2020 Essays

Colors for Green Leaves and Painting on Metal

Kok, Cindy

This essay explores three recipes in Ms. Fr. 640 (on fols. 158v, 10r, and 63v) that describe the making of a yellow-green paint to render metal casts of flowers more lifelike. The author-practitioner blends verdigris with an organic yellow lake pigment known as stil de grain yellow or scudegrun, and my reconstruction explores the different plant-based dyes and substrates he used for the yellow pigment. The author-practitioner’s experiments suggest a need for both precision and flexibility when imitating nature in the workshop: while the recipes can be specific about ingredients and ways to assess the naturalism of the pigment’s color, they also leave important components such as ingredient quantities and pigment application techniques up to a maker’s “judgment & discretion” (fol. 158v).