From Italy to France to Flanders, the art of painting in the 14th century was practiced in manuscript illumination, on panel, and in fresco. Recipes for pigments appropriate to all these arts are included in this collection. "Experiments upon Colors" were dictated by painters to a Frenchman, Jehan Alcherius, while the Italian artist, Cennino Cennini, was especially attentive to the practice and the pigments to be used in fresco painting in
The Book of Art / Il Libro dell' Arte
, of c. 1390. His descriptions reveal the craft of Giotto, whose works make up the plates in this collection.