from dust until you are at leisure to paint upon it To prepare Prints without glass or straining-frames When your prints are steeped sufficiently in water lay them on a smooth wet Table with the print-side downwards and rub 'em thin as before for glass Next with common paste do the backside of your frame and paste on your print while wet give it leisure to dry and then varnish it on both sides four or five times with Mastick or Turpentine-varnish until t is so transparent that you may see the Picture as plain on the back as foreside Lastly allow it a day or two for drying Of the posture and position of the Prints and those that paint them I may now very reasonably suppose that all things are in readiness and that nothing may hinder us from setting about the work in earnest Most Ladies that have practised this Art have made use of an uneasie posture for themselves and a disadvantagious situation for their piece for they generally stand to it when the windows are high against which they place the Print but whosoever stands cannot so steddily move the hand and pencil as the person that sits down I advise you therefore to a Table Hasel very like to and not improperly called a Reading-desk only with this difference That where the Panel or back-board for the book is there our Painting-desk may be all open with three or four wiers pendant-wise to keep the picture from falling through and a narrow ledge at the bottom to support it Beside these I would have little holes made equally distant on both sides of the Desk as t is remarkable in Painters Hasels that by pegs or pins and a narrow ledge laid upon them I may raise my Picture higher or lower as it best suits with my conveniency Being thus fixt lay a sheet of very white paper behind the picture on the table and you 'l find it much better and more conveniently placed than against the window How to paint a Mezzo-tinto-Landskip on Glass or otherwise The first thing to be attempted in this work whether Landskip or others is Glazing all those places that require it and if you desire they should lie thin and drie quickly as they ought to do mix varnish when you lay them on and in four hours time they 'l be ready for the reception of other colours In Landskip you should first glaze the nearest and great trees and ground 'em with brown Pink or if you fancie them greener add distilled Verdegreas The trees that are to appear with a lively beautiful green as also the leaves and weeds that are in some pictures must be glazed with Dutch-Pink and distill'd Verdegreas the trees farther off with Verdegreas alone the hills mountains and trees at the greatest distance of all remember to glaze with fine Smalt a little Lake and Verdegreas all thinly mixt with varnish As for the Skie although several Mistresses practise and teach the cutting of it out from the picture and painting it on the glass I do by no means allow of it for it agrees not with the eye but makes that part which should seem more distant appear too nigh and before the rest in a word it spoils and disparages the whole piece I cannot suggest to my self any reason for this foolish contrivance unless a sense of their inabilities to paint 'em beautifully obliges them to commit so great an absurdity Take then Ultramarine or for want of that fine Smalt mix it thin with varnish and glaze it over two or three times with a clean large Pencil and a very swift stroak for if you 're tedious it will dry so fast that you cannot possibly lay it even If the Landskip be adorned with Figures Buildings Rocks Ruins or the like they require finishing first of all The mixture of colours for these things consists chiefly of white black and yellow sometimes a tincture of red but the management and composition of them I leave to your inclination fancy and experience yet I would have you consider that all your Colours for this sort of Painting ought to be extraordinary light Now to finish the Trees Ground and Sky and the rest of the picture begin as before with the greatest or nearest trees and with yellow Pinke and white paint over the lightest leaves but with a darker colour of Pink and a little Smalt do neatly over the darkest and outward leaves with a small pencil dipt in varnish Those trees you would have beautiful paint with a mixture â—f yellow Masticott Verdegreas and white the darker parts with Pink Verdegreas and white as those trees also which you glazed with Verdegreas only they being mixt very light with white But to finish the skie and foreskip if any clouds appear touch them with varnish and light colour made of white yellow Oaker and Lake With these likewise touch the lightest parts of hills and towns at the remotest distance then mix Smalt and White as light as you can conveniently and paint over the skie add to these a tincture of Lake and do over the darker clouds Let your colours lie thin and even if the whole be finished grant it time to drie in If you would have your Picture look more strong brisk and lively set it against the light or on the Hasel as before and although t is painted all over you may perceive the shadows and lights through it if not what you painted before will guide you Paint then your skie and foresight with the same but lighter colours than before and so every thing else respectively CHAP. XXV To Paint a piece of figures as Men Women c. IN painting a Face the first thing required is if there are any deep shadows to glaze and touch them thinly with Lake brown Pink and Varnish also the white speck and black ball or sight of the eye as the Print will direct you the round white ball of a convenient colour too If you make the lips of a delicate red glaze them with Carramine or Lake For the rest of the face begin with the dark side and paint the shadows with a colour more red than ordinary for which Vermilion yellow Pink and white are most proper where note that all varnish is forbid in painting flesh-colours except what is used in glazing the shadows if you should mix varnish the inconvenience will be that the colours will drie so fast that you cannot sweeten the shadows with the flesh Then give some touches on the strongest lights of the face as the top of the nose forehead and by the eyes mouth and chin with a colour made of white pale Masticott or yellow Oaker and a little vermilion and mixed according to the complexion intended then mix that colour a thought darker and lay it on all the face that was not painted before very carefully yet for the mouth and cheeks somewhat redder Next with a fine clean pencil that has been used and worn a little hatch and sweeten all your
his seed bright copper compassed and set off vvith black the leaves dirty copper vvhich might be hatcht and enclosed vvith vvhite Novv remember I beseech you that although I have mentioned filling and setting off together for the more easie apprehension of it yet be constantly mindful to lay all your plain colours before you think of setting them off and the reason of it is this because you are more ready to set off vvith one colour before you undertake another and your sancie is more quick and ready to adorn and garnish every single flower and leaf Now supposing the flowers filled let us contrive what shall be the covering of the great leaves But to be brief Deck them with metals generally such as green dirtie gold pale muddy copper yet intermix here and there blew and green transparent bound and vein 'em with such as give the greatest life not wild gawdy colours so much as grave modest and delightful I advise you sometimes to double your borders in the leaves with the ground-black of the Box or Table left between as the Print will inform you And again make all your veins finishing lines and the stroaks you set off with fine clean even and smooth By this time I suppose whosoever shall survey these last pages may imagine we have pleased out selves with fancies and Chimaera's that we have discours'd like men in a dream nothing but Gold Silver and the richest colours can satisfie our luxuriant fancies nay we pretend to have it in such plenty too that Solomon himself compared to us was a beggar By our talk we are Masters of both Indies Pactolus Sands and the Mountains of Potosi should be our proper inheritance for like Midas and the Philosophers stone we turn every thing to Gold Our Birds are so splendidly arrayed that all common ornaments are excluded the best Dyes so universally overspread their wings that you 'd imagin they would outshine the Bird of Paradise The clothing and livery of the Fields are mean and heavy when compared to the Flowers our Art has produced whose lustre is more radiant more durable and surprizing CHAP. XVI To work in Gold-size the Twentieth Print of this Book SInce our Gentry have of late attained to the knowledge and distinction of true Japan they are not so fond of colours but covet what is rightly imitated rather than any work beside tho never so finical and gawdy The most excellent therefore in this Art copy out the Indian as exactly as may be in respect of Draught Nature and Likeness in this performance then colours must be laid aside Some variety of metals indeed may be admitted but in a very slender proportion to that of gold which is the Fac totum the general ornament of right genuine Japan-work This undertaking now in hand may be done with gold only But I shall in the next Chapter choose a Print whereon perfect and corrupt metals may be laid To begin therefore with that of Gold Be ever cautious and exact when you trace or draw out your design in vermilion or gold which being performed with an even hand call for your gold-size ready prepared for the draught use a small convenient pencil to mark in your size the outward lines the boundaries of that rock which in the twentieth Print you may perceive lies beyond the Buildings and although you do begin here you are not to fill it either with metals or speckles until the other work is concluded for if you remember we charged you before to finish the Rocks in the last place Again if I may counsel you begin with the remotest part that which is farthest distant from you for then you will not be liable to the inconvenience of rubbing or defacing any thing whilst it is wet with an unwelcome hand or intruding elbow Having therefore in short undertaken the farthest part first work it just as the Print is I mean draw your gold-size on the black lines of the Print and no where else reserving the white for the black Japan or ground of your Table But to explain it a litle more In all respects operate with your Size as if you were to copy the Print on white paper with ink or black Lead only take care that whilst you are busied in working one part you suffer not that already done with size to drie to that degree that it will not receive and embrace your metal but very often try the draught so lately made if it is clammy and sticks somewhat to your finger but not so as to bring off any then t is high time with your leather to lay and rub on the gold-dust if it clings to your finger so fast as to come off with it then know it is not sufficiently drie if t is no way clammy you may conclude t is too stubborn for the reception of the metal This caveat being rightly managed set upon your drawing part again and so continue now making lines then guilding them until the whole be compleated If you find it a tedious troublesome undertaking to draw the white and pass over the black or on the contrary to draw the black and omit the vvhite on the tops of your houses or foldage of figures faces or the like then for your ease overlay all those parts of your building or foldage c with gold-size and when your metal is laid on that and is well dried wash over with Securing-varnish those places only which you design to set off with black which done exercise your pencil in making those lines and divisions that are required to distinguish the parts of your house as the Tiling Draperie of garments or any thing of the like nature The reason why we enjoin you to wash with varnish is not out of any suspition or jealousie that the size or metal will forsake it s allotted seat but because its surface is generally too smooth and greasie to admit of and unite with the black unless reconciled by the mediation of the aforesaid varnish What I have propounded is an example for any other Print that you could wish or desire to accompllsh in Gold-size and indeed I had been very negligent should I have permitted this noble subject to rest in silence and oblivion this which above all others presents us with the grandeur and majesty of Japan work our under-performances vanish and shrink away when the Master-piece is exposed to view Let the narrow-soul'd Miser hug and adore his bags and pray to the golden Calf that he has erected I shall neither envy or comply with his idolatry for I had rather line my House with that precious metal than my Coffers CHAP. XVII To work in Gold-size the twentythird Print of this Book with perfect or corrupt Metals THis draught requires a greater variety of colours than any of the precedent without which it were no mean or ordinary performance to dress every figure in its proper habit and equippe the attendance according to their respective qualities but
their posts at beat of drum so that in two or three hours time that small parcel of silver which hath been separated into parts more innumerable than the Turks army will be this Campagne you find all hanging and clinging so lovingly to the copper and as loth to part as we from our Mistresses tho they 're sometimes more unconstant to us than the silver is to the copper for no other metal can tempt it to the same compliance The same silver so gathered you may use for silvering any metal doing with it as is here taught of the gold or instead of leaf or burnt silver dissolved in Aqua fortis as was before said in Clockmakers silvering Directions in Painting MEZZOTINTO-PRINTS on Glass or without it CHAP. XXIII THis most ingenious way of Painting justly claims applause and admiration if skill and dexterity are called to the performance Where these two combine beauty and perfection must dance attendance T is a pleasant insinuating Art which under a pretty disguise betrays us into a mistake We think a piece of Limning lies before us bur more strict enquiries will evince that t is Mezzo-tinto at the bottom Who can be displeased to be so innocently deluded and enamoured at the same time T is female policy at once to ravish and deceive the eyes and we not only caress the cheat but are in loves with the impostor too This manner of Painting is lookt upon to be the Womens more peculiar province and the Ladies are almost the only pretenders yet with modesty and submission I may adventure to affirm that I have not had the good fortune to meet with one of an hundred that had an excellent command of the Pencil or could deservedly be stiled a Mistress of this Art yet t is certainly no uneasie task to arrive to a great height in it but we are overstockt with no less conceited than ignorant Teachers well qualified to deface a Print and spoil the colours who abuse those young Ladies that desire instructions perswading 'em to the damage of their purses and loss of their time to attempt that which they are not able so much as to assist 'em in This is a sufficient inducement to perswade my self that these Rules will be acceptable tho I know very well that I have raised a discourse on a subject with which the world is very well acquainted yet by way of requital I shall make greater discoveries than the famous Mistress of it ever pretended to communicate in a word I promise to display it in its perfection I conceive t is requisite to advise you first in the election of Prints Frames and Glass of each in their order Mezzo-tinto Prints are to be preferred before all others being more fit and suitable for Painting than those that are engraved for in these all the stroaks of the Graver are plainly visible but the other if done with a neat and careful hand on a good fine-grounded print can hardly be distinguisht from Limning Consider that some of these Prints are of a coarse ground others of a fine the first are discernible for they seem to be rough and workt as it were with the pricks of a Pen but the latter hath soft and fine shadows like a piece neatly wrought in Indian ink or a picture in black and white Observe farther what paper they are drawn upon for if it be too thick which you may foresee by wetting a corner of it with water or your tongue and it pass not through the paper presently then conclude t is not for your purpose but on the contrary the thin and spungy paper must be elected Their value is enhanced by the different size and goodness of each Print some may be afforded for six pence or a shilling others for 18 d. or more Your Glass ought to be thin white and well polisht such as is made for Looking-glasses All blewish red green and window-glass cannot be allowed of here you must altogether despise and cashier it for if you paint on either of these especially window-glass your colours can never appear fair and beautiful Your Frames for glass-painting are usually made of stained Pear-tree with narrow mouldings for little pieces which increase in bredth as the size of your picture does in largeness they are made with Rabets and are afforded for 6 8 and 12 pence or more according to their several dimensions Another sort of Frames I recommend to you most proper for those Prints which you paint without glass called Straining-frames If you desire to have them Carved Guilded or black order them to be made flat and even without a Rabet on the backside half an inch less than the edge of the Cutt every way which is apt to rend when it undergoes the trial of straining This mischance is occasioned by the sharp edge of the Plate which almost cuts the paper when t is printed If you approve of black Frames command the Frame-maker to work them half round with Pear-tree would you stain or Japan them guild or raise their carved work this Book will sufficiently inform and direct you Thus much of these things in particular I shall now proceed to give a catalogue of such Colours as may be assistant to you in this business together with the Oyls and their several prices as also directions to make drying Oyl and various sorts of Varnish for Painting And first the names of your colours and their value as they are commonly sold ready prepared take in the very order that they are placed on your Pallet Flake White finely ground in Nut-oyl is sold at 2 s. the pound White-lead ground in the same oyl 1 s. per pound Yellow and brown Oaker finely ground in Linseed oyl is vended for 3 d. the ounce Yellow or Dutch Pink may be afforded when ground at the same rate Brown or glasing-Pink is indeed very dear the bigness of a Nutmeg grinded will stand you in 6 d. Fine Lake will cost as much Light and brown Red are only yellow and brown Oaker burnt t is 3 d. the ounce ready ground Italian Terravert is not much used in this Painting though very much in all others t is dearer sometimes than at others Umber Collins-Earth Ivory blew black are afforded at the ordinary price when ground which is 3 d. the ounce Distilled Verdegreas ground you may have at the same rate with Brown Pink and Lake but these three colours I would advise you to purchase by the Ounce and grind 'em your self if it will stand with your conveniency for the Colour-Grocers will afford these cheaper by the Ounce than Dram. Its price is 1 s. the Ounce indifferent brown Pink and Lake for the same value but that which is more pure and fine is 1 s. 6 d. 2 s. and 2 s. 6 d. or more as they excell in goodness Some Colours are in powder which you must of necessity have by you and should mix and temper on your Pallet as you shall have occasion