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A study on the technique of painting through cross-analysis of literary texts by Leonardo, Vasari, Armenini, Borghini, Lomazzo and works of art, examining some significant paintings in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples.

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In Literature and Artistic Practice in the Sixteenth Century Angela Cerasuolo, art historian and restorer, tracks the technical processes of painting through the cross-analysis of literary texts and works of art. Having traced the critical fortunes of the texts of the authors-Leonardo, Vasari, Armenini, Borghini, Lomazzo-she compares the information on drawing and painting, analysing the specific terminology, and identifying the materials and methods. Central themes of the theoretical debate-´disegno´, ´invenzione´, the contrast between ´prestezza´ and ´diligenza´, the ´paragone´-are examined in the light of their relationship with the techniques. On the basis of scientific studies on the technical execution of paintings, works from the Capodimonte Museum, Naples are analysed as case studies.

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INTRODUCTION No Man´s Land - Technical treatises

1. "LIBRI DI BOTTEGA": A COVERT TRANSMISSION

1.1. The background

1.2. Among transcriptions and abridged versions: Leonardo´s writings, the multiform life of a never-to-be-born treatise

1.3. The underground circulation of Cennino Cennini´s Libro dell´arte

1.4. "My intention was to only write the lives and works of our artists, and not to teach the arts": the Introduzzione alle arti and techniques of painting in Vasari´s Lives

1.5. Il Riposo by Raffaello Borghini: analysis of a text as a mirror of technical knowledge in the workshops at the end of the sixteenth century

1.6. De´ veri precetti della pittura by Giovan Battista Armenini, a consciously "grammatical" approach

1.7. The Treatises of Giovan Paolo Lomazzo and the legacy of Leonardo in Lombardy

2. ISSUES AND FORMS

2.1 Disegno and invention: Schizzo, macchia, abbozzo, and the construction of the work of art

2.2. Prestezza and diligenza as a key for interpreting the relationship between technique and style
2.2.1. Armenini and Vasari: symptoms of discord
2.2.2. Chiaroscuro and grotesque: prestezza in two characteristic techniques of the Maniera

2.3. The Paragone: also a technical challenge

2.4. Colour and the counterfeiting of Nature
2.4.1. The beauty of colours
2.4.2. The atramentum of Apelles

3. THE PROCESSES

3.1. The technique of drawing

3.2. The preparation of cartoons. Transfer processes
3.3. Colours: pigments in treatises
3.3.1. Lists of colours in Borghini and Lomazzo
3.3.2. Armenini´s "avertimenti" on pigments
3.3.3. Mixing the colours: from the "mestiche" to the palette

3.4. The myth of "true fresco"

3.5. Tempera painting
3.5.1. Vasari and egg tempera: revival of an outdated technique.
3.5.2. Glue-size tempera: tüchlein, "guazzo", "chiaroscuro"

3.6. Oil painting
3.6.1. Preparazione and imprimitura
3.6.2. The execution of a painting: "bozze" and "finiture"
3.6.3. Oil painting on wall
3.6.4. Sebastiano del Piombo´s "nuovo modo" - from wall to slate
3.6.5. Painting on stone from Sebastiano to Vasari and the artists of the Medici Court
3.6.6. Paintings on copper - the beginnings

3.7. Varnish and finishing
3.7.1. The varnishes
3.7.2. The glazes
3.7.3. Finishes and retouching

4. THROUGH THE PAINTINGS: A FEW SIGNIFICANT CASE-STUDIES

4.1. Madonna del Divino Amore
4.2. Madonna della gatta
4.3. "Per questa confusione di segni" Additions to the genesis of a painting: the small paintings and the Calvary by Polidoro da Caravaggio
4.4. The Sacra Famiglia by Parmigianino
4.5. The paintings by Sebastiano del Piombo in the Capodimonte Museum, Naples

Index

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