grisaille

Battesimo Della Gente, one of Andrea del Sarto's gray and brown grisaille frescoes in the Chiostro dello Scalzo, Florence (1511-26).

Grisaille (grɪʼzaɪ, -ʼzeɪl; French: gris, 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." ^[1]

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.

Trompe-l'œil Wall grisaille in Amsterdam by Jacob de Wit, 1730s.

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.

Student copy in grisaille after Jacques-Louis David Mims Studios School of Fine Art

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." ^[2]

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

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Grisaille

• (Metropolitan Museum of Art) Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres and workshop, Odalisque in Grisaille
• (Rijksmuseum) Grisaille
• A Watercolour Demonstration Using Grisaille

Notes