RECIPES FOR PIGMENT MANUFACTURING IN GREEK POST-BYZANTINE PAINTING MANUALS

Greek post-Byzantine (post-1453 AD) painters were often using painting manuals in order to retrieve information relevant to their discipline; yet rather few pertinent texts survive today. The renowned “Hermeneia of the art of painting” is a manual compiled at circa 1730 AD by the hieromonk and icon painter Dionysios of Fourna. It contains both iconographical dictations and technical instructions; the latter include seven recipes for the manufacturing of pigments as well as four recipes describing the conversion of gold leaf to powder (“chrysography”). Here, we compare the Dionysios of Fourna “Hermeneia” pigment recipes with pertinent recipes found in three other Greek painting manuals, namely the Panteleimonos monastery codex 259 (late 16th century), the Holy Metropolis of Samos codex 61 (1783 AD) and the Pagonis’ “Hermeneia” of painting (1803 AD). Pioneering European painting manuals such as the Cennino Cennini “Il libro dell’ arte” and the Theophilus Presbyter “De diversis artibus” are also considered. Revealed correlations between the manuscripts in consideration as well as to spot the possible sources of the “Hermeneia” pigment manufacturing recipes are reported. In order to highlight various pigment-related issues, data deriving from the analytical investigation of micro-samples originating from five post-Byzantine Greek icons have been also included, through OM, SEMEDX and μ-Raman. Original data are presented deriving from the replication of a unique and hitherto unpublished pigment manufacturing recipe. It is thus shown that the recipes found in the Greek painting manuals do indeed largely reflect the materials employed by contemporary icon painters. It has been proved that most of the renowned Dionysios’ “Hermeneia” pigment manufacturing recipes originate from substantially earlier Greek sources, while related material is also found in medieval European texts. It is shown that a deviant body of relevant recipes exists in less known -and mostly unpublished- Greek painting manuals, revealing that the Dionysios’ painting manual is by no means an exhaustive account of the technical information available to post-Byzantine painters at about the time of Dionysios. Moreover, the potential trend considered herein for the very first time is the diffusion of Persian technical knowledge among late post-Byzantine Greek painters.