Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/331

Materials. 303 Charcoal is well suited for sketching the outlines of large works. It produces a broad stroke adhering so slightly to the ground that it may be blown away without leaving a trace. If, however, the ground be washed with lime-water and allowed to dry before the sketch is made, the charcoal will set. Nearly all large cartoons (i. e. designs on strong paper or paste-board of the full size of the work to be executed) of modern times are drawn in charcoal, although Kaulbach, the great German fresco painter, sometimes used chalk. Cartoons drawn in charcoal have played an important part in the history of art ever since Michelangelo's cartoons for his frescoes were exhibited at Florence in 1504; and some of considerable value have been produced in our own day. In working both with chalks and charcoal, the stump, a bluntly-pointed implement made of leather, is largely used in working the shadows. In figure painting, the artist uses a living model for the study of the formation of the body and the surface of the flesh, and a lay -figure on which to arrange the drapery. The lay-figure was, it is said, invented by Fra Bartolommeo. In water-colour painting, prepared colours, consisting of colouring matter mixed with honey or gum-arabic, are used. Two courses are open to the artist. He may either merely wash-in a drawing in sepia or Indian ink, or he may fully colour it. In both processes, however, the shading would be done with a brush. Painting in water- colours is carried to greater perfection in England than in any other country. But the works contributed by modern Dutch water-colour artists to the exhibition at Grosvenor Gallery in the winter of 1879-80 proved that they are by no means backward in the art.