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canvases of Rubens we find an altogether different texture,
one that is somewhat spongy or foamy like that of a thick
mousse-which shows an unctuous impression of brush
strokes equally in the whites and the other pigments. Rubens'
pupil, Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), reveals other characteristics which it will be interesting to compare with those of
his master. And when we come to Jean Honoré Fragonard
(1732-1806), by whose time the great mediums had been lost
in the north, there is yet another change in the appearance
of the material. With him the brush strokes show only in the
thick impastos that have a base of white. None of the other
pigments show enough impression of the brush to catch the
light. The striations characteristic of Rubens are not to be
seen in any of the transparent parts of the picture. Furthermore the medium employed no longer had the same stability.
ln "The Reading" (page 134), for example, many of the
details are simply drawn with the handle of the brush, engraved, as it were, in the glaze. But instead of remaining
stable and fixed in the position where they had been placed,
the material had spread out soon afterward and the stroke-
where it had not become thoroughly blurred-had lost all of
its precision. It is the impression of the brush in all parts of the material that constitutes one of the principal criteria of Rubens' medium, and which also signalizes other characteristics peculiar to this master and his school. ln the heaviest impastos the striations made by the bristles have left an exact though soft impression; the contours of the brush stroke itself are rounded and the ridges on the side of the stroke do not show any perceptible edges. A full, loaded Stroke fades off automatically, losing itself with extreme , suppleness in the surrounding material. This characteristic f~can be seen clearly in the study of two heads of men, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The nostrils, the eyes and the eyebrows have great soft reliefs in which can be seen very light streaks from the brush stroke. All the pigments, whether in the impasto or in the glazes, are of a semi-translucent material and present the appearance of a rich mousse. The general tone of the paintings is |