Preface

The want of a sufficiently extensive investigation of original authorities relating to the early practice of oil painting has led to various contradictory theories; and the uncertainty which has been the result has too often induced an impression that the excellence of art, in former ages, depended on some technical advantages which have been lost. It [p. v] is the object of the present work to supply, as far as possible, the facts and authorities which have hitherto been wanting, so as to enable the reader to form a tolerably accurate notion respecting the origin and purpose of the methods described, and to estimate the influence of the early characteristics of the art even on its consummate practice. Whatever may be the value of the methods in question considered in themselves, a knowledge of them cannot fail to be, at least indirectly, useful. It is hoped that by substituting an approach to historical evidence for the vagueness of speculation, and by rendering it possible for modern professors to place themselves in the situation of their great predecessors in regard to merely technical circumstances, one source of interruption, if not of discouragement, in the study of the more essential qualities of art, will be removed. At the same time, the author trusts that details relating to the careful processes which were familiar in the best ages of painting will not lead the inexperienced to mistake the means for the end; but only teach them not to disdain even the mechanical operations which have contributed to confer durability on the productions of the greatest masters.

The author has, for the most part, confined himself to the description and explanation of the [ p. vi] processes which were adopted at different times in certain schools, without entering into the discussion of their comparative merits. A mere collection of materials, though presented in due order, must, to a certain extent, assume an unconnected form: this will, perhaps, not be objected to by those who are chiefly desirous of verifying statements relating to practical details by documentary evidence. The minuter circumstances and descriptions adduced are to be regarded as connecting links in a chain of evidence which, especially when novel or when differing from received opinions, it was essential to fortify. As regards the interpretation of the various documents which have been brought together, the author has been careful, in all technical points, and indeed in all apparently questionable cases, to give the original passages together with his translations.

The history of oil painting divides itself into two sections; one relating to the Flemish, the other to the Italian system. The Flemish method, the investigation of which forms the subject of the present volume, necessarily precedes the other: the earliest traces of the art are found in the North, and the process which was invented or improved in Flanders was there developed with reference to a peculiar climate. The modifications [p. vii] which that process underwent in Italy may be the subject of inquiry hereafter.

The original materials to which the author has had access during the prosecution of his task have been numerous: accounts of several are added in the form of notes at the end of some of the chapters, and elsewhere in the work. The National Records have furnished many hitherto unpublished and curious facts; and the author, not forgetting his obligations to the Commissioners on the Fine Arts, who supported his application to obtain extracts from these documents, takes this opportunity of thanking the authorities in the Record Offices for their valuable aid. To the officers in the British Museum, for their no less important assistance, he also begs to express his acknowledgments.

As interesting MA. [the Mappæ Clavicula ] in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillips, Bart., has been recently published, edited by Mr. Albert Way, the Director of the Sociey of Antiquaries: it was desirable that the author should see this treatise, some months since, before it appeared in print, and its possessor had the goodness to allow him to inspect a copy. The author is indebted to Mr. Lewis Gruner for procuring him a copy of a valuable MS. of the fifteenth century, which is preserved in the Public Library at Strassburg. Mr. Robert [p. viii] Hendrie, jun., whose translation of Theophilus has just appeared, has been fortunate in bringing to light, from among the treasures of the British Museum, various other MSS. relating to painting, and has, in a very liberal spirit, pointed them out to the writer of this work. The most important is the MS. of Sir Theodore de Mayerne; the extracts which are inserted in the latter part of this volume, numerous as they are, give but an imperfect idea of the value of De Mayerne's notes. Mr. Hendrie has stated that he intends, with the permission of the Trustees of the Museum, to publish the entire work.

The inquiry proposed in regard to the history of Italian painting may hereafter be assisted by a reference to some copies of MSS. which the author owes to the kindness of Colonel Rawdon, M. P. Mrs. Merrifields, to whom the lovers of art and archæology are already indebted for her translation of Cennini and for other works, has, it is understood, succeeded in obtaining copies of several interesting documents preserved in Italian libraries: these will probably, ere long, be published; and it is believed that they will be of great assistance to the author, or to any other person better qualified for the task, in investigating the history of technical processes in Italy. [p. ix]