EASTLAKE’S HISTORY OF OIL-PAINTING 269

description of a drying oil in the modern sense, occurs, white lead and lime being added, and the oil thickened by exposure to the sun, as was the universal practice in Italy.

15. Such was the system of oil-painting known before the time of Van Eyck; but it remains a question in what kind of works and with what degree of refinement this system had been applied. The passages in Eraclius refer only to ornamental work, imitations of marble, etc.; and although, in the records of Ely cathedral, the words “pro ymaginibus super columnas depingendis”¹ may perhaps be understood as referring to paintings of figures, the applications of oil, which are distinctly determinable from these and other English documents, are merely decorative; and “the large supplies of it which appear in the Westminster and Ely records indicate the coarseness of the operations for which it was required.”² Theophilus, indeed, mentions tints for faces-mixturas vultuum;³ but it is to be remarked that Theophilus painted with a liquid oil, the drying of which in the sun he expressly says “in ymaginibus et aliis picturis diuturnum et tædiosum nimis est.” The oil generally employed was thickened to the consistence of a varnish. Cennini⁴ recommends that it be kept in the sun until reduced one half; and in the Paris copy of Eraclius we are told that “the longer the oil remains in the sun the better it will be.” Such a vehicle entirely precluded delicacy of execution.

“Paintings entirely executed with the thickened vehicle, at a time when art was in the very lowest state, and when its votaries were ill qualified to contend with unnecessary difficulties, must have been of the commonest description. Armorial bearings, patterns, and similar works of mechanical decoration, were perhaps as much as could be attempted.

“Notwithstanding the general reference to flesh-painting,’e così fa dello

¹ [This record, dated 1325, is given by Eastlake at p. 54.]

² [Eastlake, p. 60.]

³ [Ibid., p. 56.]

⁴ [Cennino Cennini’s Treatise on Painting, written in 1437, and first published in Italian in 1821; translated into English and edited by Mrs. Merrifield in 1844; translated again, with notes, by C. J. Herringham, 1899. For his use of the term Vernice liquida, see Eastlake, p. 225.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]