Or Green Earth Is A Sober Bluish Green With A Grey Cast It Is A
:
ON THE SECONDARY, GREEN.
species of ochre, containing silica, oxide of iron, magnesia, potash,
and water. Not bright and of little power, it is a very durable pigment,
being unaffected by strong light or impure air, and combining with other
colours without injury. It has not much body, is semi-transparent, and
dries well in oil. Veins of brownish or reddish ochre are often found
mixed with terre verte, to the detriment of its colour; and there are
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varieties of this pigment with copper for their colouring matter, which,
although generally brighter, are inferior in other respects, and not
true terre vertes. Verona Green and Verdetto or Holy Green, are
ferruginous native pigments of a warmer hue. These are met with in the
Mendip Hills, France, Italy, and the island of Cyprus, and have been
used as pigments from the earliest times. Rubens has availed himself
much of terre verte, not in his landscapes merely, but likewise in the
carnation tints in his figures of a dead Christ. It is evident that much
of the glazing is done with this colour: it is, in fact, most useful in
glazing; because, having only a thin substance, it can be rendered pale
by a small portion of white; although in the end it becomes darker by a
concentration of its molecules. Merimee states that in the greater part
of Alexander Veronese's works--in his Death of Cleopatra, in the Louvre,
for instance--there are some demi-tints which are too green, and which
it is certain were not so originally. Terre verte, therefore, must be
employed with caution; and it would be well to ascertain beforehand
whether a mineral colour will in time become darker than when first laid
on the picture, by putting a drop of oil on the powder in its natural
state. If the tone this gives to it be more intense than that which it
acquires by being ground up, it may fairly be assumed that it will
attain to the same degree of strength whenever, having completely dried,
its molecules shall have re-united as closely as it is possible. Umber
and terra di Sienna are of this class.
In combination with Indian red and Naples yellow, terre verte forms a
series of mild russet greens, of much use in middle distance.
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