On Time the Consumer, with Painters' Colour Notes
A literary apostrophe to time, a book-owner's inscription, and recipes for shadow and flesh tones
A two-column literary and workshop page, its lower right disfigured by a large stain. The left column carries an address to the Greeks and Ulysses and the famous repeated apostrophe 'O time, consumer of things,' with Helen weeping at her wrinkles in the mirror. The right column turns to a painter's palette, listing pigments for shadow, light and middle shadows, while pen-trials, an owner's inscription and jottings about 'Caterina' are scattered across the sheet.
On this page
O time, consumer of things
A repeated apostrophe addresses time and 'envious antiquity' that destroy and consume all things by the hard teeth of old age, little by little with slow death. Helen, seeing in her mirror the withered wrinkles of age, weeps and wonders to herself why she was carried off twice.
Ulysses and the deeds unwitnessed
The column opens with an address to the Greeks: the speaker's deeds need no recounting since they were seen, whereas Ulysses must tell his own, which he did without witnesses and of which only the dark night is aware.
Colour recipes for shadow, light and flesh
A painter's note lists pigments: shadow of black and ochre; light of white lead, yellow-green, red lead and lake. For middle shadows he takes the shadow from above and mixes it with the flesh-colour, adding a little yellow, a little green and at times some lake.
Green and lake in the deeper shadows
Written vertically along the central fold, a brief note directs the painter to use green and lake in the middle shadows and in the dark ones.
Owner's inscription and everyday jottings
The sheet carries an ownership line, 'this book belongs to Michele di Francesco Bernardini and his descendants,' amid pen-trials. Scattered phrases ask to be told how things pass over there and whether Caterina wishes to do something.