Rembrandt's mysterious impastoes

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Rembrandt's mysterious impastoes
Has anyone out there experimented in the creation of an impasto white that resembles Rembrandt's? Recent research has suggested that Rembrandt although not using wax, as Reynolds had believed, may have added heat thickened oils, chalk, crushed glass, or even egg to his whites to create the thick putty-like substance we see in his late paintings. Jerry Farnsworth in a book on portrait painting written in the 1940s includes a recipe for Rembrandt's white consisting of lead white and chalk (as in old fashioned putty) mixed with marine spar varnish (yuck!) which he claimed resembled Rembrandt's white. The trouble with this is that this varnish is extremely dark and becomes more so with time, but I think he may have been on the right trail. Rembrandt certainly may have mixed certain inorganic additives such as chalk and crushed glass to his white to bulk it up and, as Taubes observed, he most certainly must have used a heat thickened oil of some sort which may have had a dark color. I have gotten similar heavy
impastoes by mixing traditional putty with heavily cooked oil (without metallic driers) with Oleopasto which I believe is a paste consisting of alkyd and silica (as in crushed glass). Anyone tried any other recipes?
Re: Rembrandt's mysterious impastoes C. Maltais Posted at: 08/28/00 (0)
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Re: Rembrandt's mysterious impastoes Mr. Hordur Arinbjarnar