by Raphael Borghini,151 and after him by Armenini,152 respecting the use and preparation of varnishes made from the very materials in question, may thus have been comprehended in the censure, especially as some of these recipes were copied and republished in Venice by Bisagno,153 in 1642—that is, only six years before Boschini's poem appeared.
Ridolfi's Lives of the Venetian Painters154 (1648) may be mentioned with the two last. His only observation respecting the vehicle is, that Giovanni Bellini, after introducing himself by an artifice into the painting-room of Antonello da Messina, saw that painter dip his brush from time to time in linseed oil. This story, related about two hundred years after the supposed event, is certainly not to be adduced as very striking evidence in any way.155
Among the next writers, in order of time prior to Bisagno, may be mentioned Canepario156 (1619). His work, "De Atramentis" contains a variety of recipes for different purposes: one chapter, De atramentis diversicoloribus, has a more direct reference to painting. His observations under this head are by no means confined to the preparation of transparent colours, but he says little on the subject of varnishes. After describing a mode of preserving white of egg, he says, "Others are accustomed to mix colours in liquid varnish and linseed, or nut-oil; for a liquid and oily varnish binds the (different layers of) colours better together, and thus forms a very fit glazing material."157 On the subject of oils he observes, that linseed oil was in great request among painters; who, however,