Mediaeval painters' materials and techniques : the Montpellier Liber diversarum arcium /

Mediaeval painters' materials and techniques : the Montpellier Liber diversarum arcium /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Clarke, Mark, 1962-
Imprint:	London : Archetype, 2011.
Description:	xiii, 352 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 25 cm.
Language:	English
Subject:	Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier, France). -- Section médecine. Bibliothèque interuniversitaire (Montpellier, France). -- Section médecine. Liber diversarum arcium. Painting, Medieval -- Technique. Artists' materials. Artists' materials.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/8453887

Hidden Bibliographic Details
Varying Form of Title:	Montpellier Liber diversarum arcium
Other uniform titles:	Liber diversarum arcium. English & Latin. 2011.
ISBN:	9781904982647 1904982646
Notes:	"This volume contains the first ever published translation of the 'Liber diversarum arcium' together with an extensive technical and historical commentary."--P. [4] of cover. Includes bibliographical references (p. 340-352).
Summary:	"The anonymous Montpellier Liber diversarum arcium ('Book of Various Arts') contains the most complete set of instructions in the craft of mediaeval painting to have survived to the present day. Its comprehensive summary of the state of the art of painting in the workshops of the fourteenth century will be of great interest to art historians, conservators and historians of artists' technology. The long-overlooked manuscript provides a complete practical painting course: drawing, water-based tempera, oil and fresco. It includes painting on manuscripts, panels, sculptures, and walls, but also painting on glass and ceramics. Instructions are given for the preparation of materials such as pigments and media, and also for their application and modeling, as well as for gilding and other useful techniques. The range of knowledge displayed is remarkable with nearly six hundred recipes, two-thirds of which are unique to this manuscript. Furthermore it demonstrates that when the van Eycks and their contemporaries transformed painting n the fifteenth century, they did so using materials and techniques of oil painting that already existed. This volume contains the first ever published translation of the Liner diversarum arcium together with an extensive technical and historical commentary."--P[4] of cover.

Description
Summary:	Medieval painting was a craft. The anonymous Montpellier Liber diversarum arcium ('Book of various arts') is a handbook prescribing how that craft was to be practiced. It contains over five hundred art-technological instructions or 'recipes' in Latin. Unlike the vast majority of medieval artists' recipe books, this content is highly structured and organised, such as to form a complete handbook or course on painting. This Liber diversarum arcium is probably the most substantial and comprehensive medieval painters' technical recipe book to survive. It summarises the state-of-the art in the European workshops of the fourteenth century.<br> <br> This volume makes the Liber diversarum arcium usable to modern readers for the first time, by restoring the text in over 150 places where its corruption obscures the technical sense, by translating the text into English, and by providing a running commentary to explain the technical processes and technical terminology.<br> <br> ,<br> <br> <br> <br>
Item Description:	"This volume contains the first ever published translation of the 'Liber diversarum arcium' together with an extensive technical and historical commentary."--P. [4] of cover.
Physical Description:	xiii, 352 p. : ill. (chiefly col.) ; 25 cm.
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 340-352).
ISBN:	9781904982647 1904982646