Oil paintings secrets of the masters. Oil painting course "Technique of the Old Masters"

Secrets of the old masters

Old oil painting techniques

Flemish writing method oil paints

The Flemish method of painting with oil paints basically boiled down to the following: a drawing from the so-called cardboard (a separately executed drawing on paper) was transferred onto a white, smoothly sanded primer. Then the drawing was outlined and shaded with transparent brown paint (tempera or oil). According to Cennino Cennini, even in this form the paintings looked like perfect works. This technique in its further development changed. The surface prepared for painting was covered with a layer oil varnish with an admixture of brown paint, through which the shaded drawing showed through. The pictorial work ended with transparent or translucent glazes or half-body (half-covering), in one step, writing. The brown preparation was left to show through in the shadows. Sometimes they painted on the brown preparation with so-called dead paints (gray-blue, gray-greenish), finishing the work with glazes. The Flemish painting method can be easily traced in many of Rubens' works, especially in his studies and sketches, e.g. triumphal arch“The Apotheosis of Duchess Isabella”

To preserve the beauty of blue paints in oil painting(blue pigments rubbed in oil change their tone), recorded blue paints the places were sprinkled (over the not completely dry layer) with ultramarine or smalt powder, and then these places were covered with a layer of glue and varnish. Oil paintings sometimes glazed with watercolors; To do this, their surface was first wiped with garlic juice.

Italian method of painting with oil paints

The Italians modified the Flemish method, creating a distinctive Italian way of writing. Instead of white primer, the Italians made colored primer; or the white primer was completely covered with some kind of transparent paint. They drew on the gray ground1 with chalk or charcoal (without resorting to cardboard). The drawing was outlined with brown glue paint, which was also used to lay out the shadows and paint the dark draperies. Then they covered the entire surface with layers of glue and varnish, after which they painted with oil paints, starting with laying out the highlights with whitewash. After this, the dried bleach preparation was used to paint in corpus in local colors; Gray soil was left in partial shade. The painting was completed with glazes.

Later they began to use dark gray primers, performing underpainting with two paints - white and black. Even later, brown, red-brown and even red soils were used. The Italian method of painting was then adopted by some Flemish and Dutch masters (Terborch, 1617-1681; Metsu, 1629-1667 and others).

Examples of the use of Italian and Flemish methods.

Titian initially painted on white grounds, then switched to colored ones (brown, red, and finally neutral), using impasto underpaintings, which he made in grisaille2. In Titian's method, writing acquired a significant share at a time, in one go, without subsequent glazes ( Italian name this method alia prima). Rubens mainly worked according to the Flemish method, greatly simplifying the brown wash. He completely covered a white canvas with light brown paint and laid out shadows with the same paint, painted on top with grisaille, then with local tones, or, bypassing the grisaille, painted alia prima. Sometimes Rubens wrote in local more light colors in brown training and graduated painting work glazes. The following, very fair and instructive statement is attributed to Rubens: “Begin to paint your shadows lightly, avoiding introducing into them even an insignificant amount of white: white is the poison of painting and can only be introduced in the highlights. Once whitewash disrupts the transparency, golden tone and warmth of your shadows, your painting will no longer be light, but will become heavy and gray. The situation is completely different with regard to lights. Here the paints can be applied body-wise as needed, but it is necessary, however, to keep the tones pure. This is achieved by placing each tone in its place, one next to the other, so that with a slight movement of the brush you can shade them without, however, disturbing the colors themselves. You can then go through such painting with decisive final blows, which are so characteristic of great masters.”

The Flemish master Van Dyck (1599-1641) preferred corpus painting. Rembrandt most often painted on gray ground, working out the forms with transparent brown paint very actively (darkly), and also used glazes. Strokes various colors Rubens applied one next to another, and Rembrandt overlapped some strokes with others.

A technique similar to the Flemish or Italian - on white or colored soils using impasto masonry and glaze - was widely used until mid-19th century. The Russian artist F. M. Matveev (1758-1826) painted on brown ground with underpainting done in grayish tones. V. L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825) underpainted grisaille on a gray ground. K. P. Bryullov also often used gray and other colored primers, and underpainted with grisaille. In the second half of the 19th century, this technique was abandoned and forgotten. Artists began to paint without the strict system of the old masters, thereby narrowing their technical capabilities.

Professor D.I. Kiplik, speaking about the importance of the color of the primer, notes: Painting with wide, flat light and intense colors (such as the works of Roger van der Weyden, Rubens, etc.) requires a white primer; painting, in which deep shadows predominate, uses a dark primer (Caravaggio, Velasquez, etc.).” “A light primer imparts warmth to the paints applied to it in a thin layer, but deprives them of depth; the dark primer imparts depth to the colors; dark soil with a cold tint - cold (Terborkh, Metsu).”

“To create depth of shadows on a light ground, the effect of the white ground on the paints is destroyed by laying out the shadows with dark brown paint (Rembrandt); strong lights on a dark ground are obtained only by eliminating the effect of the dark ground on the paints by applying a sufficient layer of white in the highlights.”

“Intense cold tones on an intense red primer (for example, blue) are obtained only if the action of the red primer is paralyzed by preparation in a cold tone or the cool-colored paint is applied in a thick layer.”

“The most universal color primer is a light gray primer of a neutral tone, since it is equally good for all paints and does not require too impasto painting”1.

Grounds of chromatic colors affect both the lightness of the paintings and their overall color. The influence of the color of the ground in corpus and glaze writing has a different effect. So, green paint, laid as a non-transparent body layer on a red ground, looks especially saturated in its surroundings, but applied with a transparent layer (for example, in watercolor) loses saturation or becomes completely achromatized, since the green light reflected and transmitted by it is absorbed by the red ground.

Secrets of making materials for oil painting

OIL PROCESSING AND REFINING

Oils from flax seeds, hemp, sunflower, and walnut kernels are obtained by pressing. There are two methods of squeezing: hot and cold. Hot, when crushed seeds are heated and a strongly colored oil is obtained, which is of little use for painting. Oil squeezed from seeds using the cold method is much better; it is obtained less than with the hot method, but it is not contaminated with various impurities and does not have a dark brown color, but is only slightly colored yellow. Freshly obtained oil contains a number of impurities harmful to painting: water, protein substances and mucus, which greatly affect its ability to dry and form durable films. That's why; the oil should be processed or, as they say, “ennobled” by removing water, protein mucus and all sorts of impurities from it. At the same time, it can also be discolored. In the best way The refining of oil is its compaction, that is, oxidation. To do this, the freshly obtained oil is poured into wide-necked glass jars, covered with gauze and exposed in the spring and summer to the sun and air. To clean the oil from impurities and protein mucus, well-dried crackers from black bread are placed at the bottom of the jar, approximately enough so that they occupy x/5 of the jar. Then the jars of oil are placed in the sun and air for 1.5-2 months. Oil, absorbing oxygen from the air, oxidizes and thickens; Under the influence sun rays it bleaches, thickens and becomes almost colorless. Rusks retain protein mucus and various contaminants contained in the oil. The oil obtained in this way is the best painting material and can be successfully used both for erasing with paint substances and for diluting finished paints. When dry, it forms strong and durable films that are incapable of cracking and retain gloss and shine when drying. This oil dries slowly in a thin layer, but immediately in its entire thickness and gives very durable shiny films. Untreated oil dries only from the surface. First, its layer is covered with a film, and completely raw oil remains under it.

Drying oil and its preparation

Drying oil is called boiled drying vegetable oil(flaxseed, poppy seed, nut seed, etc.). Depending on the conditions for cooking the oil, the cooking temperature, the quality and pre-treatment of the oil, drying oils that are completely different in quality and properties are obtained. To prepare good-quality painting drying oil, you need to take good linseed or poppy oil that does not contain any foreign impurities or contaminants. There are three main methods of preparation. drying oils: rapid heating of oil to 280-300° - hot way, at which the oil boils; slow heating of the oil to 120-150°, preventing the oil from boiling during the cooking process - cold method and finally, the third method is to simmer the oil in a warm oven for 6-12 days. The best drying oils suitable for painting purposes1 can only be obtained through the cold method and simmering the oil. The cold method of cooking drying oil consists of pouring the oil into a glazed clay pot and boiling it over moderate heat, heating it slowly for 14 hours and not letting it boil. The cooked oil is poured into glass vessel and when opened, they are placed in the air and sun for 2-3 months to lighten and thicken. After this, the oil is carefully drained, trying not to touch the formed sediment remaining at the bottom of the vessel, and filtered. Simmering the oil involves pouring the raw oil into a glazed clay pot and placing it in a warm oven for 12-14 days. When foam appears on the oil, it is considered ready. The foam is removed, the oil is allowed to stand for 2-3 months in the air and the sun in glass jar, then carefully drain without touching the sediment and filter through cheesecloth. As a result of cooking the oil using these two methods, very light, well-compacted oils are obtained, which give strong and shiny films when dry. These oils do not contain protein substances, mucus and water, since the water evaporates during the cooking process, and the protein substances and mucus coagulate and remain in the sediment. For better sedimentation of protein substances and other impurities during the settling of the oil, it is useful to put a small amount of well-dried black bread crackers in it. While cooking the oil, you should put 2-3 heads of finely chopped garlic into it. Well-cooked drying oils, especially from poppy oil, are a good painting material and can be added to oil paints, used to thin paints during the writing process, and also serve integral part oil and emulsion primers.

Created 13 Jan 2010

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Who are the “old masters”? This is the name given to artists, starting with Jan van Eyck, who discovered oil painting for the world and showed its stunning beauty. The painting of the old masters reached its peak in Holland and the Netherlands in XVII century, when hitherto unsurpassed painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens, the “Little Dutchmen” and their followers worked.

IN XVIII century this painting gradually faded away, supplanted by the academic school, and, later, by impressionism. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the painting secrets of the old masters had already been lost, and it seemed that they had sunk into oblivion forever.
Many artists of the twentieth century and our time are trying to figure out what picturesque techniques used by the “old masters” to achieve in their works the stunning expressiveness of still lifes, the vitality of portraits and bewitching, almost mystical realism.

Many people know that this technique is based on glazes - the thinnest layers of paint, like filters covering paintings. But to say that this is glaze painting is to say nothing about the technique of work. Indeed, in this painting, the secrets begin with the most seemingly simple and ordinary processes: with the preparation of the canvas, the choice of paints. And if in general the stages of work on a painting are generally known, then the actual secrets and methods of work remain secret.

Arina Daur has been studying the art of old masters for many years, collecting knowledge bit by bit from ancient books, in conversations with restorers, copying masterpieces of the past in museums. She not only unraveled many of the secrets of this painting, but also created a school where everyone can learn this skill.

In the old days, the only school for a novice artist was the practice of copying: the student copied the teacher’s work, learning all the secrets of the craft. And we will do the same.

What will you do on the course? Will you copy the work? Dutch artist Jacob van Hulsdonck. This still life with a jug has become a kind of business card Arina Daur studio. It is by copying this picture that all beginners begin their training here. Despite its small size, this painting provides a chance to learn the basics of the old masters' techniques, conduct research and paint your own "Jug" with all the details of this still life. You will learn how to convey the texture of warm clay and cold metal, the vibrant shine of berries and the mesmerizing shimmer of glass, you will learn how to “immerse” an image in a mysterious haze and show light on objects. This still life, filled with golden light, will become the basis for your success in oil painting.

And it doesn’t matter in what manner you prefer to work, even if you write modern stories, choose unexpected compositional solutions And bright colors to work in the a la prima technique (in one session), the ability to work in the technique of the old masters will give you a huge advantage. Salvador Dali, an artist who cannot be suspected of adherence to antiquity, said this best: “First, learn to draw and write like the old masters, and only then act at your own discretion - and you will be respected.”

For everyone who cannot attend the school of painting by the old masters in St. Petersburg, our online course is intended. And in this video you can find out Arina Daur’s recommendations on which books will be useful on this topic.

Materials and tools

Canvas on a stretcher (fine-grained), primed with water-based or acrylic primer, size 30x40 cm;
. primed cardboard 24x30 cm for making your own palette;
. wooden oval palette for paints (or the one you have);
. double oiler;
. acrylic primer and acrylic paint(ocher or natural sienna);
. polymerized oil;
. dammar varnish;
. "Pinene" odorless or thinner No. 4;

. Brushes:
- No. 1 round for small parts,
- No. 2 or 3 round columns,
- synthetic brush, cut into a corner.

. oil paints "Master class":
1) titanium white;
2) light ocher;
3) red ocher;
4) Mars is orange;
5) ultramarine;
6) Indian yellow;
7) olive;
8) natural umber;
9) dark kraplak;
10) cadmium light red.

There are artists who feel a calling to one type of creativity and are passionate about it all their lives. They reach heights in their chosen direction, but are known in one single role. There are other masters who try many things and improve in several types of art. The world knows them simultaneously as watercolor and stained glass painters, architects and graphic artists, illustrators and sculptors. Arina Daur is just such a versatile artist.

Arina was born in Krasnodar, but already in early childhood ended up in Leningrad. By her own admission, she felt like an artist at the age of four. And from that moment on, creation became the work of life.

Then there were bright years V art school, difficult admission to the school named after V.I. Mukhina in Leningrad, there was a misunderstanding in the Union of Artists and a happy coincidence of circumstances that gave hope of being understood by the viewer and colleagues in the profession. In various complex ways, life led to society recognizing the value of what Arina invested time and effort, knowledge and soul energy into.

As an artist, Arina did many things: she painted finds and earthen walls in the excavations of archaeological expeditions, worked on the creation animated films, was fond of modeling and clay casting. Her creative energy was used in creating dolls and theatrical costumes, in painting and graphics. And inspiration was drawn from the cultural atmosphere of the places where fate led.

One of such iconic places in her life was the Pushkin Mountains, where Arina spent the summer months, “relaxing” while working in the workshop. Here she taught children “all sorts of fine art things”: to work with the special clay of those places, to look for images in the shapeless blots of monotypes. At the same time, I was imbued with the “spirit of the place” and read Pushkin thoroughly. As a result of this immersion, illustrations for the works of Alexander Sergeevich appeared. And in 2012, the novel “Eugene Onegin” was published with drawings by Arina Daur.

A person with a philosophical mindset, Arina tries to comprehend each of her practical experiences, to “take” the topic deeply and broadly, studying the works of predecessors, establishing connections with various phenomena in the history of culture, gathering like-minded people around. When silhouette drawings caught her attention, her own exercises with paper were followed by historical research. And naturally, chance brought Arina together with her descendants famous artist « Silver Age» Elizaveta Kruglikova, whose engravings, monotypes and silhouette graphics became a bright page in history Russian art. And in April 2009, Arina organized the Fourth international festival monotypes, dedicated to memory famous artist.

Arina Daur knows how to “infect” others with her interest - many. Her sincere passion, goodwill, and understanding of the deep essence of art amaze and attract not only creative people, but also completely non-artists. The energy of human relationships is seething and seething around Arina, and joint efforts produce amazing results. This is how many festivals were organized, including international ones, dedicated to monotype. This technique, which is seriously practiced by professionals, attracted many artists of the past, and simply bewitched Arina. Since childhood, she was attracted by the ability to “get” an image from the colorful chaos. The ability to look and see, multiplied by artistic experience and many years of practice, yielded results: in 2002, at an exhibition at the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, the name of Arina Daur thundered and became literally a discovery for the European public. “The Queen of Monotype,” as she was presented at this event, inspired by success in foreign countries, thoroughly “immersed” herself in the topic, studying history and finding like-minded people. Exhibitions, master classes, lectures, and the organization of festivals filled the 2000s.

And in 2013, Arina opened her own studio, where she teaches painting techniques of the old masters. And this is not a sudden change of interests, this is another facet of the life of the same person.

Every conversation with Arina reveals her personality from an unknown, often unexpected side: for example, her graduation project - a pottery service for the sailing ship "Nadezhda" of thirty-six items is in the collection of the museum of her native school, which has long since changed its name to its original one - the Academy of Arts and Industry them. A. L. Stieglitz. She also illustrates fairy tales and hosts an author’s program on Radio Russia, talking about artists in the series “Ours for You with a Brush.” Arina's works are in museum collections different countries. The film “A Man Came Out of the House,” in the creation of which she participated as an animator, received a Big Gold Medal at the Baltic Film Festival in 1990. These are just a few bright facts from the artist's biography. She works in different types, techniques and genres of art and captivates others with them. Children and adults learn the main thing in communicating with Arina - the ability to see beauty: in the paintings of old masters and in a black blot on paper. And having seen it once, they remain captivated by the endless process of learning artistic creativity in its most varied manifestations.

Do you want to become creative personality? Watch Arina Daur's lessons.

Works by Arina Daur

Course program

The video course “Technique of the Old Masters” consists of 21 lessons. These are theoretical and practical video lessons with 16 tasks for mastering the material. In each lesson, Arina tells and shows one stage of working on a painting, and you repeat it yourself at a speed convenient for you. Via form feedback You show the results to Arina, get answers to questions and move on, mastering the material step by step.

Program:

1 part. Preparatory. Theory. Talk about paints and canvas. Making your own palette. Preparing the canvas. 6 lessons, 3 practical tasks.

Part 2: “Ghost” of the painting. 1 lesson, 1 task.

Part 3: The main stage of writing. 7 lessons, 4 tasks.

Part 4: The pictorial stage of writing. 7 lessons, 8 tasks.

What will you receive at the end of the course? A self-painted copy of a painting using the technique of old masters and a huge amount of knowledge, with the help of which you can create many more copies and independent work using the technique of the old masters.

Required Skills: This course does not require oil painting skills.

Who is this course for? It will suit:

for those who admire the paintings of the old masters and want to master their working method,
creators who love to try new things to diversify their skills, to enrich their own writing style.
and even to beginners in painting who have not yet practiced much or have barely touched their brushes. Don't believe me? Watch a video with students of the St. Petersburg School of Old Masters, in which they talk about themselves and their training in the studio.

Who exactly is this course not suitable for?

Those who do not like the still lifes of the old masters, who are indifferent to the paintings of the small Dutchmen, Rembrandt and Rubens, who are sure that they already know everything and nothing can surprise them.

Your work will be displayed here soon.

Name: Secrets of painting by old masters.

Descriptions of techniques for working with paints in painting, which can be conventionally called classical. The book has two authors: one- famous painter and schedule, the other is a specialist in the field of history of painting technology. Useful as practical guide For contemporary artists, and it contributes better understanding creativity of the masters of the past.

Despite the fact that this book has a very specific title, it is still necessary to clarify its contents. This is not a guide or tutorial, not essays on the great masters of the past, although some of them are described on its pages. Most likely, these are sketches, reflections, conversations about the features of painting techniques, which today, rather conventionally, are usually called classical. So that the content of the first part of our book becomes clear to the reader from the very first pages, let us first try to outline the range of problems considered in it. The history of painting, as a rule, is built by resorting to Hildebrand’s terminology on the basis of the study of the “share image”. And yet it is worth regretting that art historians rarely come close to the painting, and do not sufficiently study the specifics of what I. E. Grabar called “artistic cuisine,” considering it “extremely uninteresting and boring matter.” Books about painting too rarely talk about those creative, constructive processes of which the painting itself serves as living evidence.

CONTENT
Technical traditions of European easel painting 7
Introduction
The emergence of oil painting techniques 14
Some concepts of painting technique 23
Three-stage painting method 49
Five roots of picturesqueness 81
Two branches of the classical tradition 117
The birth of a new sense of picturesqueness 203
Experience in mastering the three-stage painting method 236
Development ways wall painting 245
Encaustic. Resin and oil in antique painting 246
Oil wall painting of the Middle Ages and Renaissance 253
Fresco technique and its varieties 259
Mosaic and fresco in the interior 263
The proximity of easel painting and monumentalism in the painting of old masters
Spatiality and flatness in wall paintings and plafonds
Methods and techniques for working with wax, resin-oil and silicate paints 294
How this book was created 309
List of illustrations 315

Free download e-book in a convenient format, watch and read:
Download the book Secrets of painting by old masters - Feinberg L.E., Grenberg Yu.I. - fileskachat.com, fast and free download.

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You can buy this book below best price at a discount with delivery throughout Russia.

Even those masterpieces of painting that seem familiar to us have their secrets. Recently, a strange and unusual discovery was made in art history - an American student deciphered the musical notation depicted on the buttocks of a sinner from a painting by Bosch. The resulting tune has become one of the Internet sensations of recent times.

Hieronymus Bosch, "The Garden of Earthly Delights", 1500-1510.

Fragment of the right side of the triptych.

Disputes about meanings and hidden meanings most famous work of the Dutch artist have not subsided since its appearance. The right wing of the triptych called “Musical Hell” depicts sinners who are tortured in the underworld with the help of musical instruments. One of them has music notes stamped on his buttocks. Oklahoma Christian University student Amelia Hamrick, who studied the painting, translated the 16th-century notation into modern style and recorded “the 500-year-old ass song from hell.”

Nude Mona Lisa

The famous “La Gioconda” exists in two versions: the nude version is called “Monna Vanna”, it was written by little-known artist Salai, who was a student and model of the great Leonardo da Vinci. Many art historians are sure that it was he who was the model for Leonardo’s paintings “John the Baptist” and “Bacchus”. There are also versions that dressed up as women's dress Salai served as the image of the Mona Lisa herself.

In 1902, the Hungarian artist Tivadar Kostka Csontvary painted the painting “The Old Fisherman”. It would seem that there is nothing unusual in the picture, but Tivadar put into it a subtext that was never revealed during the artist’s lifetime.

Few people thought of placing a mirror in the middle of the picture. In each person there can be both God (the Old Man's right shoulder is duplicated) and the Devil (the Old Man's left shoulder is duplicated).

Doubles at the Last Supper

Leonardo da Vinci, "The Last Supper", 1495-1498.

When Leonardo da Vinci wrote " last supper", he attached special meaning two figures: Christ and Judas. He spent a very long time looking for models for them. Finally, he managed to find a model for the image of Christ among the young singers. Leonardo was unable to find a model for Judas for three years. But one day he came across a drunkard on the street who was lying in a gutter. He was a young man who had been aged by heavy drinking. Leonardo invited him to a tavern, where he immediately began to paint Judas from him. When the drunkard came to his senses, he told the artist that he had already posed for him once. It was several years ago, when he sang in the church choir, Leonardo painted Christ from him.

The innocent history of "Gothic"

Grant Wood, " American Gothic", 1930.

Grant Wood's work is considered one of the most strange and depressing in the history of American painting. The picture with the gloomy father and daughter is filled with details that indicate the severity, puritanism and retrograde nature of the people depicted. In fact, the artist did not intend to depict any horrors: during a trip to Iowa, he noticed a small house in gothic style and decided to portray those people who, in his opinion, would be ideal as inhabitants. Grant's sister and his dentist are immortalized as the characters Iowans were so offended by.

« The night Watch" or "Daytime"?

Rembrandt, "Night Watch", 1642.

One of the most famous paintings Rembrandt’s “Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg” hung in different rooms for about two hundred years and was discovered by art historians only in the 19th century. Since the figures seemed to be protruding dark background, it was called “Night Watch”, and under this name it entered the treasury of world art. And only during the restoration carried out in 1947, it was discovered that in the hall the painting had managed to become covered with a layer of soot, which distorted its color. After clearing the original painting, it was finally revealed that the scene represented by Rembrandt actually takes place during the day. The position of the shadow from Captain Kok's left hand shows that the duration of action is no more than 14 hours.

Overturned boat

Henri Matisse, "The Boat", 1937.

At the New York Museum contemporary art in 1961, Henri Matisse's painting "The Boat" was exhibited. Only after 47 days did someone notice that the painting was hanging upside down. The canvas depicts 10 purple lines and two blue sails on a white background. The artist painted two sails for a reason; the second sail is a reflection of the first on the surface of the water. In order not to make a mistake in how the picture should hang, you need to pay attention to the details. The larger sail should be the top of the painting, and the peak of the painting's sail should be toward the top right corner.

Deception in self-portrait

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait with a Pipe, 1889.

There are legends that Van Gogh allegedly cut off his own ear. Now the most reliable version is that van Gogh damaged his ear in a small brawl involving another artist, Paul Gauguin. The self-portrait is interesting because it reflects reality in a distorted form: the artist is depicted with his right ear bandaged because he used a mirror when working. In fact, it was the left ear that was affected.

Two "Breakfasts on the Grass"

Edouard Manet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1863.

Claude Monet, Luncheon on the Grass, 1865.

The artists Edouard Manet and Claude Monet are sometimes confused - after all, they were both French, lived at the same time and worked in the style of impressionism. Monet even borrowed the title of one of Manet’s most famous paintings, “Luncheon on the Grass,” and wrote his own “Luncheon on the Grass.”

Alien bears

Ivan Shishkin, “Morning in Pine forest", 1889.

The famous painting belongs not only to Shishkin. Many artists who were friends with each other often resorted to “the help of a friend,” and Ivan Ivanovich, who painted landscapes all his life, was afraid that his touching bears would not turn out the way he wanted. Therefore, Shishkin turned to his friend, the animal artist Konstantin Savitsky.

Savitsky drew perhaps the best bears in history Russian painting, and Tretyakov ordered his name to be washed off the canvas, since everything in the painting “from the concept to the execution, everything speaks about the manner of painting, about creative method, characteristic of Shishkin."

Secrets of painting by the old masters
Old oil painting techniques

Flemish method of painting with oil paints

The Flemish method of painting with oil paints basically boiled down to the following: the drawing was transferred onto the white, smoothly sanded primer from the so-called cardboard (separately made drawing on paper). Then the drawing was outlined and shaded with transparent brown paint.(tempera or oil). According to Cennino Cennini, even in this form the paintings looked like perfect works. This technique changed in its further development. The surface prepared for painting was covered with a layer of oil varnish mixed with brown paint, through which the shaded drawing was visible. The pictorial work ended with transparent or translucent glazes or half-body (half-covering), in one step, writing. The brown preparation was left to show through in the shadows. Sometimes for brown preparation they painted with so-called dead paints (gray-blue, gray-greenish), finishing the work with glazes. The Flemish method of painting can be easily traced in many of Rubens's works, especially in his studies and sketches, for example in the sketch of the triumphal arch “Apotheosis of Duchess Isabella”.

To preserve the beauty of the color of blue paints in oil painting (blue pigments rubbed in oil change their tone), the places painted with blue paints were sprinkled (on a not completely dry layer) with ultramarine or smalt powder, and then these places were covered with a layer of glue and varnish. Oil paintings were sometimes glazed with watercolors; To do this, their surface was first wiped with garlic juice.

Italian method of painting with oil paints

The Italians modified the Flemish method, creating a distinctive Italian way of writing. Instead of white ground the Italians made colored; or the white primer was completely covered with some kind of transparent paint. They drew on the gray ground with chalk or charcoal (without resorting to cardboard). The drawing was outlined with brown glue paint, it was also used to lay out shadows and paint dark draperies. Then the entire surface was covered with layers of glue and varnish, after which they painted with oil paints, starting with laying out the lights with white. After that based on the dried bleach preparation, they painted in corpus in local colors; Gray soil was left in partial shade. They finished the painting with glazes.

Examples of the use of Italian and Flemish methods.

Titian initially painted on white grounds, then switched to colored ones (brown, red, and finally neutral), using impasto underpaintings, which he made in grisaille2. In Titian's method, writing acquired a significant share at a time, in one step, without subsequent glazing (the Italian name for this method is alia prima). Rubens mainly worked according to the Flemish method, greatly simplifying the brown wash. He completely covered a white canvas with light brown paint and laid out shadows with the same paint, painted on top with grisaille, then with local tones, or, bypassing the grisaille, painted alia prima. Sometimes Rubens painted in local lighter colors over a brown preparation and finished the painting with glazes. The following, very fair and instructive statement is attributed to Rubens: “Begin to paint your shadows lightly, avoiding introducing into them even an insignificant amount of white: white is the poison of painting and can only be introduced in the highlights. Once whitewash disrupts the transparency, golden tone and warmth of your shadows, your painting will no longer be light, but will become heavy and gray. The situation is completely different with regard to lights. Here the paints can be applied body-wise as needed, but it is necessary, however, to keep the tones pure. This is achieved by placing each tone in its place, one next to the other, so that with a slight movement of the brush you can shade them without, however, disturbing the colors themselves. You can then go through such painting with decisive final blows, which are so characteristic of great masters.”

The Flemish master Van Dyck (1599-1641) preferred corpus painting. Rembrandt most often painted on gray ground, working out the forms with transparent brown paint very actively (darkly), and also used glazes. Rubens applied strokes of different colors one next to the other, and Rembrandt overlapped some strokes with others.

A technique similar to the Flemish or Italian - on white or colored soils using impasto masonry and glaze - was widely used until the middle of the 19th century. The Russian artist F. M. Matveev (1758-1826) painted on brown ground with underpainting done in grayish tones. V. L. Borovikovsky (1757-1825) underpainted grisaille on a gray ground. K. P. Bryullov also often used gray and other colored primers, and underpainted with grisaille. In the second half of the 19th century, this technique was abandoned and forgotten. Artists began to paint without the strict system of the old masters, thereby narrowing their technical capabilities.

“The most universal color primer is a light gray primer of a neutral tone, since it is equally good for all paints and does not require too impasto painting”1.

Grounds of chromatic colors affect both the lightness of the paintings and their overall color. The influence of the color of the ground in corpus and glaze writing has a different effect. Thus, green paint, applied as a non-transparent body layer on a red ground, looks especially saturated in its surroundings, but applied as a transparent layer (for example, in watercolor) loses saturation or becomes completely achromatized, since the green light reflected and transmitted by it is absorbed by the red ground.