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PAINTING MATERIALS

of steel are presented in a variety of shapes. The straight blade or simple spatula
usually has a slightly wider shoulder than handle and tapers to a rounded tip.
The length varies from about aj to 6 inches. A trowel shape with offset blade is
frequently longer. Broader blades with a longer shank having slightly tapered
edges or diamond or triangular shapes are sometimes called 'painting knives.'

FIGURE 16. Some shapes of painters' palettes in the past: (a) a long-handled palette in a
French miniature of the XV century (from Berger, III, 231, fig. 16); (b) a small palette
shown in a *St Luke* attributed to Wolgemut (late XV century) in the Germanlsches
Museum, Nuremberg; (c) a palette from a *St Luke* attributed to Heinrich Diinwegge (c
1500-1523) and in the Landes-Mu$eum> Miinster; (f) a paddle-shaped palette, shown in
an engraving from a self-portrait by Jacopo Bassano; (e) a small palette seen in a *St
Luke* attributed to Colin de Cotter (late XV century) and in Vieure near Moulins; (/)
a XVII century palette seen in a studio representation (Vyvyan Sale, Christie, 1935) by
David Ryckaert (Flemish, XVII century); (g) a palette of Sir Joshua Reynolds, now
exhibited in the Royal Academy, London (no. 332); (ti) the palette in a work attributed
to Quentin Matsys (c 1500) and called 'Quentin Matsys Painting the Portrait of His
Mother,' in a private collection in England; (*) one of the three palettes in the painting
by D. Ryckaert, referred to above.

In the earlier centuries of oil painting the knife used by the painter for scraping
the grinding slab or for transferring paint to the palette seems to have been of a
different kind. Probably a slice was the most common tool for this purpose
(figure 24). Where any kind of knife in connection with the grinding and prepara-
tion of paint is seen in the studio paintings of the XV to the XVII century, it has
a heavy blade and the appearance of an ordinary stiff knife of moderate size.