260 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

10. The modes of bleaching and thickening oil in the sun, as well as the siccative power of metallic oxides, were known to the classical writers, and evidence exists of the careful study of Galen, Dioscorides, and others by the painters of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries: the loss (recorded by Vasari) of Antonio Veneziano¹ to the arts, “per che studio in Dioscoride le cose dell’ erbe,” is a remarkable instance of its less fortunate results. Still, the immixture of solid colour with the oil, which had been commonly used as a varnish for tempera paintings and gilt surfaces, was hitherto unsuggested; and no distinct notice seems to occur of the first occasion of this important step, though in the twelfth century, as above stated, the process is described as frequent both in Italy and England. Mr. Eastlake’s instances have been selected, for the most part, from four treatises, two of which, though in an imperfect form, have long been known to the public; the third, translated by Mrs. Merrifield, is in course of publication;² the fourth, Tractatus de Coloribus illuminatorum, is of less importance.

Respecting the dates of the first two, those of Eraclius and Theophilus, some difference of opinion exists between Mr. Eastlake and their respective editors. The former MS. was published by Raspe,* who inclines to the opinion of its

* A Critical Essay on Oil-Painting, London, 1781.

¹ [This painter flourished in the latter half of the fourteenth century. After describing his works, in the Campo Santo at Pisa, Vasari continues: “Our artist had meanwhile been always strongly disposed to the study of natural history, and that of the science of botany in particular, which he had studied in Dioscorides. He took especial pleasure in investigating the nature and properties of plants, and finally abandoning the practice of painting, he betook himself to the distillation of simples, applying himself earnestly to the acquirement of all particulars respecting them. Thus, from a painter Antonio became a physician” (Bohn’s ed., 1855, i. 250).]

² [(1) The treatise of Eraclius is entitled De Coloribus et Artibus Romanorum; (2) that of Theophilus is described at the head of this Review (above, p. 251); (3) Mrs. Anna Philadelphia Merrifield’s work, published in 2 vols., in 1849, brought together all the original documents on the subject; it was entitled Original Treatises dating from the XIIth to XVIIIth Centuries on the Arts of Painting in Oil, Miniature, Mosaic, and on Glass. (4) The Tractatus de Coloribus Illuminatorum is contained in a British Museum MS. (Sloane, No. 1754); it is of the fourteenth century (see Eastlake, p. 44).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]