Re: Van Eyck's Secret Technique!!! ART  

Posted by Will Travel on February 26, 19100 at 19:02:56:

In Reply to: Re: Van Eyck's Secret Technique!!! posted by sgtaylor on February 24, 19100 at 12:45:17:

-I was completely unaware of the tinted ground.

Carel van Mander, who was like a Flemish version of Vasari, wrote in 1604 about a "primuersel," or flesh-colored priming characteristic of early Netherlandish oil painting. I examined one of van Mander's paintings at the local museum this morning and could see clearly that he was still using a flesh-colored priming. Of course that particular painting is much later than a Van Eyck and the technique is much more direct, with the ground being more evident in the buildings than in the flesh.
I think the key to a more van Eyckian technique is a priming that's transparent enough to allow the white of the gesso to reflect through.

: You wouldn't happen to have the name of that publication, would you?

Most of the information I have on van Eyck's technique is from "Giotto to Durer: Early Renaissance Painting in the National Gallery." I got if off the shelf at my local Borders book store. I just picked up the sequel, "Durer to Veronese: Sixteenth-Century Painting in the National Gallery," which was just recently published. These are great sources of technical information (nicely illustrated too). The LNG also publishes a perodical technical bulletin.
Regarding van Eyck's technique, I compared notes with a painter I admire who is very well-versed in current van Eyck scholarship including some articles written in Flemish. He didn't have much to add except that the restoration of the Ghent altarpiece revealed the presence of oil + an unknown substance. He is a very avid proponent of copal based on his own paintin experience, and goes as far as to speculate that the van Eycks may have used it. There is no historical evidence to support this; it just seems to work for him. Rob Howard, also an excellent painter as well as an expert on materials, recommends copal medium and Canada Balsam, which from what I know, is like a clearer version of the Venetian turpentine which was available in van Eyck's day. Stand oil is also recommended by many for this technique.
The LNG states that there is no evidence for the use of diluents, such as turpentine or spike oil before the sixteenth century, and the slightly-raised surface of the fine details suggest a full-bodied paint rather than one thinned with diluents.
I haven't decided which medium is best for me, and I currently have no time to paint anyway, but I would be curious to hear your conclusions about the various mediums you've tried.
Good luck with your painting.



 
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