Abstract
A ground, or priming, is applied to a support — canvas, wood etc. — to provide a suitable base on which to paint. In general, its composition is comparable to that of paint, namely consisting of one or more pigments in a binding medium laid on in one or more layers.
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References
Theodore Turquet De Mayerne, Pictoria Sculptoria & quae subalternarum artium, 1620, in: E. Berger, Quellen für Maltechnik während der Renaissance und deren Folgezeit, Munich 1901. J. A. van de Graaf, Het De Mayerne Manuscript als bron voor de schildertechniek van de Barok, Mijdrecht 1958.
See also: Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt. The Painter at Work, Amsterdam 1997, pp. 91–130.
E. Raehlmann, Über die Farbstoffe der Malerei in den verschiedenen Kunstperioden nach mikroskopischen Untersuchungen, Leipzig 1914. A. M. de Wild, The scientific examination of pictures, London 1929.
For a bibliography of the early literature, see: Joyce Plesters, ‘Bibliography, technical and scientific examination’, in: Helmut Ruhemann, The cleaning of paintings, London 1965, pp. 461–472.
Ruhemann, op.cit.4, p. 168.
Philip Hendy and A. S. Lucas, ‘The ground in pictures’, Museum XXI, 4 (1968), pp. 245–256, with twenty-two photomicrographs of cross-sections of paint and ground in colour with descriptive texts by Joyce Plesters on pp. 257–265.
A. S. Lucas, ‘The ground in pictures’, Museum XXI, 4 (1968) Hendy and Lucas, op. cit.6, on p. 268 they seem to suggest that, in Holland, the traditional manner of preparing panels was continued in the seventeenth century on canvases. However, from the text in Plesters’ caption no. 15 it is clear that double, coloured grounds on canvas were found by the authors in paintings from the seventeenth century in the Netherlands. No. 14, Van Dyck, Charles I on horseback, is probably on a double ground of grey on orangered and not on a ground of an orangered mixture alone, as suggested in the caption.
To name a few: Alain R. Duval, ‘Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’école française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles’, Studies in Conservation 37 (1992), pp. 239–258. Ella Hendriks, Anne van Grevenstein, Karin Groen, ‘The painting technique of four paintings by Hendrick Goltzius and the introduction of the coloured ground’, Goltzius-studies: Hendrick Goltzius, 1558–1617, (1993), pp. 481–497. Alain R. Duval, ‘Les enduits de préparation des tableaux de Nicolas Poussin’, Techne 1 (1994), pp. 35–41. Ségolène Bergeon and Elisabeth Martin, ‘La technique de la peinture française des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles’, Techne 1 (1994), pp. 65–78. Jill Dunkerton and Marika Spring, ‘The development of painting on coloured surfaces in sixteenth-century Italy’, Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice, IIC Contributions to the Dublin Congress (1998), pp. 120–130.
H. Kühn, ‘Zwischenergebnis der Röntgenfeinstrukturanalyse von Grundierungen’ in: Cornelius Müller Hofstede, ‘Das Stuttgarter Selbstbildnis von Rembrandt’, Pantheon 2 (1963), pp. 99–100. P. Coremans, Chr. Wolters, K. Wehlte, ‘Bericht über die naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung des Stuttgarter Rembrandt-Selbstbildnissses’, Pantheon 2 (1963), pp. 94–97. Paul Coremans, Jean Thissen, ‘Het wetenschappelijk onderzoek van het “Zelfportret van Stuttgart”. Bijdrage tot de Rembrandt-vorsing’, Bulletin de VInstitut Royal du Patrimoine Artistique 7 (1964), pp. 187–195. Paul Coremans, ‘L’ autoportrait de Rembrandt à la Staatsgalerie de Stuttgart, Examen scientifique’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 2 (1965), pp. 175–188.
Hermann Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Malgründen Rembrandts’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 2 (1965), pp. 189–210.
Hermann Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel’, Maltechnik Restauro 82 (1976), pp. 25–33.
Hermann Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden’, Maltechnik Restauro 83 (1977), pp. 223–233.
Corpus Vol. I, pp. 17–29; Vol. II, pp. 42–43.
David Bomford, Cristopher Brown, Ashok Roy, Art in the Making. Rembrandt, London 1989.
Karin Groen, ‘Schildertechnische aspecten van Rembrandts vroegste schilderijen’, O.H. 91 (1977), pp. 66–74. Ernst van de Wetering, ‘De jonge Rembrandt aan het werk’, O.H. 91 (1977), pp. 27–65. Corpus Vol. I, pp. 16–20. For the exceptions see Table II, pp. 660 ff.
Berger, op.cit.1, Ms p. 11, no. 14, p. 118: ‘Pour le bois. Imprimés premièrement auec la colle susditte & croye, estant sec, grattés & equales auec le couteau, puis faites vne couche legere auec blanc de plomb & ombre.’
Van de Wetering, op. cit.2, pp. 21–22.
For example, see: Van de Graaf, op. cit.1, nos. 6–20, respectively Ms p. 5, 7v, lOv, 11, 28v, 84, 85, 87, 90, 95, 96, 98v, lllv, 154; and Berger, op. cit.1, nos. 2, 8, 13, 14, 53, 185, 186, 190a, 194b, 206, 210, 214, 253, 333.
Berger, op. cit.1, Ms p. 5, p. 102: ‘Ayant bien estendu vostre toile sur un chassis, donnes luy de la colle de retaillons de cuir ou size qui ne soit pas trop espaisse, (présupposé que vous aurez premièrement coupé touts les fils qui auancent). Vostre colle estant seiche imprimés auec Braun rot, ou rouge brun dAngleterre assez légèrement. Laissez seicher, & applanissés auec la pierre ponce: Puis imprimés auec vne seconde & dernière couche de Blanc de plomb, de Charbon de braise bien choisy. Smale coales & un peu de terre dombre pour faire plus vistement seicher. On peult donner vne troisiesme couche, mais deux font bien, & ne s’escaillent jamais, ny ne se fendent.’
Anonymous, Meuwen Verlichter der Konst-schilders, vernissers, vergulders en marmelaers, en alle andere ließebbers dezer lofbaere konsten, 1777, Vol. 1, p. 167: ‘Men legt dan bynaer altyd twee andere grond-laegen op de eerste, d’eene achter d’andere, de naerleste altyd puymende als zy wel droog is, eer men de volgende legt. Deze laetste gronden zyn gemaekt van Lood wit gemengelt met bruyn Rood en een weynig Kol-Zwart, om den grond een roodagtig Grys te geven, het welk generaelyk overeenkomt met alle de koleuren van de Schilderkonst.’ Partially translated in: Valuable Secrets in arts and trades: or, approved directions from the best artists: containing upwards of one thousand approved recipes…, London 1802?, p. 141: ‘When this colour is dry, you are to rub it again with the pounce stone, to render it smoother. Then lay another coat of white lead and charcoal black, to render the ground greyish’.
Berger, op. cit.1, Ms p. 11, p. 116: ‘Apres imprimés auec blanc de plomb, & vn peu d’ombre. Vne imprimeure suffit; si on y en met deux la toile sera plus vnie.’
Willem Beurs, De groote waereld in’ t kleen geschildert, of schilderagtig tafereel van’ s Weerelds schilderyen. Kortelijk vervat in Ses Boeken. Verklärende de hooftverwen, haare verscheide mengelingen in Oly, en der zelver gebruik. Omtrent de meeste vertoningen van de zightbare nature. Leersamelijk den liefhebbers en leerlingen der Ed. Schilderkonst medegedeelt van Wilhelmus Beurs, Schilder, 1692, p. 19: ‘…omber met lootwit heel dik in oly…’. Beurs is not clear whether, with ‘lootwit’, he means lead white or a mixture of lead white and chalk.
Corpus Vol. II, pp. 26–29, Van de Wetering, op. cit.2, Rembrandt. The Painter at Work, Amsterdam 1997 pp. 91–130.
The colours mentioned (under the heading ‘Observations and technical information’) in the first three volumes of A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings must be treated with caution. They were based on observation with the naked eye or through a magnifying glass, and it was not always certain that the ground layer had actually been located. The colour of the ground can only be observed directly when a painting is unfinished or if there are ‘open areas’, places where it is not covered by paint. There are areas where the artist found the colour and tone of the ground in accordance with his pictorial intentions in that section of the painting. Unfinished paintings are exceptions to this and ‘open areas’ in the early paintings on panel can still be identified with the naked eye or under a stereomicroscope. With paintings on canvas, this is far more difficult. Sometimes, further assessment reveals that a seemingly exposed ground is actually a locally applied imprimatura or another under painting.
Berger, op. cit.1, Ms p. 11, p. 116: ‘Pour faire pai’sages que vostre imprimeure soit de couleur fort claire’. Beurs, op. cit.22, Willem Beurs, De groote waereld in’ t kleen geschildert, of schilderagtig tafereel van’ s Weerelds schilderyen. Kortelijk vervat in Ses Boeken. Verklärende de hooftverwen, haare verscheide mengelingen in Oly, en der zelver gebruik. Omtrent de meeste vertoningen van de zightbare nature. Leersamelijk den liefhebbers en leerlingen der Ed. Schilderkonst medegedeelt van Wilhelmus Beurs, Schilder, 1692, p. 21: ‘maar voor een landschap — schilder menneemt swart met lootwit gemengt’. It is unclear which black pigment Beurs has in mind. He probably does not mean soot, which dries badly. When mixed with white, some vine (charcoal) blacks give a beautiful, bluish grey ground.
E. van de Wetering, C. M. Groen and J. A. Mosk, ‘Summary report on the results of the technical examination of Rembrandt’s Night watch’, in: Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 24 (1976), pp. 68–98. Maryan W. Ainsworth et al., Art and autoradiography: insight into the genesis of paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Vermeer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1982. Anne van Grevenstein, Karin Groen and Ernst van de Wetering, ‘Esther before Haman, attributed to Rembrandt’, Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 39 (1991), pp. 56–83. Around 1995, seven of the late Rembrandts in the Rijksmuseum were restored and investigated, as well as the early Wttenbogaert.
Updated (supplemented and corrected where possible) information on the grounds in Corpus Vols. I–III can be found in the tables in this volume.
For example: A. B. de Vries, Magdi Tóth-Ubbens, W. Froentjes, Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis, Alphen aan de Rijn 1978.
Untersuchungen zu den Malgründen Rembrandts’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 2 (1965) Kühn, op. cit.10, p. 190.
Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel’, Maltechnik Restauro 82 (1976) Hermann Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden’, Maltechnik Restauro 83 (1977) Kühn, op. cit.11,12.
Thus the Auctioneer (1658) in New York (Br. 294) turned out to be painted on a quartz ground, and not on one composed of chalk and ochre. Untersuchungen zu den Malgründen Rembrandts’, Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 2 (1965) Kühn, op. cit.10, p. 198. Ainsworth, op. cit.26, Maryan W. Ainsworth et al., Art and autoradiography: insight into the genesis of paintings by Rembrandt, Van Dyck, and Vermeer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1982, p. 87. In the course of the research we conducted during the 1993 restoration of The anatomy lesson of Dr Deyman (1656) in Amsterdam (Br. 414), it too, proved to have been painted on a quartz ground, and not on a chalk one, as Kühn believed he had demonstrated in 1965 (although it cannot be excluded that Kühn’s sample derived from a chalk filling in a restored section of the painting, which was seriously damaged during a fire in the 18th century).
Magdi Tóth-Ubbens, W. Froentjes, Rembrandt in the Mauritshuis, Alphen aan de Rijn 1978 De Vries, Tóth-Ubbens, Froentjes, op. cit.28.
For this reason the published results of the grounds on the following paintings were not included in our Table ‘Grounds on canvas’: Abraham’s sacrifice, III A 108, Br. 498, copy 2; Raising of the Cross, II A 69 Br. 548; Christ, Br. 630; Vie Entombment, III A 126, Br. 560; The Resurrection, III A 127, Br. 561; The Holy Family, II A 88, Br. 544; Adoration of the shepherds, Br. 574 all in Munich; Self-portrait in Kassel, IV 9, Br. 43; Mcolaes Bambeeck in Brussels, III A 144, Br. 218; The Entombment in Braunschweig, III A 126, Br. 560, copy 3; The Circumcision in Braunschweig (inv. no 241); Hendrikje Stoffels in Berlin, Br. 116; Saskia as Flora in New York, Br. 98.
A. Bredius, Rembrandt Schilderijen, Utrecht 1935.
Marika Spring, ‘The development of painting on coloured surfaces in sixteenth-century Italy’, Painting Techniques, History, Materials and Studio Practice, IIC Contributions to the Dublin Congress (1998), pp. 120–130 Dunkerton and Spring, op. cit.8.
Grey (or rather flesh colour) on red double grounds were also used by the Utrecht painters Abraham Bloemaert (1564–1651) and Hendrick Ter Brugghen (1588–1629) among others. See also Leif Einar Plahter and Unn Simonsen Plahter, ‘The Young Christ among the Doctors by Theodoer van Baburen’, ACTA (Institutum Romanum Norvegiae), Series altera in 8o, 3, (1983), pp. 183–229. Leif Einar Plater and Unn Simonsen Plahter, ‘The young Christ among the doctors by Theodoer van Baburen’, Conseware necesse est, Festskrift til Leif Einar Plahter på hans 70-årsdag, 1999, pp.42–65. Unn Plahter, ‘Baburen re-examined’, Conseware necesse est, Festskrift til Leif Einar Plahter på hans 70-årsdag, 1999, pp.66–67. Unn Plahter commented to the author that the ground on the painting by Baburen must be regarded as a single layer of grey paint — rich in lead white — on top of two layers of different types of red earth (clay). The Haarlem painter Cornelis Corneliszoon van Haarlem (1562–1638) used grounds of different colours and composition. The ground on his The Baptism of Christ, in the Frans Halsmuseum in Haarlem appears red to the naked eye, although the cross-sections show that there is a light-coloured second ground on top of the red. With thanks to Ella Hendriks for the paint cross-section and the information.
A double ground is found in an unfinished painting by a follower of the Lenain, Three men and a boy, National Gallery, London, cat. no. 4857. Double grounds in paintings by Canaletto arise in the 1730s: David Bomford and Ashok Roy, ‘Canaletto’s “Stonemason’s Yard” and “San Simeone Piccolo”’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin 14 (1993), pp. 34–41.
Additional analytical results on the grounds will be published later. Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’école française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles’, Studies in Conservation 37 (1992), pp. 239–258 Duval 1992, op. cit.8, distinguishes three types of red-brown ground. However, since he only mentions red and brown grounds it is not always clear whether the red or brown ground must be regarded as a single ground, or as the first layer of a double ground (grey on top of red or brown).
Proof of the pudding was an experiment in which slides of the cross-sections were projected ‘blind’. It was possible to determine which samples came from one and the same painting, even though the pigment particles were sometimes unevenly distributed in the ground layer and despite the minuscule dimensions of the samples (appr. 0.1 mm long). See also: Karin Groen, ‘Halcyon days for art history’, in: Shop Talk, Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive, Cambridge Mass. 1995, pp. 89–91.
Corpus Vol. II, pp. 15–43. Van de Wetering, op. cit.2, Ernst van de Wetering, Rembrandt. The Painter at Work, Amsterdam 1997, pp. 91–130.
This is the case, for instance, in the first version of Ahasuerus condemning Haman in Bucharest (III B 9), which was entirely overpainted in the 1650s and only visible in the X-radiograph. We tentatively date this version 1632/33, a dating supported by the research on grounds, see: C. M. Groen and J. A. Mosk, ‘Summary report on the results of the technical examination of Rembrandt’s Night watch’, in: Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 24 (1976), pp. 68–98 Van Grevenstein, Groen, Van de Wetering, op. cit.26.
The translucency is reminiscent of chalk, which, however, is missing. See also: Petria Noble, Jørgen Wadum, Karin Groen, Ron Heeren, Klaas Jan van den Berg, ‘Aspects of 17th century binding medium: Inclusions in Rembrandt’s Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp’, in: Jacques Goupy and Jean-Pierre Mohen (eds.), Art & Chimie, La Couleur, Actes du Congrès, Paris 2000, pp. 126–129.
The Woman in an armchair (II A 79) in New York is not dated, but its pendant, Man rising from his chair (II A 78) in Cincinnati is (1633).
Exhib. cat. Rembrandt/not Rembrandt, 1995/96, p. 65.
Valuable secrets, op. cit.20, p. 142. Copied and translated from: Anonymous, Meuwen Verlichter der Konst-schilders, vernissers, vergulders en marmelaers, en alle andere ließebbers dezer lofbaere konsten, 1777, Vol. 1, op. cit.20, p. 168: ‘Men moet nogtans bekennen dat den doek eerst met Water-Verwe gegrond zynde, onderworpen is aen het schelferen, en maer zeer moeyelyk en kan opgerolt worden, het gene een beletzel is van — ze op diergelyke goeste te bereyden, en het gene vervolgens ons verpligt den zelven met Olie-Verwe te begründen’.
Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Kassel’, Maltechnik Restauro 82 (1976), pp. 25–33, Hermann Kühn, ‘Untersuchungen zu den Pigmenten und Malgründen Rembrandts, durchgeführt an den Gemälden der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden’, Maltechnik Restauro 83 (1977), pp. 223–233 Kühn, op. cit.11, 12.
For example, the ground in a painting by Gaspard Dughet in: Karin Groen, ‘Scanning electron microscopy as an aid in the study of blanching’, Hamilton Kerr Institute Bulletin 1 (1988), p. 43, plate 38. The ground in the painting by Dughet is rich in calcite and could be an earth. The ground of Jan Beerstraaten’s The IJ at the Nieuwe Brug in winter, seen to the west, Amsterdams Historisch Museum SA 73, also has a brown ground that, without analysis, could be mistaken for a quartz ground. The ground in the painting by Beerstraten was identified as consisting of chalk. See Table VII, pp. 00 for more instances.
See: Chr. Wolters, K. Wehlte, ‘Bericht über die naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung des Stuttgarter Rembrandt-Selbstbildnissses’, Pantheon 2 (1963), pp. 94–97 Coremans, op. cit.9, figs. 114, 116.
Chr. Wolters, K. Wehlte, ‘Bericht über die naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung des Stuttgarter Rembrandt-Selbstbildnissses’, Pantheon 2 (1963) Coremans, Wolters, Wehlte, op. cit.9, p. 97.
Karin Groen, ‘Investigation of the use of the binding medium by Rembrandt’, Zeitschrift fûr Kunsttechnologie und Konservierung 11 (1997), Vol. 2, pp. 222–223.
Chr. Wolters, K. Wehlte, ‘Bericht über die naturwissenschaftliche Untersuchung des Stuttgarter Rembrandt-Selbstbildnissses’, Pantheon 2 (1963) Coremans, Wolters, Wehlte, op. cit.9, p. 97.
James Fairie, Notes on pottery clays: the distribution, properties, uses, and analyses, of ball clays, china clays, and china stone, London 1901, p. 24.
Anonymous, op. cit.20, p. 167: ‘Daer zyn Schilders die liever hebben dat den doek maer eene laege koleur en heeft, den welken zy prefereren voor den gonnen die’er twee heeft, om dat hy de koleuren min verdooft, en om dat hy gemakkyker oprolt als men hem wilt transporteren; nogtans aengezien den draed van den doek altyd zeer verscheynt op die, de welke maer eenen grond en hebben, men gebruykt dien wynig dan voor groote werken’.
Corpus Vol. II, p. 43, note 90.
A. van Schendel and H.H. Mertens, ‘De restauraties van Rembrandt’s Nachtwacht’, O.H. 62 (1947), p. 23.
Pierre Lebrun, Peintre, 1635, ‘Recueuil des essaies des merveilles de la peinture’, in: Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield, Original treatises on the arts of painting, Vol. II, 1976, p. 772 (originally published in 1849). The Dutch writer Simon Eikelenberg in the first quarter of the eighteenth century mentions ‘potaarde’, being mixed with linseed oil and used for the ground on panels. ‘Potaarde’ could either mean earth for making pots or earth for potting plants. Eikelenberg’s notes on painting are kept at Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (ICN) in Amsterdam.
Mary Beal, A Study of Richard Symonds, His Italian Notebooks and their Relevance to Seventeenth-Century Painting Techniques, London 1984, p. 218.
G. Baldwin Brown (Ed.), Vasari on technique, New York 1960, p. 230: ‘But first there must be made a composition of pigments which possess siccative qualities as white lead, dryers, and earth such as is used for bells….’.
Zahira Veliz, Artists’ techniques in Golden Age Spain, Cambridge 1986, p. 68.
E. Haverkamp-Begemann, Rembrandt: The Nightwatch, Princeton University Press 1982, p. 14.
Van de Wetering, op. cit.2, pp. 6–7.
Van Dyck, Agostino Pallavicini, The Getty Museum 68.PA.2, ground examined by the author. Ashok Roy, ‘The National Gallery Van Dycks: technique and development’, National Gallery Technical Bulletin 20 (1999), pp. 59–63.
Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’école française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles’, Studies in Conservation 37 (1992), pp. 239–258 Duval 1994, op. cit.8.
Poussin, Landscape with a calm, The Getty Museum 97.PA.60, ground examined by the author.
Les préparations colorées des tableaux de l’école française des dix-septième et dix-huitième siècles’, Studies in Conservation 37 (1992), pp. 239–258 Duval 1992, op. cit.8, in his extensive study of the grounds in French paintings of the seventeenth and eighteenth century Duval did find that French painters sometimes used brown grounds with a very high quartz content. Although he gives the dates of the paintings, he did not draw the conclusion that these grounds only occur on paintings made when the artists who made the paintings worked in Italy. In our opinion, the brown grounds rich in quartz could be clay grounds as opposed to the lower layer of red earth in a double ground.
Arie Wallert and Willem de Ridder, ‘The materials and methods of Sweerts’s paintings’, in Michael Sweerts, Amsterdam 2002, pp. 37–47.
Lodovico Carracci, Saint Sebastian thrown into the Cloaca Maxima (1612), The Getty Museum inv. no. 72.PA. 14, ground examined by the author.
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Groen, C.K.M. (2005). Grounds in Rembrandt’s workshop and in paintings by his contemporaries. In: A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Rembrandt Research Project Foundation, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4441-0_4
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