Grisaille (grɪʼzaɪ, -ʼzeɪl; , grey, French
pronunciation: /ɡʁi.zaj/) is a term for
painting executed entirely in
monochrome, usually in shades of grey or brown,
particularly used in
decoration to
represent objects in
relief. Some grisailles,
in fact, include a slightly wider colour range, like the
Andrea del Sarto fresco, here
illustrated.
A grisaille may be executed for its own sake as a decoration, as
underpainting for an
oil painting (in preparation for glazing layers
of colour over it), or as a
model
for an
engraver to work from. "Rubens and
his school sometimes use monochrome techniques in sketching
compositions for engravers."
History
Giotto used grisaille in the lower registers of his
frescoes in the Scrovegni
Chapel
, and Jan van Eyck
painted grisaille figures on the outsides of the wings of tryptychs, including the Ghent Altarpiece - these were the sides
most commonly on display, as the doors were normally kept
closed. In both cases imitation of sculpture was
intended.
In the Low Countries a tradition of grisaille paintings can be
traced from
Martin Heemskerck,
Jan Brueghel the Elder and
Hendrik Goltzius, through the
copious output of
Adriaen van de
Venne, to the circle of
Rembrandt, and
Jan van Goyen.
The
ceiling frescoes of the Sistine chapel
have portions of the design in grisaille.
At
Hampton
Court
the lower part of the decoration of the great
staircase by Antonio Verrio is in
grisaille.Full colouring of a subject makes many more
demands of an artist, and working in grisaille was often chosen as
being quicker and cheaper, although the effect was sometimes
deliberately chosen for aesthetic reasons. Grisaille paintings
resemble the
drawings, normally in
monochrome, that artists from the Renaissance on were trained to
produce; like drawings they can also betray the hand of a less
talented assistant more easily than a fully coloured
painting.
Illuminated manuscripts had
often been produced in pen and
wash with
a very limited colour range, and many artists such as
Jean Pucelle and
Matthew Paris specialised in such work.
Renaissance artists such as
Mantegna and
Polidoro di Caravaggio often
used grisaille as a classicising effect, either in imitation of the
effect of a classical
sculptured relief,
or of
Roman painting.
Academic Study
With the
20th Century's emphasis on
direct, or "
alla prima," painting, the
grisaille technique lost favor with artists of the period. Today,
this historic method has been incorporated into the curriculum of
certain private
ateliers.
Mims Studios of North Carolina
describes its grisaille training as "an
intermediary stage between working from the plaster cast and working directly from life,
guided by the same intensive pursuit of form."
Window of St. Peter: Stained glass
(white glass, grisaille and silver sulfide) and lead, France, ca.
1500–1510.
In enamel and stained glass
The term is also applied to monochrome painting in
enamels, and also to
stained glass. Portions of a window may be
done in grisaille — using, for example,
silver stain or vitreous paint — while other
sections are done in coloured glass.
References
Notes
- Oxford Companion to Art. Ed. Harold Osborne;
Clarendon Press. Oxford, 1970.
- Mims Studios School of Fine Art", mimsstudios.com.
Retrieved February 21, 2009.
Student copy in grisaille after
Jacques-Louis David Mims Studios School of Fine Art
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