The Profession of Painting
How Some Enter The Profession Through Loftiness of Spirit, and Some, For Profit.It is not without the impulse of a lofty spirit that some are moved to enter this profession, attractive to them through natural enthusiasm. Their intellect will take delight in drawing, provided their nature attracts them to it of themselves, without any master's guidance, out of loftiness of spirit. And then, through this delight, they come to want to find a master; and they bind themselves to him with respect for authority, undergoing an apprenticeship in order to achieve perfection in all this. There are those who pursue it, because of poverty and domestic need, for profit and enthusiasm for the profession too; but above all these are to be extolled the ones who enter the profession through a sense of enthusiasm and exaltation.
Fundamental Provisions For Anyone Who Enters This Profession.
You, therefore, who with lofty spirit are fired with this ambition, and are about to enter the profession, begin by decking yourselves with this attire: Enthusiasm, Reverence, Obedience, and Constancy. And begin to submit yourself to the direction of a master for instruction as early as you can; and do not leave the master until you have to.
Into How Many Sections And Branches The Occupations Are Divided.
The basis of the profession, the very beginning of all these manual operations, is drawing and painting. These two sections call for a knowledge of the following: how to work up or grind, how to apply size, to put on cloth, to gesso, to scrape the gessos and smooth them down, to model with gesso, to lay bole(*), to gild, to burnish; to temper, to lay in; to pounce, to scrape through, to stamp or punch; to mark out, to paint, to embellish, and to varnish, on panel or ancona(*). To work on a wall you have to wet down, to plaster, to true up, to smooth off, to draw, to paint in fresco. To carry to completion in secco(*): to temper, to embellish, to finish on the wall. And let this be the schedule of the aforesaid stages which I, with what little knowledge I have acquired, will expound, section by section.
I bring my enthusiasm and as much reverence, obedience and constancy as I can muster. I hope that my intellect will take delight not only in drawing but in learning an ancient art. As for the rest, I'm really going to start from scratch.
I know how to work with modern materials purchased from an art supply store. I can draw with pencil on paper, paint in acrylics, carve linoleum blocks with machine-formed blades. Fortunately for me, Cennino starts off easy in the next section, with drawing on a panel.
(*) Bole is a reddish colored clay. An ancona is a panel with mouldings. Secco is painting on dry plaster.