What Painting Is: How to Think about Oil Painting ... - Victoria Vesna

28 WHAT PAINTING IS
a. Impure, mixed with stones and earth
b. Yellow, opaque, earthy [impure As 2S 3]]
c. Yellow, golden, “alive” [purer As 2S 3]]
d. Yellow mixed with red [mixture of As 2S 3 and
As 4S 4]
e. Red, with dirty “eyes” [impure As 4S 4]
f. Pure red, capable of splitting [purerAs 4S 4]
4. Sulfur
a. Red, difficult to find [apparently fabulous
substance]
b. Yellow, color of “pure varnish” [crystalline sulfur]
c. Yellow, grainy [perhaps mineral sulfur with its
matrix]
d. White mixed with earth [an obviously impure
form]
e. Black [either sulfur mixed with asphalt, or iron
sulfide]
B. Seven bodies [i.e., the seven known metals]
1. Gold
2. Silver
3. Copper
4. Tin
5. Iron
6. Lead
7. “Karesin” or “Catesin” [possibly bronze composed of
copper, zinc, and nickel]
C. Thirteen stones
1. Marchasita [pyrites, including “fool’s gold,” FeS 2]
a. Similar to silver in color
b. Red, like copper
c. Black, like iron
d. Golden
2. Magnesia [a miscellaneous category]