The Invention of Pastel Painting
Chalks and pastels are particularly appropriate materials for portraits because they appear effortlessly to convey the warm tones and soft, matte velvety surface of skin. Portraits and head studies therefore figure prominently in histories of pastel. The Invention of Pastel Painting describes the relatively sudden emergence in the later seventeenth century of sets of friable pastel sticks and a new artistic practice of painting in pastel. The author reconsiders the use of natural and fabricated drawing sticks as tools, firmly locating their use in the context of historical function. 'Artistic techniques have a social history; they are signs endowed with cultural meaning by society.' The visual, documentary and etymological evidence does not support the concept of a narrative history of pastel gradually progressing from a 'simple' original state in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Jean and Francois Clouet and the Dumonstiers to an increasingly richly coloured and technically complex visual record in the paintings of Robert Nanteuil, Joseph Vivien and Rosalba Carriera, and then continuing to evolve through the nineteenth century. In considering the history of chalk and pastel, the author argues that the change is aesthetic, not formal, and is grounded in social function and technical response. She has drawn not only on artists' letters and accounts, documents, critical and theoretical writings, and, broadly, the secondary literature, but also on close visual examination and scientific analysis of selected chalk drawings and paintings in pastel, particularly those created between 1500 and 1750.
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The Invention of Pastel Painting
Chalks and pastels are particularly appropriate materials for portraits because they appear effortlessly to convey the warm tones and soft, matte velvety surface of skin. Portraits and head studies therefore figure prominently in histories of pastel. The Invention of Pastel Painting describes the relatively sudden emergence in the later seventeenth century of sets of friable pastel sticks and a new artistic practice of painting in pastel. The author reconsiders the use of natural and fabricated drawing sticks as tools, firmly locating their use in the context of historical function. 'Artistic techniques have a social history; they are signs endowed with cultural meaning by society.' The visual, documentary and etymological evidence does not support the concept of a narrative history of pastel gradually progressing from a 'simple' original state in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Jean and Francois Clouet and the Dumonstiers to an increasingly richly coloured and technically complex visual record in the paintings of Robert Nanteuil, Joseph Vivien and Rosalba Carriera, and then continuing to evolve through the nineteenth century. In considering the history of chalk and pastel, the author argues that the change is aesthetic, not formal, and is grounded in social function and technical response. She has drawn not only on artists' letters and accounts, documents, critical and theoretical writings, and, broadly, the secondary literature, but also on close visual examination and scientific analysis of selected chalk drawings and paintings in pastel, particularly those created between 1500 and 1750.
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The Invention of Pastel Painting

The Invention of Pastel Painting

by Thea Burns
The Invention of Pastel Painting

The Invention of Pastel Painting

by Thea Burns

Overview

Chalks and pastels are particularly appropriate materials for portraits because they appear effortlessly to convey the warm tones and soft, matte velvety surface of skin. Portraits and head studies therefore figure prominently in histories of pastel. The Invention of Pastel Painting describes the relatively sudden emergence in the later seventeenth century of sets of friable pastel sticks and a new artistic practice of painting in pastel. The author reconsiders the use of natural and fabricated drawing sticks as tools, firmly locating their use in the context of historical function. 'Artistic techniques have a social history; they are signs endowed with cultural meaning by society.' The visual, documentary and etymological evidence does not support the concept of a narrative history of pastel gradually progressing from a 'simple' original state in the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, Jean and Francois Clouet and the Dumonstiers to an increasingly richly coloured and technically complex visual record in the paintings of Robert Nanteuil, Joseph Vivien and Rosalba Carriera, and then continuing to evolve through the nineteenth century. In considering the history of chalk and pastel, the author argues that the change is aesthetic, not formal, and is grounded in social function and technical response. She has drawn not only on artists' letters and accounts, documents, critical and theoretical writings, and, broadly, the secondary literature, but also on close visual examination and scientific analysis of selected chalk drawings and paintings in pastel, particularly those created between 1500 and 1750.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781904982128
Publisher: Archetype Books
Publication date: 12/31/2025
Pages: 244
Product dimensions: 7.37(w) x 10.05(h) x 0.80(d)

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Introduction Chalk and pastel Distinguishing between chalk and pastel in drawings, words and texts Historical meanings of 'pastel' Evidence for naturally occuring coloured chalk drawing sticks Painting with pastel Painting in pastel: a new artistic practice Evidence from contemporary texts Sets of pastels The pastellist's tools The paper support Pastel: a socially appropriate substitute for oil painting Robert Nanteuil and the prestige of painting in pastel Evidence for materials and techniques Paper supports Painting pastel portraits Relationship of function to material A small portrait in graphite on parchment Thesis portraits 'New heights': Joseph Vivien's large-scale pastel portrait paintings The reception of Vivien's pastel paintings Vivien's activity as a pastel painter Material and technical evidence Vivien's choice of pastel Summary Making up the face: technique and meaning in Carriera's pastel portraits Carriera's pastel portraits Carriera's achievement in pastel: pleasurable deception, fragile illusion Fashion, appearance and class Ideals of beauty Painting the face: pastel and make-up Venetian prototypes Carriera's materials and working practice Carriera's papers Paper colour Carriera's sources of blue paper Additonal characteristics of Carriera's papers Carriera's working procedures Secondary support Primary support preparation Preparatory drawings, underdrawings and underpainting The pastel painting Brushwork Sources of Carriera's pastel sticks Summary Presenting pastel portraits Introduction Material issues affecting presentation Glazing Frames Evidence for reconstructing the presentation of pastels Abundance or restraint: public versus private display Framing in themed groups Fixatives and 'the precious powder ... which falls off as easily as scales from a butterfly's wings' Pastel in the nineteenth century Appendix 1 Index to art-making and related topics in Carriera's correspondence Appendix 2 Currency, wages and measurement Appendix 3 Conditions of examination Appendix 4 The conservation of pastels Appendix 5 Earlier related publications by the author Notes References Index
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