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Painting esmail d’azur in oil

This is a secret that is hardly known to common painters.
Some take the most delicate they can & grind it with ceruse,
which binds it, and next prick with an awl in several places
the area they want to paint with azur d’esmail, such that the
oil enters & leaks in, & ne does not
cause the azure, which in itself is heavy, to run. Others lay the
panel flat & put down the azure on it, which is also done
à destrempe. The main thing is to grind it well on
marble, and before that, to have washed it thoroughly.
Some grind it with thoroughly with an egg yolk &
then wash it in five or six waters and lay it
on not with a painceau, which would be too soft, but
with a broisse thoroughly softened & crimped,
& laying it on thickly as if one were putting it down with a
trowel; settling down it evens out and flattens. I have
experienced that grinding azur d’esmail with egg
yolk & next washing it in several waters is
good. However, it loses a little of its vividness in the grinding of it.
I have also washed it in several waters &, when it
had settled a little, I removed the water, still
q blue, with a sponge and squeezed it into another
vesselthuswhere it settled, & from the
residue I had the ash, flower and subtlest part of the
azure without grinding it, which is
the best, for in the grinding of it, it loses some of its tint. Those
who make it in Germany compound it like enamel, in large
pieces which they pestle, & pass through several sieves
& wash.

To make azures beautiful, they wash or soak them in a
rock water, as they call it; it is a
water distilled from mines where azure or vert
d'azur is found, which distills naturally through the
veins of the mountain or is distilled through an
alembicpar from mineral stones of
azure or copper.

Azure ash are only good for landscapes because
they die in oil. Only true azure holds on. Azur
d’esmail cannot be worked if it is too coarse. Try it, therefore, on
the fingernail or the oil palette. If
it  happens to be sandy, do not grind it except with
the egg yolk or, better yet, wash it in clear
water & with a sponge remove the colored
water after it starts to go to the bottom, and in this manner
you will extract the very delicate flower, which will be easy to work
with.

