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How does varying the thickness of white enamel create light and shade in grisaille work?
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Enamelwork
Standing dish depicting Samson crushing the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, enamel on copper by Pierre Courteys, c. 1580; in the Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati, Ohio. Height 9.8 cm, diameter 22.9 cm.
In the grisaille enamel technique, artists create a dramatic sense of light, shade, and three-dimensionality by manipulating the application of white vitreous enamel over a dark ground, typically black or blue.12
The variation in tone is achieved through the thickness of the enamel application:
- Light areas: The white enamel is painted on thickly, creating opaque, bright highlights.12
- Gray areas: The enamel is applied in thinner coats, which allows the dark background color to show through and tone the white pigment, resulting in various shades of gray.12
This process can be further refined by hatching with a needle or pointed tool, which removes portions of the enamel to reveal the dark ground beneath, adding subtlety to the shading and enhancing the impression of low relief.2