Venetian Grinds

The secret behind Italian Renaissance painters' brilliant palettes

While sifting through 15th- and 16th-century documents at the state archives in Venice, Louisa Matthew came across an ancient inventory from a Venetian seller of artist’s pigments. The dusty sheet of paper, dated 1534, was buried in a volume of inventories of deceased persons’ estates.

SECRET INGREDIENT. In “The Nativity” (1523), Venetian artist Lorenzo Lotto mixed glass particles with his paint.