2020 Essays

Two Author-Practitioners in Dialogue across Time

Price, Michael

Artist Michael Price has dedicated his career to understanding the materials and techniques of early modern painters through historical painting recipes, technical analysis and conservation literature, and experiments using natural pigments and traditionally prepared binding mediums. His experience publishing his research findings and making processes position him as an ideal interlocutor for the author-practitioner of Ms. Fr. 640. In this essay, Price surveys the manuscript’s entries on the topics of painting and varnish, offering insights from his own practice and arguing that the author-practitioner’s knowledge of the painter’s craft is largely second hand.