Csornay Boldizsár - Dobos Zsuzsa - Varga Ágota - Zakariás János szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei 100. (Budapest, 2004)

URBACH, ZSUZSA: Ein flämischer ikonographischer Bildtypus im italienischen Quattrocento. Bemerkungen zur Studie von Éva Eszláry

Ficino's complete translation of Plato in 1483 Florence, the paper still cost almost twice as much as all the rest of the expenses of printing.

13 Although Cennino Cennini already found both parchment (carta pecorina) and paper (carta bambagina) equally suitable for the drawings of his II Libro dell arte written circa 1400,

14 among artists, it was only slowly, from the mid-fifteenth century, that high quality rag paper, less expensive than parchment, began to come into use.

15 Due to their high prices, however, the use of neither came quickly for the everyday. For the drawings that were indispensable in the training of his apprentices, Cennini, too, recommended primed figwood or boxwood prepared tablets (tavoletta), which were cheap and practical, easily wiped clean, and thus could be re-used as many times as one liked.

16 It was not out of the question, however, that this practice took root in wider spheres, with draughtsmen also preparing the prevailing portion of their studies on such wooden tablets.

17 In fact, for as long as drawing was not considered a valued genre of equal stature with painting, even the artists did not direct their attention in particular to preserving their own drawings.

18 The model drawings were considered as an exception, with each workshop collecting their stock of motifs in portfolios or smaller volumes as their treasuries, thus transmitting the style of the master to his apprentices. For this reason, it was essential that a model-book be first of all informative and long-lasting, and thus, smooth textured and durable parchment proved to be more suitable than the more perishable paper of coarser surface. Furthermore, the model drawings were often copied by simply tracing them onto a new sheet, which was easily accomplished with the thin parchment that was readily illuminated.

19 The medieval model-books had still been produced on parchment for the most part. Meanwhile, even if from the fifteenth century, artists began to draw increasingly on paper, until the modelbooks were not superseded by sketch-books, parchment continued to retain its 13 Ames-Lewis, op. cit. 1981 (n. 1), 22-23. 14 Cennino d'Andrea Cennini, The Craftman's Handbook 'II libro dellarte', trans, and ed. D. V. Thompson, 3rd ed., New Haven 1972 (henceforth Cennini), chap. 10. 15 Ames-Lewis, op. cit. 1981 (n. 1), 22-23. 16 Cennini, chap. 5, 6. 17 See E. van de Wetering, "Verdwenen tekeningen en het gebruik van afwisbare tekenplankjes en 'tafeletten'," Oud Holland 105, no. 4 (1991), 210-27. 18 See Ames-Lewis, op. cit. 1981 (n. 1), 23. 19 See Cennini, chap. 23. Cennini informs us of three methods for producing the transparent sheet (carta lucida): first, he proposes thin parchment (chap. 24); then he writes about a thin, membranelike drying glutinous layer that is easily detachable from a stone tile (chap. 25); and only after this does he mention paper impregnated with linseed oil (chap. 26). Here, however, he stresses that the paper should be as thin as possible (sottilissima), as smooth (piana), and as nice white (bene bianco), in actual fact, thus specifying the characteristics of parchment.