Preparing a Panel for Painting; Shadow and Statue Proportion
Opening leaf of Notebook A: a panel recipe, a window-shadow experiment, and how to measure a figure
This opening leaf of Notebook A gathers a painter's working notes. A recipe explains how to prepare a wood panel of cypress, pear, service-tree, or walnut, bracing it in a frame so it may swell or shrink and sealing it with turpentine, white lead, and boiled linseed oil before the first coat of colour is laid in. A shadow experiment considers how a window (labeled a b) enlarges the sun's image and shrinks a man's shadow at their point of contact. Further notes prescribe drawing a nude with a plumb line and dividing a statue's head into degrees, points, minutes, and minima, illustrated by four diminishing measures at the foot of the page.
On this page
Recipe for preparing a wood panel to be painted
The panel is to be of cypress, pear, service-tree, or walnut, fixed with mastic, twice-distilled turpentine, and white lead, and set in a frame so it can stretch or shrink with humidity. It is then treated with alcohol and arsenic, boiled linseed oil, varnish, and white lead, washed with urine, pounced, outlined, and given a first coat of verdigris and yellow.
The window a b, the sun, and a man's shadow
If window a b lets sunlight into the house, the sun enlarges the window while diminishing the man's shadow. Where his indistinct shadow meets the shadow of the true window, the strong light confuses their edges so the contact closes and blocks the solar rays.
To portray a nude from life with a plumb line
To draw a nude from nature, or anything else, make a habit of holding a plumb line in your hand. In this way you can check the true vertical alignments of the parts.
Measures and subdivisions of a statue
Divide the head into twelve degrees, each degree into twelve points, each point into twelve minutes, the minutes into minimums, and the minimums into semi-minimums. This yields a fine hierarchy of measure for proportioning a statue.
The scale of measures: degree, point, minute, minimum
Four successively shorter pen-strokes at the foot of the folio illustrate the diminishing units. They are labeled degree, point, minute, and minimum.