Vasari: Art Technology, Part 1
One of the things I found most interesting in Vasari was his descriptions of the advances in materials and techniques used for art -- you could almost call it the "engineering" or "technology" of art.
First and foremost, Vasari is concerned with painting: what kind of paints you paint with, and what kind of surface you paint on. He claims that it was the Fleming Jan van Eyck who invented the technique of painting in oils, which would come to replace the medieval "distemper" or tempera paints as the primary paint of Western art.
(Wikipedia claims oil paints were first used in Afghanistan, which is also where it says carrots come from. Coincidence? Or is there, in fact, an Afghan conspiracy to edit every Wikipedia entry to claim all good things come from their country??? But I digress.)
Vasari further claims that van Eyck jealously guarded the secret of how to make his new kind of paint, handing it down to only one or two disciples, they doing the same likewise, until finally one of the Flemings in on the secret happened to travel to Italy where he taught it to an Italian. In Italy, too, there remained a secret "line" for a few generations, until the secret at last came out into the open -- Vasari doesn't really say how.
There was a learning curve in mastering the use of oils, Vasari tells us:Vol. I, p. 588, Pietro Perugino: These three panels have suffered considerably, and they are all cracked in the dark parts and where there are shadows; and this comes to pass when the first coat of colour, which is laid on the ground (for three coats of colour are used, one over the other), is worked on before it is thoroughly dry; wherefore afterwards, with time, in the drying, they draw through their thickness and come to have the strength to make those cracks; which Pietro could not know, seeing that in his time they were only just beginning to paint well in oil.
Incidentally, if you're ever painting in oils, and you want to use multiple coats, Wikipedia advises you to follow the "fat over lean" rule (i.e. each coat should be thicker than the one before it).
Oils have a curious advantage over distemper in addition to their aesthetic qualities:Vol. I, p. 688, Raffaellino del Garbo: Before many years had passed, the campanile of that building was struck by lightning, which pierced the vault and fell near that panel, which, having been executed in oils, suffered no harm; but where the fluid [i.e., lightning] passed near the gilt frame, it consumed the gold, leaving nothing there but the bare bole. It has seemed to me right to say that much with regard to oil-painting, to the end that all may see how important it is to know how to guard against such injury, which lightning has done not only to this work, but to many others.
One of oil painting's main advantages over distemper is its greater durability, though not everyone agrees:Vol. II, p. 199, Domenico Beccafumi: And since Domenico was of the opinion that pictures painted in distemper preserved their freshness better than those painted in oils, saying that it seemed to him that the works of Luca da Cortona, of the Pollaiuoli, and of the other masters who painted in oils in those days, had suffered from age more than those of Fra Giovanni, Fra Filippo, Benozzo, and the others before their time who painted in distemper - for this reason, I say, having to paint an altar-piece ... he resolved to do it in distemper ...
However, distemper should definitely not be used for murals:Vol. II, p. 215, Niccolò Soggi: [H]e painted there ... almost entirely in distemper, with the point of the brush. But since the work has almost all peeled off on account of the strength of the distemper, it was labour thrown away. Niccolò did this in order to try new methods; ... [but] when he had recognized that the true method was working in fresco, he seized the first opportunity ...
Speaking of murals, Vasari has a lot to say about frescoes. If done right, they could be very durable indeed:Vol. I, p. 525, Domenico Ghirlandaio: [H]e painted a chapel which has since been half destroyed through being too near to the river; but the paintings, although they have been uncovered for many years, continually washed by rain and scorched by the sun, have remained so fresh that one might think they had been covered - so great is the value of working in fresco, when the work is done with care and judgment and not retouched on the dry.
"Retouching on the dry", or painting "a secco", is a big no-no in Vasari's book, even though Wikipedia says that it was the only way to get certain colors, like blue, onto a fresco.Vol. II, pp. 772-3, Francesco Primaticcio: Wherefore he merits extraordinary praise, particularly because he executed it in fresco, without ever retouching it "a secco", as many at the present day are accustomed to do.
The durability of fresco has its limits, of course:Vol. I, p. 642, Giorgione da Castelfranco: For my part, I know nothing that injures works in fresco more than the sirocco, and particularly near the sea, where it always brings a salt moisture with it.
The king of outdoor endurance, though, is mosaic. (Interestingly, Vasari elsewhere classifies mosaic as a kind of painting, perhaps because it involves making two-dimensional images in color.)Vol. I, p. 513, Gherardo: It is certain that among all the enduring works that are made in colours there is none that resists the assault of wind and water better than mosaic.
Here's a clever solution to the problem of paint versus time and nature, but with a pretty considerable inconvenience:Vol. II, p. 148, Fra Sebastiano Viniziano del Piombo: This painter then introduced a new method of painting on stone, which pleased people greatly, for it appeared that by this means pictures could be made eternal, and such that neither fire nor worms could harm them. Wherefore he began to paint many pictures on stone in this manner, surrounding them with ornaments of variegated kinds of stone, which, being polished, formed a very beautiful setting; although it is true that these pictures, with their ornaments, when finished, could not be transported or even moved, on account of their great weight, save with the greatest difficulty.
Speaking of the choice of surface to paint on, here's one last quote in which Vasari mentions the shift from painting on wooden panels to stretched canvas. The way he talks about it, it sounds like it's still an unusual idea to him.Vol. I, p. 487, Jacopo, Giovanni, and Gentile Bellini: ... [T]he last-named picture was painted on canvas, as it has been almost always the custom to do in that city [Venice], where they rarely paint, as is done elsewhere, on panels of the wood of that tree that is called by many oppio ["poplar"] and by some gattice ["white poplar"]. This wood, which grows mostly beside rivers or other waters, is very soft, and admirable for painting on, for it holds very firmly when joined together with carpenters' glue. But in Venice they make no panels, and, if they do make a few, they use no other wood than that of the fir ... It is much the custom in Venice, then, to paint on canvas, either because it does not split and does not grow worm-eaten, or because it enables pictures to be made of any size that is desired, or because ... they can be sent easily and conveniently wherever they are wanted, with very little expense and labour.
First and foremost, Vasari is concerned with painting: what kind of paints you paint with, and what kind of surface you paint on. He claims that it was the Fleming Jan van Eyck who invented the technique of painting in oils, which would come to replace the medieval "distemper" or tempera paints as the primary paint of Western art.
(Wikipedia claims oil paints were first used in Afghanistan, which is also where it says carrots come from. Coincidence? Or is there, in fact, an Afghan conspiracy to edit every Wikipedia entry to claim all good things come from their country??? But I digress.)
Vasari further claims that van Eyck jealously guarded the secret of how to make his new kind of paint, handing it down to only one or two disciples, they doing the same likewise, until finally one of the Flemings in on the secret happened to travel to Italy where he taught it to an Italian. In Italy, too, there remained a secret "line" for a few generations, until the secret at last came out into the open -- Vasari doesn't really say how.
There was a learning curve in mastering the use of oils, Vasari tells us:Vol. I, p. 588, Pietro Perugino: These three panels have suffered considerably, and they are all cracked in the dark parts and where there are shadows; and this comes to pass when the first coat of colour, which is laid on the ground (for three coats of colour are used, one over the other), is worked on before it is thoroughly dry; wherefore afterwards, with time, in the drying, they draw through their thickness and come to have the strength to make those cracks; which Pietro could not know, seeing that in his time they were only just beginning to paint well in oil.
Incidentally, if you're ever painting in oils, and you want to use multiple coats, Wikipedia advises you to follow the "fat over lean" rule (i.e. each coat should be thicker than the one before it).
Oils have a curious advantage over distemper in addition to their aesthetic qualities:Vol. I, p. 688, Raffaellino del Garbo: Before many years had passed, the campanile of that building was struck by lightning, which pierced the vault and fell near that panel, which, having been executed in oils, suffered no harm; but where the fluid [i.e., lightning] passed near the gilt frame, it consumed the gold, leaving nothing there but the bare bole. It has seemed to me right to say that much with regard to oil-painting, to the end that all may see how important it is to know how to guard against such injury, which lightning has done not only to this work, but to many others.
One of oil painting's main advantages over distemper is its greater durability, though not everyone agrees:Vol. II, p. 199, Domenico Beccafumi: And since Domenico was of the opinion that pictures painted in distemper preserved their freshness better than those painted in oils, saying that it seemed to him that the works of Luca da Cortona, of the Pollaiuoli, and of the other masters who painted in oils in those days, had suffered from age more than those of Fra Giovanni, Fra Filippo, Benozzo, and the others before their time who painted in distemper - for this reason, I say, having to paint an altar-piece ... he resolved to do it in distemper ...
However, distemper should definitely not be used for murals:Vol. II, p. 215, Niccolò Soggi: [H]e painted there ... almost entirely in distemper, with the point of the brush. But since the work has almost all peeled off on account of the strength of the distemper, it was labour thrown away. Niccolò did this in order to try new methods; ... [but] when he had recognized that the true method was working in fresco, he seized the first opportunity ...
Speaking of murals, Vasari has a lot to say about frescoes. If done right, they could be very durable indeed:Vol. I, p. 525, Domenico Ghirlandaio: [H]e painted a chapel which has since been half destroyed through being too near to the river; but the paintings, although they have been uncovered for many years, continually washed by rain and scorched by the sun, have remained so fresh that one might think they had been covered - so great is the value of working in fresco, when the work is done with care and judgment and not retouched on the dry.
"Retouching on the dry", or painting "a secco", is a big no-no in Vasari's book, even though Wikipedia says that it was the only way to get certain colors, like blue, onto a fresco.Vol. II, pp. 772-3, Francesco Primaticcio: Wherefore he merits extraordinary praise, particularly because he executed it in fresco, without ever retouching it "a secco", as many at the present day are accustomed to do.
The durability of fresco has its limits, of course:Vol. I, p. 642, Giorgione da Castelfranco: For my part, I know nothing that injures works in fresco more than the sirocco, and particularly near the sea, where it always brings a salt moisture with it.
The king of outdoor endurance, though, is mosaic. (Interestingly, Vasari elsewhere classifies mosaic as a kind of painting, perhaps because it involves making two-dimensional images in color.)Vol. I, p. 513, Gherardo: It is certain that among all the enduring works that are made in colours there is none that resists the assault of wind and water better than mosaic.
Here's a clever solution to the problem of paint versus time and nature, but with a pretty considerable inconvenience:Vol. II, p. 148, Fra Sebastiano Viniziano del Piombo: This painter then introduced a new method of painting on stone, which pleased people greatly, for it appeared that by this means pictures could be made eternal, and such that neither fire nor worms could harm them. Wherefore he began to paint many pictures on stone in this manner, surrounding them with ornaments of variegated kinds of stone, which, being polished, formed a very beautiful setting; although it is true that these pictures, with their ornaments, when finished, could not be transported or even moved, on account of their great weight, save with the greatest difficulty.
Speaking of the choice of surface to paint on, here's one last quote in which Vasari mentions the shift from painting on wooden panels to stretched canvas. The way he talks about it, it sounds like it's still an unusual idea to him.Vol. I, p. 487, Jacopo, Giovanni, and Gentile Bellini: ... [T]he last-named picture was painted on canvas, as it has been almost always the custom to do in that city [Venice], where they rarely paint, as is done elsewhere, on panels of the wood of that tree that is called by many oppio ["poplar"] and by some gattice ["white poplar"]. This wood, which grows mostly beside rivers or other waters, is very soft, and admirable for painting on, for it holds very firmly when joined together with carpenters' glue. But in Venice they make no panels, and, if they do make a few, they use no other wood than that of the fir ... It is much the custom in Venice, then, to paint on canvas, either because it does not split and does not grow worm-eaten, or because it enables pictures to be made of any size that is desired, or because ... they can be sent easily and conveniently wherever they are wanted, with very little expense and labour.