![]() ![]() There are more sustained passages of black in Maerten van Heemskerck’s The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c 1530). Maerten van Heemskerck (1498-1574), The Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c 1530), oil on panel, 57.7 x 74.7 cm, The National Gallery of Art (Samuel H. Giovanni Bellini (c 1430–1516) and Titian (–1576), The Feast of the Gods (detail) (1514-1529), oil on canvas, 170.2 × 188 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. Although they were probably sparing in their use of black, the large black bird seen in the middle of the gods, in the detail below, appears to have been painted almost entirely using Charcoal Black. Giovanni Bellini used Charcoal Black pigment in his The Feast of the Gods (1514-1529), his last painting which was completed after his death by Titian. Giovanni Bellini (c 1430–1516) and Titian (–1576), The Feast of the Gods (1514-1529), oil on canvas, 170.2 × 188 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. But in general such drawings are not intended to be finished works in their own right, and are all too often ephemeral. Some works in charcoal have attained cult status, including Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist, popularly known as The Burlington House Cartoon (c 1499-1500). Courtesy of and © The National Gallery, London. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and the Infant Saint John the Baptist (The Burlington House Cartoon) (c 1499-1500), charcoal (and wash?) heightened with white chalk on paper, mounted on canvas, 141.5 x 104.6 cm, The National Gallery (Purchased with special grants, 1962), London. Careful selection or trained growth produces sticks of varying density and properties which have been widely used for drawing, and are commonly found in the underdrawings of oil paintings. There have been many alternative sources, including the mineral graphite (a layered carbon crystal), and carbon from the combustion of almost anything else, including ivory, animal bone, seeds, and organic fuels such as oils.Ĭharcoal is readily made, and its manufacture is still a traditional woodland industry. The first and, until relatively recently, most popular source has been charcoal made by the controlled charring of plant matter, particularly thinner branches and twigs of trees and shrubs. Traditionally, single-pigment blacks have relied on elemental carbon – the Carbon Blacks. Yet, from all the evidence of prehistoric cave paintings, black was the first colour in the palette, and the first pigment used by humans. For centuries they argued over which was the blackest of blacks, then along came the Impressionists who tried to tell us that we should never paint a true black anywhere. For something which many say is not a colour in its own right, merely the absence of colour and light, black has attracted a lot of attention among painters.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |