TOOLS AND EQUIPMENT 313
and not a permanent part of the finished picture. In earlier days of painting on
canvas, provisional stretchers were used to which the linen was laced while it
was in the studio. Such arrangements are evident in many paintings, particularly
of the Dutch school during the XVII century. One of these in the Hermitage
collection, 'The Painter in his Studio/ by Peter Codde (Amsterdam, c 1600-
1678), shows the canvas attached by a heavy cord with pins or pegs at the edges
of the stretcher pieces. A space of about 6 inches was left between the linen and
the wooden stretching frame. In the XVIII century evidently the practice of
attaching the canvas to the stretcher by tacks was usual before the painting began
rather than after, and such practice has continued to the present. In the XVIII
century, also, or perhaps in the early XIX, stretchers with keys, small wedges
which could be tapped up at the corners to extend the outside dimensions and
make the canvas more taut, were introduced. Later in the XIX century and
prevalent still came the stretcher with mitred corners and with double keys at
the corners (figure 6, a). These were made commercially with a rather complex
mortised fitting so that a piece of any length could be used universally with any
other pieces, the mitred ends being all the same. In the restoration of paintings
for the process of relining, a heavy provisional stretcher is common, being much
larger than the outer dimensions of the painting and allowing for manipulation
of the edges during this process. After the painting is relined, these edges are cut
back to a suitable space for stretching.
Striper, a flat brush of moderate size and with a very long, fine hair of sable
or of squirrel. This is used largely in industrial rather than In pictorial painting
(see Brush and figure i, e)*
Studio. The work-room of a painter, which now commonly goes by the name,
studio, has had a varied history and has undergone changes of character with
the different centuries during which it can be seen in painted representations.
At present it is apt to be a rather large room with high ceilings and high sidelight,
preferably on the north, and including some amount of ceiling light- Sloping,
large windows are frequently used for this purpose. Generally it is a place of simple
furnishing, rather bare, and aimed almost entirely at utility. This rather special-
ized type of work-room was developed in the latter part of the XIX century.
J. S. Templeton, in The Guide to Oil Painting., 3d ed. (London, 1845), speaks of
the painting room *. . . which is sometimes affectedly styled a Studio, or Atelier,*
as a room of ordinary and moderate dimensions, and the fashion of that time,
seen in paintings of the period, indicates that it was a rather sumptuous apart-
ment. Turner's painting,' Watteau in his Studio,' in the Tate Gallery, represents
a rich, salon-like interior, somewhat confused in its appointments, with a number
of pictures and a clutter of draperies and small objects. This type of room is
commonly seen in the studio interiors of the XVIII century. During the XVII,
particularly in the north of Europe, two types of studio are found. One is a normal
interior of a house, a room like a drawing room; the other is plainly a rough work-