Or Green Earth Is A Sober Bluish Green With A Grey Cast It Is A

: ON THE SECONDARY, GREEN.

species of ochre, containing silica, oxide of iron, magnesia, potash,

and water. Not bright and of little power, it is a very durable pigment,

being unaffected by strong light or impure air, and combining with other

colours without injury. It has not much body, is semi-transparent, and

dries well in oil. Veins of brownish or reddish ochre are often found

mixed with terre verte, to the detriment of its colour; and there are
/> varieties of this pigment with copper for their colouring matter, which,

although generally brighter, are inferior in other respects, and not

true terre vertes. Verona Green and Verdetto or Holy Green, are

ferruginous native pigments of a warmer hue. These are met with in the

Mendip Hills, France, Italy, and the island of Cyprus, and have been

used as pigments from the earliest times. Rubens has availed himself

much of terre verte, not in his landscapes merely, but likewise in the

carnation tints in his figures of a dead Christ. It is evident that much

of the glazing is done with this colour: it is, in fact, most useful in

glazing; because, having only a thin substance, it can be rendered pale

by a small portion of white; although in the end it becomes darker by a

concentration of its molecules. Merimee states that in the greater part

of Alexander Veronese's works--in his Death of Cleopatra, in the Louvre,

for instance--there are some demi-tints which are too green, and which

it is certain were not so originally. Terre verte, therefore, must be

employed with caution; and it would be well to ascertain beforehand

whether a mineral colour will in time become darker than when first laid

on the picture, by putting a drop of oil on the powder in its natural

state. If the tone this gives to it be more intense than that which it

acquires by being ground up, it may fairly be assumed that it will

attain to the same degree of strength whenever, having completely dried,

its molecules shall have re-united as closely as it is possible. Umber

and terra di Sienna are of this class.



In combination with Indian red and Naples yellow, terre verte forms a

series of mild russet greens, of much use in middle distance.



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