Studying 18th-Century Paintings and Works of Art on Paper

170 Pages·2016·17.79 MB·English

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This book contains papers presented at the international a
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technical art history conference Studying 18th Century e
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Paintings & Art on Paper which focused on artists’
techniques and materials, source research, conservation
science, the history of science and technology, and the
history of trade and pharmacy during the 18th century. C
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Tradition and changes in artistic practices were T
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examined in the light of the establishment of a series ro
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of national art academies in Europe throughout the ee
d
century. A scientific peer review committee selected ing
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the papers from a range of high quality presentations. , II, 2
The papers are lavishly illustrated and cover the making 01
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of paintings and artworks on paper throughout the E
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18th century, thereby illustrating a vast range of artists’ ite
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and workshop practices. by
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The conference was organised by the Centre for Art E
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Technological Studies and Conservation – CATS – ns
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in collaboration with Nationalmuseet (Stockholm), nd
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Metropolia University of Applied Science (Helsinki), im
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and the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and erle
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History, University of Oslo (Oslo). M
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Archetype
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Publications c
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www.archetype.co.uk ISBN 978-1-909492-23-3 ty
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in association with lic
at CATS Proceedings, II, 2014
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9 781909 492233 ns Edited by Helen Evans and Kimberley Muir
S18CP-Cover-v3.indd All Pages 17/08/2015 09:54
STUDYING 18TH-CENTURY
PAINTINGS AND WORKS
OF ART ON PAPER
CATS Proceedings, II, 2014
Edited by Helen Evans and Kimberley Muir
Archetype
Publications
www.archetype.co.uk
in association with
Th is online publication is available as a paperback book from Archetype Publications,
www.archetype.co.uk, ISBN 978-909492-23-3
First published 2015 by Archetype Publications Ltd in association with CATS, Copenhagen
Archetype Publications Ltd
c/o International Academic Projects
1 Birdcage Walk
London SW1H 9JJ
www.archetype.co.uk
© 2015 CATS, Copenhagen
The Centre for Art Technological Studies and Conservation (CATS) was made possible by a
substantial donation by the Villum Foundation and the Velux Foundation, and is a collaborative
research venture between the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), the National Museum of
Denmark (NMD) and the School of Conservation (SoC) at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine
Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation.
ISBN: 978-1-909492-23-3
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and to obtain their permission for the use
of copyright material. The publisher would be pleased to rectify any omissions in future reprints.
Front cover illustration: Joshua Reynolds, Saint John the Baptist in the Wilderness, c.1776, oil,
resin and wax on canvas, 127.8 × 102.4 cm, The Wallace Collection, inv. P48. (© The Wallace
Collection. Photo: The National Gallery, London)
Back cover illustrations: (from left to right) X-radiograph of Jens Juel, Sophie Birgitta Mathiesen,
1760–1802, oil on canvas, 45.0 × 37.0 cm, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMS4795 (© SMK);
Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini, Apollo, 1718, oil on canvas, 192 × 262 cm, Mauritshuis, The Hague,
inv. 1135, (photo: Margareta Svensson); Nicolai Abildgaard, The Wounded Philoctetes, 1775, oil
on canvas, 123 × 175.5 cm, Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst, inv. KMS586 (© SMK);
José del Castillo, Male Nude, 1759, chalk on paper, 55.4 × 42.4 cm, Universidad Complutense,
Madrid, drawing 1944 (© The Library of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Complutense University
of Madrid.)
Printed on acid-free paper
Designed by Marcus Nichols at PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd.
Typeset by PDQ Digital Media Solutions Ltd, Bungay
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Latimer Trend & Co. Ltd, Plymouth
CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Discipline and wonder: the 18th-century art academy and the invention of the artist as a free practitioner 1
Mikkel Bogh
The effect of Prussian blue on the technique of the Danish court painters Hendrik Krock and Benoît le Coffre 7
Loa Ludvigsen, Mikala Bagge and Vibeke Rask
Breaking new ground: investigating Pellegrini’s use of ground in the Golden Room of the Mauritshuis 16
Carol Pottasch, Susan Smelt and Ralph Haswell
Liotard’s pastels: techniques of an 18th-century pastellist 31
Leila Sauvage and Cécile Gombaud
An investigation of the painting technique in portraits by Jens Juel 46
Tine Louise Slotsgaard
72 florin for colours, white and glue: the Tiepolos, the Veninos and Würzburg 58
Andreas Burmester and Stefanie Correll
The coarse painter and his position in 17th- and 18th-century Dutch decorative painting 70
Piet Bakker, Margriet van Eikema Hommes and Katrien Keune
A ‘painted chamber’ in Beverwijk by Jacobus Luberti Augustini: novel insights into the working methods 83
and painting practices in a painted wall-hanging factory
Ige Verslype, Johanneke Verhave, Susan Smelt, Katrien Keune, Hinke Sigmond and Margriet van Eikema Hommes
Eighteenth-century practices in the art academies in Spain: the use of paper in prints and drawings 96
Clara de la Peña Mc Tigue
Nicolai Abildgaard: an 18th-century Danish artist and his paper 109
Ingelise Nielsen and Niels Borring
Semi-mechanical transfer methods in Nicolai Abildgaard’s drawings 118
Niels Borring
Canvas supports in paintings by Nicolai Abildgaard: fabrics and formats 128
Troels Filtenborg
‘1st olio after Capivi’: copaiba balsam in the paintings of Sir Joshua Reynolds 140
Alexandra Gent, Rachel Morrison and Nelly von Aderkas
Ferdinand Bauer’s Flora Graeca colour code 153
Richard Mulholland
v

FOREWORD
Editors
This is the second CATS conference proceedings with papers
from the international conference Technology & Practice:
Studying 18th Century Paintings & Art on Paper. This two-day Dr Helen Evans
technical art history conference was held on 2–3 June 2014 Paper Conservator
at the 18th-century Frederiksberg Palace in Copenhagen. Nationalmuseum
The conference was organised by CATS in collaboration with Stockholm
Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Science in Helsinki, Sweden
Finland, Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, Sweden, and the
University of Oslo, Norway. Dr Kimberley Muir
The conference focused on artists’ techniques and mate- Assistant Research Conservator
rials, source research, conservation science, the history of The Art Institute of Chicago
science and technology, trade and pharmacy during the 18th Chicago
century. Speakers explored tradition and changes in artistic USA
practices in the light of the establishment of a series of national
art academies in Europe throughout the century. The talks
included topics such as workshop practice and materials, art
Organising committee
historical and technical approaches to documentary evidence,
and technical examination and the analysis of paintings and
drawings. Issues of trade, supply and questions concerning CATS
the demand for materials for diverse artistic expressions were Mette Kokkenborg; Johanne Marie Nielsen; Andreas Swane;
also analysed and discussed. Two keynote presentations and Daniel Rosenstrøm; Jack Johnsen; Astrid Wiik; Marion
16 papers were presented of which 15 appear in this publi- Limbrecht; Jørgen Wadum
cation following peer review and editing by our two most
capable editors.
We hope you will find this second volume of CATS confer-
ence proceedings as enjoyable and enlightening as the previous
one and that the information contained herein will stimulate
further research into aspects of studying the technology and
practice of 18th-century paintings and art on paper. As with
the first CATS Proceedings, this volume is also available as a
paperback book from Archetype Publications.
On behalf of the organisers
Prof Dr Jørgen Wadum
Director of CATS
vii
Scientific committee Sponsors
Prof Dr Bruno G. Brunetti, Dipartimento di Chimica and Bruker, Tru Vue, Leica, Frederiksberg Palace
Centre SMAArt, Universita’ di Perugia, Perugia, Italy
Mads Chr. Christensen, MSc, Conservation Scientist, National
Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
Rica Jones, Conservator in Private Practice, UK
Dr Ingelise Nielsen, Associate Professor and Head of
Department, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts,
Schools of Architecture, Design and Conservation, School of
Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Dr Ashok Roy, Director of Collections, The National Gallery,
London, United Kingdom
Tannar Ruuben, MSc, MA, Senior Lecturer, Conservator of
Paintings, Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Science,
Helsinki, Finland
Mikkel Scharff, MSc, Associate Professor, Head of the
Conservation School and Department, The Royal Danish
Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture, Design and
Conservation, School of Conservation, Copenhagen, Denmark
Kriste Sibul, MSc, MA, Director of Preservation,
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden
Dorthe V. P. Sommer, MSc, Assistant Professor, The Royal
Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Architecture,
Design and Conservation, School of Conservation,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Prof Dr Ron Spronk, Professor of Art History, Queen’s
University, Kingston, Canada and Hieronymus Bosch Chair,
Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Dr Noëlle Streeton, Associate Professor, Department of
Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo,
Oslo, Norway
Jesper Svenningsen, PhD Fellow, Statens Museum for Kunst,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Dr Anna Vila, Senior Conservation Scientist, CATS,
Copenhagen, Denmark
Prof Dr Jørgen Wadum, Director of Conservation & Director
of CATS, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
DISCIPLINE AND WONDER: THE
18TH-CENTURY ART ACADEMY AND
THE INVENTION OF THE ARTIST AS
A FREE PRACTITIONER
Mikkel Bogh
ABSTRACT How did artists acquire knowledge of their fields of practice – whether painting, sculpture or drawing – in the 18th
century? What was the nature and content of artistic training in a century that saw the establishment in many, if not most, European
countries of academies or schools of art after the French model? What were the inherent tensions in a formal training system
the purpose of which was to professionalise, to discipline and to secure the freedom of the artist? And how did the new training
institutions sit in the context of an emerging art market that was gradually replacing the traditional art patronage system? A
discussion of practices relating to 18th-century painting and art on paper, with a particular focus on the material and technical
aspects of artistic production, should not only address the use, production and the availability of specific types of colour, paper,
canvas, tools etc. but should also take into account the changing conditions of the making and training of artists including the role
of new institutions such as the art academy during this period. This paper examines the function and workings of the art academies
and their relation to artists’ and artisans’ workshops during this century. My argument revolves around the apparent paradox that the
institutionalisation of art training and the academic disciplining of artists emerged at the same time in history as, and is intimately
bound up with, the notion of the free artist.
Introduction
offering teaching programmes for young talent. The need to
shape an institutional identity in opposition to the guild gave
By and large the academy of art is an invention of the 18th rise to a whole rhetoric of art versus crafts. Thus the academy
century, but the academy as a public art school had its impor- was seen as a place where the theory and practice of fine art,
tant predecessors in 16th-century Florence and notably in not just the craft of painting, was taught. Here aspiring art-
17th-century Paris. The establishment in 1648 of the French ists would be offered an opportunity to rise above the level of
Royal Academy of Painting (Académie royale de peinture et the skilled craftsman through a theoretically informed pro-
de sculpture) was motivated by the ambition on the part of gramme based on intellectual ideas and drawing. This would
those artists working under royal protection, the so-called take place in an institution where ideals of beauty, themes and
brevetaires, to form an arena for the discussion, promotion composition were discussed among peers. The teaching pro-
and distribution of painting and sculpture that was independ- gramme developed in a new and more systematic direction
ent of the restrictive guild system with its community rituals under the directorships of Jean-Baptiste Colbert from 1661
as well as its rigid regulations regarding techniques, materi- and, from 1683, Charles Le Brun. From this point in time the
als, nationality and choice of subject.1 Many artists working institution was intimately bound up with efforts to reorient
outside the protection of the guild felt the need to develop and ultimately control artistic production in order for it to
a more flexible organisation, especially in light of the many serve the absolutist monarchy and the building of the nation.
new commissions emerging as a result of a building boom In the case of the French Royal Academy, a reorientation
following a boosted French economy. In order for the acad- towards a specific French idiom implied the development of
emy to gain royal protection and to acquire state funding, a ‘classical’ and grand style that was deemed non-Italian as
the institution had to convince officials that it was a school well as non-Spanish.2
1
MIKKEL BOGH
Fig. 1 Antoine Watteau, Gersaint’s Signboard, 1721, oil on canvas, 163 × 308 cm, Charlottenburg Palace, Berlin. 
However it took time for this idea to disseminate to other of instruction through drawing, fixed in a set of academic and
European countries, partly because of financial issues. In 1720 institutional norms, was, at least in smaller European nations
there existed only three or four academies of art and only six such as Denmark, partly a means of producing local artists
new academies opened during the following two decades. As of high quality to avoid dependence on expensively imported
late as 1740, less than 10 academies offered teaching curricu- artists from France, and partly a way of securing control of
lums.3 Academies still worked mainly as professional forums official imagery. At a time when the art market was already
and clubs where peers could meet and exchange ideas relat- flourishing and, to a growing extent, artists’ productions were
ing to philosophy, geometry and literature, and where norms following routes other than those provided by patrons and
and standards of the profession could be agreed – most did official commissions, there was an imagined risk that artists
not function as public art schools in the modern sense. All would become too idiosyncratic in their choice of subject and
this changed dramatically after the mid-century. Over the style. The transformation of the area of artistic production and
next four decades more than 100 art academies and public distribution, as well as the development of new relationships
art schools emerged, most of which now included teaching between artists and consumers, did not happen overnight – it
duties. According to Nikolaus Pevsner, the fast establish- was only by the mid-19th century that the art market and art
ment of institutions of artistic training ran parallel to the institutions such as museums, art criticism, auctions etc. were
development of a neo-classical style in the arts. Excavations in place as a coherent art system. But this development had
beginning in Herculaneum (1738) and in Pompeii (1748), already begun in the late 17th century and even had its pre-
together with the publication of German art historian J.J. cursors in cities such as Antwerp and Frankfurt back in the
Wincklemann’s seminal works on Greek art, helped to lay the mid-16th century, long before academies assumed the role of
foundation for this neo-classical fashion. The classical Greek quality assurance institutions previously played by the guilds.4
canon was promoted as the new norm of contemporary style Antoine Watteau’s famous late work Gersaint’s Signboard
and focus was once again put on the human figure. The new (1721) (Fig. 1) offers a hint of what an early 18th-century
style, and the conformism that accompanied it, offered a sort art market would have looked like. Far from being the place
of impetus for the adoption of normative curricula, as well as where artists’ works were commissioned directly by patrons,
for the introduction of academic standards and abstract ideals dealers such as the Paris art dealer Gersaint (for whose
against which observations of nature could be m easured small boutique Watteau made this outdoor sign) had a great
and corrected. variety of artists, themes and even styles on display and in
Pevsner probably overemphasised the stylistic back- storage. Gersaint in this painting is offering works made by
ground of the almost explosive emergence of public art artists for an anonymous albeit noble public of both ama-
schools throughout Europe, even though academies evolved teurs and connoisseurs, who in this painting are coming with
from an anti-Rococo trend. The need for normativity was not a view to enjoying hitherto unseen work. In the context of a
only a question of the stylistic rigour of classical style and of European art market appealing to or even, as it were, gen-
making sure art students got it right. Training students in a erating independent artists, the art academy had the dual
more or less classicist style, based on a Renaissance principle function of both delivering professional local artists for a
2
DISCIPLINE AND WONDER: THE 18TH-CENTURY ART ACADEMY AND THE INVENTION OF THE ARTIST AS A FREE PRACTITIONER
buying public as well as setting the standards of what was of art as a separate and autonomous field or, in the words of
appropriate including standards of decorum, legibility and Larry Shiner, to the ‘invention of art’.7
interpretation.5 Officially sanctioned art, including work dis- The new system of art was, of course, not as coherent as
tributed to anonymous consumers in the art market, was to it might seem from a historical distance. Even though the
be correct in tone, taste and content. But most importantly, transformation had a clear direction, old and new forms of
each state and each prince in the second half of the 18th cen- production, evaluation and distribution of art existed side by
tury considered the art academy as a way of guaranteeing that side during the 18th and 19th centuries. The same applies to
the most talented and skilled artisans would be raised to the the public art schools whose roles as instructive institutions
level of artists and architects. Thus the art academy ensured were by no means unambiguous. No doubt the academies
that every state would have in its possession highly educated contributed to the establishment of a system of fine art or
artists to take on commissions from the royal household, the beaux-arts according to which art was an autonomous practice
aristocracy and the wealthiest bourgeois citizens. The abil- and the artist a practitioner in a field more or less unrestricted
ity to provide decorative, built and representational solutions by the rules and norms pertaining to the rest of society, as well
for the absolutist state and its highest ranking proponents as to other fields of practice, particularly those of the artisans.
and representatives was, from the outset, the most important At the same time, however, the academy was closely bound up
official rationale of the art academy. But the academy cannot with a master-apprentice model that was basically inherited
be seen as distinct from the emerging modern art market and from late medieval times and according to which students of
the other new institutions of art. art would receive their most fundamental training through
working in close proximity to a master in his workshop and
in certain cases would serve as his assistant. Academies in
the 18th century did not offer any training in basic artisa-
The workshop and the academy
nal skills such as carving, colour fabrication and painting. To
achieve such skills was of course part of any artists’ toolkit
Transformations not only took place between artist and buy- and mastery in the arts was also considered mastery of exe-
ers or consumers of art – the commercialisation of the art cution, meaning technical-material ability. But this part of
market had been under way since at least the mid-16th cen- artistic practice was not included in the curriculum offered
tury. Now an entire system of art was in progress, and the by the academy. Until the mid-19th-century, technical and
art academy was only one institutional factor in the creation material handling was taught to art students in private studios
of a system that had not previously existed. Of course, ever where ‘masters’ held workshops and classes – some were not
since the Renaissance there had been a growing awareness doing so in their capacity as academy professors but as a pri-
that ‘fine art’ was a profession or a category of its own, but vate and extracurricular activity. These were, of course, more
as late as the first half of the 18th century there was still no than mere technical workshops. Stylistic influence was part
clear distinction made between fine art understood as paint- of what students sought just as a general sensibility towards
ing, sculpture and engraving and any other business in the subject matter and ‘artistic discourse’ was being handed over.
production of images such as shop signs, furniture paint- Before, during or after their academic programme, stu-
ing, applied art etc. Encyclopaedias in the early part of the dents of art would seek further training and inspiration from
century did not use beaux-art as an area of knowledge in its well-known masters such as Jacques-Louis David in Paris.
own right. Sculpture and architecture were mentioned in cat- Thus early in his career Danish painter C.W. Eckersberg
egories such as ‘mechanics’ whereas painting existed under went to study with David in Paris for almost three years, a
the category ‘optics’,6 both being part of general mathemat- fact that did not make him a ‘pupil’ of David in the sense
ics. However, d’Alembert, Diderot and the other editors of that Anne-Louis Girodet had been a pupil-assistant – and
the French Encyclopédie (1751) suggested a totally different eventually also in opposition – to David.8 But the instruc-
and new systematisation of human knowledge, divided into tion Eckersberg received in David’s studio did indeed provide
three headings: ‘memory’, ‘reason’ and ‘imagination’. Painting, him with a stronger vision and a firmer grip on composition,
sculpture and engraving belonged to the latter category. As spatial construction and figure drawing. It is no coincidence
imaginative and poetic areas of knowledge, on a par with, that Eckersberg attended lessons at David’s studio on his
yet distinct from, science and the humanities, a clear line of way to Rome. For most public art schools, the French Royal
demarcation was now being drawn around the fine arts sepa- Academy was still the model to follow and a trip to Rome was
rating these from crafts-based image practices. The gradual tantamount to becoming an accomplished artist according
opening up to the public of museums of art, the advent of to this way of teaching. It was all about studying and imi-
the juried exhibition beginning with the annual salon intro- tating the great masters from both classical antiquity and
duced by the French Royal Academy in Paris in 1737, as the Renaissance. The Grand Tour was part of postgraduate
well as the birth and development of art criticism through artistic training in the 18th century, often made financially
which a reading and art-consuming public would get evalu- possible by an academic prize or grant from taking part in
ative interpretations of recent exhibitions and publication, annual competitions. But the programme in the academy
together with the segregation of the fine arts as an area of per se was largely taken over from the 17th century by the
knowledge suggested by the Encyclopédie, formed part of the French Royal Academy which, for its part, was based on late
institutional and discursive process leading to the definition Renaissance Florentine and Roman academy models.9 What
3