Day 14

Not many direct records exist of Vermeer’s methods regarding material preparation but the raw materials lapis lazuli, ochres, white lead, and ivory black would have been brought back to Holland by the Dutch merchants whom, by now, had mapped trading routes all around the world. In the novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, Tracy Chevalier alludes to the methods that Vermeer probably would have used. As she says, he would have ground black pigment from a piece of ivory and also ground his own white lead pigment by crushing it until it was a fine paste, then burnt yellow ochres by the fire to make them turn red and dark brown; he would have washed, purified, and ground the precious and expensive lapis lazuli to make ultramarine pigment. All this needed a direct and thorough knowledge of what supplies were available, the best new techniques for processing and purifying substances and making them into paint, news of the arrival of new consignments of pigments and resins from abroad and even information about brand new materials that might be of use. Vermeer would have had strong links with other trades specifically dealing with color such as weavers, dyers, ceramists, pharmacists, and printers. Artists were often members of other guilds as well as their own, such as the pharmacy guild.

How would this knowledge have affected Vermeer’s painterly technique? I have made a study of the art materials and techniques of a number of historically recognized artists over several years and can give an account of the ground and paint used by Vermeer. The ground is the layers that all painters need to put down on the canvas before the paint. It serves as a background for the paint and prevents it from sinking into the canvas and possibly causing it to rot. It is well known to artists that grounds make themselves “felt” no matter how thick the overlaid paint, as recognized by Max Doerner (1950), one of the few art experts to talk of the physical construction of paintings and of their effect.
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I made up Vermeer’s ground following the ingredients given by the National Gallery’s technical department and using approximately the same amounts of each substance as in the original. In the painting Lady Standing at the Virginals, Vermeer’s distinct ground is primarily lead white with some ochre, a trace of red lead, a blackish-brown pigment, glue size, and water (Kirby 1997). When these ingredients are put together they make a very unusual and surprising substance. It was quite a shock to find this was under Vermeer’s finely painted, luminous, image. Ochres are heavy, earthy pigments made from clay, which maintain some of their rich body throughout the ground making process. Put together with the soft, heavy pigment, lead white, and the other ingredients, they create a grayish-brown combination with a texture that can only be described as like molten volcanic rock. Just as the under-layer affected the works of Van Eyck and Rubens, the gravity and weighted solidity of this ground mixture affects Vermeer’s painting and accounts in some way for its gravity and dynamism, despite the fact that the work is just over eighteen inches in length.

But why is the ground gray? According to the psycho-physiologist Hering (1964), who based his color theory on the psychological and physiological perception of color, color works in binary oppositions; yellow-blue, green-red and black-white (unlike the Young-Helmholtz theory). Each pair of colors is distinct but works in relation, and one is needed for the other to function. Within this the color gray works as an identity element between all the color opposites. The grayness of Vermeer’s ground shines through the colors, not obviously but in terms of a nuance. This underlying tone in the painting is the unifying element that aids the sense of harmony of the colors.

The ingredients of Vermeer’s paint are also very distinct. He used Venice Turpentine made from resin from the larch tree, and linseed oil. Add enough resin to the paint mixture and one ends up with an enamel-like, glassy quality. Linseed oil added to Venice turpentine is thick and viscose and can take a large amount of pigment. Intensity of pigment makes intensity of color. The enamel viscosity of the paint prevents the colors from sinking into the dry, dark ground and losing their intensity. The colors sit on the canvas as a homogenous body, with the ground coming through from below. The effect is comprehensive. Take the yellow paint of the woman’s skin in Lady Standing at the Virginals, for instance. It has a very subtle, bluish-tinge, and it is hard to say whether the color is blue or yellow. Yet the two are psychologically opposite and, in Hering’s experiments, cannot be one and also the other. Vermeer’s skilful combination of materials stimulates the vision and senses of the viewer and enables a discriminating response.

~~Color, Facture, Art and Design -by- Iona Singh