Caravaggio Methodology(Late Style)

1.Caravaggio began with a panel or canvas.

2.He would size with a thin application of rabbit skin glue, scrubbed into the weave of the canvas rather than laid on like a solid layer. 14 parts water to 1part glue granules.

3.If canvas is used then a ground is applied with oil priming white. This may have been scraped on with a broadly curving knife, Two coats of scraped applications. If a panel is used then he may have applied a traditional gesso like the Medieval masters.

4.The white ground is then covered with a reddish brown ground, something like a burnt siena or umber.

5. Caravaggio would then begin painting directly from life onto the canvas with lead white and a large rodent hair brush. He would immediately lay in the light mass with course strokes and indicate the shadow mass by using a little lead white on the edge showing the reflected light. Very little if any color is used at this stage.

6. Glazes, and velatura are applied with higher chroma colors (vermilion,red lakes,azurite,lapis lazuli, lead tin yellow etc.) plus lead white. In this stage color is mixed optically in order to build up layers and maintain the purity of the color. A red cloth for example would be glazed red in the shadows and modeled with white up into the light mass. Flesh is more complicated and entails the layering of separate gradations of translucent tinted whites and then darkening them in the shadow mass with layers of glazed color.

7.Glazing serves to darken and unify shadow areas while velatura (glazing with white plus a color) is used to model the light mass and light zones. Caravaggio’s paint surface is relatively flat. He uses smooth but strongly contrasting gradations with delicate layering of color to achieve his sensuous fleshy masses.