066r - - - - - Double layers
The Flemish & those who paint panels by the dozen only make one layer & finish at the first go. But the colors soon die. And when they are layered twice, they do not die. One needs to layer them lightly & not very thick, to soften them well.
Shadows
For women, asphaltum, umber & a little lake.
Painting in distemper on wood
| Because it is very tedious to paint in distemper on wood, and because one is at great pains to make a good a face on it, some thin their colors with egg glair passed through a sponge, or mixed with the yolk, water, & thoroughly beaten with the skin of the fig tree. With this | they paint & soften on the wood, as with oil, and this supports the varnish, but this does not last. |
Colors in oil that are imbibed
It is best that colors in oil are imbibed, that is to say they do not remain shiny after they are dry, for they do not die. But if in some places they are shiny, it is that the fattiness of the oil has remained in that part which would make the colors die. The varnish mends all this & unites & renders it similar in one place as in another.
One needs gold color to be laid down thick, for if it is clear, it would be imbibed & would run.
at left middle margin
On canvas & in distemper, one gilds with bole & honey & a little garlic juice.
Gilding molding for panels with or mat
see the other side of this folio this mark: *
The Flemish give one layer of colle à destrempe on the moulding, then mix lamp black or soot black with the same colle & let dry. Next they pounce some moresque in the corners & paint it with minium, massicot, & ochre de ru, and a little yellow ocher, mixed with fatty oil in which they clean their pinceaulx for oil, because the three aforesaid colors are gripping & dry immediately. Next they lay down the gold, then varnish on top of all. And it seems to some by this means that all this black is painted in oil, but it would not be good because the gold would attach itself everywhere & not only to the moresque. Go back to the top to *
at left top margin
- Or mat
It is made with massicot, minium, ochre de ru, & yellow ocher, so that the composition resembles gold. Gild the day after un jo it is laid down if you in the made the groundlayer the evening of the color. After having gilded, let it dry & rest one day, next rub the gilding with a feather & cotton in order that no burrs remain, then varnish with Flanders varnish, which you make mixed with a little eau de vye, to render it desiccative.
The varnish will be dry in an hour. It will increase the color of gold. And this or mat holds in the rain, even if one rubs it. But it must be well dried for eight or ten days.
Gold color that is made of different colors cleaned from pinceaulx for oil is not so good, & with time, tarnishes the gold because of the verdigris. One must not touch with a finger the layer made for the gold because that will keep it from attaching itself. The or moulu is spoiled if water touches it, but the or mat holds well in the rain & in water. One must not burnish it, because the tooth would remove it. Gather the burrs & small flakes that the cotton makes lift off when the gold is dry & you clean it, for an ounce is still gold. In Flanders, women make gild. It is more beautiful when it is a little thick, but in France they beat it too delicately.
Breathe on the gold color, and if it tarnishes, it is dry enough, but if it does not receive the vapor of the breath, it is not enough.
One must not gild or mat after with having gilded. But wait one day or one night, But take heed to not and when it appears as dry, it grips the gold, next one varnishes.
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