Visual evidence for the use of "carta lucida" in the Italian Renaissance workshop

• Autores: Maria Clelia Galassi
• Localización: The Renaissance Workshop / David Saunders (ed. lit.), Marika Spring (ed. lit.), Andrew Meek (ed. lit.), 2013, ISBN 978-1-904982-93-7, págs. 130-137
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The use of transparent sheets (linseed oil-soaked parchment or paper) for tracing and transferring images from one support to another is recommended in treatises from as early as the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, very few examples of drawings on "carta lucida" survive, probably because relatively few collectors were interested in collecting such mechanical and impersonal artwork. Such a versatile, multifunctional tool must have been used daily in the workshop for the training of apprentices as well as for designing and replicating stock figures or individual details. In fact, visual evidence for the use of tracing paper can be found by studying the design process for drawings, engravings, panel paintings and frescos. This essay dsicusses the use of "carta lucida" found through visual evidence, with examples such as underdrawing (detected by infrared reflectography), incised lines and "sinopie" in panel and wall paintings by Italian Renaissance painters, such as Perugino, Mantegna, Paolo Uccello, Domenico Veneziano and Andrea del Castagno. In particular, it stresses the function of transparent paper as a workshop tool for producing symmetrical images, and for transferring preparatory drawings from one support to another, specifically in fresco painting, when transferring the "sinopia" from the "arriccio" to the "intonaco".