When Paul Delaroche, French history painter and neoclassical academic par excellence, first saw a daguerreotype in 1839, he is said to have said: “A partir d’aujourd’hui la peinture est morte. “- From that day on, painting is dead. If this quote is true, it would be a strangely defeatist remark: considering the coarse grain of early black and white photography, one should think that a master like Delaroche hardly felt threatened should have.
In many ways his painting was closer to what we now understand by photorealism than photography itself. His painting “Herodias with the head of John the Baptist”, created four years after the famous sentence, is a prime example of so-called smooth painting. It is planned down to the last detail, has an elaborate layer of color and, above all, shows the smoothing created with the help of a badger hair brush, the so-called distributor, which gives this type of painting its name.
The “Herodias” is a showpiece from the collection of the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. There the painting is currently in the exhibition “Discovered!” to see, and the meticulous work that went into its design is the focus of consideration. The aim of the show is to reveal the material and technical foundations of painting from the late Middle Ages to Impressionism.
Italian Gothic paintings are mostly painted on poplar wood, oak was used north of the Alps
In fact, it is astonishing when one realizes how little attention is otherwise often paid to the technical aspects of their creation when looking at works of art. The art technology and restoration department of the museum has used all the technical means at its disposal – including spectral analysis, infrared, UV and X-ray fluoroscopy of the layers of paint – to show what the substance of the 80 works on display, 90 percent of which come from its own holdings and how much the prerequisites for their manufacture help determine the aesthetic result.
The provenance of a medieval panel painting can – regardless of the painting style and motif – be assigned fairly precisely on the basis of the carrier material. Italian Gothic paintings are mostly painted on poplar wood, while oak is mainly used north of the Alps. The reason is simple: you took the woods that grew locally. Sometimes the artists used walnut wood for small formats, the lighter softwood for painted doors or ceiling panels. Their provision was reserved for professional table makers who made sure that the artists received sapwood-free, flawless and well-stored goods.
The infrared reflectography of the picture “Lamentation of Christ” (Maarten van Heemskerck, 1530) makes almost chaotic signatures with chalk and charcoal visible.
(Photo: RBA Cologne)
Adam Elsheimer’s “Stoning of Saint Stephen” (around 1600) shows how much the carrier material influences the color brilliance and durability. It was painted with oil on copper, is almost as colorful as enamel and, because metal does not work, has no craquelure, i.e. no cracks in the paint. The general switch to canvas, a much lighter material that is more suitable for large formats, took place in the early 16th century, although there are already more than a hundred paintings on canvas before 1500.
The priming proves to be a particularly important and fascinating step. The plaster of paris or chalk mixture was often applied with a priming knife, like butter on a slice of bread. A replica of this device can be seen in Cologne; it is based on a drawing in the so-called Mayerne manuscript, an extremely important source for understanding historical artistic techniques. Today in the holdings of the British Library, it was created between 1620 and 1646 by Sir Theodore de Mayerne, personal physician to the English kings James I and Charles I, and contains, among other things, notes on the production of pigments, oil paints and varnishes, and precisely on the Preparation and priming of canvases.
The painting “The Port of Nice” by Berthe Morisot, a pastel-delicate, blue scene, becomes a brightly colored picture in the transmitted light.
(Photo: Department of Art Technology and Restoration in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museu, RBA Cologne)
The primer can save the artist some work. A fine example is “The Port of Nice” by Berthe Morisot (1881/82). The French impressionist, as can be proven with a so-called transmitted light photograph, used the cream-colored pre-priming of the canvas by simply leaving areas free. So many of the lighter spots and light reflections in the harbor view are cutouts. This accelerated the painting process, Morisot most likely created the picture with sparse preliminary drawings in one sitting.
What a quantum leap when oil replaced other color mixtures
Using infrared reflectography, one can make signatures visible, which, at least until the 19th century, always represented an indispensable work step. The elaboration and accuracy varies considerably here, and the finished picture often differs greatly from the preliminary drawing. An infrared transillumination of the “Lamentation of Christ” by the Dutch artist Maarten van Heemskerck (1530), for example, reveals an almost chaotic-looking design in which the arms change position several times and one leg is only indicated with thick hatching. In total, this preliminary drawing went through no less than six stages.
The curators of the exhibition have provided showcases for the images and their technical analyzes, in which many of the materials can be seen in their raw form. It also shows what a quantum leap it represented when oil prevailed over other colors such as egg tempera and then again how much the invention of the metal tube made it easier to use oil. Oil painting also favors an emphasis on virtuosity, which does not hide the craftsmanship of the work, on the contrary: Bernardo Strozzi does not expose the disciple’s sleeve in detail in his “Denial of Petri” (1633/35), but sets it up from a whirl of whiteness Wrinkles and streaks together. The bristle brush as a tool and its effortless handling in the wet-on-wet technique is confidently brought to the fore by Strozzi.
With “Discovered!” In a way, it has found its way back to one of the most prestigious commissions from museums: the show succeeds in not only dismissing the visitor better informed by means of concentrated specialist knowledge and clever, accessible presentation, but possibly also with even more appreciation for the art he has just viewed .
“Discovered! Painting techniques from Martini to Monet” in the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne, until February 13, 2022, catalog 30 euros