2428. Make two sticks of strong wood, neither too thick
nor too thin, about a foot long; let them be well rounded at the top and
bottom, and nicely smoothed. Then have your paste in the glazed basin
into which, add to it a porringerful of lye, moderately warm; and with
these two sticks, one in each hand, turn and squeeze and knead the paste
thoroughly, exactly in the manner that you would knead bread.
2429. When you see that the lye is thoroughly blue, pour
it into a glazed basin; take the same quantity of fresh lye, pour it
over the paste, and work it with the sticks as before. When this lye is
very blue, pour it into another glazed basin, and continue to do so for
several days, until the paste no longer tinges the lye.
2430. Then throw it away, it is good for nothing. Range
all the basins before you on a table in order, that is to say, the
first, second, third, and fourth ; then beginning at the first, with
your hand stir up the lye with the azure, which by its weight will have
sunk to the bottom, and then you will know the depth of color of the
azure. Consider how many shades of the azure you will have, whether
three, or four, or six, or what number you please.
2431. At this point I will break off copying out Cennini’s directions for making ultramarine blue, because I am sure that when I reached the point of telling you about how you have to mix lye with the powder, and then mix it for several days, you probably lost interest.
2424. From Cennini’s Artists Handbook: How to prepare
Ultramarine Blue pigment: First take some lapis lazuli; and if you would
know how to distinguish the best stones, take those which contain most
of the blue color, for it is mixed with what is like ashes. That which
contains least of this ash pigment is the best.
2425. Pound it in a covered bronze mortar so that the
powder may not fly away; then put it on your slab of porphyry, and grind
it without water. Afterwards take a covered strainer like that used by
the druggists for sifting drugs and spices, and sift it and pound again
as much as is required.
2426. Once the powder is prepared, procure from the
druggist, six ounces of resin of the pine, three ounces of mastic, and
three ounces of new wax to each pound of lapis lazuli. Put all these
ingredients into a new pipkin and melt them together. Then take a piece
of white linen and strain these things into a glazed basin.
2427. Then take a pound of the powder of lapis lazuli; mix it all well together into a paste, and that you may be able to handle the paste, take linseed oil, and keep your hands always well anointed with this oil. This paste must be kept at least three days and three nights, kneading it a little every day; and remember that you may keep it for fifteen days or a month, or as long as you please. When you would extract the azure (blue) from the paste, proceed thus.
2420. It is necessary to say something about this
business of, “Grinding up.” It is an idea that is almost impossible for a
modern artist to comprehend. I invite you to make a visit to an art
supply store, and have a look at the section where the tubes of paint
are displayed.
2421. You might take down from the shelf a tube of ultramarine blue. You will recall that we devoted an entire anecdote to
talking about this color because in the Renaissance the materials used
to create this pigment, and the labor involved was so costly that it was
worth its weight in gold.
2422. Ultramarine blue is no longer so valuable, as a
matter of fact, the famous color can be had for a few dollars a tube. It
is a little more expensive that the cheapest earth colors but not by much. But
five hundred years ago the creation of that blue was so time consuming
and convoluted that the production of it was given to an apprentice
almost as a punishment.
2423. I am going to copy out the directions for the creation of ultramarine blue for you. I will not give the complete directions because it would take too long, what follows is just a portion of the instructions, because I would like you to see what Faldoni’s task was like.
2416. First sections of the drawings where placed upon
the wall and while they were held in place someone would press through
the paper with a tool to engrave the important lines into the fresh
plaster.
2417. After the drawing was transferred to the plaster
the paper was removed and the artists began to paint all the section at
once. They were all sort of piled up one over the other, the best
painters doing the arms and legs of the figures, the beginners doing the
skies and hills.
2418. The more experienced apprentices would be
painting the birds, animals, trees and foliage and the great master
himself, when all was ready, approached the work to paint in the faces.
Only the faces would the master painter execute, all the rest was filled
in by the helpers like some gigantic paint by numbers masterpiece.
2419. Faldoni, suffering from boredom, asked the other assistants so many questions about the work that they suggested to the master that he be given some other time consuming meaningless task to keep him busy. So the master set him to work to grind up the pigments for the various colors in use on the project.
2412. Looking over his work he smiled to himself to think
what a pitiful job he had done on the first wall, the plastering of
which now seemed to him to have been done years ago. He was tempted to
do the first wall over again but thought better of it because he had to
get to work.
2413. At work that day the finish coat of plaster was
being applied. This was a section of plaster only so big as could be
completely painted in one day. With fresco painting the finish coat
takes one full day to dry, and during that time all of the painting on
the new section of plaster must be completed. Even a day later it is
too late to make any changes and so everything must be in readiness for
when the mason finishes the daily patch.
2414. This being so, all of the extra masons were sent
home and only one remained as that was sufficient to keep the artists
occupied. Faldoni’s job was much simplified because he needed only to
make the one batch of plaster mortar for the days work, and after that
he was free to watch the work being done. He was not allowed to touch
anything however because everything was organized down to the smallest
details.
2415. All of the various drawings were laid out on tables the exact size of the finished work, and every single color had been mixed up in advance for all of the various flesh tones, all of the landscape colors, and all of the colors of the clothing and drapery down to the darkest shadows and the brightest highlights.
2408. Soon the base coat of the plaster was finished
throughout all of the walls of the church and it was time for the masons
to begin laying the finish coat, the one that the artist and his
apprentices would actually paint on.
2409. It so happened one Sunday afternoon that an entire
vat of the plaster was left over when the walls were finished, so
Faldoni, instead of discarding it, brought it to his cell and attempted
to plaster the walls with it. There was a great quantity of plaster, and
it was a very small cell.
2410. What looked like the simplest thing in the world
when he watched the mason doing it, turned out to be nearly impossible
for him, but after several hours he completed the plastering of the back
wall of his cell. This wall measured six feet wide by seven feet high. The top
portion he got nearly smooth, but down toward the floor he made a
terrible mess of it.
2411. At midnight he began the second wall, and at three in the morning he started on the third wall. By morning the cell was finished. The forth wall was perfect even down at the floor, and in the corners. In the corners even a master plasterer has a difficult time of it. Standing there, admiring his work, he rapped his skull three times with his knuckles.
2404. But even the plastering Faldoni was not allowed to
do at first because the plaster is the ground of the fresco painting,
and its surface must be rendered perfectly smooth, a task difficult for
even a master mason. There was also the first base coat of rough cast
plaster to be applied but this was also considered too difficult for
Faldoni so his job turned out to be the mixing of the sand and the lime
together in a huge tub with a garden hoe.
2405. Mixing the plaster up for the masons was exactly
like working in the garden so Faldoni was quite in his element. All day
long Faldoni worked at has task, pouring two parts of sand, and adding
one part of lime to his trough and then mixing it up with the hoe.
2406. After an hour or so of this mixing, he shoveled all
the mortar into a wheelbarrow and brought it to the masons who managed
to use it all up in almost no time, so that from morning till night
there was not a moment to take a little rest.
2407. When the days work was done Faldoni was so tired he started to nod in the act of eating his evening oatmeal, and then fell asleep in his corner so soundly that it was hard to wake him in the morning after a dreamless sleep. Everyone was working feverishly at the church decorations in preparation for the high holy days when someone from Rome was supposed to pay a visit to the convent.
