Three texts by two Italian Renaissance painters - Leonardo da Vinci and
Gian Paolo Lomazzo - and a compendium of the 53 standard pigments
commonly found on artists' palettes for painting in oil on panel and on
canvas as outlined by the writer, Raffaello Borghini, make up this 16th
century collection of pigments. Leonardo's studio advice on the use of
colors for capturing light and dark picks up this theme from Italian
15th century and classical painting and lays the foundation for this
practice as it would develop in European painting. The plates are of
works by Titian found in the National Gallery in London, whose pigments
have been identified and matched to the paintings.