Fra Giovanni Angelico (1387-1445)

No. 663. The translucent reds and purples in this work have faded somewhat; the green, which appears to be malachite - 'green bice' - has stood. On the whole this exquisite work in tempera is remarkably well preserved.

Dierick Bouts (1410?-1475)

No. 664. Painted on linen which had received a very thin priming; the preservation of this work, which has never been varnished, is remarkably good except in two particulars - the red pigment used for the sleeves, linings of robes, etc., having faded, and the white paint on the dress of the Virgin having partially scaled off. From certain peculiarities in the touch, and from the minutely wrought details of the landscape, I conclude that the medium used could scarcely have been the usual egg-yolk tempera, but was rather a thin size.

Bennozzo Gozzoli, School Of (Fifteenth Century)

No. 591. The vermilion in this tempera picture is preserved in startling brilliancy; the translucent reds have become rather faded and embrowned.

Melozzo Da Forli (1438-1494)

No. 755. It is probable that verdigris was employed in painting the green carpet in this work. If so, the cracks in this part of the picture (more conspicuous here than in other parts) would be due to the corrosive action of this dangerous pigment.

Tuscan School (End Of Fifteenth Century)

No. 781. The lining of the cloak of Tobias in this picture seems to have been painted with verdigris; it is now very dark, in parts nearly black, although the pigment used has evidently been mingled with much protective resin, as its thickness is excessive when compared with that of other parts of the work.

Gregorio Schiavone (Fl. 1470)

No. 630. The madder and vermilion in the robe of one of the figures in this tempera picture are well preserved. This is also the case in another work by the same artist in the author's possession.

Gheeraert David (1460-1523)

No. 1,045. The fine crimson glazings of madder-lake in this oil picture are in perfect preservation. The same remark may be made concerning another picture (No. 1,432) by the same artist.

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)

No. 790. This unfinished tempera picture affords an instance of the stability of vermilion mixed with red-lead (in the robe of one of the figures), of terre verte and of madder-lake. The last-named pigment is also to be noted in the well-preserved hatchings and stipplings on the robes of two of the angels in No. 809.

Ridolfo Del Ghirlandaio (1483-1561)

No. 1,143. This oil picture, originally painted on wood but transferred to canvas, has been repaired and repainted in several places. But the red glazings, apparently madder-lake, and the green colour, seemingly verdigris on malachite, are, if original, well preserved. The preservation of verdigris when glazed on malachite is not unusual; the two pigments are closely related chemically, and are not likely to react upon or injuriously affect each other.

In the National Gallery there are ten portraits in wax-pigments from the Hawara Cemetery in the Fayum, Egypt. A few of these portraits from this Cemetery are on canvas, but the great majority on panels of wood. There is a rich purple paint in several of these works, a purple which one might perhaps be inclined to identify with Tyrian purple from Purpura lapillus and other molluscs, but which the examination of certain specimens of ancient pigments leads one to conclude to be a madder derivative. Anyhow, it has lasted, apparently unchanged, for some eighteen centuries. But it must be remembered that these remarkable paintings (Nos. 1,260-1,265, and 1,267-1,270) have been preserved in darkness almost from the time when they were executed by Roman artists in the period 80 to 180 a.d. The other pigments in these paintings are yellow, red and brown ochre, charcoal black, a blue consisting of a copper-calcium silicate, a green from malachite, and perhaps verdigris also. An orange-red pigment may be either red lead or realgar.

The pigments, incorporated with wax, were laid on, in a fused condition, upon a distemper priming.

It happens that some information as to the pigments actually employed by a Greek or Græco-Roman artist of the second century is furnished by six specimens found in one of the Hawara graves by Professor W. M. Flinders Petrie. These pigments were: white, mainly gypsum; yellow ochre having, however, almost the precise hue of true antimony yellow; red lead; dark red due to ferric oxide; pink, probably derived from madder; and the lime-copper silicate, known as Egyptian blue.

As to British pictures in the National Gallery, we can afford space for a few words only. The works of Sir Joshua Reynolds generally show the fading of the crimson lake (from cochineal) in the flesh tints, the vermilion and mineral yellows alone remaining. The picture of the 'Infant Samuel' may be cited as an example of the large and wide cracks caused by the free use of bitumen (in the dark background). Two paintings by J. M. W. Turner may be particularly mentioned. In No. 560, 'Chichester,' the bright lake-reds in the sky have become reduced to brown stains - anything but luminous. In No. 534, the 'San Benedetto, looking towards Fusina,' we notice how, in a group of small clouds near the top of the picture, where vermilion and lake have been introduced, the vermilion remains, but the lake is now a pale yellowish brown.

The good condition of the great majority of the pictures in the National Gallery of British Art at Millbank is worthy of note. In this category may be placed the works of Mr. G. F. Watts, R.A., and a number of other paintings out of which I select a very few for special mention. ' The Death of Chatterton,' by Mr. Henry Wallis (No. 1,575), painted in 1856, was retouched subsequently, so far as the breeches of the dead poet are concerned, the crimson lake originally employed having practically perished. No. 1,685, 'Christ Washing St. Peter's Feet,' by Ford Madox Brown, was completed half a century ago. It shows, so far as one can judge, no signs of deterioration.

Of 'The Annunciation,' by D. G. Rossetti (No. 1,210), painted in 1849, the same observation may be made. Anyone familiar with Lord Leighton's practice and with his extreme care in the choice of permanent pigments, would not expect to see any change in No. 1,574, 'The Bath of Psyche,' a work, moreover, which was finished so recently as 1890. To the critic of pigments, paintings of flowers afford much information, partly because they are generally pitched in a very high key, and partly because the living flowers themselves are generally available for comparison with their representations in paint. Two of the pictures by George Lance (Nos. 443 and 1,184) betray the free use made by this accomplished artist of such fugitive pigments as carmine, crimson lake, gamboge and yellow lake.