Color Enlivens Black and White Renaissance Prints

I round the corner into the recreation of an artist's studio. A wooden table and bench complete with palette, brushes, paints, stencils, and paper show the work area. I am ready to pull up the bench and start working. A display table holds forty white porcelain bowls with materials in animal, vegetable or mineral form used to make paint. What an array of vivid colors! The materials would be bought from an apothecary shop. Pigment would be ground to a powder and mixed with a medium (binding agent) in pebble form like gum arabic from the tree or glue from rabbit skin. It took a full day to process one pound of vermilion into a suitable pigment. This room was totally engaging, making me feel an integral part of the exhibit.

Placards explain that Renaissance colorists applied paint freehand using brushes, or in a more methodical method using stencils. With stencils, parts of a print of the same color are applied at one time. Thus, broad areas of color can be applied more quickly. Quality is variable: thin paints leak under the edges of the stencils and run over the lines, and stencils are sometimes not lined up properly.

Colors are limited to yellow, green, red, brown and black. Application generally starts with the lighter washes first, next darker more opaque colors like green and black, and highlights of gold, silver and white are applied last. As with any mass-produced art, work ranges from simple prints of marginal quality done in a hurry, to ones of exquisite detail and sophisticated workmanship. Without fail, the use of color enhances viewers' enjoyment and understanding of the prints.

On one wall hang three broadsheets. Broadsheets are a type of sign or poster consisting of a printed image with accompanying text that describes news, current events, or social commentary during the time of the Renaissance. Frequently these were adhered directly to walls for adornment and have not survived. The first broadsheet, "Battle for the Trousers," shows a husband and wife fighting over a pair of pants to see who will be in control. The caption reads, obviously in the words of the woman, "Keep still you knavish scum or you'll taste my fists." The battle between the sexes - Renaissance style. Even so, it could pass as a cartoon of today. According to the exhibit, this print is an inexpensive example, done "slapdash" in colors that have long

Go To Page: 1 2 3

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic