2020 Essays

Shadows Beneath the Skin: How to Paint Faces in Distemper

Nisse, Cleo

In an entry on fol. 93v titled “Face in distemper,” the author-practitioner describes a method for depicting a face in paint on canvas. This essay analyzes that entry, contextualizing it in relation to other painting recipes in the manuscript and to other early modern artisanal treatises, before turning to laboratory reconstruction. Ms. Fr. 640 points to the intertwined relationship between representing skin and the body’s shadows, thereby reflecting broader concerns of early modern artistic practice. The author-practitioner also advises altering the hue of flesh shading by gender, which may owe something to humoral theory. Among the pigments he suggests using for male shadows is jet, a substance rarely mentioned in other painting treatises. The results of the reconstructions suggest that the specific paint medium intended by the term “distemper” may have been glue, but this is not conclusive and further experimentation is necessary.