Furnishes The Blue Are Added To Brown Or Yellow Frit To Obtain A

: ON THE NEUTRAL, BLACK.

velvety black glass. Similarly the dyer proceeds to dye black upon a

deep blue basis of indigo, with the ruddy colour of madder and the

yellow of quercitron, &c.



Some of the best blacks and neutrals of the painter are those formed

with colours of sufficient power and transparency upon the palette.

Prussian blue and burnt lake afford a powerful though not very durable

black; and compound blacks in which tr nsparent pigments are employed

will generally go deeper and harmonize better with other colours than

any original black pigment alone. Hence lakes and deep blues, added to

the common blacks, greatly increase their clearness and intensity: in

mixture and glazing of the fine blacks of some old pictures, ultramarine

has evidently been used. In this view, black altogether compounded of

blue with red and yellow, each deep and transparent, and duly

subordinated according to its powers, will give the most powerful and

transparent blacks; although, like most other blacks, they dry badly in

oil. Of course, as with all compound colours, it depends entirely on the

pigments employed whether these mixed blacks are permanent or not: a

compound black can very well pass through the stages of black to grey,

gray, or dirty white, if each link in the chain of combination be not as

strong as its fellows.



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