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Underpainting
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From the beginning of oil
painting, artists had executed a neutral monochrome underpainting (also called grizaille) to establish the basic
drawing, three dimensional forms and their lighting. In this way a painter could
concentrate entirely upon composition and general atmosphere of the work. Raw umber
and lead white were usually used for the purpose. Each painter carried the
underpainting to a greater or lesser degree of detail. A very detailed underpainting by
the Flemish 14th century master Jan Van Eyck
still exists (bellow). Van Eyck executed his underpainting on an ivory white priming
panel. Dutch painters, like Vermeer, preferred a darker warm toned priming. It
could, at times, be very dark as in the case of Rembrandt. Vermeer probably
did not detail his underpainting to the same degree as Van Eyck. Since the underpainting was usually entirely covered by successive layers of paint, it might seem that the painter would waste less time if he directly painted with full colors. In reality this method served him as an extremely accurate guide through the complexities of the his work and so avoided him many corrective repaintings. |
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Vermeer's Geographer
(left) is not entirely finished, we can see in the detail of the window frame
the umber underpainting . Van Eyck's Saint Barbara (right) is an unfinished oil painting. Only the underpainting remains which is a rarity. |
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