If you see any place defective for want of a sufficient quantity of wax,[9] put a little finely scraped wax on the back of that place, then bring only a red hot poker, or some such thing towards it, the wax will immediately settle in its place. If there are many parts so defective, put scrapings of wax there, and bring the whole picture before the fire as above mentioned. There is no danger in bringing the picture to the fire as often as required, provided you never give it too great a degree of heat; if you do, the wax will raise in bubbles upon the surface, and your picture will look rough and uneven.
Advance your picture never too hasty, nor retire it too quickly; if you do the former, the sudden action of the fire might disturb some of the colours; if the latter, the wax will not retire enough within the texture of the cloth, consequently lye too much above the colours and look glaring. If you perceive any such glaring spots or places upon your picture, or (in other words) parts that appear varnished like, and that appearance should proceed from too great a quantity of wax, paint those places over on the back with whitening, or any one of your other colours, and when dry bring the picture near the fire, as above mentioned, and those colours or whitening will imbibe the overplus of the wax. Repeat that if required.
ART. V.
How to retouch or paint over any part after the colours are fixed.
Put upon your pallette such of your tints as will be fit for the place or parts you want to alter or paint over, temper and employ them with a little spirit of wine;[10] repaint, and bring the picture to the fire as often as required, and those retouched parts will become fixed like any other part of the picture.
Observations on article the first.
As linen cloth is the material most commonly and preferably used, as the fittest and most convenient to paint upon, I chose to give under Article the first, directions for that purpose only; for though the wax and colours may be applied to cloth and other materials in several different manners, I, not to bewilder the beginners in multiplicities on a first setting out, gave and recommend that, which besides its being the likeliest to be most practised, is the best for solidity, and will prove to every practitioner the easiest, most agreeable, expeditious and convenient for execution.
But not to deprive the artists and curious of the several means and methods that may be practised for and towards the same end, I shall here give some of the principal ones, as well for painting upon canvas as upon wood, plaister, &c. but first of all I shall consider and treat Count Caylus’s system a little more at large, and shew why I have deviated from it in this particular, and leave the artist at liberty to adopt and practise which suits him best.
The Count’s method for preparing the cloth consists, in stretching it upon a frame, and holding it horizontally over, or perpendicularly before a fire (at a distance convenient and proportionable to the degree of heat it casts) and rubbing it with a piece of wax; which, melting gradually as it is rubbed on, diffuses itself, penetrates the body, and fills the interstices of the texture of the cloth, which when cool, is fit to paint upon; but, as water colours will not adhere regularly flowing and connectedly to the wax, He, to remedy this inconveniency, makes use of an intermediate body, viz. chalk or whitening, with which he rubs over that surface of the waxed canvas he intends to paint upon, and then the colours will easily flow over and adhere to it.
Now, though this way of proceeding is very simple and successfully practicable for small subjects;—for instance,—such as the head of Diana, mentioned in the Abbé’s letter, or any other that may be finished in a couple of hours, and while the colours upon the canvas retain moisture; yet, to execute pictures of a larger size and composition, which will require many a day’s labour and application, and whereof no part can be finished positively at the first onset, this manner of managing it will not answer so well, as that given under Art. the first, for the following reasons.