UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Paintings in the laboratory: scientific examination for art history and conservation dr. Groen, C.M. Publication date 2011 Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): dr. Groen, C. M. (2011). Paintings in the laboratory: scientific examination for art history and conservation. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. 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UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:01 Oct 2021 Stichtitg Foundation Rembrandt ResearchProject A CORPI.-TSOF' REMBRAI{DT PAINTII{GS trRI\ST VAN Dtr WtrTE,RIi\G utith contributionsbS,t KARIN GROEN,PtrTER KLEIN, JAAPVAN DERVEEN, I\{ARIEKE DE WINKEL with thecollaboration of PAULBROEKHOFF, MICHIEL FRANKEN,LIDEKE PEESEBINKHORST translatedbi JENNIFERKILIAN, KATY KIST, MURRAY PEARSON à Springer Of this edition a limited number of copieshave been speciallybound and numbered' Subscribersto the complete special bound set will receive subsequentvolumes with an identical number' Disclairner volume (I\'f, and the Tlis is a publication of the Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project The opinions expressedin tiris for pr.r.io.-,riy published volumes I-III iï ttre Seriesr{ Corpusof RanbrandtPaintings, should bè understood as "opinions" that are m.eant time of publication' ;;;J;; irr. opinions representthe Founáation'sbest judgmentbased on availableinformation at the "Jy, are subjgc-tto.change The opinions are not statementsor representations of fact nor aïarranty_ of authenticity_of.a-work-of art and in the past u* sch'oturrnip and academic informàtion about an individual rvork of art changes..Opinions irave been changgd of a rvork of art ,..o.ái"g to'nerv insights and scholar.ship.k should be understood that forming an opinio:r as.to the authenticity not capable of p"ó"rtrïg to be by Rïmbrandt is often very difiicult and will in most casesdepeád upón sui:jective criteria which are o{any kinrl' proof or absolute certainry Therefore, the tonclusions expressed.in the volumes are-onlyopinions andtnot àwaïtaÍrY nor the authors, ih;à;u,.1i;;r""o, á..ií. any rights from these opinions. Neither the Foundation, nor the members of its board, u"y Ou*:g':,\:-t!Í04, nor the cooperator.s,,-ro, uny oíhe."purti.i engagedL the Rembrandt Research?roject_accept any-liability.fo.. rn trrese including any indiréct o1".onreq,r.ntial damagei or lossesand costs.Anyone is free to disagree with the opinions exPressed volumes. E. Lerner (Sidley Austin Brown & We are gratefui for the help of René J.Q, Klomp {stibbe Lau1.ers, Amsterdam) and Ralph Wood Lawyers, New York) Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project Published by Springer, A CORPUS OF REMBRAN-DT PAINTINGS IV P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, the Netherlands lwwv. springeronline. com O 2005, Stichting Foundation Rembrandt Research Project All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be or transmitted in ISBN-IO 1-4020-3280-3 {this volume) reproàuced, stored in a retrieval system, ISBN-13 978-1-4020-3280-6 (this volume) any form or by any means)mechanical, photocgpyrng, . r,vithout the prior wrltten permlsslon ISBN-10 1-4020-3276-5 Qimitednumberededition) recording, or othetwise, ISBN-13 97BJ-4A2A-3276-5 (limited numbered edition) ofthe publishers. Library ofCongress Catalogue Card Nurnber B2-18790 Tlpesetting - Pre Pressbv, Zeist, the Netherlands Prjnring - Ter Roye printing comPany This rvork has been made possible by the financial support of Oostkamp, Belgium the Netherlancls Organisation lor Scienti{ic Research (NWO) Binding - Binderij Callenbach, and the University of Amsterdam (UvA)' Nijkerk, the Netherlands Chapter IV Grounds in Rembrandt’s workshop and in paintings by his contemporaries c. (karin) m. groen A ground, or priming, is applied to a support – canvas, workshop. The results of our research on Rembrandt’s wood etc. – to provide a suitable base on which to paint. canvases (see Volume II, Chapter II)2 seemed to indicate In general, its composition is comparable to that of paint, that they had already been prepared when they entered namely consisting of one or more pigments in a binding his workshop. They could have been purchased from any medium laid on in one or more layers. number of primers, or provided by the individual who The ground’s colour and texture play a role in the commissioned one or more paintings. Accordingly, final effect of the painted surface. The colour largely because the provenance of the primed canvases is un- determines the choice of painting technique. Thus, on a known and the composition of the grounds varies, the white ground the artist can work from light to dark, value of the information on Rembrandt’s grounds whereas on a dark ground the artist works in reverse seemed fairly limited. As outlined below, this situation order, with light highlights often the last strokes to be changed after 1640, when canvases appear to have been applied. From examination of paintings with exposed prepared in Rembrandt’s own workshop on a relatively areas of ground, Rembrandt generally appears to have large scale. Moreover, this was done with a mixture painted on a middle tone, determining the division of unique for Dutch painting of the period, a fact which light and dark in the composition as a whole in an early greatly enhances the relevance of the analytical results. stage of the painting process, with the ground functioning as an intermediary. This made it possible to paint rapidly Research of Rembrandt’s grounds to date and efficiently, while the chiaroscuro, so important in Since 1914, when Raehlmann placed samples from Baroque painting, was almost instantly achieved. paintings under the microscope to identify their pig- ments, a great deal of data has been amassed on the The ground differed depending on the type of support. pigments used by various generations of painters.3 Panels were still mainly used in the Northern Nether- Grounds were largely ignored until ways of preparing the lands in the first quarter of the seventeenth century. microscopic samples and grounds were developed that From c. 1624 on Rembrandt worked on panel, some- facilitated the examination of cross-sections of the paint times on paper. As far as we know, he began working on layers. At best, a ground was initially considered part of canvas only in 1631. Theodore Turquet De Mayerne the observed layer structure.4 Extending over the entire described the preparation of panels in three recipes in his surface of the support and identical in all of the paint Pictoria Sculptoria & quae subalternarum artium, an extensive samples from a single painting, the ground did not seem collection of notes concerning technical aspects of art, the to be a promising area of research. Helmut Ruhemann, earliest dated entry being 1620. The so-called Mayerne conservator at the National Gallery in London, in 1965 Manuscript contains the most important written sources on incorrectly noted that the grounds in Rembrandt’s time painting technique in Rembrandt’s time.1 De Mayerne did not differ much from those in use since the Middle obtained his information from conversations with artists Ages.5 However, in 1968, the National Gallery also pro- and other individuals dealing with artists’ materials, and duced a publication, by Sir Philip Hendy, the Gallery’s from recipes in older books, which he copied, or painter’s director, together with the chief conservator, Arthur exercise books with recipes, which he incorporated in his Lucas, presenting a survey of the grounds from various collection. traditions and periods.6 While this publication remains The value that can be attributed to a knowledge of the valuable, we now have far more information at our composition of ground layers – knowledge acquired disposal on the basis of which we would interpret some of through chemical analysis – depends crucially on know- their examples rather differently.7 From 1990 onwards ing whether the canvases or panels were delivered there has been an increase in publications on white and already primed or whether they were primed in the coloured grounds.8 1 Theodore Turquet De Mayerne, Pictoria Sculptoria & quae subalternarum seventeenth century on canvases. However, from the text in Plesters’ artium, 1620, in: E. Berger, Quellen für Maltechnik während der Renaissance und caption no. 15 it is clear that double, coloured grounds on canvas were deren Folgezeit, Munich 1901. J. A. van de Graaf, Het De Mayerne Manuscript found by the authors in paintings from the seventeenth century in the als bron voor de schildertechniek van de Barok, Mijdrecht 1958. Netherlands. No. 14, Van Dyck, Charles I on horseback, is probably on a 2 See also: Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt. The Painter at Work, Amster- double ground of grey on orange-red and not on a ground of an orange- dam 1997, pp. 91-130. red mixture alone, as suggested in the caption. 3 E. Raehlmann, Über die Farbstoffe der Malerei in den verschiedenen Kunstperioden 8 To name a few: Alain R. Duval, ‘Les préparations colorées des tableaux nach mikroskopischen Untersuchungen, Leipzig 1914.