Historical Recipe: Italian Fritters

Name: Robin Reich and Yuanxie Shi
Date and Time:

2016.1.30

Location: Butler Library
Subject:Reconstruction of Historical Recipe

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Canvas making and Oil Painting [1]

Name: Yuanxie Shi
Date and Time: Feb 22nd, 2016

2016.02.22, 10:30-11:30

Location: Lab
Subject: Canvas_Red Earth Pigment


Materials:
Burnt Sienna (premixed and natural pigment), palette knife, brush, oil


Procedures:
1. mix the pigment with the oil. If it is too thick, add more oil into the mixture

2. Tools for applying pigments
Trial 1: use the palette knife to apply the color to the canvas. It is a little bit hard to control the thickness
Trial 2: use the brush. But the color cannot get into the canvas and there accumulate some small pigment grains
Trial 3: use the fingers. That actually works well and smoothes the color nicely.
3. I painted one column of 2 cm with premixed Burnt Sienna. See if that will work out differently later.

4. Leave out less than 1 inch space.

Canvas painting: ground and tracing

Name: Yuanxie Shi
Date and Time: March 3rd, 2016

4:10 PM

Location: Lab
Subject: preparation--tracing

On Monday (Feb 29th), we applied the grey mixture of white lead, charcoal and red earth to the canvas. This is the second layer above the red earth pigment. But I forgot to leave an inch for future reference. I had to use the palette knife to scrap it off.

This afternoon, I traced a tulip by the method of pouncing. Donna taught me how to make a firm "cigarette" used for dipping the charcoal.

After pouncing, I used the yellow ochre pigment to draw the tracing lines. I didn't mix the yellow ochre and linseed oil myself, but used the pigments Njeri mixed. I am curious how many details of the pedal should be transferred onto the canvas.

Canvas painting: Layering

Name: Yuanxie Shi
Date and Time: March 7th, 2016
Location: Lab
Subject: dead layer and details

First, I used premixed cadmium red to paint the dead layer of the tulip (why it was called dead layer). When tracing over the charcoal, I forgot to whip off the charcoal grains by feature as Erma suggested, before using the yellow oil ochre to trace the contour.


Then we milled the colony yellow ochre with linseed oil to paint the middle tone of the yellow part. Learning from last distemper, I paid more attention to brush details.


Next we experimented adding chalk and lead white to mix the lighter tone. It is much more difficult to get the light tone with the chalk powder. So we used the white lead. I feel it is easy to paint when the yellow layer is not dried completely, for the brush will go more smooth and actually the canvas could be the palette for mixing new shades of yellow.

Then I painted the background and the stamen with the mixture of burnt sienna and lamp black oil.

Annotation plans

Name: Yuanxie Shi
Date and Time: March 9th, 2016
Location: Home
Subject: grouping and planning

• Enamel Group: Amy, Olivia

1. Annotation plans: I plan to study 16th century enamel, especially azure enamel, from MS Fr. 640 manuscripts. Through discovering the process of making enamel and the way to apply enamel onto the painting, I want to figure out what enamel meant in the MS Fr. 640 manuscript, in what contexts it was used in the 16th century, whether it meant to make gem or simply imitate them on the painting, how the enamel applied on medal was different from that on painting and the specific way to preserve enamels on the canvas. Besides that, I wonder whether enamel technique was introduced from ceramic production and geographically it was made in different methods (because it mentioned "Germany").

2. Lists of recipes:

p093v_a2:

<title id=“p093v_a2”>Azure</title>
<ab id=“p093v_b2”>Azure enamel always requires washing because the impurities found in the wastewater ^would make it fade. It should always be applied twice, at first very thickly, moving the brush so as to lay it first lengthwise and then across. It is better used on canvas, which absorbs it immediately, than on wood. Varnish restores its brightness, because once absorbed it becomes dark. In order to test it, painters bring their palettes to the grocer’s and distemper and mix it with a little white groundin oil, for in this manner the good one appears typically.bright blue, while the bad one is lavender grey. The thinner one is best to work with. It is refined by washing.</ab>

p038r_1

<head><m>Sapphire</m></head>
<ab>There are <m>sapphires</m> that we call trellis sapphires, for they are pierced and it is said that a certain king made a certain ornament out of these in a trellis-like form, perhaps similar to the Écrin of Charlemagne, as it is named, in the treasury of <pl>Saint Denis</pl>, in which the gems are set without foil, so as to enjoy its brightness from both sides, and to show their native quality. I have a white one that seems to be rough and pierced, and is all over spotted with blue. I am of the opinion that these spots are artificial and made of <m>taffre</m> or very clear <m>azure enamel</m> fused on the <m>sapphire</m>. <m>Lime</m> corrodes it as it does on <m>beryl</m>.</ab>

p038r_3

<head><m>Sapphire</m></head>

<ab><pro>Stone cutters</pro> sometimes choose old pieces of antique <m>glass</m> in church windows, which are much thicker than those of today and have more natural colors. If it is for <m>sapphire</m>, they chose the beautiful blue and from those parts in which there are no grains, if possible. After cutting it into squares with <m>emeril</m>, they cut it in bevel and polish it. In this way, they imitate very beautiful <m>sapphires</m>. The old <m>azure enamel</m> for <m>silver</m>, when close to <m>aquamarine</m>, was very suitable for imitating <m>sapphires</m>, but you cannot find it anymore. <m>Aquamarines</m> are imitated with white <m>glass</m>, but they take it from the bottom of the glass.</ab>
</div>

p011r_1

<head>How to <m>oil</m> paint <m>azure enamel</m></head>



<ab>This is a secret hardly known to common painters. Some take the finest they can and grind it with some <m>ceruse</m>, which binds it, and then prick with an awl in several places the areas they want to paint with <m>azure enamel</m>, so that the <m>oil</m> soaks into it in drops, not allowing the <m>azure,/m>, which alone is heavy, to run. Others lay the painting flat and apply the <m>azure</m> and that can be also soaked. The most important is to grind it well on <m>marble</m>, and before that, to have rinsed it. Some grind it thoroughly with an <m>egg yolk</m> and then rinse it five or six times and apply it not with a paint brush, which would be too soft, but with a brush highly softened and curled, and laying it down thickly as if you were applying it with a trowel, it settles even and flat. I experimented [and found] that grinding <m>azur enamel</m> with <m>egg yolk</m> and then rinsing it in <m>water</m> is good. However it does lose a little vividness when ground. I also rinsed it successively in <m>water</m> and, after letting it stand, I extracted some <m>blue water</m> with a sponge and pressed it into another vessel where it was left to stand, and from the residue I obtained the dust, flower and finest part of the <m>azure</m> without grinding it, which is the best way, because it loses some of its color when ground. Those who make it in <pl>Germany</pl> compose it like <m>enamel</m>, in large pieces which they pound, pass through several <m>sieves</m> and rinse.</ab>



<ab>To make <m>azures</m> beautiful, they wash them or soak them in <m>rock water</m>, as they call it, which is <m>water</m> distilled from mines where <m>azure</m> or <m>vert d’azur</m> is found, either distilled naturally through the mountain’s veins or distilled with an alembic from <m>azure</m> or <m>copper</m> mineral stones.</ab>



<ab><m>Azure dust</m> is not good for landscapes because it fades with <m>oil</m>. Only true <m>azure</m> holds. <m>Azure enamel</m>cannot be worked if it is too thick. Therefore, try it on your fingernail or your <m>oil</m> [color] palette. If it is sandy, grind it only with <m>egg yolk</m> or, even better, rinse it in <m>clear water</m> and with a sponge extract the <m>colored water</m> after it starts to sink, and in this way you will extract the finest flower, which will be easy to work with.</ab>

</div>

• 3. lists the recipes from MS Fr. 640 (and any other source) that you have identified so far (include full recipes if practical)
• 4. lays out a schematic plan for the historical, object-based, and hands-on research that will shed light on these recipes.
• 5. list of materials you expect to need, are they in the lab inventory?, where you will source them, and safety considerations.
• 6. a safety protocol for your materials, based on the template in GD Student Files in the folder labelled __Safety - Workflow and Protocol__. Your document should describe your workflow, and what safety measures you will need to take. Upload it into the folder labelled __Safety - Workflow and Protocol__. Your file in this folder should be linked to your Wiki field notes.

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ASPECTS TO KEEP IN MIND WHEN MAKING FIELD NOTES

• note time
• note (changing) conditions in the room
• note temperature of ingredients to be processed (e.g. cold from fridge, room temperature etc.)
• document materials, equipment, and processes in writing and with photographs
• notes on ingredients and equipment (where did you get them? issues of authenticity)
• note precisely the scales and temperatures you used (please indicate how you interpreted imprecise recipe instruction)
• see also our informal template for recipe reconstructions

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