Bronze-cast black (Nero di terra di campana) (Figure 41) No image of this quote, because missing image of original
“As experience shows, in the casting of bells, while the metal falls in the earthen mould, it causes a large part of it nearest to the metal to become very black. The painters use this instead of black earth.” [1]
The late sixteenth century treatises of Armenini and Borghini both mention the use of a black pigment that is closely related to the ancient art of bell casting. [2],[3] The cited Mariani-Cibo manuscript, an Italian text on miniature painting dating from 1620, recommends it as an alternative to black earth.
Nero di terra di campana is described as a black-colored ‘crust’ that is retained after casting of bells and items for the artillery, e.g., cannons. It remains unclear which material precisely is meant here. Most probably it concerns the loam-layer of the mould that directly adheres to the outer bronze-metal of the cast. After cooling down and removing of the outer and inner mould, this layer has to be scratched off carefully by hand. Another explanation could be the introduction of graphite as a coating during the casting process, which rendered the surface of the cast much smoother. The use of graphite was possible just after its discovery and availability in other countries than England, which indeed might have been the case at the end of the sixteenth century in Italy. This new and fancy material might have triggered authors to include it into their artist manuals.
Bell founding was carried out by travelling belleters directly at the church that commissioned the bell. Therefore, nero di terra di campana is quite a unique material, available either at the rare occasion of the founding of a bell, or at certain places, such as cannon foundries. Unanswered remains the question why this specific black is only mentioned in Italian sources and if its use was confined to Italian illuminators only.
[1] REFERENCE TO E. HERMENS contribution. Mariani manuscript, Leiden University Library, Voss. Germ. Gall. 15, Della Miniatura di Valerio Mariani…., fol. 13r-v. E. Hermens is preparing a fully annotated edition of this manuscript.
[2] Borghini. 1584. Il Riposo Di Raffaello Borghini: p. 207 https://archive.org/details/riposodiraffaell00borg/page/n4/mode/2up.
[3] Armenini. 1587. referred to in Pigment Compendium. 2008: p. 86.
[1] REFERENCE TO E. HERMENS contribution. Mariani manuscript, Leiden University Library, Voss. Germ. Gall. 15, Della Miniatura di Valerio Mariani…., fol. 13r-v. E. Hermens is preparing a fully annotated edition of this manuscript.
[1] REFERENCE TO E. HERMENS contribution. Mariani manuscript, Leiden University Library, Voss. Germ. Gall. 15, Della Miniatura di Valerio Mariani…., fol. 13r-v. E. Hermens is preparing a fully annotated edition of this manuscript.
[1] REFERENCE TO E. HERMENS contribution. Mariani manuscript, Leiden University Library, Voss. Germ. Gall. 15, Della Miniatura di Valerio Mariani…., fol. 13r-v. E. Hermens is preparing a fully annotated edition of this manuscript.