Encaustic Painting, by J. H. Müntz—A Project Gutenberg eBook

London: Printed for the Author; and A. Webley, at the Bible and Crown near Chancery Lane, Holborn, 1760.

I Should be afraid to offer you the following Treatise if I could not flatter myself with the hope that its intrinsic[Pg vi] Merit, and the Intention it was writ in, would in your noble and generous Mind counterbalance the Defects and Improprieties of Language, of which, as almost unavoidable to a Foreigner, it must of course be guilty of.

The subject I present you with is known to you long ago; you saw the first Essays and Experiments in Encaustic; You was pleased to approve of them, and to express some[Pg vii] Satisfaction at the least Picture executed in this manner. With what greater Advantage could I usher this new Invention into the World, than dedicating it to You; to make it known that the Greatest Patron of Arts, and the best Judge of the Merits of Painting approved of it?—Count Caylus invented it; under the Sanction of your Lordship’s Name I offer it to the Public, and with a grateful[Pg viii] Sense for all the Favours and Kindness You have at all Times shewn towards me.

A relation of my proceedings, to reduce this singular invention into a regular system agreeable to reason, and practical in itself, would be tedious and superfluous: To enter upon the process without giving the reader some little account of the matter, would be improper. As something is required to introduce the reader, and as the books[Pg 2] I must refer to are not in every body’s possession, I shall in lieu of introduction, insert the whole as laid before the Royal Society,—which is as follows.

Extract of a Letter1
From the Abbé Mazeas, F. R. S.

Count Caylus, a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, had undertaken to explain an obscure passage in Pliny the naturalist. This author (whom I have not now before me) says in some place of his works, that “the ancients painted with burnt wax”[Pg 3]2 and we have it from tradition, that pictures of this kind were very durable.

[Pg 4]

This was the passage, the count undertook to clear up, in trying all the different ways that are possible to paint in wax; and after many experiments, he hit upon a very simple method, of which he made a secret, in order to excite the curiosity of the public.

The several artists who were desirous of knowing by what means the count came to make this discovery, made several attempts themselves; but in a great number of trials, only two are worth mentioning.

The first was to melt wax and oil of turpentine together,[Pg 5] and use it for mixing the colours. But this method does not at all explain Pliny’s meaning; because wax is not burnt in this way of managing it: and besides, this method has two defects; the oil of turpentine dries too fast, and does not allow the painter sufficient time to blend and unite his colours.

The second method is very ingenious, and seems to come up to Pliny’s notion very well; it is as follows; the wax is melted with strong lixivium of salt of tartar, and with this the colours are ground. When the picture is finished, it is gradually put to the fire, which increases[Pg 6] the heat by degrees; the wax melts, swells, and is bloated up upon the picture; then the picture is removed gradually from the fire, and the colours do not at all appear to have been disordered; the colours then become unalterable by the action of the fire, and even spirit of wine has been burnt upon them without doing them the least harm.

However, the following is the Count de Caylus’s method, which is much more simple; according to which the head of Minerva was painted,[Pg 7] which was so much admired by all the connoisseurs.

First. The cloth or wood designed for the picture is waxed over, by only rubbing it simply with a piece of bees-wax.

Secondly. The colours are mixed up with common water; but as these colours will not adhere to the wax, the whole picture is to be first rubbed over with Spanish chalk, or whitening, and then the colours are used.

Thirdly. When the picture is dry, it is put near the fire,[Pg 8] whereby the wax melts, and absorbs all the colours.

It must be allowed, that nothing can be more simple than this method; and it is thought, that this kind of painting is capable of withstanding the injuries of the weather, and last longer than painting in oil; which I will not answer for.

The effect produced by these colours upon wax is very singular; nor can one have any notion of it without seeing it. The colours have not that natural varnish or shining, that they acquire with oil; but you[Pg 9] are capable of seeing the picture in any light, or in whatsoever situation you place it; in short there can be no false glare or light upon the picture for the spectators: the colours are secured, are firm, and will bear washing; and have a property, which I look upon as the most important of any, which is, that they have smoaked this picture in places subject to foul vapours, and to smoke in chimnies; and then by being exposed to the dew, it became as clean as if it had been but just painted.

These are all the contents of the letter, laid before the Royal[Pg 10] Society by a member of that learned body, who accompanied it with a series of very acute and learned observations, which, with an extensive knowledge, shew an inclination to prove that the count’s method could not be the encaustic of the ancients, and that encausto pingendi could be nothing else but enameling.——

It is neither my business nor intention to enter into discussions; it would be too difficult a task to prove that the count’s invention comes up to Pliny’s meaning; no certain evidence can be brought neither for nor against it. Any discovery that[Pg 11] tends towards improvement of arts and sciences is valuable; that the count’s invention is of this kind, will appear to every unprejudiced mind.

But, to give my opinion only——the numberless experiments I made to bring the new encaustic into a regular system—the repeated trials to explain Pliny’s meaning any other way that would answer the general ends of painting, &c. induce me to believe that encausto pingendi of the ancients could not be enameling, but must have[Pg 12] been some manner of painting very near of kin to that which is the subject of this treatise. Besides the clear and expressive words of our ancient author—Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere—and where he speaks of their ship painting—resolutis igni ceris penicilio utendi—carry a silent proof with them, that the Latin verb urere ought not to be understood in so fierce a degree as enameling requires.3

In both the above cited passages cera is in the plural number;[Pg 13] and for this very reason I believe it can mean nothing else but bees-wax simple, or compounded with other ingredients capable to sympathise therewith.

It would be ridiculous to suppose the Latin tongue so defective in Pliny’s time, as not to afford two distinct names for two things so opposite as enameling and ship painting are.

I cannot conceive what good enamel would or could do to their ships, without undergoing the operation of the fire after being painted. Nor can I[Pg 14] form any idea of a Roman enameled first-rate man of war.

The most probable reason, for Pliny’s not giving a better account of particulars may be, that he knowing nothing at all of the matter, used the term of art then in vogue; or was imposed upon by artists who did not chuse to part with the secret of their art.

Instances of this kind we have every day.——Arts and trades abound with jargon and mystical names, which, if taken or explained literally, would often prove but little analogous to their subject. Writers that[Pg 15] pay no regard to that, and without farther scrutiny speak and relate what they are told, must of course be unintelligible. Hence it comes that most of our dictionaries on arts and sciences, and the greatest number of books on painting, are so perplexing; and in many a point rival Pliny in obscurity.

To write upon a subject and unfold its mystery, one ought to be practically acquainted with it; a superficial drawing is not enough; to teach others how to go to work, the section is wanted.

If all books upon arts and sciences, manufactures and mechanics, had been or could be written by the respective professors thereof, things would appear in another light; we should, perhaps, not have the finest language in those performances; but we do not want that, plain truth and common sense is all that is required; if a guide leads us the right way, we need not mind his dress.

I shall make no apology for this performance of mine: if the contents do not speak for themselves, my abilities as a writer would but weakly support them, only as new inventions[Pg 17] are frequently condemned for no other reason but because they are new; it becomes me to acquaint the public, that I should never have gone so far as to publish this system, if I had not been convinced of its merit by experience and practice; I made many and various experiments (as will be mentioned in the sequel) to ascertain its stability; and having painted several pictures of different sizes, I can answer for its practicability. In short, it is a manner of painting susceptible of all the boldness, freedom and delicacy of any other whatsoever; you may leave off and cherish your work at pleasure,[Pg 18] you cannot fatigue your colours, you are not subject to that inconvenience attending oil painting, viz. of setting one’s picture by to dry, &c.

You will have all the effects and sweetness of painting in oil, and the colours will not be liable to fade and change; no damp can affect it, no corrosive will hurt it; nor can the colours crack and fall in shivers from off the canvas.

Let no-body think me too positive, or intoxicated with my own notions, before they have gone through the whole treatise, and made a few experiments.[Pg 19] I advance facts, and not conjectures only.

It is not my intention to quarrel or depreciate oil painting, nor will I attempt to deny its true merit; therefore hope it will not be considered as a crime to propose a method that will equal its perfections, and surpass it for duration and stability of colours. I tell artists what I know, they may do what they judge proper. Though I bestow encomiums upon my subject it is not with a design to impose; I am not self-conceited, or foolish enough to think or believe that Rynolds or Ransey, Scott or[Pg 20] Lambert, &c. &c. will take up at once and prefer my new system to that they practised for many years with success and applause—they, and every body else, may try; a trifling expence, and a few idle hours will afford experiments by which they will know if what I advance will really be an advantage to their works and themselves. And how far it will answer, either whole or in part, the general ends of painting, one single sketch will be enough to judge by; in arts, one experience is worth a thousand conjectures.

In the prosecution of my system, oil-colours came always in for a part of the experiment, in opposition to those fixed with wax, in order to judge better and with more precision of their variation. By this it happened that I often painted oil-colours over a waxed ground; which colours always appeared brighter and cleaner than the very same painted over an oil-cloth; at least I fancied that dead colouring in water colours and finishing in oil, was an experiment worth trying. For this purpose (as portrait painting is not my province) I pitched upon a head of Sir Godfrey Kneller, a gentleman and friend had[Pg 22] sent me to copy small in oil; accordingly I dead coloured it in water colours and fixed them with wax, and afterwards finished it in oil-colours, not only to my satisfaction and surprize, but every body’s else that saw it; the brightness and transparency of its colours is not to be conceived. I copied the same head again in oil-colours only, and with all imaginable care and attention, but the colouring of the latter looked dull in opposition to the other4; to give reasons for this incident[Pg 23] is more than I can do; I shall give a few conjectures, and conjectures only, upon it, under the article of experiments.

If I should not gain the approbation and good will of the oil painting faculty, for a few hints: I am sure those artists who profess painting in crayons will be beholden to me for what I shall communicate to them—a method to fix crayons or pastelle.

Every body knows the beauties and pleasing effects of those paintings and their perishable qualities so well, that to enlarge upon is needless to bestow[Pg 24] great encomiums upon my secret, which is so closely connected with encaustic for the pencil, and whose merit has already been mentioned, would be superfluous; the process and experiments I am now going to unfold will be of more weight than all my reasonings previous thereto.

To make the whole familiar and easy to all capacities, I thought it convenient to lay down the whole penciling system under five different articles or periods, according as they succeed each other in the execution; and to keep the thread of the proceeding uninterrupted,[Pg 25] I shall make a few observations upon every article in particular, and there give and explain the different methods that may be practised for the same end, together with my reason, and why I deviated in some parts from Count Caylus’s system.

The operations for painting with crayons will be treated and explained separately, and upon the same plan. Lastly, the experiments will come in to illustrate both, and verify what I advance.

Take any sort of clean linen cloth whose texture is pretty close, soft and even, stretch it upon a straining frame, as you would do an oil cloth, lay it upon a smooth table, the side your are to paint on downwards, then with a piece of common bees- or virgin-wax rub it over and over, till you perceive a good quantity of the wax adhere to the cloth, in equal proportion over the whole.5

Your cloth thus waxed is ready to paint upon if it be fine; if it is coarse, turn it, and with a pumice stone gently rub over the side which is to receive the colours, to take off all the knots and unevenness that might obstruct the free flowing of your pencil.

If you want to paint a picture of any determined size, provide a straining frame, whose inner circumference is equal to the height and width required; that is to say, you must[Pg 28] have two frames, the one to work and finish your picture upon, the other whereon the picture is to go and remain when finished. The first must be of such height and width, as to contain between its inner edges cloth enough to cover the second. No part of the cloth you paint over ought to touch the wood of the frame, if it did the wood would imbibe part of the wax, when the picture is brought near the fire, and leave those parts imperfect.

All colours used in oil painting are fit for this manner, and no others. There are a few that ought to be omitted; for reason see the list of colours.

Grind all your colours very fine with simple water, allot to every particular colour a distinct vessel, such as gallipots, pans, &c. From your colours so ground, compose all the different principal tints, as[Pg 30] the nature of your intended work shall require.

But, as most of the colours acquire a deeper hue when moistened, and some deeper still when fixed with wax, it will be necessary, to prevent perplexity in the execution, to have a guide for retouching, either when the picture is finished and dry, before the operation of the fire, or after it is fixed; for this purpose you may, before you go to work, use the following expedient.

Take two slips of cloth about a foot long, and three or[Pg 31] four inches wide, wax them as before mentioned, then upon the one slip paint of every one of your entire colours6 about an inch high over the whole width of the cloth, and with your tints already composed do the same upon the other piece of cloth, according to their order and degradation;7 mark every tint with a number, such as 1, 2, 3, &c. write down upon a paper every number, and what it is composed of. This done and your colours so applied dry, cut your cloth across all the tints from[Pg 32] top to bottom in two equal parts; bring one half of each near the fire, and by melting the wax fix them, the other two halves you keep as they are unfixed.

By rejoining and comparing them together, you may judge what strength every tint will acquire, and by their reciprocal references you will be enabled to alter or imitate, deepen or heighten with certainty, any tint, either before or after the colours are fixed.

In painting be not sparing; the greater body of colours you employ, the better and brighter[Pg 33] your work will appear; you may give greater freedom to your pencil, blend and sweeten your colours better than in any other way of painting.

How to paint over or alter any part before the picture has been near the fire.

If the parts of the picture you want to retouch are large and the colouring dry, take a large soft hair pencil, and with water gently moisten those places, or the whole picture if you please, and repaint till your eye is satisfied. You might[Pg 34] paint over, or alter any part without moistening, but on a first trial you would not so well see what you are about. While the picture is wet it appears very near what it will be when fixed; when it is dry it looks like a weak dead colouring in oil. You will see enough to judge of the general effect, but none of the tenderer half tints will appear discernable enough to judge of them with precision. In large pictures where the cloth will be required stronger, a picture is kept wet with great ease and security, by moistening it on the back with a large brush as often as there is occasion, for the[Pg 35] water will soon soak through the texture and take hold of the colours; there is no danger of disturbing them on the other side with the action of the brush, by reason of the substance of the cloth.

When your picture is finished and dry, have a good clear fire of sea-coals,[Pg 36]8 approach your picture with the painted side towards it, at about two feet distance, let it grow warm by gentle degrees, always approaching nearer, till within a foot distance from the grate, but never closer, holding your picture perpendicularly or a little inclined as you shall find necessary. If the picture is large do one half first, then the other; there is not the least difficulty for any size.

When you perceive by the hue and shining of the painted surface that all is perfectly absorbed; then remove it gradually from the fire as you advanced[Pg 37] it, and your picture will be done.

If you see any place defective for want of a sufficient quantity of wax,9 put a little finely scraped wax on the back of that place, then bring only a red hot poker, or some such thing towards it, the wax will immediately settle in its place. If there are many parts so defective, put scrapings of wax there, and bring the whole picture before the fire as above mentioned. There is no danger in bringing the picture to[Pg 38] the fire as often as required, provided you never give it too great a degree of heat; if you do, the wax will raise in bubbles upon the surface, and your picture will look rough and uneven.

Advance your picture never too hasty, nor retire it too quickly; if you do the former, the sudden action of the fire might disturb some of the colours; if the latter, the wax will not retire enough within the texture of the cloth, consequently lye too much above the colours and look glaring. If you perceive any such glaring spots or places upon your picture, or (in[Pg 39] other words) parts that appear varnished like, and that appearance should proceed from too great a quantity of wax, paint those places over on the back with whitening, or any one of your other colours, and when dry bring the picture near the fire, as above mentioned, and those colours or whitening will imbibe the overplus of the wax. Repeat that if required.

Put upon your pallette such of your tints as will be fit for the place or parts you want to alter or paint over, temper and employ them with a little spirit of wine;10 repaint, and bring the picture to the fire as often as required, and those retouched parts will become[Pg 41] fixed like any other part of the picture.

Observations on article the first.

As linen cloth is the material most commonly and preferably used, as the fittest and most convenient to paint upon, I chose to give under Article the first, directions for that purpose only; for though the wax and colours may be applied to cloth and other materials in several different manners, I, not to bewilder the beginners in multiplicities on a first setting out, gave and recommend that, which besides[Pg 42] its being the likeliest to be most practised, is the best for solidity, and will prove to every practitioner the easiest, most agreeable, expeditious and convenient for execution.

But not to deprive the artists and curious of the several means and methods that may be practised for and towards the same end, I shall here give some of the principal ones, as well for painting upon canvas as upon wood, plaister, &c. but first of all I shall consider and treat Count Caylus’s system a little more at large, and shew why I have deviated from it in this particular, and leave[Pg 43] the artist at liberty to adopt and practise which suits him best.

The Count’s method for preparing the cloth consists, in stretching it upon a frame, and holding it horizontally over, or perpendicularly before a fire (at a distance convenient and proportionable to the degree of heat it casts) and rubbing it with a piece of wax; which, melting gradually as it is rubbed on, diffuses itself, penetrates the body, and fills the interstices of the texture of the cloth, which when cool, is fit to paint upon; but, as water colours will not adhere regularly flowing and[Pg 44] connectedly to the wax, He, to remedy this inconveniency, makes use of an intermediate body, viz. chalk or whitening, with which he rubs over that surface of the waxed canvas he intends to paint upon, and then the colours will easily flow over and adhere to it.

Now, though this way of proceeding is very simple and successfully practicable for small subjects;—for instance,—such as the head of Diana, mentioned in the Abbé’s letter, or any other that may be finished in a couple of hours, and while the colours upon the canvas retain moisture; yet, to execute[Pg 45] pictures of a larger size and composition, which will require many a day’s labour and application, and whereof no part can be finished positively at the first onset, this manner of managing it will not answer so well, as that given under Art. the first, for the following reasons.

First. In painting upon the wax by virtue of the whitening, you will not have that conveniency of retouching or altering of any part, and before the colours are fixed, so well, as painting upon the raw and bare canvas will afford you; because the texture and fibres of[Pg 46] the cloth being thoroughly invaded by the wax, there remains nothing for water colours to fix or adhere to, capable to retain them; those colours once dry, the slightest touch of a moist pencil will, as it were, attract them, and frequently make and leave a bare spot; so that in attempting to retouch, instead of adding fresh colours, you will fetch off the old ones: for though the rough edged particles of the chalk facilitate to the first colours an adhesion upon the smooth body wax yet, water the vehicle of the colours, being the menstruum of chalk, by discomposing it destroys part of its[Pg 47] power and virtue, and renders it incapable to perform the first service a second time.

Secondly. Upon canvas fully imbibed with wax, you can neither use so great a body of colours, nor employ them with such freedom, boldness, or delicacy as you may upon cloth, whose texture is not pre-occupied with wax—the reason is obvious—the one has its pores and interstices filled up with wax; the other’s you must fill up with colours. Cloth, a firm spungy body or substance, in sucking in the water attracts the colours along with it into its pores, and thereby facilitates the firm[Pg 48] and delicate strokes; and the colours mixing and adhering to its numberless fibres, will not come off on retouching, before the picture is fixed; you may cherish or leave your work at pleasure without detriment or inconveniency arising from that. Advantages that cloth pre-occupied with wax is incapable of.

Thirdly and lastly. By painting on canvas prepared according to the directions of Art. the first, your works will be more solid and lasting, because the colours will not simply lay upon the surface of the wax, but cloth, wax and colours will[Pg 49] make but one individual body.—Thus much on my deviation from Count Caylus’s system, in regard to the preparation of the cloth.

For painting upon walls or plaister where the wax cannot be applied on the back, the Count’s system must be practised; it will succeed well; the rough and gritty grain of the plaister will take and retain a sufficient quantity of colours to insure solidity; the only difference between painting upon cloth and plaister consists in this; painting upon canvas you can finish your picture entirely[Pg 50] before you fix it; in painting upon plaister, you must proceed as you do in painting with oil-colours, viz. first, dead colour your subject and fix it, and then paint it over again and finish it, either by virtue of the chalk, or by tempering and employing the colours with some spirit, or oil of turpentine. You may too paint and retouch with crayons.

Upon wood, stone, and metals,—you must proceed as you do upon plaister; but as there is no grain you must procure an artificial one, after your board is waxed, by laying on a[Pg 51] ground of any colour mixed with half chalk and fix it11; upon this you may paint with water colours or crayons, as sweetly as upon canvas.

To paint upon paper;—you must have a smooth board, or copper-plate of a convenient size, and well waxed; upon this you fasten your paper by the corners and paint upon; the colours dry, present it to the fire, and the wax underneath the paper melting, will soak and penetrate through and[Pg 52] fix the colours; this method may be successfully practised with cloth.

There are two more methods remaining to be practised on cloth and paper; but as they make part of the system for painting with crayons, and will be described under that head, I omit to mention them here.

Observations on Article the second.

In grinding the colours upon the stone, and managing them upon the pallette, care should be taken not to use an iron knife, the steel or iron that grinds off, in mixing with the colours spoils their brightness and vivacity; flake-white and white-lead, yellow-oker, lacque and light-red, suffer greatly by it, it gives them a dull and dirty cast; Naples-yellow suffers most of all from it; its vivacity is entirely destroyed by the iron’s touching it. Horn, ivory, or tortoise shell knives, or[Pg 54] wooden spatulas are fitter for all manner of painting; they will affect no colours; iron knives have destroyed many a tender complexion in oil-colours; for, the oil once dry, the iron ground off from the knife and mixed in the colours will be converted into rust by the moisture of the air.—Tho’ this little hint is foreign to our present subject, it will perhaps not be unacceptable to my brethren.—It is an essential point in an architect to be acquainted with the qualities and properties of the materials he builds with, if his plan and stile, dispositions, proportions, &c. be[Pg 55] ever so good, noble, grand and graceful, yet if his fabric falls down as soon as built, we are but little beholden to his skill.—Vandyke, I believe, never used an iron knife, if he had he would not have painted a spatula of horn in one of his pictures, wherein all the utensils of a painter accompany his own figure.—

The expedient recommended under Art. the second, for establishing a standard for all the differing principal tints that may be required for any subject, will be of use to them who are not much acquainted with painting in water colours;[Pg 56] and to ladies and gentlemen, who painting only now and then for their amusement, cannot have so thorough a knowledge of the value of each colour, and might therefore be at a loss how to retouch, after the colours are fixed.

To make the directions given for that purpose more intelligible, and to point out the use of such a standard—let us suppose—the annexed copper plate figure A. B. C. D. to be a piece of cloth, about a foot long and three or four inches wide, waxed on the back, as directed under Art. the first, and the divisions a. b. c. d. e. f. g. h. &c. be the tints painted,[Pg 57] according to their order and degradation, across the whole width of the cloth A. B. these tints dry, cut the piece of cloth across all the tints from top E. to bottom F. in two equal parts, bring the one half A C near the fire, and by melting the wax fix it, the other half B D you keep as it is unfixed.

Now, the half A C being fixed, will shew you at one glance what strength every tint will acquire; and if you moisten again the other half B D, or paint the same tints upon a fresh piece of cloth, you will see which are the colours that grow deeper still, fixed with[Pg 58] wax than they appear when only moistened with water, and the references 1 2 3 4 5 &c. telling you what each tint is composed of, you will be enabled to amend any one that might be amiss. Farther, when your picture will be fixed and it should want retouching, and you should be at a loss for hitting of the tint or hue required for that purpose,—bring only the fixed half A C upon the picture and compare them, and you will easily find what you want; again, if you want to renew any tint that is spent, find that tint upon the picture, with the fixed half A C, when found compare it to, and[Pg 59] moisten its fellow upon the unfixed half B D, and that will give you again the original hue, and the references 1 2 3 4 &c. will tell you what that tint is principally composed of.

Tho’ professed artists (whose long experience enables them to judge of the value of each colour) will not have absolute occasion for the comparative use of such a standard, yet they will not do amiss to make an essay of their tints before they employ them.

Observations on Article the third.

The being able to work and retouch at pleasure, and at any time, without fatiguing the colours, or any other detriment arising from it, is an advantage peculiar to encaustic only; for, the new colours will unite with the old ones without making spots, as is the case in common size-painting; nor will there be that inconveniency of rubbing the places to be retouched over with oil, as is the case with oil pictures; the only seeming difficulty to a beginner, will[Pg 61] consist in the colours growing paler and weaker in drying, but as a picture is easily kept wet, by moistening it now and then as above directed, the difficulty vanishes. Pictures of any size may easily be kept wet for several days, by applying a double wet cloth on the back; but a little practice will render that precaution unnecessary.

Every body in the least acquainted with colours, knows that water colours, tempered or employed either with gum or size, grow paler and lighter in drying, and that they acquire their true tone only when[Pg 62] dry;—in encaustic they grow paler and lighter too in drying, but they recede from and lose their true tone.—Encaustic is the reverse of size-painting as to effect, while you are at work and the colours wet;—of the latter you cannot judge positively until the colours are dry; of the former you can only judge while the colours are wet, or which is the same, when fixed with the wax.

Observations on Article the fourth.

The most essential point in encaustic—the fixing of the colours—is the simplest and easiest for paintings of any size, moveable or immoveable. A surface of forty feet may be fixed as conveniently as a picture of twelve inches; for if the painting be too large to be brought near the fire, or immoveable on a wall, bring that agent to the painting;——a square copper or iron chest, or box, such as commonly used for warming or airing of beds, with a red hot iron or lighted[Pg 64] charcoal in it, will do the business admirably well, by passing it in a direction parallel to and before the painted surface, at a distance proportionable to the degree of heat it casts,—a brasier ambulant, with a cover to prevent the ashes from flying about, with charcoal well lighted, will answer the end too, by inclining the picture over it,—an instrument of iron like a baker’s shovel, with a long handle and made red hot, will perform the same service, if waved in a parallel direction before the painted surface; and by heating it again, when grown cool, with such an instrument one may fix paintings of the[Pg 65] largest size; it matters not if the whole be fixed at once, or in parts at different times.

The directions for rectifying of any defects arising from too small a quantity of wax, are so clear, simple and sufficient, that they want but little explanation or addition; only, you may instead of wax simple use wax dissolved in such a quantity of oil of turpentine, as to make it when cool, fluent enough to be employed with a brush on the back of the picture, which, when brought to the fire, the wax will settle with the colours, and the turpentine will fly off.

My saying under the above article that the sudden action of the fire might disturb some of the colours, must not be understood in regard to the wax, but in regard to the nature of the colours, which, if the picture be brought too near the fire at once, will be scorched before the wax can melt and penetrate the texture to screen and secure them.

Observations on Art. the fifth and last.

The facility and conveniency for retouching a picture after the colours are fixed, without the new colours differing from the hue of the old ones, is an advantage no other manner of painting is possessed of.

In oil painting you cannot do it so well except you paint over large parts, because the colours in drying acquire a yellower hue, than they have while fresh; there will always[Pg 68] be a difference between the very same tints; besides, oil pictures are frequently greasy-like and refuse the new colours, so that you are obliged to rub those parts with oil, to make the new colours adhere to and flow over the old ones, which rubbing with oil very often makes a dull and yellow spot when the colours are dry; in size-painting it is worse, retouchings there in general appear hard, and in large masses of a uniform colour,—such as sky’s—produce spots.——Encaustic is free from all that; you may glaze with a body of colours as thin and as transparent[Pg 69] as you please, without your colours changing of tone. By retouching with crayons upon the fixed colours, the sweetest effects may be produced in landscapes and figures; nay, for retouching only here and there, I should prefer crayons. For instance—to finish a head,—and give the decisive strokes about the eye, mouth, hair, and sharp folds of linen, &c. in landscapes—for the extremities of trees, &c. the smart touch of a crayon will be preferable to the pencil.

When your picture is entirely finished, and you should want[Pg 70] to give the canvas more solidity, you may paint it over on the back with any colour or tint, and bring it again and for the last time to the fire, to fix that colour; if you apprehend there is not wax enough, apply a little dissolved in spirit of turpentine, as mentioned in the foregoing observations on Art. iv. this fixed take your picture off from the frame, and stretch it upon that whereon it is to remain.

Having now done with the process for painting in encaustic with the pencil, which notwithstanding its simplicity might[Pg 71] appear to some beginners intricate, because I pointed out all the difficulties that possibly may occur in the execution,—to comfort and encourage those that might think the task hard, I shall recapitulate, and reduce the whole within this compass.—Stretch a piece of cloth upon a frame, rub the back of that cloth with wax, paint your subject on the other side, with colours prepared and tempered with water, and when dry bring the picture near the fire, and by melting the wax fix the colours.

N. B. I might have said much more, and dwelt longer[Pg 72] on several particulars; but as the only aim of this treatise is to communicate the discovery to artists, and others already acquainted with the management of colours, and not to form pupils from beginning, I omitted saying any thing of composing the tints and disposing the colours on the pallette, &c. Every artist may go on in his accustomed method; the use of all the colours is in encaustic as in oil, as may be seen by the following list.

The direction for painting with crayons will illustrate some passages of the foregoing process, and what other advantages[Pg 73] encaustic painting will have over oil and size-painting will be shewn by conclusions drawn from the experiments.

WHITE.

For painting in encaustic, I mix always both together half and half; flake-white alone is subject to raise too much little bubbles in employing it[Pg 75] with water, which the admixture of the other prevents; besides, both together make a better and more solid body; tho’ flake-white is the whitest of the two, to use either alone I should prefer the second. The Venetian or Dalmatian white-lead is by far the best for all manner of painting; being prepared with a purer and subtler acid it is whiter and purer than any other whatsoever, and preferable to flake-white; next to it is the German or Dutch; French or English ceruss are in general but indifferent, in experiments I frequently found the latter to have one third of marle or chalk in its composition;[Pg 76] which is the cause of its growing so soon yellow, dull and dirty in oil.

In composing of the crayons it will be well to observe the above mentioned proportion of half and half, as by the doing so, much pipe clay will not be required to bind them.

YELLOWS.

Naples-yellow is the only colour that ought to be used in composing the tenderer flesh tints of women; it proves a very tender, bright and beautiful lasting colour for all manner of painting, if properly prepared and managed, if not, a dirty, weak and treacherous one, and particularly in oil. It is a mineral compound of lead, antimony, sulphur, and some arsenic, which latter is the cause of its changing, and hurting other colours, and particularly the white, so much complained of by the painters.

Though this yellow fixed with wax will not change; yet[Pg 78] it will not be amiss to insert a method to clean, and purify it, so as to render it beautiful and lasting for oil and other uses. To clean it do as follows.

Take crude Naples-yellow, (the heaviest for bulk is the best) and break it into small pieces with the mallet upon the grinding stone, put it in a clean earthen vessel, and pour over it a quantity of new milk, sufficient to cover it three or four inches over, stirring it well for some time with a wooden spatula or stick; then let all together stand undisturbed for five or six days, and the milk will become thick and sour, and[Pg 79] master by its acidity the noxious saline principles of the colour; having stood the abovementioned time, take off the creamy part from the top of the milk, and pour warm water upon it, and let the vessel overflow till you perceive the water to come off as clear as when poured on, and the colour will be purified and fit for use.

Light-oker, a precipitated, feruginous earth, answers in encaustic all the purposes it does in oil.

Brown-oker, a precipitated feruginous earth too, only it[Pg 80] partakes a little of a vitrioline principle, which the light-oker does not. In encaustic this colour answers all the purposes it does in oil.

Yellow orpiment, or king’s-yellow. The principal constituent particles of this colour are, sulphur and arsenic, which latter prevails and makes great havock among the other colours when used in oil; it cannot play the same tricks fixed with wax; wax being a closer and unvariable body, confines its arsenical principle. Oil once dry ceases to be oil, and can confine them no longer.

Red-orpiment, so called to distinguish it from the other, is properly not red, but of a rich orange colour, and is a compound of arsenic and sulphur too; but here sulphur prevails, which is the reason of its standing its ground better and doing less harm in oil than the other.

In encaustic it is of universal use, throughout a whole picture to give warmth to lights and shades; in landscapes it may be used from the horizon down to the fore ground, to good purpose; for shades in flesh it is admirable, it gives a clear, soft and transparent strength;[Pg 82] in the verdure of landscapes it answers all the ends for brown-pink, when mixed with a little bone black.

This colour is very conspicuous in all the warmer landscapes of Claude Lorraine; Mr. Vernet a famous French painter uses it very much.

PINKS.

These two colours ought rather not be used, as they both proceed from the same vegetable principle, viz. the juice or extract got by decoction from French berries by the[Pg 83] help of acid salts; consequently incapable to sympathise with or admit wax into their pores12; the wax can take hold of them only superficially, which makes them appear dry and gritty upon the picture, and will easily come off by rubbing them with one’s finger. Those artists who cannot do without them, will do well to grind them, the light-pink with a little light-oker, and brown-pink with a[Pg 84] little brown-oker, and they will keep a little better; but red-orpiment and a little bone black, making as fine a pink as that properly so called, it will be best to use the latter.

REDS.

Care must be taken to have the lake good; that which is commonly sold under the name of Florence lacque, and recommended as the best, is in general the worst; it is usually in small hard grains, which hardness is owing to gum arabic, or what is worse, to that glutinous substance which oozes out from the cherry tree, put in by the fabricant (of the lake) to bind and keep the grains together, and make it appear better merchandise than it really is; such lake will scale off from the canvas; the gum it is impregnated with hinders the wax from penetrating its pores—every body knows that[Pg 86] lacque is made of cochineal; there is a bastard lake made of Brazil wood, but that is easily known by its dullness. The best lake for our purpose is that which is of a fine, clear, deep hue, easily to be broken and crumbled between the fingers. The finest and best lacque I ever saw and used, is made here in England by an ingenious artist in the seal engraving way.

Minium, will be of infinite service for painting with the[Pg 87] pencil and crayons; it will not change fixed with wax, as it does in oil; it may be used to advantage in some carnations or flesh tints; and in landscapes to enliven the oker, for great lights.

Light-red, or light-oker calcined, is of the same universal use in this manner of painting as it is in oil, or common water colours.

Brown-red, or brown-oker calcined, may be employed for the same use as in oil, or distemper painting.

Indian-red, the French call this colour, Terre d’Angleterre, English earth; this colour is particularly useful for distances, it makes the degradation of objects light and airy.

Terra di Siena, a yellow hard and clayish substance, so called from the city of Siena in Italy, from whence it comes.

This colour is very unfit to be used crude, either for painting in encaustic or crayons, its pores are too close for the wax to penetrate; or to say better,[Pg 89] this colour or earth is very much impregnated with a nitrous principle, with which wax cannot sympathise, and for this very reason it is as unfit to be used crude in oil. Those painters that use it freely have always but too much reason to repent. But,

Terra di Siena calcined, is a very beautiful and useful colour for all manner of painting, and particularly encaustic. The fire having dispelled in some measure the nitrous principle, the wax may freely enter its pores. This colour gives a great, soft, and glowing strength in flesh, drapery and landscape;[Pg 90] some painters call this colour Roman oker.

Terra verte; this colour too comes to us from Italy, and some from Germany, they are both alike, and ought to be entirely banished the pallette, as it grows so soon dirty and black when employed with oil. Terra verte differs from terra di Siena in little else but colour, it has a little vitriol. The too free use some of the older Italian painters made of this colour in flesh tints, is the cause that numbers of pictures of those masters are so black as we see them at this time.

BLUES.

Prussian blue, equals ultramarine in encaustic, for all intents and purposes; there is no other blue required for crayons neither.

Smalt may be used, but I think it rather too gritty; its particles are too transparent for[Pg 92] parts where a solid mass of colour is required. For crayons it does very well mixed with Prussian blue to bind it, both together make a beautiful colour, the grittiness of smalt will there be of advantage. This colour will not grow black fixed with wax as it does in oil.

BLACKS.

Blue black is particularly necessary for landscapes; the blue black generally sold at the colour shops is commonly made of wine stalks; but blue black made of peach, apricot, or plum-stones calcined, is by far the best; it is not so loose and spungy as the former, its colour too is finer.

Bone black is the most valuable of the black tribe for sweetness, and a transparent warmth for landscapes and figures; bone black and white alone will make softer and more natural turning tints than any other colours can produce;[Pg 94] the Flemish painters use it very much for glazing.

This black mixed with a little terra di Siena calcined, makes the strongest and sweetest shades that can be obtained with colours.

COLLENS EARTH.

A dark blackish brown and somewhat bituminous earth, inclining a little towards purple, is a very good colour, and of singular use where extraordinary[Pg 95] strength is required in fore grounds.

UMBRA, Crude and calcined.

A useful colour enough for common purposes; some painters use it for shades in flesh, but very improperly, for it is a very raw colour crude or calcined, and only fit to be used in drapery or back grounds.

These are all the colours that ought to be used for painting in encaustic, with the pencil; there are a few more that might be employed in this manner, but as they are rather[Pg 96] inferior in quality, or only compounds of those already mentioned, I omit them; a few, not commonly used in oil painting that notwithstanding might be used in encaustic, I shall mention under the article of crayons, as they belong more to, and are more useful in that way.

The method of painting with and fixing of the crayons comes not only within the sense of encaustic, but is the very self-same thing. The whole proceeding is founded upon the foregoing principle; the same materials and agent are required.—The only difference between painting in encaustic with the pencil, and painting in encaustic with crayons,[Pg 98] consists in employing the colours; in the former—you paint with colours tempered with water; in the latter—you employ, and paint with the same colours dry; the effect and solidity will be equal and the same in both.—

The encomiums I bestowed upon the penciling system, are applicable to that of the crayons; I shall say nothing more; experience will be the best panegyrist. I am afraid crayons, as seemingly the less troublesome, will carry the golden apple; I will not anticipate the decision of the public.—I shall give the hint, and my fellow[Pg 99] artists may make use of it as they please.—

As the system of encaustic for the pencil is the parent of that for the crayons, and as both may be happily blended and jointly practised to good purpose, I shall, to avoid tiresomely repeating the same thing over again, refer the reader to the former process whenever similarities of proceeding occur; they, besides commenting each other, will open to the more timorous artist a freer field of action. As I did in the former, so shall I in this, give that method of proceeding,[Pg 100] which by experience I found to be the best.

Though this system did not enter in the original plan of publication with the other, and I intended to withold it from the public a little longer, to see what reception the former should meet with; yet as it got vent by shewing it to few friends, and a gentleman offering me (in his opinion) a considerable reward to dispose of the secret in his favour only, I, to prevent some modern Pliny’s casting more direct reflexions upon me, without my having the skill of Apelles to uphold my reputation,[Pg 101] at least thought proper to give them to the public both at once. To make discoveries that may be of infinite advantage to arts, subservient to private avarice, is the foible of a weak, jealous, and ill-natured mind.—Here follows the process; and first the preparation of the cloth.

Preparation of the cloth, or paper, for painting with crayons.

Take any sort of linen cloth whose texture is pretty close and even, stretch it upon a straining frame and rub it on the back with a piece of wax, as directed under Art. the first, page 26. your cloth waxed, prepare any tint or colour you like, or judge best for a ground to work upon, let enter into the composition of this tint or colour, one half, or at least[Pg 103] one third of chalk or whitening, mix and temper all with pure water; your tint ready, paint over your cloth with it on that side you are to paint upon, and lay the colour on pretty even and substantially; this colour or ground dry, bring the canvas near the fire, as under Art. the fourth, page 35. and the wax melting will fix that colour or ground, which when cool will be a fit and firm body to work upon with crayons. Note, if the quantity of wax should prove too small for the quantity of colour, apply with a brush on the back some wax dissolved in turpentine, as described in[Pg 104] the next page, and bring the canvas again to the fire. It is essential in painting with crayons to have the first ground properly prepared.

Second method, to prepare cloth with paper pasted thereon.

Take linen cloth and stretch it upon a frame as the foregoing; then make a paste with fine wheat flour, or starch and water, and when the paste is near boiled enough, put in and mix with it of common horse-turpentine, about half an ounce to six ounces of paste, stir it well together, and let it simmer five or six minutes[Pg 105] longer; then take it from the fire and set it by to cool a little, and while it is still tolerably warm, paste your paper (grey, blue or white) to the cloth in the usual manner, and set it by to dry.—In the mean time put wax, broken in small pieces, to dissolve in oil of turpentine near a fire, and in such proportion that, when dissolved and cold, it will be of consistence like a thin paste, and fluent enough to be managed with a brush.—When your cloth and paper is perfectly dry, hold it over or before a fire, at a convenient distance, and with a brush apply the dissolved wax on both[Pg 106] sides to cloth and paper, and continue laying on wax till you perceive both surfaces equally shining, and there be no imbibed-like spot remaining; this done, let your cloth stand before the fire about half an hour longer, (or in summer in the sun,) and, the oil of turpentine evaporating, the wax will become firm again, and be fit to receive any tint or colour for a ground to work upon, which you must lay on and fix as the foregoing upon cloth without paper, and when cool you may go to work.

Preparation. There is no particular or uncommon preparation or composition required for encaustic, all crayons hitherto commonly used may be employed; some great lights only will be wanted for every set of tints; for what has been said on colours, and their growing deeper when fixed with wax, penciling system Art. II. page 29, 30. holds equally here; therefore every artist, that may be inclined to make a trial in this manner, will do[Pg 108] well to make an essay of all his tints, by preparing a piece of cloth as directed in the foregoing article, and giving a few strokes of each crayon and fixing it, this will immediately shew what new tints will be wanted.

In composing any new tint it will be well to leave out fullers-earth, pipe-clay, chalk, and other calcarious matters13 which are generally used in the common way; the former—to bind the[Pg 109] looser colours; the latter—to keep up the flake-white and white-lead, which otherwise would turn black; in encaustic those matters are wanted for none of the above ends; flake-white and white-lead will not change, and both together will make a body sufficiently connected to bind the lighter tints.

All colours used in oil and mentioned in the foregoing list, are good for crayons, and no others.

Note. What has been said at the end of the list of colours, that a few more colours, not commonly employed in oil,[Pg 110] might be used for crayons, was a mistake of the author’s upon his experimental table; there are but two more that may be used for crayons, viz. bice and verditer.

The use of the crayons in encaustic is the very same as commonly practised, there is no difference; you must work and paint upon the waxed ground as you do upon the bare paper. Encaustic has the advantage over the common way as to expedition. The fine grittiness procured by the particles of the chalk mixed with the ground you work upon, will file off more colour from the[Pg 111] crayon than the grain of the unwaxed paper; and the wax diffused through the ground will retain the colours better; so that when you sweeten your tints with your finger there will be no waste; for in working, the particles of the colour will intrude themselves into the body of the wax, which yields to them; which paper, bare or prepared with a ground tempered with gum or size, does not.

For fixing the crayons you must act and proceed in every respect, according to the directions given penciling system Art. IV. page 35, 36, &c. you may retouch, and apply the dissolved wax on the back, and bring the picture to the fire as often as required.

Observations on the system for painting with crayons.

For painting with crayons I should prefer cloth prepared according to the first method, without paper, for the same reason I gave for deviating from Count Caylus’s system, page 48, 49. however, artists may decide for themselves.

Besides the two methods mentioned for preparing the cloth, one might paint upon paper pasted upon cloth as directed, without first laying on any wax or preparatory ground; but such paintings would not have that lasting solidity they[Pg 114] ought; besides, laying on a ground preparatory and analogous in hue to the subject to be painted, is more expeditious, as such a ground may be made to serve for a half tint, and answers the purpose of dead colouring.

Turpentine enters in the paste for one great and principal end, viz. to keep the particles of the paste a little asunder, and facilitate to the wax a free passage through it; for the particles of turpentine diffused through the paste, in melting, when the picture is brought near the fire, open so many equi-distant channels for the wax, which, by this means,[Pg 115] can penetrate freely and uniformly, and diffuse itself over the whole in equal proportion; without the turpentine it would not succeed so well; the wax would only come through here and there; the colours would in a manner be calcined before a sufficient quantity could penetrate to secure them; for though there will be wax enough for the first fixing, yet, to alter or retouch, or where an extraordinary great body of colours might be employed, there might be a deficiency of wax, which cannot be supplied otherwise than by laying it on, on the back, and if it could not[Pg 116] work its passage through the whole might miscarry.14

As few artists compose the crayons themselves, and as inserting directions for that purpose would have swelled this treatise too much; the author, for the conveniency of all practitioners has given the recipe of proportion for composing every tint for what it is to be when fixed, to Mr. Sandys, colour-merchant, in Dirty-lane Longacre, of whom perfect sets may[Pg 117] be had; and as the author has communicated the recipe, for binding the most difficult colours,15 for the benefit of the art, without fee or reward whatsoever, those crayons will be sold at the usual price. At the above place, may be had cloth or paper ready prepared on short notice.

However, if any artist should chuse to prepare the crayons himself, he will do well to leave out the pipe-clay, fullers-earth, chalk, &c. as much as possible, and mix his tints as[Pg 118] usual. The standard recommended under Art. II. page 29, 30. and explained page 55, 56. will be of service for ascertaining beforehand the value of each tint.

If any crayon prepared for the old way, should prove too hard for this, as may be the case with vermilion, bice, verditer, and the other looser colours, in whose composition enters a little paste to bind them, sprinkle those crayons with a brush dipt in spirit of wine, and they will become manageable.

On the apparent characters of encaustic paintings, on wax and varnish.

1. The colours have all the airiness of water colours, and all the strength of paintings in oil, without partaking of the apparent character, or defects of either.

2. You may look at and enjoy a picture in any light; the colours are bright, fresh and[Pg 120] lively without glaring. They require no varnish.

3. The colours are firm, without being brittle, and will bear scratching without receiving any harm.

The effect of the colours is the same in both systems, each will have and preserve its peculiar character, as to the manner of painting; if you paint your subject in the light and airy stile of the Carlo Marat school, when the colours will be fixed you will have the high colouring of Rubens.

On WAX.

It is not material for me to decide which of the two ought to be preferably employed, bees-wax simple, or virgin-wax.—For large works that will be exposed to the air, I should prefer the former; artists will see by a few trials which will suit their taste best.

On VARNISH.

Varnishes are not required, as has already been observed; but as our eyes have been used so much to see colours, not in their natural hue, but disguised by varnish, those[Pg 122] that should like to please themselves in this point may use the following method.

First lay on with a clean spunge a substantial lay of the white of eggs, and work it well upon the picture. This dry, lay on any varnish commonly used for oil painting, and your picture will look as if painted with oil-colours.

This varnish may be taken off at pleasure, the uppermost by rubbing the surface of the picture with a rag dipped in spirit of wine or turpentine, the white of eggs by washing the picture with water. It is[Pg 123] not adviseable to lay a varnish of spirits or gums, without first using the white of eggs, as spirit of turpentine is the menstruum of wax.

To adopt and practise in earnest any new system without sufficient trials and proofs of its merit, may be called going wilfully astray.—To avoid deceiving myself in the new system before us, I, after having been convinced of its advantageous practicability, set about to ascertain the other great point, the stability of the colours; for this end, and to know more exactly how much every colour would vary from its original hue in a certain space of time, as well in regard to the same system as in[Pg 125] opposition to oil-colours, I proceeded as follows.

Experiment the first and principal, 1757.

I had all the colours used in oil painting, mentioned in the foregoing list, carefully ground with water, at Mr. Sandys’s, colour-merchant, and from those colours I composed ninety various and sensibly differing tints, for flesh, drapery and landscape; of each tint I had a quantity of a two ounce gallipot full, tempered with water; so I left them well screened from dust till they were become dry again; then I[Pg 126] divided each mass of tint in four equal parts; two of each I set by for the comparative use, the other two parts of each I employed in the following manner.

One part of each I tempered again with water, and painted with it over a space of cloth of six inches wide and two inches high, the tints close to each other, in the manner of copper-plate, page 58, and the cloth waxed as directed Art. IV. page 26. The same I did with the entire and unmixed colours.

The other parts of each tint I tempered with the finest nut-oil according to custom, and painted-over with them such another space of six inches by two, as the former, upon oil-cloth. The same I did with the entire colours, and set them by to dry; when dry, I brought the encaustic tints near the fire, and by melting the wax fixed them.

My tints thus ready, I cut each piece of cloth, encaustic and oil-tints, in five equal parts, and disposed of a piece of each in the following manner.

1. One piece of each I exposed in the open air to all the injuries of sun, dew, wind and rain.

3. One piece of each I nailed to the ceiling of a kitchen and near the chimney, where all the year round a fire was kept.

5. One piece of each I put between several quires of paper,[Pg 129] and confined them in a close drawer deprived of air.

Thus I left them, till the latter end of October, 1759, (the space of twenty-seven months) when I gathered them. Then I took the two parts of tints I had set by and preserved, and tempering the one with water, and the other with oil, painted the first upon a fresh piece of waxed cloth and fixed them, the other tempered with oil, I painted upon a fresh piece of oil-cloth, and after having washed the old tints, on comparing the new and old colours together found as follows.

The old encaustic entire colours and tints of number 1. seemed to have suffered a considerable change in opposition to the new ones, but compared to their old fellows in oil they looked bright.

I washed them both with common water, and a brush, the encaustic tints recovered a little; oil-tints not.

I brought the encaustic to the fire, and most tints recovered their original hue, and were equal to the new ones, pinks, yellow-orpiment, lake, terra di Siena, and verditer excepted;[Pg 131] the first was partly gone, what remained was dull; the second was grown whiter; lake grown lighter, but had not suffered in beauty of colour; terra di Siena crude, grown rough and dirty; verditer, a little dull.

No. 3. seemed to have suffered by the smoke; but after washing it with a stout brush, and soap and water, it recovered its original hue, pinks, yellow-orpiment, smalt and verditer excepted; the first was sensibly decayed; the second grown darker, inclining towards red-orpiment; the third grown dull, but mixed with Prussian blue[Pg 132] it was as bright as the new; verditer grown dark and dull.

Oil colours did not stand the test so well; their general appearance in opposition to old and new encaustic,—was:

The foregoing tints were all fixed with virgin-wax, which I thought the best; but having at the same time and with the same colours painted upon cloth waxed with common yellow bees-wax, I found that the latter in the open air preserved the colours rather better.

Experiment the second.

I washed the foregoing tints with a strong lixivium of pot-ash, vinegar, spirit of wine, a solution of sea salt, and aqua fortis.

By this operation the oil-colours were entirely destroyed, the encaustic suffered nothing, only smalt grew darker; but after scraping it and bringing it again to the fire, it recovered its tone.

I have still a little scrap of a picture, a landscape, by me, which has undergone all the[Pg 135] abovementioned trials and more, for I took it from the frame and folded it in four, put it upon the frame again, and brought to the fire and the folds disappeared,—the colours are as fresh as if painted but yesterday. On examining it close one may perceive it suffered violence, but at a yard’s distance no marks appear.

Experiment on oil-colours.

Having perceived that oil-colours, painted upon a waxed ground always appeared brighter upon an oil-cloth; I, to come at the knowledge of the cause of this effect, contrived[Pg 136] various experiments, but without success; at last I made microscopical observations, and found that oil-colours painted upon an oil-cloth undergo a great fermentation, five or six hours after being laid on, and continue so till they are dry. Then they begin to overcast, and by degrees cover the surface with a yellowish, grey substance, not to be washed or rubbed off but with a knife.

Among the very same colours painted upon an encaustic ground I could perceive no such fermentation, or overcasting.—From this we may conjecture that the priming, or[Pg 137] ground we work upon is more the cause of the colours changing than the colours themselves, very likely owing to the desecated saline particles of the oil, which are dissolved by and mix with the new oil and colours; or to the superabundant quantity of salts contained in the ground or priming, which is generally composed of the coarsest oil and colours, and frequently half chalk.

Though this latter experiment has nothing to do with encaustic, it will find its application and owner.

To prove the stability of encaustic colours, I have mentioned but two experiments; they are sufficient; from them we may draw the following

Conclusions.

First, that encaustic colours, having resisted the injuries of the weather better than oil-colours, for the space of twenty-seven months, they will prove more lasting than oil-colours for a greater space of time.

Secondly, that having resisted the effects of the corrosives, alkali and aqua fortis, &c. the circumambient air, howsoever impregnated with[Pg 139] saline particles, cannot affect them.

Thirdly, that if pictures of this kind receive any hurt, fire will restore them.

The most celebrated men of antiquity, celebrated the performances of their painters; if their colours had not been as lasting as their skill was great, some one might have left us regretful instances. They left us none.

As the foregoing Treatise is written and published with an intention to communicate a discovery that will prove of infinite advantage to the loveliest of arts, in all its branches; the author, conscious of wanting the necessary qualifications of a writer in a language not natural to him, hopes for indulgence, for all the inaccuracies and improprieties of expression he may and must have fallen into: as to facts, he begs leave to assure the public, that nothing has been advanced but what is strictly true.

If any artist or others should in practising be at a loss or stand for any thing, the author shall always be willing and ready to give them farther light on any occasion.

The treatise on Practical Painting in general, which was to have been published together with this, as has been intimated to the public in an advertisement of the third of January, will be published as soon as possible; the author being engaged in a work of a very extensive nature, had not time to bring it in perfect order himself; a gentleman and friend of his has been so kind as to undertake the finishing and correcting of it; it will soon be ready for the press.

2 Though the Abbé does not quote the passage, one may guess it must be the following the count undertook to explain. Pliny lib. xxxv. chap. 11.

“Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere quis primus excogitaverit non constat: quidam Aristidis inventum putant, posteà consummatum à Praxitele. Sed aliquanto vetustiores Encausticæ Picturæ exstitere, ut Polignoti & Nicanoris, & Arcesilai Pariorum. Lysippus quoque Æginæ Picturæ suæ inscripsit, ἐνεκαυσεν, quod profecto non fecisset nisi encaustica inventa.”

Which may be told in plain English thus, “Who first invented to paint with (or in) wax, and burn in (or fix) the picture with fire, is not certainly known. Some think Aristides invented it, and that Praxiteles brought it to perfection; but there were pictures by masters, of a much older date; such as of Polignote, Nicanor and Arcesilaus, all artists of Paros.

“Lysippus writ upon his pictures he burnt in, which he would not have done if the encaustic had not been invented then.”

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Introductory account of Encaustic Painting	page 1
Article the first, preparation of the cloth for painting in encaustic	26
Art. the second, of the colours, and their preparation and use	29
Art. the third, how to paint over or alter any part before the picture has been near the fire	33
Art. the fourth, how to fix the colours	35
Art. the fifth, how to retouch any part after the colours are fixed	40
Observations on Art. the first	41
—— Count Caylus’s method of preparing the cloth	43
—— Reasons for deviating from the count’s method	45
—— How to paint upon walls	49
—— How to paint upon wood, stone, &c.	50
—— How to paint upon paper	51
Observations on Art. the second; on grinding the colours	53
—— How to ascertain the just value of each colour	55
Observations on Art. the third, advantages of Encaustic painting over oil and size-painting	60
Observations on Art. the fourth, various methods for applying the fire to a picture	63
Observations on Art. the fifth, on retouching after the colours are fixed	67
List of the colours, white	74
—— Yellows	76
—— Pinks	82
—— Reds	84
—— Terra di Siena and terra verte	88
—— Blues	91
—— Blacks	92
—— Collens earth	94
—— Umbra	95
Method of painting with and fixing of the crayons	97
Art. the first, first method to prepare the cloth	102
—— Second method	104
Art. the second, of the crayons; their preparation	107
—— And use	110
Art. the third, how to fix the crayons	112
Observations on the system for painting with crayons	113
Remarks on the apparent character of encaustic paintings	119
—— On wax	121
—— On varnish	ibid.
Experiments	124
—— First	125
—— Second	134
Experiments on oil-colours	135
Conclusions	138

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Encaustic: Or, Count Caylus's method of painting in the manner of the ancients.

ENCAUSTIC PAINTING.

ENCAUSTIC: OR, Method of Painting In the Manner of the Ancients.

Extract of a Letter1 From the Abbé Mazeas, F. R. S.

ART. I.

ART. II.

ART. III.

ART. IV.

ART. V.

Observations on article the first.

Observations on Article the second.

Observations on Article the third.

Observations on Article the fourth.

Observations on Art. the fifth and last.

List of the Colours To be USED for Painting in Encaustic; AS ALSO FOR THE Composing of the Crayons.

WHITE.

YELLOWS.

PINKS.

REDS.

BLUES.

BLACKS.

COLLENS EARTH.

UMBRA, Crude and calcined.

ENCAUSTIC;

ART. I.

Preparation of the cloth, or paper, for painting with crayons.

Second method, to prepare cloth with paper pasted thereon.

ART. II.

ART. III.

Observations on the system for painting with crayons.

General Remarks

On WAX.

On VARNISH.

EXPERIMENTS.

Experiment the first and principal, 1757.

Experiment the second.

Experiment on oil-colours.

Conclusions.

Advertisement.

FOOTNOTES:

Table of Contents.

Transcriber’s Notes

THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE

ENCAUSTIC
PAINTING.

ENCAUSTIC:
OR,
Method of Painting
In the Manner of the Ancients.

Extract of a Letter1
From the Abbé Mazeas, F. R. S.

List of the Colours
To be USED for
Painting in Encaustic;
AS ALSO FOR THE
Composing of the Crayons.