Technical Research
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Lead White
Source: Stols-Witlox (2014), Vol. 1 (PDF).
Page 42
Lead white is considered to have added to the ground’s luminosity, which would have been important in the Early Flemish manner of painting that uses transparent glazes and is described as having exploited the light reflecting properties of whitish preparatory layers.
Page 161
In an oil binder, lead white not only provides a base tone, but also acts as a siccative, a fact painters are aware of from very early on, as demonstrated in a canvas ground recipe by Vasari (1550), who writes: ‘but first it is convenient to prepare a layer of pigments with siccative properties, such as lead white, ‘giallolino’, and ‘earth for bells’.160
Page 318
The function of lead white in preparatory layers is to provide colour and bulk, and use is also made of its siccative properties.