On the Color Green

I like to read ancient texts about drawing and painting and often I try to use some of the information I find there in my own work. One of my favorite books in this respect is known as “The Craftsman's Handbook,” writtensix hundred years ago by Cennino Cennini. In this work he says a lot about the color green, in particular a green called Terre Verte, which is a dull earth gray green. If I paraphrase what he says it looses all its flavor so here is a passage:

HOW TO PAINT FACES, “Take a little terre verte and a little white lead and lay two coats all over the face, over the hands, the feet, and the nudes. But for faces of young people this base coat should be adjusted with the yoke of a town hen’s egg, because those are whiter yolks than the ones which farm hens produce: farm eggs because of there redness are good for tempering flesh colors for aged and swarthy persons. (he is talking about egg yoke because it is for tempera painting and tempera painting is thinned with the yolk of an egg.) He concludes this passage with this, “And bear in mind that a small painting needs to be laid in more times than a wall; but not so much that the green under painting does not show through at all times especially in the shadows.”

Now what this means is that old paintings were under painted first in an earth green for the flesh, when that was dry the flesh colors were painted over the green undercolor. This is why in very old paintings you can see very clearly a green in the shadows and further it explains the wonderful colorful vividness of flesh in old paintings because flesh is really a red, and green is its complement and the two work perfectly together so that, speaking from experience, the results are really quite astounding. The only real problem is that the terre verte under painting or drawing looks so beautiful that it is heard to bear the thought of covering it up with flesh tone. Look at this drawing above this description, and you will see what I mean.

This drawing measures 5.5” x 4.375”. It is drawn on a warm toned rag drawing paper with a green wax pencil. It is signed with an R on the front and full signature and date on the back Richard Britell August 10, 2001.