Grisaille in Historical Written Sources

Grisaille is one of the oldest and most widely used vitreous paints applied in the production of stained glass panels. This article presents an overview of the written sources on glass technology, with a focus on grisaille recipes, to understand the evolution of this paint throughout the centuries. The authors consulted 46 written sources, 21 of which included grisaille recipes, dating from the 10th (Eraclius manuscript) to 19th (Georges Bontemps, Guide du verrier, 1868) centuries.The authors thank Inês Coutinho and Catarina Villamariz (FCT-UNL, Portugal) for their help in discussing the recipes, Pedro Redol (Mosteiro da Batalha, Portugal) and Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk (Glasmuseum Hentrich, Germany) for interpreting the linguistic terms and translating Kunckel’s recipes, the Biblioteca Nacional de España (Madrid,Spain) for allowing access to the manuscript “Memoria de los colores para pintar sobre vidrio,” and the artist Kwan Tse (www.kwantse.com) for reproducing the grisaille painting. This work has been funded, in part, by the Fundação do Ministério de Ciência e Tecnologia de Portugal (project ref. UID/EAT/00729/2013, doctoral grants ref. SFRH/BD/78882/2011 and PD/BD/136673/2018, and postdoctoral grant ref. SFRH/BPD/108403/2015)