Page:An Elementary History of Art.djvu/336

306 Painting. hold his colours ; an easel on which to rest his canvas, and a rod called a maulstick to steady his hand. His colours are mostly mineral earths and oxides, such as ochres; or organic substances, such as cochineal, mixed with white-lead and worked up with it and oil into a kind of paste, and subsequently diluted in using with what is technically called a medium, consisting generally of a compound of mastic-varnish and boiled linseed-oil, called mag Up. Large oil paintings are generally executed on canvas stretched on a frame and coated with paint. The colour of the ground-coating varies according to the taste of the artist, — in England light grounds are preferred, — and every artist has his own peculiar methods alike of working and mixing his colours. The ordinary mode of procedure is to sketch the outline on the canvas with charcoal or pencil, and then either the colour which each portion is to exhibit is at once em- ployed and gradually worked-up to a sufficient finish ; or, as is more frequently the case, the entire effect of light and shadow is painted in first in monochrome (one colour), and then the colours are added in a series of transparent coats, technically called glazes, the highest lights being indicated last of all in opaque colour. Oil painting, from the great range and scope which it affords the painter, and the infinite variety of effects he is able to produce by the means at his command, has for long been the favourite manner of almost all artists, and by far the largest number of important paintings which have been executed since the discovery of this method have been carried out in it ; yet there are certain qualities in which water-colours, on the one hand, and fresco, on the other, surpass it.