A Composite Bibliography

General & Anthologies, followed by Centuries

 

General & Anthologies

  • Ball, Philip. Bright Earth. The Invention of Colour. New York: Viking, 2001; London: Penguin Books, 2002.
  • Berrie, Barbara H., Editor. Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their History and Characteristics. Vol. 4. National Gallery of Art, Washington. D. C. 2007.
  • Carlyle, Leslie. The Artist’s Assistant. Oil Painting Instruction Manuals and Handbooks in Britain 1800-1900. London: Archtype Publications, 2001.
  • Constable, W. G. The Painter’s Workshop. London: Oxford University Press, 1954, Boston: Beacon Press, 1963.
  • Doerner, Max. The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting. 1921; revised 1934. Eugen Neuhaus, translator. New York: Harcourt, Inc. 1949. 1984.
  • Eastaugh, Nicholas, Valentine Walsh, Tracey Chaplin, Ruth Siddall. Pigment Compendium. A Dictionary and Optical Microscopy of Historical Pigments. London: Butterworth-Heinemann, 2008.
  • Eastlake, Sir Charles Lock. Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters. Vols. One and Two as Materials for a History of Oil Painting. London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, 1847; Vol. Two, 1868. New York: Dover Publications, 1960.
  • Feller, Robert L. Editor. Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their History and Characteristics. Vol. 1. National Gallery of Art, Washington. D. C. 1986.
  • Finlay, Victoria. Color. A Natural History of the Palette. New York: Ballantine Books, 2002.
  • Fitzhugh, Elisabeth West, Editor. Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their History and Characteristics. Vol. 3. National Gallery of Art, Washington. D. C. 1997.
  • Gettens, Rutherford J. and George L. Stout. Painting Materials. A Short Encyclopaedia. New York: Van Nostrand Company, 1942; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1966.
  • Harley, R. D., Artists’ Pigments c. 1600-1830. London: Archetype, 1982. (Pigments from English treatises)
  • Kay, Reed. The Painter’s Companion. A Basic Guide to Studio Methods and Materials. Cambridge, Mass: Webb Books Inc, 1961.
  • Laurie, A. P. The Painter’s Methods & Materials. London: Seeley Service and Company, Ltd., 1960; New York: Dover Publications, 1967, 1988.
  • Mayer, Ralph. The Artist’s Handbook of Materials & Techniques (1940). London: Faber & Faber, 1951; Fifth edition, 1991.
  • Merrifield, Mrs. Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
  • National Gallery in Washington D. C., Artists’ Pigments – A Handbook of their History and Characteristics (various editors), 1986, 1993, 1997, 2007.
  • Petit, Jean, Jacques Roire, Henri Valot. Encyclopédie de la peinture. 3 Volumes. Paris: EREC editeur, 1999.
  • Roy, Ashok, Editor. Artists’ Pigments. A Handbook of their History and Characteristics. Vol. 2. National Gallery of Art, Washington. D. C. 1993.
  • Veliz, Zahira, Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain. Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.
  • Wehlte, Kurt. The Materials and Techniques of Painting, Ursus Dix, translator. Aichstetten, Germany and New York: Kremer Pigments, 1967 and 1975.

19th Century Pigments and Painting
Impressionists Palettes of Light 

  • Bernard, Emile. Souvenirs, 1905. In, Conversations Avec Cézanne. P. M. Doran, Editor. Paris: Macula, 1978. Our Translation.
  • Callen, Anthea. Techniques of the Impressionists. London: Tiger Books International, 1993.
  • Cézanne, Paul. Conversations avec Cézanne, P. M. Doran, Editor. Paris: Macula, 1978.
  • Cézanne, Paul. Correspondance. John Rewald, Editor, Marguerite Kay, translator. London: Bruno Cassirer, 1941. Paris: Bernard Grasset, 1978.
  • Chevreul, Michel Eugène. Chevreul, M. E. De la loi du contraste simultané des couleurs, et de l’assortiment des objets colorés, considéré d’après cette loi dans ses rapports avec la peinture, les tapisseries des Goblins, les tapisseries de Beauvaus pour meubles, les tapis, la mosaique, les vitraux colorés, l’impression des étoffes, l’imprimerie, l’enluminaire, la décoration des édifices, l’habillement et l’horticulture. Paris: Pitois-Levrault, 1839. Paris: Librarie Laget, 1969.
  • The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and their Applications to the Arts. Translated from the French by Charles Martel. London: Henry G. Bohn, 1854. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 1987.
  • Denis, Maurice. Théories (1890-1910): du symbolisme et de Gauguin vers un nouuvel order classique, Paris: Bibliothèque de l’Occident, 1912. Du symbolisme au classicism – Théories. Textes réunis et présentés par Olivier Revault d’Allonnes. Paris: Hermann, 1964. Includes “Cezanne”, L’Occident, September 1907.
  • Denvir, Bernard. Impressionists at First Hand. London: Thames and Hudson, 1987.
  • Dunstan, Bernard, R.A. Painting Methods of the Impressionists. New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, 1976.
  • Duranty, Edmond. The New Painting / La Nouvelle peinture – à propos du groupe d’artistes qui expose dans les Galeries Durand-Ruel, Paris: E. Dentu, Librairie, 1876. Published on the occasion of the 2nd exhibition of the Impressionists. In, Art in Theory 1815-1900 An Anthology Changing Ideas. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood with Jason Gaiger, Editors. Oxford: Blackwells, 1998.
  • Fénéon, Félix. Au-delà de l’impressionnisme. Presented by Françoise Cachin. Paris: Hermann, 1966. Including “Scientific Impressionism”, Modern Art, 19 September 1886. “Impressionism”, L’emancipation sociale, Narbonne, 3 April 1887. Our translations.
  • Field, George. Chromatography. Or a Treatise on Colours and Pigments, and of Their Powers in Painting. London: Charles Tilt, 1835.
  • Field’s Chromatography. or Treatise on Colours and Pigments as Used by Artists. Revised, Rewritten, and Brought Down to the Prsent Time by Thomas W. Salter. London: Winsor and Newton, 1865, 1869.
  • Gage, John. Colour and Culture. London: Thames and Hudson, 1995.
  • Helmholtz, Hermann von. Treatise on Physiological Optics, Vol. I: Anatomical Description of the Eye, 1856. Vol. II: The Theory of the Sensations of Vision, 1860. Vol. III: The Theory of the Perceptions of Vision, 1867. Edited by James P. C. Southall. Rochester, New York: Optical Society of America, 1924. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1962/2005.
  • Homer, William Innes. Seurat and the Science of Painting. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1964.
  • House, John. Monet, Nature into Art. London: Yale University Press, 1986.
  • Kendall, Richard, Editor. Monet by Himself. Paintings, drawings, pastels, letters. London: Little Brown and Company, 1996/1999.
  • Lecomte, Georges. L’art impressionisste d’après la collection privée de M. Durand-Ruel. Paris: Typographie Chamerot et Benouard, 1892.
  • Manet, Edouard. Manet by Himself Correspondence & Conversation. Juliet Wilson-Bareau, Editor. London: Little Brown and Co, 1991/1995.
  • Mérimée, J.-F.-L. De la peinture à l’huile, Paris, 1830. The Art of Painting in Oil and in Fresco., London, 1839. (Reference only)
  • Nochlin, Linda. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904 Sources and Documents. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
  • Pissarro, Camille. Camille Pissarro – Letters to his son Lucien, John Rewald, Editor. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1943/1980.
  • Rashdall, E. M. “Claude Monet”, in The Artist, No. 2, July 1888, ix. In Kate Flint, Editor. Impressionists in England, The Critical Reception. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984.
  • Renoir, Jean. Pierre-Augste Renoir, mon père. Paris: Edition Gallimard, 1981. Our translation.
  • Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1973.
  • Rood, Ogden N. Modern Chromatics – Students’ Text-Book of Color with Applications to Art and Industry. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1879; New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1973.
  • Signac, Paul. “Contribution of the Impressioists”. In From Eugene Delaxroix to Neo-Impressionism (1899), Paris: Hermann, 1978.
  • Signac, Paul. From his Journal, 1894-5. In, Linda Nochlin, Impressionism and Post-Impressionism 1874-1904 Sources and Documents. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1966.
  • Van Gogh, Vincent. The Letters of Vincent van Gogh, Mark Roskill, Editor. London: Fontana Paperbacks, 1963/1982.
  • Venturi, Lionel. Les archives de l’Impressionisme. Paris and New York: Durand-Ruel, 1939, II.

18th Century Colour Palettes

  • Dossie. Robert. The Handmaid to the Arts. London: 1758.
  • Harris, Moses. The Natural System of Colours. London, 1766. Privately Printed in a Limited Edition, Faber Birren, Notes and Commentary. Distributed by the Whitney Library of Design, New York, 1963.
  • Le Blon, Jacques Christophe. Coloritto, or the Harmony of Colouring in Painting / L’Harmonie du coloris dans la peinture. Bilingual edition, London, 1725. Reprint, with Introduction by Faber Birren. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1980.
  • Massoul, Constant de. A Treatise on the Art of Painting and the Composition of Colours, Containing Instructions for All the Various Processes of Painting, Together with Observations Upon the Qualities and Ingredients of Colours. London, 1797.
  • Newton, Isaac. Opticks: or, A treatise of the reflexions, refractions, inflexions and colours of light. London, 1704.
  • Palomino y Velasco, Antonio. “The pictorial museum and optical scale”, 1715-24. “El museo pictórico y la escala óptica”. In Zahira Veliz, Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain. Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (Reference only)
  • Watin, Jean Felix. L’art du peintre, doreur, vernisseur, ouvrage utile aux Artistes et aux Amateurs qui veulent entreprendre de Peindre, Dorer & Vernir toutes sortes de sujets en Batiments, Meubles, Bijoux, Equipages, etc. Paris, 1773. / The Art of the Painter, Gilder and Varnisher, A Work Useful to Artists and to Amateurs Who Want to Undertake in Painting, Gilding and Varnishing All Sorts of Subjects for Buildings, Furniture, Jewellery, Carriages, &c..

 17th Century Colour Palettes

  • Baldinucci, Filippo. Vocabolario Toscano dell’Arte del Disegno. Florence, 1681.
  • Bate John. The Third Booke of Drawing, Limming, Colouring, Painting and Graving, in The Mysteryes of Nature and Art. London, 1634. Web archive: 17th Century Colour Paletttes.
  • Berger, Ernst. Quellen für Maltechnik während der Renaissance und deren Folgezeit (XVI.-XVIII. Jahrhundert), Munich: G.D.W. Callwey, 1901. The Turquet de Mayerne manuscript in German.
  • Binet. Etienne. See François, René.
  • Boyle, Robert. Experiments and Considerations Touching Colours. London, 1664. (Reference only) Online: The Project Gutenberg penelope.uchicago.edu/
  • Brenner, Elias. Chart: Trilingual Nomenclature and Genuine Samples of the Simple Colours Most Made Use of by Miniature Painters, published for those who practice this art by E. Brenner, Stockholm, 1680. Chart: culturevore: visual archive of colour systems.
  • Cooper, Samuel. Authentic Display of the Colours, 1634. In Turquet de Mayerne, Painting, Sculpture and of the Lesser Arts, 1634. Sloane 2052, The British Museum, London.
  • François, René, alias Etienne Binet. Essay on the Wonders of Nature and the Most Noble Devices. Very Necessary Work for all those who Profess Eloquence. Rouen, 1621.
  • Harley, R. D., Artists’ Pigments c. 1600-1830. London: Archetype, 1982.
  • Hidalgo, José Garcia. “Principles for studying the sovereign and most noble Art of Painting” , 1693. “Principios para estudiar el nobilismo y real Arte de la Pintura”. In Zahira Veliz. Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain. Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (Reference only)
  • Kirby, Jo. “Painting in Antwerp and London: Rubens and Van Dyck The Painter’s Trade in the Seventeenth Century – Theory and Practice”. National Gallery, London, Technical Bulletin, Volume 20, 1999 (www.nationalgallery.org.uk/technical-bulletin/kirby1999).
  • Le Brun, Pierre, Painter. “Collection of Essays on the Wonders of Painting”, 1635. In Mary P. Merrifield, Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting (London: John Murray, 1849), called the Brussels Manuscript, pp. 770-772, 804-810, containing lengthy extracts from René François, Essay on the Wonders of Nature and the Most Noble Devices. Very Necessary Work for all those who Profess Eloquence, Rouen, 1621.
  • Mayerne, Theodore Turquet de. Pictoria Sculptoria et quae subalternarum artium / Painting, Sculpture and of the Lesser Arts. 1620-1646. Manuscript in Latin, English, French, Italian, and German with contributions by Edward Norgate, Samuel Cooper, Paul van Somers, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, among others. Fol. No. XIX. Sloan 2052, British Museum, London. English translation in Donald Fels, Jr., Lost Secrets of Flemish Painting, Hillsville, Virginia: Alchemist, Inc., 2004.
  • Merrifield Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Arts of Painting (London: John Murray, 1849): the Brussels Manuscript, pp. 770-772, 804-810, i.e., Pierre Le Brun, Painter. “Collection of Essays on the Wonders of Painting”, 1635, containing lengthy extracts from René François, Essay on the Wonders of Nature and the Most Noble Devices. Very Necessary Work for all those who Profess Eloquence, Rouen, 1621.
  • Neri, Antonio. L’Arte Vetraria, 1612. The Art of Glass, Christopher Merret, translator. London, 1662. Sheffield: Society of Glass Technology, 2006.
  • Norgate, Edward. Miniatura or the Art of Limning, 1627/8-1648. Manuscript in the British Library. In Jeremy M. Muller & Jim Murrell, Editors, with Introduction and Annotations. New Haven: Paul Mellon Centre for British Art, Yale University Press, 1997.
  • Nunes, Felipe. “Arts of poetry, and of painting and symmetry, with principles of perspective”, 1615. “Arte poetica, e da pintura e symetria, com principios de perspectiva”. In Zahira Veliz. Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain. Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (Reference only)
  • Pacheco, Francisco. “The Art of Painting / Arte de la Pintura, 1649. In, Zahira Veliz. Artists’ Techniques in Golden Age Spain. Six Treatises in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. (Reference only)
  • Pecham, Henry, Gentleman. The Art of Drawing with the Pen, and Limming in Water Colours, 1606. Facsimile reprint of British Library copy: Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Tertarum, Ltd, and New York: Da Capo Press, 1969.
  • Piles, Roger de. The First Elements of Practical Painting / Les Premiers Elemens de Peinture Pratique, Paris, 1684.
  • Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World, Commonly called The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. London, 1601.
  • Volpato, Gian Batista. “The Mode to be Observed in Painting / Modo da Tener nel Dipinger”, in Mrs. Mary P. Merrifield, Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967, 726-755. Manuscript preserved in the Public Library at Bassano.
  • Waller, Richard. “Catalogue of Simple and Mixt Colours with a Specimen of Each Colour Prefixt to Its Proper Name. Philosophical Transactions, London, 1 January 1686, 16, 24-32.

16th Century Colour Palettes

  • Armenini, Giovanni Battista. De veri precetti della pittura, 1586. On the True Precepts of the Art of Painting. Edward J. Olszewski, editor and translator from the Italian. New York: Burt Franklin and Company, 1977.
  • Barasch, Moshe. Light and Color in the Italian Renaissance Theory of Art. New York: New York University Press, 1978.
  • Hilliard, Nicholas. The Arte of Limning, 1598-1602. R. K. R Thornton & T. G. S. Cain, editors. Northumberland: Carcanet Press, 1992.
  • Leonardo de Vinci. Treatise on Painting. Collated by Francesco Melzi, as Libro di pittura, 1540. John Francis Rigaud, translator. London: George Bell & Sons, 1877. Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2005. See Leonardo & His Treatise on Painting, University of Virginia, 2012. www.treatiseonpainting.org/cocoon/leonardo/mssFront/all
  • Lomazzo, Giovanni Paolo, A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, Englished by Richard Haydocke, London, 1598 or Treatise on the Art of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture / Trattato dell’arte della pittura, scoltura et architettura, Milan, 1585.
  • Vasari, Giorgio, Painter & Architect of Arezzo. Vasari on Technique, Introduction to The Three Arts of Design, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, prefixed to The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. 1550. Louisa S. Maclehose, translator. London, J. M. Dent & Company, 1907; New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960.

15th Century Colour Palettes

  • Bolognese Manuscript. 1425-1450. In Merrifield, Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
  • Cennini, Cennino d’Andrea. Il Libro dell’Arte. Florence, July 1437. The Craftsman’s Handbook. Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., translator. Princeton: Yale University Press, 1933; New York: Dover Publications, 1954. 
  • Strasburg Manuscript, A Medieval Painters’ Handbook, c. mid- 15th century. V. & R. Borradaile, translators. John Harthan, foreword. London: Alec Tiranti, 1966.  

On Medieval Pigments and Painting

  • Clarke, Mark. The Art of All Colours. Mediaeval Recipe Books for Painters and Illuminators. London: Archetype. 2001.
  • Merrifield, Mrs. Mary P. The Art of Fresco Painting in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. New York: Dover Publications, 2003. Of The Art of Fresco Painting as Practised by the Old Italian and Spanish Masters with a Preliminary Inquiry into the Nature of the Colours Used in Fresco Painting with Observations and Notes. London and Brighton: Charles Gilpin and Arthur Wallis, 1846.
  • Thompson, Daniel V. The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting. Bernard Berenson, foreword. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1936. New York: Dover Publications, 1956.

 14th Century Colour Palettes

  • Alcherius, Jehan. Experiments Upon Colours. Late 14th to early 15th centuries. In “Bolognese Manuscript” of Jehan le Begue in Merrifield, Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.

13th Century Colour Palettes

  • Eraclius, On the Colours and Arts of the Romans, 12th-13th centuries. In “Bolognese Manuscript” of Jehan le Begue in Merrifield, Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
  • Petrus de S. Audemar, Of Making Colours, c. 13th century. In “Bolognese Manuscript” of Jehan le Begue in Merrifield, Mary P.. Medieval and Renaissance Treatises on the Art of Painting. Original Texts with English Translations. London: John Murray, 1849. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.

12th Century Colour Palettes

  • Theophilus. On Divers Arts. 1122. The Foremost Medieval Treatise on Painting, Glassmaking and Metalwork. John G. Hawthorne and Cyril Stanley Smith, translators. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963. New York: Dover Publications, 1979.

 11th Century Colour Palettes

Entries to be added.

10th Century Colour Palettes

Entries to be added.

9th Century Colour Palettes

  • Mappae Clavicula. A Little Key to the World of Medieval Techniques (6th-9th century). An annotated translation based on a collation of the Sélestat and Phillipps-Corning [Museum of Glass] manuscripts [12th century], with reproductions of the two manuscripts. Cyril Stanley Smith and John G. Hawthorne. The American Philosophical Society, 64 (4), 1974.

1st Century Colour Palettes

  • Benson, J. L.. The Inner Nature of Color. Studies on the Philosophy of the Four Elements. Great Barrington, Mass: Steiner Books, 2004. “Greek Colour Theory”. ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst.
  • Caley, Earle R. “Ancient Greek Pigments from the Agora”. In Hesperia, Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol 14, Issue 2, Apr-June 1945, 152-156. (www.jstor.org.)
  • Davy, Sir Humphrey. “Some Experiments and Observations on the Colours Used in Painting by the Ancients”. In Philosophical Transactions, London, 1 January 1815, No. 105, 97-105.
  • Dioscorides, Pedanius. De Materia Medica (1st century A.D.). Published in English translation by John Goodyear, London, 1655, modernised by Robert T. Gunther, London, 1933; revised by Tess Anne Osbaldeston, 2008. online at www.cancerlynx.com/ dioscorides.html.
  • Leach, Eleanor Winsor. “Beyond the Vesuvius Barrier: Colors and Continuities in Ancient Roman Painting. AJA Online Publications, Museum Review.
  • Lessing, Erich and Antonio Varone. Pompeii. Paris: Finest S. A. / Editions Pierre Terrail, 1996.
  • Middleton, J. Henry. Illuminated Manuscripts
in Classical
and Mediaeval Times, Their Art and Their Technique. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1892. online: project gutenberg.
  • Pliny the Elder, Natural History (1st century A.D.), H. Rackham, translator. Loeb Classical Library, Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press: 1952,2003,
  • Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World, Commonly called The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus. London, 1601.
  • Siddall, Ruth. “’Not a day without a line drawn’: Pigments and Painting Techniques of Roman Artists”. In Focus, Issue 2, June 2006, www.academia.edu
  • Theophrastus, On Stones (3rd century B.C.). A Modern Edition with Greek Text, Translation, Introduction, and Commentary by E. R. Caley and J. C. Richards. Columbus: Ohio State University, 1956.
  • Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Morris Hicky Morgan, translator. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914. Reprint New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1960.