Os métodos e os materiais dos pintores, segundo Laurie

A. P. Laurie, isto é Arthur Pillans Laurie (1861-1949), é um nome incontornável na história do estudo das técnicas de pintura, especialmente do passado.

É autor de vários obras, continuando um dos seus livros a ser actualmente reeditado, várias décadas depois de publicado – o que, evidentemente, dá conta do seu interesse e importância.

A edição original acaba desse livro acaba de ficar livremente disponível aqui:

A. P. Laurie, The Painters Methods and Materials, London, Seeley, Service & Co. Limited, 1926.

Sobre Laurie há uma breve nota bio-bibliográfica  aqui.

Do prefácio:

This book has been written for the craftsman painter in oil, water colour, tempera, and fresco, not for the scientific chemist or the manufacturer. It therefore deals with methods and the properties of materials rather than their chemical description or methods of manufacture. For example, the chemistry of the drying of linseed oil is so complex as to be unintelligible to anyone who is not a student of chemistry. I therefore treat only with the results of these changes.

Those who wish to pursue their studies further may consult, among standard books, Sir Arthur Church's Chemistry of Paints and Painting and Hurst's Paints, Colours, Oils, and Varnishes, and of modern works, Varnishes and their Components, by Dr. Morrell, Malmaterialien Kunde Als Grundlage Der Maltechnik, Die Anorganischen Farbstoffe, and Die Fette Öle, by Professor Eibner.

For those who wish to study the materials and methods of the Middle Ages to the close of the sixteenth century, the Classic work is still Eastlake's Materials for the History of Oil Painting, to which may be added Hendrie's Translation of Theophilus, Mrs. Merrifield's Fresco Painting and Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting, Lady Herringham's translation of Cennino Cennini, the translation of Vasari on Technique, by Louisa Maclehose, and Professor Berger's Beitrage Zur Entwickelung's Geschichte der Maltechnik. May I also be permitted to add my Materials of the Painter's Craft and the Pigments and Mediums of the Old Masters? Students should also consult the Transactions of the Tempera Society.

On sitting down to write this book I found so many practical questions arising to which I could discover no answer, that I considered it necessary to carry out a series of experiments in several different directions, the results of which are incorporated in these pages. To the best of my knowledge the experiments on the transparency of pigments in different refractive media and the change in the refractive index of linseed oil in process of drying are new.

In numerous other cases the statements in the text are the results of actual experiments, though no details are given.

A logical order of treatment of the subject proved difficult, and cross-references inevitable. In many cases repetition was found necessary to give completeness to the particular subject under discussion and save trouble to the reader.