaten, as I have before directed you. Temper it
with this mixture. Let it dry. Then take your gold, and either breathe on it, or not, as you please, when you put it on. When your gold is laid on, burnish it immediately with your burnisher, and place your paper upon a firm table of good wood, well polished. And you must know that you may write letters with a pen dipped in this size, or lay a ground of it, or whatever you please - it is excellent. But before you lay on the gold, see whether it be necessary to clean, or make the surface even with the point of a knife, lest your pencil should put more on in one place than in another.
Be very careful to avoid this.
Chap. 158. Another way of laying gold on paper.
If you would make another kind of asiso (this is not so good as the other sort, but may be used to lay on grounds of gold, though not to write with), take gesso sottile (see ante, chap. 116), and a third part biacca, a fourth part Armenian bole, with a little sugar. Grind all these well with the white of an egg. Lay on the ground in the usual manner, and let it dry. Then, with the point of a knife,
scrape and clean the gesso. Put the before-mentioned table or stone, very level, under the paper, and burnish it; and should it happen not to be burnished well where you put on the gold, wet the gesso with clean water with a minever pencil, and when it is dry, burnish it.
Chap. 159. Of a colour like gold which is called porporina, and fiow it is made.
I will shew you how to make a colour like gold, which is a good colour for miniature-painters on paper, and also on pictures, if they would use it (but beware of using this colour as you would of fire), it is called porporina (1). Do not let it approach a gold-ground. I warn you, if you were to put it on a ground of gold which reached from hence to Rome, if a piece of quicksilver as large as a grain of millet were to touch the gold-ground, it would be sufficient to spoil it. The best remedy you can possibly have, is, with the point of a knife or a needle to make a scratch on the gold, and to go no further on it. This porporina is made as follows : - Take salt orminiaco (armeniaca), tin, sulphur, and quicksilver, of each equal parts, except that there must be less quicksilver. Put these things in a vessel of iron, copper, or glass, melt the ingredients on the fire, and it is done. Then temper with the white of an egg and gum, and use it as you please. If you make draperies with it, shade with lake, or azure, or purple, always tempering your colours on paper with gum arabic.
Chap. 160. How to grind gold and silver, and how to temper iliem to make foliage and other embellishments, and how to varnish verde terra.
If you would work with gold on pictures, paper, or walls, or on any thing you please (but not lay it on flat, as in grounds of gold), or if you paint trees which should appear like trees of paradise, take pieces of fine gold sufficient for the work you are going to paint or to write, - that is to say, about ten or twenty pieces, put them on the porphyry-slab, and grind them with the well-beaten white of an egg (1), then put the whole into a glazed vessel. Put sufficient tempera to make it flow with the pen or pencil, and you may do any work you please with it. You may also grind it with gum arabic for use on paper ; and if you make leaves of trees, mix with the gold a little green very finely ground for the dark leaves.
And in this manner, mixing the gold with other colours, you may change them at your pleasure. With this kind of gold, silver, or base gold (oro di metà), you may make antique draperies and certain ornaments which are not used by many other painters; yet, if you paint them well, they will increase your reputation. But you must adopt what I teach you with great judgment and skill.
There are some persons who will require you to use greens on pictures and to varnish them. I tell you that it is not the custom, and that verde terra does not require it; but people will please themselves. Now, adopt this method : take parchment-shavings, boil them sufficiently with clean water to form a glue, then with a large minever pencil pass two or three times very lightly over the picture gene- rally, wherever you mean to varnish it. When you have given two coats of the glue, which must be very clean and bright, and which you must strain twice, let your work dry for the space of three or four days. Then you may pass your varnish safely over the whole, and you will find that verde terra will take varnish as well as other colours.
Chap. 161. How, having painted a human face, to wash off and clean away the colours.
Sometimes, in the course of your practice, you will be obliged to paint flesh, especially faces of men and women (1). You may temper your colours with yolk of egg ; or if you desire to make them more brilliant, with oil, or with liquid varnish, which is the most powerful of temperas. But should you wish to remove the colours or tempera from the face, take the yolk of an egg, and rub a little of it at a time on the face with the hand. Then take clean water that has been boiled on bran, and wash the part with it ; then take more of the yolk of egg, and rub it again on. the face ; and again wash it with the warm water. Do this many times until the colour be removed from the face. We will say no more on this subject.
Chap. 162. Why women should abstain from using medicated waters on their skin.
It sometimes happens that young ladies, especially those of Florence, endeavour to heighten their beauty by the application of colours and medicated waters to their skin. But as women who fear God do not make use of these things, and as I do not wish to render myself obnoxious to them, or to incur the displeasure of God and our Lady, I shall say no more on this subject. But I advise you, that if you desire to preserve your complexion for a long period, to wash yourself with water from fountains, rivers, or wells ; and I warn you, that if you use cosmetics, your face will soon become withered, your teeth black, and you will become old before the natural course of time, and be the ugliest object possible. This is quite sufficient to say on this subject.
Chap. 163. Shewing how useful it is to take casts from the life,
I think I have said enough on colouring of all kinds. I will now touch upon another subject, which is very useful in drawing from nature, and similar things (and which contributes greatly to design) ; this is called taking casts (improntare).
Chap. 164. How to take a cast of the face of a man or woman. Would you take a cast of the face of a man or woman, and in any position ? Then adopt this mode. Let a young man, or woman, or an old man, come to you, and let the beard be shaved ; for the hair and beard are difficult to do.
Then with a large minever pencil anoint the face with some oil of roses, or other odoriferous oil, put on the capo, berretta, or cappuccio (1), and provide a band, about a span wide and as long as from one shoulder to the other, surrounding the top of the berretta ; and sew the edge of it round the berretta from one ear to the other. Put into the holes of each ear a piece of cotton, and draw over them one end of the band, which you are to sew to the beginning of the collar ; and give half a turn to the middle of the shoulder, and return to the buttons in front. Do the same to the
other shoulder, then unite the ends of the band. Having done this, place the man or woman flat on a carpet, a desk, or a panel. Provide a hoop of iron, of the width of one or two fingers, with some teeth on the inside, like a saw. Put {his hoop, which is to be two or three fingers longer than the face, round the face of the person; let it be held by your associate, suspended from the face, that it may not touch the face of the person. Take the band, and turn it round and round, putting the end of it, which had not been sewn, into the teeth of the hoop ; and then confine it between the flesh and the hoop, so that the hoop shall be beyond the band, and leave about the width of two fingers or less between the band and the flesh, according to the distance you wish the paste to extend. You will now have to make the cast.
Chap. 165. How to enable a person from whose face a cast is being taken to breathe.
You must get a goldsmith to make two small tubes of brass or silver, which are to be round above and more open at one end than at the other, like a trumpet, each about a span long, and as large round as a finger, made as light as possible. The other end must be made the same shape as the nostril ; but just so much smaller as to enter the nostrils without leaving any vacant space between them. Let a small hole be pierced through the middle of each, and bind them together.
Chap. 166. How to take a cast of the living face in plaster (gesso) ; how to remove and preserve it, and to take a cast from it in metal.
Having done this, and the man or woman still lying down, put these tubes into the nostrils, and let the person hold them himself with the hand. Have ready some gesso bolognese, or volterrano (1), fresh burnt and sifted. Have some cold water near you in a basin, and put some of it quickly upon the plaster. Make haste, for it soon sets, and let it be neither too thick nor too thin ; with a drinking-glass put some of this composition over the face. When you have covered it equally, except the eyes, which you are to cover last, let the mouth and eyes be closed, but not forcibly (for which there is no necessity), but as if in sleep. When you have filled the whole space about a finger's depth, let it rest a short time until it be set ; and remember, that when you are taking a
cast of a person of high rank, such as a lord, a king, a pope, an emperor (2), you should stir into the plaster rose-water as well as cold water; but for other persons it is sufficient to use cold water, from fountains, rivers, or wells, only. Your composition being set and dry, detach it gently with a palette knife, penknife, or scissors, from the band which you sewed round it ; draw the tubes gently from the nose ; let the person rise, and either sit or stand, while you hold the composition which is still on the face with your hands, and gently remove the mask from the face. Put it away, and preserve it carefully.
This process being completed, procure a child's girdle, and put it round the cast, in such a manner that the girdle shall project about the width of two fingers beyond the edge of it With a large minever pencil oil the inside of the cast with any oil you please, and with all possible diligence, lest any accident should happen to it. Wet the plaster as before, and, if you like to add a little pounded brick to it, it will be an improvement to it ; and then, with a glass or porringer, put some of it into the cast, which should be placed upon a bench, so that while you are filling it with the plaster, you may strike with the other hand upon the bench, in order that the plaster may enter equally every part of the cast, as the wax does into a seal, and be free from bubbles.
When the cast is full, let it rest for half a day, or one day at most. Then with a hammer proceed cautiously to break the outside cast, that is, the first form you made, in such a way as not to break the nose or any other part ; and that you may do this the more easily, before you fill it, saw it nearly through in several places on the outside, but do not let your saw pass through it. When you have filled it, you can easily break it with a slight blow from the hammer. In this manner you may obtain the effigy, physiognomy, or cast of any person of rank. And you should know, that when
you have made the first form, you may make a cast of it in copper, brass, bronze, gold, silver, lead, and generally of any metal you please ; nevertheless, you should study under masters who understand the melting and casting of metals.
Chap, 167. How to take a cast of the whole figure of a man or woman, or an animai, and to make a cast from a model in metal.
You must know that the above-mentioned mode is that adopted by the first masters. I must also inform you that you may take a cast of the whole figure, like the naked antique figures, of which so many remain. You must select some naked man or woman, and let the person stand upright in a sort of box or case, which will reach as high as a man's chin, and let the case be joined together at the sides lengthways. Let a very thin copper plate be placed against the shoulders, beginning at the ear, and reaching to the bottom of the case, and bind it with a cord to the naked person, so as not to injure or press into the flesh. Then let the copper plate be fixed above the edge, where the case is joined. Cut four copper plates like this, and join them together, like the
edges of the case. Then grease the naked person, put him directly into the case, mix a large quantity of plaster with cold water, and take care to have an assistant with you ; and while you pour the plaster into the case in front of the man, let the assistant fill the back part at the same time, so that it may be filled to his throat : with regard to the face, you may do that at another time, as I have told you before. Let the plaster rest until it be quite set and dry ; then open the case where it is joined, separate the edges of the case from the copper plates with chisels, and open it as you would a nut, holding on all sides the pieces of the case and of the cast you have made. Withdraw the naked person very gently from it, wash him quickly with clean water, for his flesh will
be as red as a rose. In this manner, when you have filled the surface of the mould, you may make a cast of any metal you please ; but I recommend you to make it of wax, for this reason, that the paste may be broken without injury to the figure, for you may remove it at any time, and make any repairs that you find necessary. You may then join the head to it, and the whole being joined together, you may make a cast of the whole person or of any particular member. You may, for instance, take a cast of an arm, a hand, a foot, a leg, a bird, a beast, or any kind of animal or fish. But the animals must be dead, because they have neither sense nor firmness to stand still.
Chap. 168. How to model from the life, and then take casts in metal.
You may also make a model of a person in this manner : take a quantity either of paste or wax, well stirred and clean, of the consistence of ointment, and very soft ; spread it on a large table, a dinner-table for instance. Set it on the ground ; spread the paste on it to the height of half a braccio. Throw yourself upon it in any attitude you please, either forward or backward, or on one side. And if this paste take the impression well, you must extricate yourself from it dexterously, so as not to disturb it. Then let the mould dry. When dry, you may fill it with lead. Do the other side of
your person (the opposite side to that which you have done) in the same manner. Then join them together, and fill them both with lead or other metal.
Chap. 169. To make casts of small figures in lead, and to multiply plaster-casts.
If you would make casts of small figures in lead or other metal, oil your figures, take impressions in wax, and fill them up with any thing you please. It sometimes happens that on pictures it is necessary to make some relievos, such as heads of men, or lions, or other animals, or small figures. Let the impression that you have made in wax dry ; then oil it well with salad or lamp-oil. Procure fine or coarse plaster, ground up with rather strong glue. Fill the mould with this warm plaster, and let it cool. When cold, separate a little of the plaster from the casts with your knife. Blow very hard upon the divided part (spartito). Take up your figure with your hand, and it is done. And in this manner you may make casts. Preserve them, and remember that they are better made in winter than in summer.
Chap. 170. How to make impressions of coins in wax or paste.
You may, if you please, take impressions of coins in wax or paste. Let them dry, then melt some sulphur, and fill them with it, and they will be done ; and if you would make them of paste only, add to the paste some ground minium, that is to say, some of the dry powder with the paste, and make it of the proper consistence.
Chap. 171. How to take impressions of a seal, or money, with a paste made of ashes.
If you would take very perfect impressions of a seal or ducat, or any other money, adopt this mode, and set great value on it, for it is an excellent method. Take a pipkin half full of clean water, or quite full, if you please. Take half a porringer full of ashes. Throw them into the pipkin, and stir them with the hand. Let the mixture rest a little, and, before the water becomes quite clear, throw it into another pipkin; do this several times, and I recommend you to put in what ashes you want at the first. Then wait until the water be quite clean, and the ashes settled at the bottom. Draw off the water, and dry the ashes in the sun, or as you please. Then add to it salt dissolved in water, and make, as it were, a paste with it (1). Then make impressions of seals, money, small figures, or generally of any thing of which you desire impressions. This done, let the paste dry gradually without fire or sun. You may pour on this paste melted lead, silver, or any metal you please, for the paste is sufficiently tenacious to bear a great weight.
CONCLUSION.
Praying that the most high God, our Lady, St. John, St. Luke the evangelist and painter, St. Eustachius, St. Francis, and St. Anthony of Padua, may give us grace and strength to sustain and bear in peace the cares and labours of this world; and that to those who study this book, they will give grace to study it well and to retain it, so that by the sweat of their brows they may live peaceably, and maintain their families in this world with grace, and finally, in that which is to come, live with glory, for ever and ever. Amen.