Donald Farnsworth 2018 Good paper, a few scratches in black ink, Method Cinquecento some red to set off the black, and there (as Aesculapius had the habit of saying to Thessalonians) you are. In short, ‘let paper do most of the work.’ Oswald Cooper ISBN: 978-0-9799164-7-2 MAGNOLIA EDITIONS 2527 Magnolia St, Oakland CA 94607 Donald S. Farnsworth www.magnoliapaper.com 2018 Copyright © 2018 Donald Farnsworth, all rights reserved. Any person is hereby authorized to view, copy, print and distribute this document for information- al and non-commercial purposes only. Any copy of this document or portion thereof must include this copyright notice. Unless otherwise noted, all image credits: Donald Farnsworth. Version date: August 9, 2018. Contents Introduction 1 Papermaking methods 3 I: Felt Hair Marks 7 The search for coarse heritage wool felts 8 The ideal felt hair texture 10 A Short History on Navajo-Churro 12 Coarsely-toothed paper with felt hair marks 14 A closer look at the gift of paper texture 16 Graphite tests on modern vs felt hair marked papers 17 II: Back Marks 19 Back – Derivation 20 Back mark – Formation 22 Back mark – Citations 23 Back mark’s mechanical advantage 24 Finding depictions of back marks 25 Back mark location in period documents 26 Book formats 27 Back marks: folio 28 Back marks: quarto 29 Wandering back marks 30 Back marks in works on paper 32 The unavoidable back mark 33 Back marks within a spur 35 Back marks: Works on paper – full sheets 36 Distinguishing back marks... 40 III: Paper’s Two-Sidedness 43 Paper’s two-sidedness... 44 Wire or felt side: which did Renaissance... 46 Two-sidedness, back marks and a folded corner 47 Manufacture flaws for side identification 48 Wire & felt side color & value shift 50 IV: Process 53 Black and red quarried chalk, chalk holders, linen and hemp paper List of textural artifacts 54 Fiber preparation: letting microbes... 55 Beating and Sheet Formation 56 Drying and sizing 58 V: Freeness, Linen, Hemp and Cotton 61 The importance of freeness confirmed by science 62 More about linen, hemp and cotton 64 Cutting natural red chalk 66 VI: Media Tests 67 Selected Bibliography 80 Notes 81 iv v Acknowledgments 82 Introduction esearch & re-creation: Renaissance-style Rpaper for contemporary artists Contemporary artists wishing to try their hand at drawing or painting on linen and hemp papers simi- lar to those used by Leonardo or Michelangelo would be well advised to forego the disappointment of try- ing to buy such papers at an art supply store. For all of the myriad varieties of paper in existence – many created and marketed specifically with artists in mind – not a single contemporary paper, whether mass-pro- duced or made by hand, offers the strength nor the endless variety of surface textures imprinted into the What would an Old Master drawing in “red chalk over traces of black chalk” look like without paper? This pile of chalk on a slab of Old Masters’ papers by coarse woolen felts. marble offers one distinctly underwhelming possibility. The re-creating of early European paper requires the modern-day papermaker to jettison much of the gen- The lack of extant research and scholarship regarding erally accepted doctrine of the late 19th-century Arts important artifacts in paper reflects an unfortunate and Crafts papermaking revival, which has guided art-historical tendency to ignore the sheet entirely most handmade paper studios for the last century. The when exhibiting works on paper – often recording appropriate pre-industrial devices must be assem- the medium as simply “ink” or “black chalk” with bled1: in particular, I have found that non-woven felts barely a mention of the ground upon which this pig- of coarse heritage wool are one of the most important ment rests. tools necessary to reach beyond the predictable sur- face textures of Arts and Crafts-style paper. Mean- while, dispensing with the axiom that “paper is made in the beater,” I have come to believe that some charac- teristics of Renaissance papers are actually made in the compost bin – i.e., during the retting process. In my quest to produce a decent sheet of linen, hemp and sisal paper that looks, feels, and reacts like the paper an Old Master may have used, I have made hundreds of flaws in the paper and at every stage of the process (Figure 7, p. 52). Every naturally occurring and handmade flaw is instructional and some, if not most, are desirable. Such marks create a varied land- scape like a unique fingerprint in every sheet of paper, reminiscent of the Heraclitan maxim: “You cannot step Museum wall text for this Michelangelo drawing describes the twice in the same river.” Likewise, on cinquecento pa- medium as “Red chalk over black-chalk underdrawing” with Jost Amman’s 1568 woodcut depicting papermaking (Der Papyrer, from the Book of Trades) per one cannot draw the same stroke of chalk twice, no description or even a mention of the “support” – the sheet as the underlying paper texture that defines the stroke of paper that provided an important textural counterpoint to is never the same. While most humans may now re- the maestro’s mark-making (in fact, a most intriguing sheet: see p. 36). A standardized syntax would allow an exhibition of gard paper artifacts as undesirable flaws, it is possible works on paper to provide more descriptive commentary on the that some Renaissance artists selected a sheet precisely paper’s characteristics. because it possessed an intriguing, idiosyncratic and unique texture. 1 Papermaking methods & resultant texture It is easy to erroneously assume that Renaissance My goal is not to radically change anyone’s opinion of rior to the Industrial Revolution, most European production paper was papers were made in accordance with homogeneous a particular paper, nor to divine the reasons an artist Pmade from composted (retted) and hammer-beaten linen and hemp and standardized contemporary handmade or in- of the Renaissance may have chosen a specific sheet rags and sisal rope. Sheets were formed on what are now called “antique dustrial paper processes – yet there is a visible and (e.g., surface texture, dimensions, weight, econom- laid” moulds, a ribbed wood-frame fitted with a sieve-like wire screen. A significant difference between their heterogeneous ic necessity, scarcity, availability, etc.) – but rather, to vatman standing at a vat filled with pulp (furnish) scooped up the slurry landscapes and the relatively dull and predictable make a similar, coarsely hair-textured handmade pa- of dilute, hammer-pounded linen and hemp onto the laid wire covering of surfaces of the papers marketed to contemporary per available to artist friends and colleagues. Artists’ the mould; as the water drained, a layer of wet fiber was deposited on the artists. The lasting aura and appeal of Renaissance cravings and desires haven’t changed all that much screen surface of the mould. drawings must be attributed, at least in part, to the over the past 500 years – simply offer a contemporary unique qualities of that era’s paper. Sadly, it seems artist a sheet of interesting, unique and versatile pa- Arlene Suda at the vat forming a sheet This dripping wet, newly formed layer of pulp drained in seconds; the quite likely that conservators and misdirected “re- per and their eyes light up, their spirits lifted as they wooden deckle was removed, the mould (passed to the coucher) was deft- storers” of an earlier era, unaware of artifacts such contemplate the paper’s potential, like a carver who ly inverted and the wet mat of fibers was transferred (couched) onto a as the loft drying back mark (p. 22), might have en- looks at a block of marble and sees the Pietà ready to woolen felt while the vatman formed another sheet on a twin mould us- countered such marks (misidentifying as a crease) emerge. The goal of my quest is to deliver to this com- ing the same deckle. The “vat man” and “coucher” repeated this process, and used moistening, relaxing and flattening to rid munity an anti-corporate, non-Arts-&-Crafts-Move- building up a large stack of alternating paper and felt, known as a post. the work of such a “flaw” – thus unwittingly rein- ment, non-Industrial-Revolution paper which will re- venting and smoothing the history of the work. Per- ceive chalk and ink marks as rugged yet beautifully as The sheets in the post were pressed multiple times before being air dried in haps more information, attention, and insight will some papers did five hundred years ago: a paper with the upper stories of the paper mill called the drying loft. The paper’s first one day subvert and kill the contemporary confu- tantalizing flaws and inconsistencies. post pressing, between felts, removed the bulk of the water and required sion or indifference to the substrate that documents Couching on coarse non-woven Churro felt the most pressure (50 psi or so). In the second pressing, called pack press- our world and which the Old Masters employed to Many surviving Old Master drawings are stunning ing, the damp sheets were separated (parted) from the felts and were gen- such great effect. in their facility and draftsmanship, while others are tly pressed stacked and in contact with one another (at about 5.5 psi). For merely dashed off sonnets, scribbles, and to-do lists; finer, less textured paper, the sheets were separated while still wet from Treasured cinquecento works on paper were not hand-manufactured sheets of paper lent a gravitas to the second pressing, shuffled, and re-pressed. With each additional shuf- created by a single hand.