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António João Cruz, Patrícia Monteiro, "Sobre um tratado inédito de pintura da primeira metade do século XVII: o 'Breve Tratado de Iluminação', composto por um religioso da Ordem de Cristo",
in Luís Urbano Afonso (ed.), The Materials of the Image. As Matérias da Imagem, Lisboa, Cátedra de Estudos Sefarditas «Alberto Benveniste» da Universidade de Lisboa, 2010, ISBN 978-989-8465-00-9, pp. 147-169 |
| Abstract |
An anonymous Portuguese manuscript about painting materials and techniques, entitled Breve Tratado de Iluminação, that is, Short Treatise on Illumination, unpublished until now, is presented in detail, as well as its authorship, date, sources, structure and originality. The manuscript, dated from the first half of the 17th century (after 1618), is a miscellaneous work composed by two main pieces, with the same calligraphy, and varied recipes, with diverse calligraphies, some of them organized around specific subjects. The two main pieces, in a small number of recipes, show the use of Filipe Nunes’ The Art of Painting, a Portuguese treatise published in 1615. In addition, these pieces quote technical procedures employed by both Portuguese and foreigner painters that worked in Portugal, although the sources of this information remain unknown. In relation to the assorted recipes, several were detailed copied from, among others unidentified sources, Nunes’ treatise and Spanish editions of Juan Pérez de Moya (the only work mentioned in the manuscript) and Alessio Piemontese works, both dated from the second half of the 16th century, and others recipes mentioned procedures used by Spanish or French artists. The manuscript, as a whole, seems to be an original work and it is possible that its authors were monks at a Lisbon convent. |