Sir Charles Eastlake, a former president of the British Royal Academy and director of the National Gallery, was one of the world's foremost experts on the techniques of painting. A painter of considerable renown himself, he devoted years to traveling throughout England and Europe, where he searched through museums, monasteries, universities, and libraries, gradually amassing a collection of rare manuscripts from which he was able to reconstruct the technical secrets of the great painters of the past. In this comprehensive treasury (two volumes bound as one), Eastlake presents the results of his researches. He offers detailed discussions of Greek and Roman art methods, medieval techniques, tempera painting, the revolutionary use of oil paints by Hubert van Eyck, Flemish methods of preparing colors, and the methods of Reynolds and other 18th-century British masters. The second volume focuses on the technical secrets of members of various Italian schools, including such masters as Leonardo, Raphael, Perugino, Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, and many others. Rounding off the book are more than 100 pages of professional essays covering a wide range of subjects—from "Life in Inanimate Things" and "Neutral Tints in White and Other Draperies" to "Venetian Process" and "How to Compose and Paint a Single Head." Students, painters, art historians, and any lover of fine art will find Eastlake's work invaluable, both for its source material and its painstaking coverage of the technical evolution of painting. Dover (2001) unabridged republication in one volume of the work originally published by Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans in two volumes in 1847 as Materials for a History of Oil Painting.

Greek and Roman art methods, medieval techniques, tempera painting, van Eyck's revolutionary use of oil paints, Flemish methods of preparing colors, methods of 18th-century British artists, technical secrets of Italian schools, including such masters as Leonardo, Raphael, Correggio, Andrea del Sarto, and more.

Unabridged and unaltered republication of the first edition originally published in 1847, under title "Materials for a history of oil painting."

Unabridged and unaltered republication of the first edition originally published in 1847, under title "Materials for a history of oil painting."

Many of the valuable techniques and materials formerly used in painting have been lost or forgotten. With the convenience of the art supply store, the artist is no longer forced to acquaint himself with many of the operations performed by the great craftsmen-painters of the past. The result is that the modern painter often does not understand the chemical and physical reasons for the steps he follows. This book bridges the gap between artist and craftsman, and gives the reader insights into the classical techniques of the great masters as well as the procedures followed today. Professor Laurie has based his book on an intensive study of great master paintings and manuscripts as well as on actual experiment. He covers techniques for painting on wood panels, paper, walls, and canvas, and for dealing with watercolors, tempera, fresco, pigments and colors, balsams, resins, turpentines, varnishes, waxes, sizings, and various oils such as walnuts, linseed, and poppy. The reader will also find much information on the behavior of light through various refractions, prism effect in layers of paint, and the cleaning and preservation of pictures. The discussion is illustrated by 48 full-page plates. These reproductions of actual paintings by major and minor masters — Rembrandt, Lippi, Michelangelo, Botticelli, Rubens, Hals, and others — were selected to show specific points of painting condition or technical procedures. Microphotographs are used to show cross-sections of painting, age cracks, flaking, pigment particles, and similar material.

Bridging the fields of conservation, art history, and museum curating, this volume contains the principal papers from an international symposium titled "Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice" at the University of Leiden in Amsterdam, Netherlands, from June 26 to 29, 1995. The symposium—designed for art historians, conservators, conservation scientists, and museum curators worldwide—was organized by the Department of Art History at the University of Leiden and the Art History Department of the Central Research Laboratory for Objects of Art and Science in Amsterdam. Twenty-five contributors representing museums and conservation institutions throughout the world provide recent research on historical painting techniques, including wall painting and polychrome sculpture. Topics cover the latest art historical research and scientific analyses of original techniques and materials, as well as historical sources, such as medieval treatises and descriptions of painting techniques in historical literature. Chapters include the painting methods of Rembrandt and Vermeer, Dutch 17th-century landscape painting, wall paintings in English churches, Chinese paintings on paper and canvas, and Tibetan thangkas. Color plates and black-and-white photographs illustrate works from the Middle Ages to the 20th century.

In this captivating study, an influential scholar-artist offers timeless advice on shape, form, and composition for artists in any medium. Irma Richter illuminates the connections between art and science by surveying works of art from classical antiquity through the Modernist era. Richter shows the conscious and unconscious ways artists animated their works with geometric principles in an attempt to reconcile the realms of form and design. This book presents a simple method that can be employed for every kind of design—a method that underlies some of the greatest paintings of the Renaissance and was used by the architect of the Parthenon and the craftsmen of ancient Egypt. With research that leads to Florence, Chartres, Athens, and up the Nile Valley, the author surveys the geometric scheme behind the works of art of the past. Seventy-two images help illustrate the philosophical and religious significance connected with the artistic proportioning of space.