Volltext Seite (XML)
the high lights for the close. 1 These strata were such that each should be lighter in colour, yet fuller in body than the last; and therefore the final and most substantial one was the high light which occupied the least space in the picture. Care was taken in laying the second not to lose all trace of the first, but to let its value appear through the superposed colour. This, in a few words, was the technic of the Van Eycks. It created flesh-tints merging from thin to full body in proportion as the parts fell out of shadow, receiving light from without, and transparency from within. The conse quence was a somewhat unbroken surface, with insuffi cient half-tone; but this disadvantage was corrected ex. gr. in the Madonna of the Vatican, by strengthening the darkest spots with a final scumble which remained higher on the panel than the rest; and the result was a clear and lucid enamel betraying less of the secrets of mani pulation than the painting of the earlier innovators. To complete a picture by these means was a matter of cal culation and certainty of hand, an undertaking in which a false step involved absolute failure. But the method was perfectly familiar to Perugino, and was invariably used during his transition from this period to the more advanced one in which he carried out the altarpiece of the National Gallery. In draperies, the processes varied. All cold mixtures were put in first with warm substrata, covered over like the flesh-tints, and glazed. 2 Vice versa, warm or glowing colours were rubbed on with cold undertones; and this method was followed with un wavering consistency even in changing hues. Reds and 1 Vasari alludes, no doubt, to this when he says (speaking of the crackling of the surface in Perugi- no’s pictures at the Gesuati): “cio avviene perche quando si lavora il primo colore che si pone sopra la inestica (perciocchfe tre mani di colori si danno, l’un’ sopra l’altro) non 6 ben secco, onde poi col tem po, nello secarsi tirano per la gros- sezza loro, e vengono ad aver for- za di fare que’ crepati”. Vasari, VI. 37. 2 The use of verdigris or bitu men in glazes for drapery has caused many of those parts in Pe- rugino’s pictures to blacken.
