| Black and Red Chalk |
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Combinations of black and red chalk begin to appear in Italy early in the
sixteenth century. At first the artists seem to have had purely technical
reasons for using them together. Black chalk was a convenient medium for a
tracing or underdrawing, and the artist then made a developed drawing in red
chalk over it. Soon artists, particularly in Florence, saw the combination
as a means of clarifying structure in figure drawings. Red chalk could also
render surface qualities more effectively than black chalk. Together red
chalk could fulfill this function and black chalk could accentuate contour
lines. The Florentine masters Fra Bartolommeo, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso
Fiorentino, and Francesco Salviati were often brilliantly inventive in their
application of black and white chalk together. Later in the sixteenth
century the double technique became more formulaic, and members of the
Accademia del Disegno made consistent use of black and red chalks in
figure studies. Later it became
a mainstay of French academic working methods. The use of combined black and
red chalks developed into the formal technique known as "à deux crayons." |
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by Michael Miller |
