EASTLAKE’S HISTORY OF OIL-PAINTING 267

of being nearly coeval with that of Theophilus. And in addition to these MSS., Mr. Eastlake has examined the records of Ely and Westminster, which are full of references to decorative operations. From these sources it is not only demonstrated that oil-painting, at least in the broadest sense (striking colours mixed with oil on surfaces of wood or stone), was perfectly common both in Italy and England in the 12th, 13th, and 14th centuries, but every step of the process is determinable. Stone surfaces were primed with white lead mixed with linseed oil, applied in successive coats, and carefully smoothed when dry. Wood was planed smooth (or, for delicate work, covered with leather of horseskin or parchment), then coated with a mixture of white lead, wax, and pulverized tile, on which the oil and lead priming was laid. In the successive application of the coats of this priming, the painter is warned by Eraclius of the danger of letting the superimposed coat be more oily than that beneath, the shrivelling of the surface being a necessary consequence.

“The observation respecting the cause, or one of the causes, of a wrinkled and shrivelled surface, is not unimportant. Oil, or an oil varnish, used in abundance with the colours over a perfectly dry preparation, will produce this appearance: the employment of an oil varnish is even supposed to be detected by it. ... As regards the effect itself, the best painters have not been careful to avoid it. Parts of Titian’s St. Sebastian (now in the Gallery of the Vatican) are shrivelled; the Giorgione in the Louvre is so; the drapery of the figure of Christ in the Duke of Wellington’s Correggio¹ exhibits the same appearance; a Madonna and Child by Reynolds, at Petworth, is in a similar state, as are also parts of some pictures by Greuze. It is the reverse of a cracked surface, and is unquestionably the less evil of the two.”-Eastlake, pp. 36-38.

14. On the white surface thus prepared, the colours, ground finely with linseed oil, were applied, according to the advice of Theophilus, in not less than three successive coats, and finally protected with amber or sandarach varnish: each coat of colour being carefully dried by the aid of heat

¹ [This is the picture of “Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane,” of which there is a copy in the National Gallery (No. 76).]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]