Explore Raphael's Palette: Insights into Renaissance Art Techniques

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, also known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired worldwide for its form, composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of the human form.

What Sets Raphael Apart: Style and Technique

Unlike his contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, Raphael was less focused on breaking artistic ground and more on perfecting harmony and balance in his work. His gift lay in orchestrating figures and spaces with such clarity and serenity that the entire scene unfolds with graceful cohesion.

In Raphael’s paintings, even scenes charged with emotion have an effortless calm. Figures turn, gesture, and interact in ways that feel natural but are meticulously composed. Their movements trace gentle arcs and circles, guiding your eye with subtlety—never jarring, always elegant.

He built his compositions with a refined sense of order:

• Unified arrangements: Each figure and object has its place, contributing to an overall sense of completeness.
• Graceful movement: Rather than tension or turmoil, there’s a continuous, flowing rhythm that imparts tranquility—even in dramatic moments.
• Idealized beauty: Raphael’s people embody the Neoplatonic ideal, appearing noble and approachable, imbued with a touch of the divine.

If Leonardo brings mystery and Michelangelo brings grandeur, Raphael brings composure. His signature is visual poetry, where every gesture and gaze is part of an intentional, harmonious design—inviting viewers into a world that is intelligible, balanced, and serenely beautiful.

The Influence of Fra Bartolommeo and Leonardo da Vinci

During Raphael’s formative years in Florence, he drew inspiration from the city’s artistic greats, most notably Fra Bartolommeo and Leonardo da Vinci. From Fra Bartolommeo, Raphael gleaned a sense of compositional weight, moving away from the ethereal delicacy he’d previously favored. Bartolommeo’s presence encouraged Raphael to imbue his figures with stately gravitas and clarity, lending his work a majestic calm that became characteristic of his mature style.

Leonardo da Vinci, on the other hand, influenced Raphael’s approach to both arrangement and atmosphere. Raphael began using Leonardo’s compositional device of grouping figures in triangular or pyramidal forms, creating a harmonious balance and dynamic unity within each scene. Additionally, Leonardo’s innovative use of sfumato and the subtle, organic relationship between figures helped Raphael refine his sense of pictorial depth and softness. By blending these lessons from his Florentine mentors, Raphael forged a uniquely graceful yet powerful visual language—one that set the stage for his remarkable achievements during the High Renaissance.

Stylistic Developments in Florence

During his formative years in Florence, Raphael’s artistic style underwent a significant transformation, shaped by the vibrant community of local artists he encountered. No longer content with the gentle elegance inherited from his teacher Perugino, Raphael began to embrace a new sense of gravitas and monumentality in his figures, influenced especially by Fra Bartolommeo. Movement acquired a purposeful calm, and his compositions projected an increased sense of grandeur.

It was also in Florence that Raphael drew inspiration from the groundbreaking work of Leonardo da Vinci. He started incorporating more dynamic arrangements—think pyramidal groupings and flowing interconnected forms—that imbued his paintings with subtle energy and organic unity. Works like the portrait of Maddalena Doni reveal this structural innovation, echoing Leonardo’s influence yet maintaining Raphael’s own refinement.

Raphael’s approach to drawing also evolved during this period. His Florentine sketches, frequently executed in pen and ink, became lively explorations of gesture and composition—sometimes produced spontaneously from memory. These rough studies capture his absorption of ideas from the likes of Donatello, Michelangelo, and, most notably, Leonardo, as he continually refined his visual language.

Changes in Raphael’s Approach to Live Models

As Raphael’s career progressed, particularly after his move to Rome, his approach to working with live models evolved in tandem with his materials and techniques. Early on, Raphael—like many of his contemporaries—often used young boys as stand-ins for female figures. However, during his Roman period, he began to draw directly from female nude models, a notable departure from prior conventions. This practice was relatively uncommon at the time but allowed Raphael to achieve greater realism and subtlety in his representations of the female form. The shift was especially evident in preparatory studies for works such as The Triumph of Galatea, where his growing mastery of red chalk also brought a new warmth and vitality to his sketches.

The Painting Materials of Raphael

Raphael painted much of his early work on poplar wood panels but, in some cases, on a much denser fruitwood. For example, Madonna of the Pinks appears to be painted on a panel of cherry wood. More unusual is the portrait of Agnolo and Maddalena Doni painted on limewood. There is also a rare early example of a poplar panel covered with canvas. This processional banner, a double-sided gonfalon depicting The Trinity with Saints Sebastian and Roch on one side and The Creation of Eve on the other, is exceptional. The choice can be explained by its use as a banner carried at religious festivals.

The Madonna of the Pinks (‘La Madonna dei Garofani’), National Gallery, London, was created around 1506–7, using oil on a yew (Taxus baccata) panel.

Even later in his career, Raphael rarely chose canvas as support, the principal exception being the Sistine Madonna.

Most of the wood panels were prepared with a glue ground consisting of gypsum (calcium sulfate hemihydrate, also known as gesso, a term originating from Italy) bound in animal glue. The gesso was covered with a pale imprimatura of a thin, off-white oil-bound layer containing lead white, a small amount of lead-tin yellow, and various amounts of glass particles. It is believed that the glass particles contributed to the siccative qualities of the imprimatura. The composition of this imprimatura has been found in many of his paintings and appears to be typical of Italian artists working in this period.

Developments in Raphael’s Technique During His Roman Period

When Raphael arrived in Rome, his approach to painting showed notable evolution, prompted not only by engagement with local practices—such as Venetian coloring—but also by his immersion in fresco work alongside the city’s masters. This Roman chapter saw Raphael increasingly drawn to the expressive capabilities of color and light, treating them as essential pictorial elements in their own right rather than merely supporting features to line and form.

A striking innovation from this period is Raphael’s bold use of impasto in certain oil paintings. The texture and depth achieved with this technique were relatively uncommon at the time and are most noticeable in pieces executed on canvas, reflecting his keen awareness of the influence of Venetian art.

Raphael’s draftsman’s toolkit also underwent refinement in Rome. He gradually set aside the traditional metalpoint, shifting towards chalk—particularly red chalk—for preparatory studies. This transition is especially evident in his sketches for works like The Triumph of Galatea, where he not only favored a new medium but also broke from convention by using female nude models for his studies. Previously, he had relied on young boys for reference, underscoring his departure from earlier methods.

Yet, for all these changes, a thread of continuity runs through Raphael’s working process. Even in these later years, he maintained his disciplined approach to composition, sketching figures individually from life and carefully constructing the underlying geometry that gives his paintings their harmonious structure. These developments highlight both his receptivity to new ideas and his enduring commitment to technical rigor, qualities that helped define his legacy as one of the Renaissance’s preeminent masters.

Evolution of Raphael’s Drawing Techniques in Florence

During his Florentine period, Raphael’s approach to drawing underwent a notable transformation. Departing from the gentler preparations of his earlier Umbrian work, he began to favor pen and ink—a medium that allowed for swift, expressive exploration of ideas. These drawings often exhibit a lively economy of line, revealing the artist’s thought process as he tested compositions and anatomical details directly on the page.

Many of Raphael’s sketches from this era, sometimes rendered from memory, reflect a close study of luminaries like Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo. The shift to more spontaneous, experimental mark-making signaled his increasing confidence and curiosity, using drawing both to analyze masters and to invent his own solutions. This period thus marks a pivotal point, where his lines became at once bolder and more investigative, further enriching his painted compositions.

Mediums Used by Raphael in His Paintings

Raphael’s exposure to a diverse array of techniques was significantly shaped by his early experiences in Giovanni Santi’s workshop and later in Perugino’s. These environments were known for producing artworks on both panel and canvas, varying in size and utilizing a spectrum of media. This included egg tempera, oil paints, hybrid mixtures of egg and oil, glue tempera on canvas (known as distemper), and buon fresco techniques.

Raphael’s early artistic career also coincided with the rise of oil painting in Italy. Most of his early panel works appear to employ oil as the primary medium; however, in many of his earliest pieces, he utilized egg tempera—a medium common among artists of this period, including Perugino. In these formative years, Raphael experimented extensively with egg and oil mixtures on panel surfaces. Noteworthy practices included the application of egg tempera with minimal quantities of drying oil (known as tempera grassa), the strategic layering of oil glazes atop egg tempera underpaintings to enhance the vibrancy and transparency of red lakes, copper-based greens, and ultramarine blue, and the selective use of egg for certain pigments and passages while reserving drying oil for others.

As his career progressed, and especially after settling in Rome, Raphael shifted toward exclusively using oil paint in his panel paintings. However, his versatility extended to other supports and media: he painted on paper and possibly even vellum, as evidenced by his tapestry cartoons, which consist of sheets of paper glued together. The medium employed for these was a type of gouache in which pigment was bound in animal glue.

Raphael predominately used drying oils in his work, mostly consisting of walnut oil but also accompanied by linseed oil. Spectrophotometry analysis has revealed walnut oil and linseed oil in separate passages of paintings, such as Saint Catherine and the Mond Crucifixion. In samples analyzed from the Ansidei Madonna, walnut oil and heat-bodied walnut oil were detected. Three samples from the Madonna of the Pinks contained heat-bodied walnut oil. Walnut oil appears to have been the preferred binder in Italy during this period, although linseed oil was also used. In some cases, these oils were used in separate passages of paintings.

Of course, egg tempera cannot be dismissed as a binder used by Raphael, as it was often employed in Pietro Perugino’s workshop, where Raphael apprenticed. This blend of traditional tempera technique with the burgeoning use of oils typifies Raphael’s technical fluency and adaptability—hallmarks of his materials practice during the High Renaissance.

Raphael’s Innovations in “Marriage of the Virgin” Compared to Perugino

While Raphael undeniably borrowed key elements from Perugino—such as the arrangement of figures in the foreground, the domed temple presiding in the background, and even the soothing palette of blues, soft roses, and ochres—he made the scene distinctly his own through significant stylistic choices.

Unlike Perugino’s “Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter,” Raphael introduced a far greater sense of unity and cohesion among his figures. Rather than appearing as individual actors on a stage, the characters in “Marriage of the Virgin” interact fluidly, their gestures and gazes connecting them into a single harmonious group. He also infused the composition with a new depth, organizing the space so that the eye is gently led from the lively foreground to the architectural serenity of the temple and then beyond to rolling green hills.

These innovations not only set Raphael’s approach apart from his teacher’s but also signaled a move towards greater naturalism and integration in Renaissance painting.

Raphael’s Drawing Materials in Rome

When Raphael settled in Rome, his approach to drawing materials underwent a noticeable evolution. He began to move away from the traditional metal point—favored in his earlier works—and instead embraced chalk for its greater versatility. Red chalk, in particular, became a hallmark of his Roman sketches, especially evident in his preparatory studies for female nudes in works like The Triumph of Galatea. This shift allowed Raphael to achieve softer shading and more dynamic, expressive lines, marking a significant development in his artistic technique.

Even later in his career, Raphael rarely chose canvas as support, the principal exception being the Sistine Madonna.

Most of the wood panels were prepared with a glue ground consisting of gypsum (calcium sulfate hemihydrate, also known as gesso, a term originating from Italy) bound in animal glue. The gesso was covered with a pale imprimatura of a thin, off-white oil-bound layer containing lead white, a small amount of lead-tin yellow, and various amounts of glass particles. It is believed that the glass particles contributed to the siccative qualities of the imprimatura. The composition of this imprimatura has been found in many of his paintings and appears to be typical of Italian artists working in this period.

Stylistic Influences and Evolution

Raphael’s artistic journey is marked by a remarkable receptiveness to influence, which he then synthesized with his own sensibility. In his formative years, the shadow of his master Perugino loomed large—so much so that distinguishing their hands in early commissions is often a matter of scholarly debate. For instance, Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin echoes Perugino’s Christ Handing the Keys to Saint Peter not only in the foreground figures and the polygonal temple background but also in the color choices: cloudless blue skies, deep blues, soft roses, yellows, and the blue-green of the Umbrian hills. Yet, even when borrowing compositional elements, Raphael’s figures are woven into a unity and grace unique to his vision.

The Florentine Period

A pivotal shift in Raphael’s style began during his time in Florence. Here, the influence of local painters, most notably Fra Bartolommeo, encouraged Raphael to temper the delicate grace of Perugino with greater monumentality and gravitas. He also absorbed—and adapted—Leonardo da Vinci’s compositional innovations, such as the pyramid arrangement of figures and the dynamic interrelation among groupings. Leonardo’s influence is evident in Raphael’s portrait of Maddalena Doni, where the composition and atmospheric landscape reflect the Florentine master’s ideas. During this period, Raphael’s drawing practice evolved as well; he increasingly used pen and ink sketches, sometimes from memory, to explore and define his concepts, often referencing works by Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo.

The Roman Maturity

Upon moving to Rome, Raphael’s technique underwent further transformation, likely influenced by both Venetian oil painting and his own growing experience with fresco. He began to experiment more with color and light as independent pictorial elements, embracing a painterly approach and greater impasto—particularly in his works on canvas. Raphael’s interest in Venetian art is also suggested by his increasing use of canvas as a support in his later Roman years, although he still favored panel for most of his works.

In Rome, he moved away from metalpoint, favoring chalk—especially red chalk—for life studies and preparatory drawings. It is in this context that Raphael began using female models for female nudes, an unusual practice at the time, as seen in preparatory drawings for The Triumph of Galatea.

Despite these evolutions, Raphael’s core working methods remained consistent: a rigorous compositional structure often built on geometric underpinnings and careful study of each figure from live models.

Raphael’s Workshop Practices in Rome

Raphael’s years in Rome marked the expansion of his workshop, where he surrounded himself with a circle of gifted pupils and collaborators. The way he orchestrated their efforts was both dynamic and hands-on. Rather than assigning tasks according to a rigid formula, Raphael adapted his involvement based on the demands of each project and the strengths of individual assistants.

He took an active role throughout all phases of his commissions—from sketching initial designs to refining final flourishes. This meant that Raphael might oversee or directly work on core figures, delicate backgrounds, or architectural elements, depending on the piece. His attention was not limited to central motifs; he maintained quality across every corner of the composition.

Documentation and surviving paintings reveal that his methods were rarely uniform. Sometimes, assistants would block in large areas or execute less prominent background passages, while Raphael himself completed or retouched the focal figures. In other works, his intervention extended across the entire painting, uniting varied contributions under his consistent stylistic vision. The result is an impressive harmony: even in paintings completed with considerable workshop input, Raphael’s distinctive touch remains immediately recognizable.

Influence of Venetian Painting and Fresco on Raphael’s Roman Technique

Raphael’s move to Rome marked a distinct evolution in his artistic technique, notably shaped by his exposure to Venetian painters and the grandeur of Roman fresco cycles. In Venice, artists such as Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione prized the use of rich, luminous color. They exploited the expressive capacity of oil paint—qualities that did not go unnoticed by Raphael. Encountering these innovations, Raphael began to expand his own use of color, focusing more intently on the interplay of light and shade to model his forms and convey atmosphere.

Moreover, the Venetian preference for canvas provided new opportunities. As Raphael adopted this support more frequently in Rome, he developed a bolder handling of paint. The application of thicker, textured strokes—commonly referred to as impasto—became increasingly apparent in his works, lending vibrancy and depth to his compositions in a manner that drew clear inspiration from Venetian practice.

Simultaneously, his immersive work in fresco painting, which presented challenges of working at scale and the demand for swift, decisive execution, encouraged him to loosen his approach to composition and brushwork, even in his oil paintings. Fresco required a mastery of clarity, planning, and efficient layering—skills Raphael brought back into his panel and canvas work. The result was a merging of Venetian sensuousness with the discipline of fresco, infusing Raphael’s Roman output with both technical virtuosity and a heightened sensitivity to color and the effects of light.

The central panel from the Ansidei Altarpiece, Ansidei Madonna, National Gallery, London, is dated 1505 and inscribed in gold on the hem of the Virgin’s mantle.

Techniques of Composition and Application

Geometric Structure and Compositional Studies in Raphael’s Process

Raphael’s meticulous approach to composition reveals a deep engagement with geometric underpinnings and preparatory study. Early drawings for altarpieces, such as those for St Nicholas of Tolentino, highlight how he relied on carefully planned geometric frameworks to organize his scenes with balance and harmony—a principle likely inherited from both his Umbrian training and the rigorous traditions of Florentine draftsmanship.

To achieve such compositional clarity, Raphael frequently developed separate studies of individual figures from live models. This allowed him to refine anatomical accuracy and subtle gestures before situating them within the broader geometric scaffolding of the final composition. The iterative process—moving from single-figure sketches to complex spatial arrangements—became a hallmark of his maturing style, enabling Raphael to infuse his paintings with both naturalism and a deep sense of order.

Raphael’s General Approach to Painting

Raphael’s approach to constructing foregrounds, backgrounds, and skies typically involved using broad, horizontal brushstrokes, occasionally leaving visible brush marks and imparting a slight texture to the surfaces. Central compositional elements, including figures, were initially left unpainted. The background coloration was subsequently added around these unpainted areas, either by extending the horizontal brushstrokes to meet these zones or by delicately painting within the contours of the figures. Instances, such as in the Mond Crucifixion, reveal areas where the paint from both the figures and the landscape does not entirely obscure the underpainting, allowing the imprimatura to remain visible, indicative of a meticulous and thoughtful layering process.

In larger compositions, Raphael demonstrated a propensity for executing expansive passages with fluid, free brushwork in singular layers of oil paint, showcasing his mastery over the medium.

Achieving Color Saturation

Raphael’s technique for achieving specific color saturation or when the nature of certain pigments demanded a layered approach was particularly evident in the nuanced green, red, and subdued pink draperies within the Mond Crucifixion. This involved applying glaze-like surface paints over solid, color-matched underlayers. The dense application of paint in areas such as the green sleeve and yellow lining of draperies in Saint Catherine exemplifies Raphael’s method of building color depth through the use of copper green glazes atop opaque layers of verdigris mixed with white or lead-tin yellow and the creation of translucent reds through the application of red lake glazes over a base of vermilion or a mixture of vermilion with white, red earth, or lake.

Development of Blue Colors

The specific technique for blues involved layering natural ultramarine over azurite or a mixture of azurite with white, resulting in a notably thicker layer of paint—a practice observable in the Ansidei Madonna and the Madonna of the Pinks.

Modeling of Flesh Tones

Raphael’s early period flesh tone modeling closely mirrored the practices of the Perugino workshop and drew upon techniques developed by Verrocchio and his disciples. This often involved using a greenish-brown underpainting, potentially evolving from the traditional green earth underpainting of earlier panel paintings, and further modeled with a brownish-green verdaccio comprising translucent yellow pigments and black. Applying thin layers of flesh-colored paint, followed by the addition of opaque, pinkish-brown layers for highlights, over a semi-translucent, greenish-brown underpainting allowed for the representation of shadows through the exposed lower layer.

The Palette of Raphael

Raphael’s core palette in his early works featured azurite, ultramarine, verdigris, copper green glazes, lead-tin yellow (Type 1), vermilion, red lake, yellow lake, earth pigments, carbon blacks, and lead white. Advanced analytical techniques have revealed the inclusion of previously undetected or uncharacterized materials, such as red lead, orpiment, and a unique, dark, warm grey pigment derived from metallic bismuth, in his compositions. This discovery expands our understanding of his material choices beyond the traditional canon of the Quattrocento and early Cinquecento periods.

Raphael used many pigments typically found in paintings of this period. These included the following:

• Lead white (flake white)

• Natural ultramarine (lazurite mineral)

• Verdigris (copper acetate)

• Yellow ocher (iron oxide)

• Lead-tin yellow (lead stannate—Type I)

• Carmine lake (carminic acid precipitated on a mineral base)

• Vermilion (red mercuric sulfide)

• Madder lake (alizarin, pseudopurpurin, and purpurin on  a mineral base)

• Red ocher (iron oxide)

• Brown ocher (iron oxide)

In several of his paintings (Ansidei Madonna), he employed Brazilwood lake, shell gold, and even less-known metallic powdered bismuth.

One of the two narrative scenes from the predella of the Ansidei Altarpiece, Saint John the Baptist Preaching, in the National Gallery, London, is dated 1505 and inscribed in gold on the hem of the Virgin’s mantle on the main panel of the altarpiece.

Raphael’s Use of Glass Powder

Analyses have revealed the presence of colorless glass particles within the imprimatura and various paint layers of certain artworks, notably those featuring red lake pigments. It has been determined that this glass was incorporated as a drying agent, a function elaborated upon in the context of the Ansidei Madonna. Investigation into the composition of these glass particles has consistently identified manganese as a constituent, affirming its role as a desiccant. The use of glass for this purpose extends beyond Raphael’s oeuvre, marking a prevalent practice among sixteenth-century painters. Nonetheless, Raphael’s application of this technique was notably prolific. When combined with opaque pigments, this addition of glass notably enhances the translucency of the paint, a distinctive characteristic of Raphael’s painting technique.

In the Mond Crucifixion, Raphael prepared the poplar support with gesso covered by an imprimatura of lead white, a small amount of lead-tin yellow, and powdered glass consisting of manganese-containing soda-lime glass. Considerable amounts of powdered glass were also found in the red glazes of Saint John the Evangelist’s cloak. Powdered glass was also added to many other areas of the painting, not just in the red glazes. The use of this type of glass not only acts as a siccative but also increases the transparency of the glazes while providing solid particles that do not yellow, unlike oil.

The use of glass as a siccative in oil painting is consistent with an English documentary source that mentions using glass as a drier. The painter Marshall Smith, in 1692, wrote:

‘For your Powder-Glass, take the whitest Glass, beat it very fine in a Morter, and grind it in water to an Impalpable powder; being thoroughly dry, it will dry all Colours without drying Oyle, and not in the least Tinge the purest Colours, as White, Ultramarine etc. and is much us’d in Italy’.

The Mond Crucifixion, National Gallery, London, was painted in oil on a poplar panel about 1502–3.

Glass particles have also been found extensively in works by Perugino and in many paintings by Raphael. Recently, it has been found that glass was used extensively in red glazes in early Netherlandish and German paintings. The composition of the glass varies considerably in the paintings from different regions of Europe during this period. Soda lime glass is typically found in Italian paintings, but high-lime glass appears to be more common in paintings executed in Northern Europe.

Shell Gold and Gilding

The final step in the painting process involved applying either shell gold or mordant gilding to embellish various elements, such as the gold thread motifs and designs adorning the necklines and edges of the draperies on several figures. Additionally, details like haloes were frequently rendered using shell gold. Notably, in the Ansidei Madonna, the lower edge of Saint John the Baptist’s vibrant red cloak features a layer of shell gold, enhanced by an additional layer of metallic silver, though the visual effect has diminished due to metal degradation.

The use of mordants in the gilding process varied, with some being applied thickly while others were applied lightly. The Ansidei Madonna contains examples of mordant gilding in the throne’s inscribed overlay, the gilded Greek key motifs on the canopy and base, and the golden orbs near Saint Nicholas of Bari’s feet. The ‘INRI’ inscription on the Mond Crucifixion’s cross was also applied with mordant gilding directly onto the imprimatura, with adjacent paint meticulously avoiding the gilded text.

Raphael’s signature, uniquely placed at the cross’s base, is presented in a sgraffito technique, created by etching through the semi-wet brown paint to unveil a layer of silver leaf beneath. The moon, positioned at the Crucifixion’s upper right, was depicted using tarnished silver leaf, contrasting with the gold leaf used for the sun, both applied atop a red-brown bole layer employing the traditional water gilding method.

The sun, located at the painting’s upper left, and the similarly crafted silver moon on the upper right were both produced through water gilding, with gold and silver leaf laid over red bole. The application of gold on finer details, such as Christ’s loincloth, the angels’ wings, Saint Jerome’s belt, and the edges of the Virgin and Saint John’s robes, remains ambiguous. However, the absence of colored mordant and the distinctiveness of the lines probably indicate the probable use of shell gold despite appearing denser than typically seen for shell gold. The gilded decoration on Saint John’s green cloak appears to be gold in flake form, not as a continuous gold leaf layer, suggesting the use of shell gold. This application was more robust than typically associated with shell gold but resembled the gilding on Saint John’s robe in the Ansidei Madonna, affirming its identification as shell gold. Another possible explanation is “gold assiste,” which relies on applying gold skewings applied onto a mordant, usually a water-based size.

The detailed view of the Ansidei Madonna shows shell gold and silver on the hem of the cloak.

Equivalents of the Colors on Raphael’s Palette

Notes

1. Verdigris is not a permanent color that darkens and becomes brown over time. We suggest viridian as a reasonable substitute for verdigris.

2. Vermilion is not available at the time of this writing. Cadmium Red Light Oil Paint is a good substitute for vermilion.

3. Alizarin is the synthetic equivalent of madder lake.

References and Notes

Bomford, D.; J. Dunkerton, D. Gordon and A. Roy (1989). Art in the Making: Italian Painting before 1400, exhibit catalog, National Gallery, London 1989, p. 29 and catalog entries; Dunkerton and Roy 1996 (cited in note 32).

Buzzegoli, E.; D. Kunzelman, C. Giovannini, G. Lanterna, F. Petrone, A. Ramat, O. Sartiani, P. Ivioioli, and C. Seccaroni (2000). ‘The use of dark pigments in Fra Bartolommeo’s paintings,’ Art et Chemie, la couleur. Actes du Congres, Paris 2000, pp. 203–8.

Dunkerton, J. and A. Roy, A. (1996). ‘The Materials of a Group of Late Fifteenth Century Florentine Panel Paintings,’ National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 17, pp. 21–3l.

Kirby, J. and White, R. (1996). ‘The Identification of Red Lake Pigment Dyestuffs and a Discussion of their Use,’ National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 17, 1996, pp. 56­–80.

Roy, A., Spring, M., Plazzotta, C. “Raphael’s Early Work in the National Gallery: Paintings before Rome”. National Gallery Technical Bulletin Vol 25, pp. 4–35.

Spring, Marika. “Raphael’s Materials: Some New Discoveries and their Context within Early Sixteenth-Century Painting.” Scientific Department of The National Gallery, London

References to the use of powdered glass as a drier in historical documentary sources on painting are discussed, and Marshall Smith is quoted in Kirby Talley M., Portrait Painting in England: Studies in the Technical Literature before 1700, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 1981, pp. 94–97.

Spring, M.; R. Grout, and R. White (2003). ‘Black Earths: A study of Unusual Black and Dark Grey Pigments used by Artists in the Sixteenth Century,’ National Gallery Technical Bulletin, 24, 2003. pp. 96­–114.