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One needs to make at least three layers of flesh color to accomplish
faces in oil. And at the beginning, one puts the black and umber
where it is appropriate. Next, the heightening with lead
white must not be put on the black. Flesh colors and  with
ceruse going in will yellow in five or six months, but
lead white does not change.

Florence lake is better than the kind from
Flanders for in Florence the best dyes are made. To
make a beautiful flesh color, the reddest & liveliest lake is
the best, for the kind that contains purpurine &
violet, by admixture of too much alum, makes flesh color like
that of one who is very cold. That is why ladies, wanting to color their
cheeks, ground Florence lake very finely, then
fill a little cotton with it, which they next
wrap in a little fabric of Cambray which is
clear. And thus they pounce the lake on their cheeks
& then, with another clean cotton, they
soften it.

Cristallin having been ground with water
appears to be have body, but with oil it does not have
any. It is ground with lake & with asphaltum, which
would not dry for a very long time without this.

Spike lavender oil is commonly put with lead
white, d not entirely pure but mixed with a
little walnut oil. The said spike lavender
oil would not be good for lake & colors that do not have
body for it would make them crack, but with those that have
body & are somewhat greasy, it is quite appropriate.

Verdigris and orpiment must first be ground with
urine rather than thinning them with oil. Thus they are
beautiful & do not die.

