Color Olivi (Invention of Oil Painting)
Ca. 1591. Hand coloured print, Burin on laid paper.Not on display
The print titled Color Olivi (Invention of Oil Painting) engraved by Hans Collaert II (1566–1628) around 1600 after a composition by Jan van der Straet, a.k.a. Johannes Stradanus (1523–1605), a leading Flemish painter and draughtsman who worked in Italy for much of his life, shows a well-dressed master who is meant to recall Jan van Eyck. He appears painting an image of Saint George slaying the dragon on a canvas in a busy studio where his assistants are executing different tasks, such as grinding pigments and mixing them with binders.2 Like this one, most contemporary images of studios show several people at work, demonstrating that it was a teamwork activity. There are unfinished paintings on the back wall to the left. The print alludes to the invention of oil paint which Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574), for whom Stradanus worked, had ascribed to Van Eyck in his influential writings.
