Book: Medieval Craftsmen - Painters

This is a fantastic little book that I was lucky enough to chance upon in a second hand book shop, yesterday.

Binski, Paul (1991). Medieval Craftsmen: Painters. British Museum Press, London

It set me back a whole $4 but it is worth much more because it has information on mixing paint, artist contracts, Ghent and Flanders, a helm crest, gesso, utensils, easels and gilding. Jackpot!

Some of the interesting tools shown are two brush rests, as used by painters. They are both pictured as grey. The same colour is used on several containers of different sizes around the studio tables, making me think that they are either representing a metal or pottery. I have seen small pigment pots of ceramic or stone in other images, though metal could make sense as well. In the case of the painting of Thamar, the brush tray is grey while the pigment pots are brown, like a earthen ware clay, and some smaller vessels are more white, like oyster shells. In another image, also from the Boccaccio manuscript, Marcia uses a stick to rest her brushes, to keep the heads from contact with the table. This method is shown in other images of painters studios during the middle ages.

The blue lines show how the brushes rest. The right hand side of each blue brush is resting in to a part of each tray that is tilted down. It doesn't seem that there is any liquid in these depressions, and some of the brushes appear loaded.

There are some spectacular easels, too, but that will have to be a post for another time.