Jan van Scorels Drawing and Painting
Technique
1 Een onghemeen schoonder
nieuw manier van werken uit
Italien ghebracht, Van Mander
1604, fol. 245r.
2 Meyer 1955, pp. 189-193, and
Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 111.
3 See the glossary for more
detailed descriptions of the
techniques, pp. 429-431.
4 Altogether, samples of
Scorels works number over
300, from around 30 paintings
done at all stages of Scorels
activity. Some were taken for
pigment identification, and
others to verify modeling
techniques and paint-layer
structure. The first results were
published by J.R.J. van Asperen
de Boer in Utrecht/Douai 1977,
pp. 51-55. This material was later
compiled by MF in an
unpublished manuscript and
organized according to colour
and colour mixtures, paint-layer
structure, and frequent and
unusual occurrences.
5 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986.
Molly Faries
To Karel van Mander, Jan van Scorel made a lasting contribution to the
art of his native land by bringing back from Italy an unusual and much
more beautiful, novel manner of working.1 Van Manders use of the word
manier, as has been proposed on several occasions, may be interpreted as
meaning technique.2 Technique must certainly be considered in any
evaluation of Scorels works, since during the artists early travels, with
stays in Venice and Rome, his works were transformed not only visually
but also structurally, from the ground up. This can be recognized in the
working routine that Scorel employed in his first Utrecht commissions,
such as the Lokhorst Triptych, c. 1526 (cat. no. 22), and further systematized
in the shop he established in Haarlem from c. 1527-1530.
This essay will highlight paintings in the Centraal Museums
collection, while referring as well to other works in the larger Scorel
group. The information presented here derives from various types of
technical examination: infrared reflectography, X-radiography, study
with the stereomicroscope, and analysis of paint samples.3 The results of
dendrochronology are discussed in the article by Molly Faries and Peter
Klein. The description of painting technique included in this essay relies
on samples that were taken by J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer while collaborating
with Molly Faries in technical examinations of Scorels works in the late
1970s. In preparing this material for study, J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer was
responsible for mounting and sectioning the samples, primarily for visual
microscopy, but also for microchemical testing and occasional instrumental
analysis.4 Some findings also derive from recent restoration campaigns at
the Centraal Museum.
In this essay, Jan van Scorels drawing and painting technique will be
discussed in context, with reference to other European artists, both in the
north and south. While the text will refer regularly to the valuable overview
of north Netherlandish painting technique published in the Art Before
Iconoclasm exhibition catalogue in 1986, it will also include information
from many technical studies that have appeared since that date.5
The Layered Structure of Jan van Scorels Panel Paintings
The Support: Canvas, Panel, and Frame
All of Scorels surviving works are wooden panels. The kind of wood used
depended on whatever raw materials were available locally, or could be
imported. Not surprisingly, all of the panels Scorel painted after returning
from Italy are oak. This wood, which we now know was imported from
the Baltic region, is found so frequently in Netherlandish panel paintings
that one could say oak was used almost exclusively. On the other hand,
the woods identified in Scorels early paintings read like a diary of his
23

6 For a summary of the wood
identifications, see Faries and
Wolff 1996, p. 730, and Faries
2007, pp. 105-106.
7 Jan van Scorel, Holy Kinship
Altarpiece, 1519. Panel, 142 x
144.5 cm (middle panel); 141 x
61.5 (wings). Obervellach, Sankt
Martin.
8 Jan van Scorel, Adoration
of the Magi, c. 1519. Panel, 44.4
x 55.2 cm. Chicago, The Art
Institute.
9 Jan van Scorel, Landscape
with Tournament and Hunters,
c. 1519-1520. Panel, 57.8 x 138.5
cm. Chicago, The Art Insitute,
and Jan van Scorel, Tobias and
the Angel, 1521. Panel, 45.6 x 88.5
cm. Dsseldorf, Kunstmuseum.
10 Faries and Wolff 1996, p. 733.
11 Verougstraete-Marcq and
Van Schoute 1989, p. 5.
12 Muller 1880a, pp. 8-10.
13 Bangs 1974, pp. 225-226.
Another painter, Cornelis
Cornelisz Kunst, had already
prepared the panels for Scorel
by applying a ground and
perhaps a priming (witse ende
maectse gereedt met die verve
daer toe dienende).
14 Van Bleyswijck 1667, pp.
256-259, as cited by Faries 1972,
pp. 270-273, and Faries 1975,
pp. 91 and 149. For a discussion
of the contracts, see Helmus
2010, pp. 251-258, and for a full
transcription, pp. 426-427.
15 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 107.
travels.6 High in the Austrian Alps, when painting the Holy Kinship
Altarpiece, Scorel used the wood available there, stone pine.7 For another
work close in date, the recently-attributed Adoration of the Magi in The
Art Institute of Chicago, Scorel employed fir.8 Once Scorel arrived in
Venice, he painted on the poplar supports that were customary in Italy, as
has been confirmed by Peter Klein for at least two works from this period, Fig. 1a-b
the Chicago Landscape with Tournament and Hunters and the Tobias and Jan van Scorel,
Lamentation of
the Angel dated 1521.9 For the beech wood identified in another work Christ with a Donor,
attributed to Scorel, see The Dying Cleopatra (cat. no. 20). At the same c. 1535. Utrecht,
time Scorel was using these different woods, he was also encountering Centraal Museum.
Notch on the
new panel formats, especially the low, oblong shape of spalliera panels that reverse with
he painted in Venice. This form has its echoes in Scorels later works, such beveling running to
as The Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no. 22).10 one of the vertical
sides and notch at
In Scorels time, a panel painting was classed as a piece of furniture.11 the edge
Cabinetmakers and/or joiners would have been responsible for making of the panel
the panels, although in most cases, the painters or commissioners would
have placed the orders for them. In Utrecht, these craftsmen were members
of the Joiners guild (Bijlhouwersgilde), a different guild than the one to
which painters belonged, the Saddlers guild.12 Some documents associated
with Scorel confirm this customary division of labor. In 1541 or 1542, the
artist traveled to Leiden to paint the portraits of some members of the
Leiden Jerusalem Brotherhood. The Leiden cabinetmaker (scrynwercker),
Jan Kerstantsz, had already made the panels, which were at his house
ready to be painted.13 In 1550, when the churchmasters of the Nieuwe
Kerk, Delft, drew up a contract with Scorel for an altarpiece (now lost),
they also made a separate contract with the cabinetmaker (schrijnwerker)
who was to provide the altar housing, predella, and all the frames and
panels belonging to this work. The contract further stipulated that the
cabinetmaker was to follow the model provided (presumably by Scorel).14
General artisanal practice determined the relationship of the panel to
the frame. For many sixteenth-century north Netherlandish works,
including those by Scorel, the painting and frame were executed separately.15
The paint surface on most of the artists panels extends to the edges,
indicating that the panels were slid into their frames after they had been
painted. Scorels Lamentation provides a good example of this practice.
Traces of original paint run to all four edges on the image side (see cat.
no. 25), while on the back, there are evenly spaced holes along the top and
bottom edges where dowels were probably inserted to secure the panel
once it had been let into its frame (figs. 1a-b). In a smaller number of cases,
mostly panels in altarpieces, there is evidence that Scorels cabinetmakers
still followed the practice that was more frequent in the preceding century.
Here the panel and frame were made as a single unit, and the ground and
paint extended from the surface of the panel onto the frame. One work in
24
16 If a barb is present, it is
mentioned in the catalogue
numbers under technical notes.
17 One of the artists early
paintings was described in a
collection in Venice around
1521 as la tela (canvas) with the
Drowning of the Pharaohs Army in
the Red Sea by the hand of Zuan
Scorel de Holanda, but a painting
matching this description has
since been discovered, and it is
on wood, most likely poplar (see
Faries and Wolff 1996, p. 727).
18 The 1550 contract made
with Scorel for the altarpiece for
the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft also
mentions that paintings on the
reverse should be in watercolour;
see above, note 14. Van Mander
1604, fol. 236r.
19 For tchlein, see the glossary
on p. 431.
20 Van Mander 1604, fol. 235v.
For the inventory listing Eerst vier
stucken van waterverff groot
zijnde, wesende van de handelinge
van Schorel, see Brom 1901, p. 395.
21 See for his first commissions in
Utrecht, including the wings for
Oudmunsters high altar, Scorels
biography, pp. 167-169. Wolfthal
1989, p. 20, mentions that because
of its lightness, canvas was ideal
for organ wings.
22 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries and
Filedt Kok 1986, p. 107, citing works
by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen,
Cornelis Engelbrechtsz, and Lucas
van Leyden.
23 The results derive from
microchemical testing by J.R.J. van
Asperen de Boer; he has
determined chalk for at least five
different works, and gesso for the
1521 Tobias and the Angel (note 9)
done in Venice (for the latter
identification, see Faries and Wolff
1996, p. 730 (note 27)).
24 This applies to the Adoration
of the Magi and Landscape with
Tournament and Hunters in
Chicago, see notes 8 and 9, and
Faries and Wolff 1996, p. 730.
25 Faries 2007, p. 109, describing
the microchemistry; see also
cat. no. 20 for discussion of the
gesso ground in the Cleopatra
attributed to Jan van Scorel.
26 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 107. Faries
in The Dictionary of Art 1996, p. 218.
27 The thin ground in The Lokhorst
Triptych has been noted by Van
Asperen de Boer 1977, p. 51.
the larger Scorel group, the De Visscher van der Gheer triptych (cat. no. 34)
still has its original frame, allowing us to see that the artists paint strokes
extended out onto the frame even more than once (fig. 2a-b). When
shrinkage occurred or the frame was lost, paint often cracked at the
juncture with the frame, causing an original, rough paint edge to appear
the barb next to an unpainted wooden rim (see fig. 2a-b). A barb
occurs in several of Scorels works in the Centraal Museums collection.16
Historical records suggest that Jan van Scorel occasionally painted on
canvas, although none of these works survives.17 When describing Scorels
paintings for the high altar of Utrechts Mariakerk, Karel van Mander
mentions that two wings remained unfinished for years and that Scorel
made a temporary substitute for them by painting one large canvas in
watercolour.18 This would no doubt have been done in a glue medium,
corresponding to the so-called tchlein technique.19 A slightly later
Utrecht inventory (1624) implies that Scorel painted similar large
canvasses more than once. The four large pieces in watercolour done in
Scorels manner listed among the possessions deriving from the dean of
Oudmunster, Herman van Lokhorst, probably refer to the unspecified
watercolours Van Mander says Scorel painted for his important Utrecht
patron just after he returned from Italy.20 These may relate to one of
Scorels first commissions for Oudmunster, in all probability the wings
Scorel painted for the new organ in 1524.21 Although several of Scorels
contemporaries are also known to have painted in this technique, only a
handful of north Netherlandish paintings on canvas have been
preserved.22
The Ground and Priming Layers
Like wood, the substance used to prepare the surface of panels for
painting was a bulk commodity, and the material that was commonly
available varied in northern and southern Europe. The ground of the
paintings Scorel executed in the Netherlands is always chalk (or calcium
carbonate, CaCO3) bound in glue, while that in most of the artists early
works done in Venice has been identified as gesso (or gypsum, calcium
sulfate, CaSO4).23 Some of the artists early paintings may have been done
in more unusual circumstances, for one work has a double ground in two
different materials (chalk and dolomite) and another has no ground in the
traditional sense, but a priming laid directly on the wooden support.24
Another painting in the Centraal Museums collection, Lambert Sustriss
Preaching of John the Baptist, which is now known to have been painted in
Italy, conforms to regional custom in that it has a gesso ground on a poplar
panel (cat. no. 39).25 After Scorel returned north, his chalk grounds do
not differ in any significant ways from those of his contemporaries, except
that they are somewhat thinner. In colour, they are usually an off white, Fig. 2a
Jan van Scorel (workshop)
greyish or brownish. The ground is actually visible to the naked eye on the
and Jan Deys, The De Visscher
left side of Scorels Lamentation of Christ with Portraits of Members of the van der Gheer Family Triptych,
Van Egmond Family, and it is whitish in colour (cat. no. 33). At this time, c. 1555 (middle panel),
grounds were seldom thicker than 0.2 mm, and Scorels even average a c. 1570 (wings). Utrecht,
Centraal Museum.
little less: they are rarely more than 0.15 mm and occasionally, even under Detail of the left interior
0.05 mm.26 A grounds thickness would of course vary across the surface wing showing the barb at
of a panel, depending on how much was required to fill the uneven surface the juncture of the painted
surface and the frame
of the support. One sample taken from The Lokhorst Triptych still has
wood attached and shows a ground that is even thinner than the paint Fig. 2b
layer (fig. 3).27 Scorels thin grounds have sometimes affected the condition Photomicrograph showing
paint extending from the
of his works, and it is often possible to see slight irregularities of the wood right interior wing onto the
surface when looking at the paintings in raking light. frame 3 x 35 mm film
25

28 Priming is the term preferred
in this text, but the layer is
also called an isolation layer or
an intermediate layer; see the
glossary, p. 430.
29 Faries in The Dictionary of Art
1996, p. 218.
30 See for overviews of priming,
Campbell, Foister and Roy
1977a, pp. 22-25; Spring 2004, p.
21. A similar priming also occurs
in Polidoro da Caravaggio; see
Keith, Moore Ede and Plazzotta
2004, p. 41.
31 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 108. Only
a few works by Jacob Cornelisz
van Oostsanen have been
sampled, but it is significant that
the Witch of Endor, 1526. Panel,
85.5 x 122.8 cm. Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum, does not have
a priming layer, despite the
fact that the technique of this
work supposedly shows Scorels
influence (see Amsterdam
1986, cat. no. 20, pp. 133-134,
mentioning 17 samples taken by
J.R.J. van Asperen de Boer). Jacob
Cornelisz seems to have made
underdrawings in black chalk
in about half of the paintings
studied with IRR, where one
could also presume the use of
a priming layer. During the IRR
examination of fragments of
Jacob Corneliszs Fragments of a
Crucifixion with Korsgen Elbers
and his Family, c. 1506. Panel,
90 x 57 cm (left fragment), and
89 x 73 cm (right fragment).
Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Museum, 6 March 1997, MF
detected the streaking of some
sort of isolation, or priming layer.
6 5
4 Triptych, c. 1526.
3
2 green background of the
1 2) beige-grey ground
32 The layer can be discerned
in cross-sections taken
from the wings of the 1519
Obervellach altarpiece, see
note 7 (AB sample nos. A 123/7-
8), and occurs, but only in part
of the Tobias and the Angel
done in Venice in 1521, as a grey
intermediate layer, see note 9
(sample no. A 124/2), which is
also visible in X-ray and IRR.
33 Roy, Spring and Plazzotta
2004, p. 5.
34 The analysis of one of
Scorels primings suggests that
this might be the case. The SEM
EDX analysis of a greyish particle
in the priming layer in Jan van
Scorels Baptism of Christ,
c. 1530. Panel, 120.5 x 156.5 cm.
Haarlem, Frans Halsmuseum,
revealed manganese (as,
for instance, in a soda-lime
type glass) in addition to
calcium, silicon and potassium
(correspondence from Mark
Richter and Robert Fuchs,
Cologne, Fachhochschule, to
AB, 21 January 1998). To confirm
that pulverized glass was more
prevalent in Scorels priming
or paint layers, samples would
have to be studied using the
scanning electron microscope.
I am also grateful to Marika
Spring, National Gallery,
London, for discussing these
results with me.
26
Fig. 3
Jan van Scorel, The Lokhorst
Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
Cross-section from in the
left exterior wing, layers
from the bottom up:
1) oak panel
3) white priming layer
4) layer with thickly
packed, round green
particles
5) varnish
6) light green retouch
200 x 35 mm film
The next phase in the painting process, the priming on the ground, is an
important feature of Scorels painting technique.28 Priming layers are
generally assumed to have been applied in the painters shop, as is not
always necessarily the case with the ground. For Scorel, it is clear that the
assimilation of this practice was complete only by the time of his return
to Utrecht. Priming then formed a regular part of his painting practice
and was multi-functional, serving to isolate the ground from the paint,
to increase the luminosity of the ground, and, of special significance, to
provide a substratum for the underdrawing.29
Recent research has shown that a thin, white or pale yellow priming
layer was in widespread use in Europe when Scorel began his career. It has
been discovered not only in German and Netherlandish paintings, but
also in a good number of works by early sixteenth-century Italian artists,
such as Perugino, Raphael, and others.30 This layer is notably lacking,
however, in works by Scorels north Netherlandish contemporaries,
including the paintings by Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen that have been
sampled so far.31 If priming was not a routine part of Jacob Corneliszs
paint-layer build-up, it is unlikely that Scorel could have learned the
technique as an assistant in this masters workshop. Although the first
appearances of a white priming layer in Scorels works are anything but
consistent, he seems to have picked up the technique by the time of his stay
in Venice, c. 1520-1521, and would have encountered it again in Rome.32
Raphaels paintings routinely include a thin, white priming layer, often
containing some lead-tin yellow and small amounts of powdered glass,
probably intended as a siccative.33 As yet, it has not been possible to
ascertain if Scorels priming might also contain tiny particles of glass.34
In view of the prevailing evidence, it seems reasonable to conclude that in
assimilating the use of a thin, white priming layer during his early travels,
Scorel was not innovating, but instead, bringing his own technique in line
with widespread practice.
Scorels habitual use of this priming layer went hand in hand with the
shift to black chalk as his preferred underdrawing material. This occurred
by the time Scorel returned to Utrecht, when the artist invariably made
his underdrawings on top of the priming. Although there is not extensive
evidence about the underdrawings position in works by other masters,

35 Roy, Spring and Plazzotta
2004, pp. 14, 18 and 26: two
of the paintings studied
show the underdrawing on
the priming, while one has
the underdrawing directly
on the ground. Priming with
dry underdrawing on top
also occurs in Raphaels late
paintings; see Rossi Manaresi
1990, pp. 129-130.
36 Jan Gossart, Adoration of
the Kings, 1510-1515. Panel, 177.2
x 161.3 cm. London, National
Gallery. See Campbell, Foister
and Roy 1997c, p. 89, and
New York 2010, pp. 71 and 86
(note 21), citing the additional
example of Gossarts St. Luke
Drawing the Virgin, c. 1534.
Panel, 230 x 205 cm. Prague,
National Gallery.
37 Campbell, Foister and
Roy 1997a, p. 25, where it
is mentioned that, when
it could be determined,
the underdrawings of early
Netherlandish paintings were
directly on the ground, as
opposed to Gossarts example.
38 Miedema 1973, vol. 1, pp.
254-257, regarding chapter XII
7f and XII 17f, and vol. 2, pp. 594
and 598. Miedema mentions
that Van Mander was probably
following Vasari when he spoke
of painters who underdrew on
top of the priming (or to use
Vasaris word, imprimitura), and
regarded the technique of early
Netherlandish painters as a
curiosity.
39 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries,
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 108.
40 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
p. 51, based in part on staining
tests of this layer in a sample
from Scorels Lamentation
(cat. no. 25); this sample was
restudied by FTIR by Marika
Spring at the National Gallery,
London.
41 Campbell, Foister and Roy
1997a, pp. 23-24.
42 Although the evidence for
pink primings is much more
obvious in several of Scorels
works from the later 1530s,
at least three cross-sections
from his Baptism (note 34)
have priming layers tinted with
red and orangish particles (AB
sample nos. A 84/1, 2, and 5). It
may eventually be shown that
the Utrecht Lamentation (cat.
no. 25) has a similar tinted layer.
data from Raphaels early and late paintings suggests that this artist often
followed a similar routine, with underdrawing on top of the pale yellow
primings.35 It is also of note that a similar paint-layer structure, with
underdrawing on the priming, has been documented in Jan Gossarts
important post-Italy painting, the Adoration of the Kings, as well as several
other works by this artist.36 By using a priming layer as a surface for the
underdrawing, Scorel (and Gossart) reversed the traditional northern
fifteenth-century paint-layer structure in which the underdrawing was
sealed off and covered over by the priming.37 In this, it is quite likely that
Scorel was a pivotal figure in the history of technique in the early
sixteenth-century Netherlands. Karel van Mander seems aware of this
distinction. In two different places in Den grondt der edel vry schilder-const,
he mentions that there were some who underdrew on the priming op
tprimuersel, but that the early Netherlandish masters made their
compositional layouts on the ground and then laid down a thin, flesh-
coloured priming through which they could still see their underdrawings.38
The pigment in Scorels priming layer is lead white. In general, the
overall layer is quite thin, averaging around 12 to 15 m, but sometimes as
thick as 30 m or more, or as thin as 6 m. It is often filled with large
clumps of lead white that can even protrude through the top paint layers.
These granules can frequently be seen in close-up inspection of the paint
surface (figs. 4a-c). They also appear in X-ray in the white streaking
caused by the broad brush applying the priming layer. Such clumps probably
result from the Dutch stack production process for lead white, as they
have been found in works by other north Netherlandish painters.39 The
extreme thinness of priming often precludes any analysis of medium, but
that which has been done for Scorel suggests that the layer contains oil.40
Coloured or slightly tinted priming layers are not unusual, and some have
also been found in the Scorel group.41 Although not as frequent as the
white layer, greyish or pink primings do occur, the latter a mixture of
white, black, and red particles. Although there are no definitive examples
of pink primings in Scorels works in Utrechts collection, they appear for
the first in paintings from Scorels Haarlem period (1527-1530).42
The Underdrawing
The underdrawing is always a distinctive phase in Scorels paintings. Most Fig. 4a
can easily be imaged by means of infrared techniques, revealing that some Jan van Scorel, The Crucifixion
Triptych, c. 1535. Utrecht,
are nothing short of spectacular (see, for instance, the underdrawing for Museum Catharijneconvent.
the Lamentation, cat. no. 25, fig. 1). The bumpy and granular white priming 1: 1 close-up showing lead
was an ideal surface on which to draw, for it provided tooth and allowed white granules protruding
through the paint layer
the artist to exploit the versatility of his drawing material. Somewhat friable
as well as greasy, black chalk can easily be manipulated to produce lines of Fig. 4b
varying thickness and subtle gradations in tone. As Scorel freely sketched The same area in visible light
on the prepared surface, his underdrawn strokes often dragged and skipped Fig. 4c
over the ridges of the underlying priming, as is especially apparent in the The same area in X-ray
showing strokes of the
Madonna with Wild Roses (see figs. 5a-c). His underdrawings usually have
priming layer going in
the character of a working sketch and often seem applied with some force. different directions and
In the Lamentation, Scorel started to lay out the composition in the figure concentrations of lead white
particles
of the donor. He did this even before the priming layer was dry, since the
extremely long, slashing contours of the drapery are deeply indented into
the underlying layer, as is evident in raking light (see cat. no. 25, fig. 2).
The term black chalk is something of a misnomer, since the material is
in actuality carbonaceous shale, not chalk; and chalk is white, not black.
Various approaches must be taken to identify it. In infrared documents,
lines made with this material will appear dry and gritty (as may those
27
43 See the discussion of black
chalks flake-like character and
metallic sheen due to graphite
in Kirby, Roy and Spring 2002,
p. 34.
44 See, for instance, the cross-
section illustrated further
in this article of John the
Evangelists red robe in Scorels
Lamentation (cat. no. 25).
45 See Van Asperen de Boer,
Faries and Filedt Kok 1986, p.89
and fig. 27c, with reference to
SEM done by Cathy Metzger,
National Gallery, Washington,
D.C. Arie Wallert, Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam, has obtained
similar results for a sample from
the De Visscher van der Gheer
triptych (cat. no. 34). The
elemental proportions are not
similar enough to conform to a
standard for black chalk.
46 Siejek and Kirsch 2004, pp.
60-65 and 103-116.
47 Thompson 1960, chapter
XXXVII.
48 Rupprich 1956-1969, vol. 1
(1956), pp. 151, 157 and 164; see
also Meder 1977, vol. 1, p. 87.
49 Vandamme 1974, pp. 101-
137. This treatise also refers to
coolswert, perhaps charcoal or
coal black.
50 These terms are found
in Van Manders Den grondt
der edel vry schilder-const:
Miedema 1973, vol. 1, pp.
15-18. Potloykens may refer
to graphite, which was used
more towards the end of the
sixteenth-century, and sme-kool
is probably charcoal (for the
latter, I am indebted to Hessel
Miedema, oral communication,
November 2004).
Fig. 5a
Jan van Scorel, Madonna
with Wild Roses, c. 1530.
Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
Marys hand
Fig. 5b
Marys hand in an X-ray,
showing the streaking of
the priming layer, including
strokes going through the
wrist
Fig. 5c
Marys hand in IRR,
showing the freely sketched
underdrawing in black
chalk, which in the wrist
skips over the ridges of
the priming layer (IRR and
digital composite: MolArt/
nwo)
51 Faries and Wolff 1996 and
Faries 2007, p. 108.
52 See note 7. Faries 1993,
pp.101-111.
53 Just as the use of liquid,
brownish underdrawings
may indicate the lingering
influence of Jacob Cornelisz
van Oostsanens workshop
practices, so the departure
from scribbled hatchings
shows Scorels increasing
independence. For more on
this development, see Faries
2007, p. 108.
28
also made by metalpoint and charcoal). If underdrawn lines happen to be
visible to the eye, close-up photographs and photomicrographs can help
in ascertaining the characteristics of the material, which frequently has a
flake-like appearance and/or metallic sheen.43 In cross-sections, Scorels
underdrawings tend to clump up, unlike a liquid ink, and do not exhibit
the splintery particles characteristic of charcoal.44 Instrumental analysis
using the scanning electron microscope provides additional information
by identifying elemental components in the underdrawing. Carbon is of
course present in those samples that have been studied, along with calcium,
iron, silicon, potassium, and aluminum, in relatively the same proportions.45
These elements would be present in the quartz and clay that make up the
material. Only very recently has it been possible to make similar instrumental
identifications of black chalk in other samples, and to confirm its use in
drawings on paper.46 One of the first historical references to this drawing
material is Ceninno Ceninnis Il libro dellarte, where it is described as a
black stone (pietra negra) that was soft enough to sharpen with a knife.47
By the time of Scorels activity, written sources call the material a chalk.
Albrecht Drer refers to both charcoal (kohle) and black chalk (schwarcze
kreuden) as the material he used for drawing portraits when he visited
Antwerp in 1520.48 A painting treatise thought to have been written in
Antwerp somewhat later in the sixteenth century has many references to
blacks, including lamp black (lamp swert) and black chalk (swert creyt).49
Van Mander knew the material, too, since he mentions swarte krijkens
(black chalck), although he also makes references to more indefinable
potloykens and sme-kool swart.50
Scorels early paintings are the only exceptions to his use of black
chalk for underdrawings. The underdrawing material in some of these
works is clearly liquid, applied with either a brush, or possibly a pen;
and it frequently becomes transparent at longer wavelengths in the
infrared.51 In the middle panel of the Holy Kinship Altarpiece (1519), the
fully worked-up underdrawing exhibits the same nervous, scribby lines
and overlays of hatchings that typify Scorels master, Jacob Cornelisz
van Oostsanen (figs. 6a-b).52 This type of hatching appears in only one
of Scorels works done slightly later in Venice, for the artist otherwise
dispenses entirely with these fussy details to concentrate on the main
outlines of the forms. It is during this period that Scorel frees himself
from the graphic idiom of his master.53 Although there are some earlier
Netherlandish artists who used chalk as a sketching tool, they are unlikely
to have provided Scorel with a direct source for his own methods. Hans

54 Faries 1997c, pp. 243-259. As
Leeflang 2007, p. 88, shows, a
similar phenomenon occurs in
the works of Joos van Cleve.
55 For the so-called woodcut
look in early sixteenth-century
Antwerp underdrawings, see
Leeflang in Faries 2006a, pp.
15-42, and Leeflang 2007, pp.
60-71. See also, Filedt Kok 1978,
p. 37.
56 For these aspects of
Raphaels drawings, see
Clayton 1999, pp. 13-14
and p. 18. Additionally,
this text often notes that
black chalk functioned as
an underdrawing stage in
drawings finished in the same
or other media.
57 Ainsworth in Faries
2006a, pp. 99-118. Even
though Van Orley used
chalk more frequently in his
underdrawings, it is usually in
combination with other media.
58 Roy, Spring and Plazzotta
2004, p. 6. For a discussion
of Scorels underdrawings as
working drawings, see Faries
1975, pp. 97-105.
59 For squaring in Scorels
Holy Kinship Altarpiece (note
7), see Faries 1975, pp. 102-103.
Faries has also discovered a
grid in Jacobs Temptation of
Christ, 1500-1525. Panel, 162 x
88.5 cm. Aachen, Suermondt
Ludwig Museum, using IRR (11
November 1991).
60 As discussed, for instance,
in Bambach 1999, pp. 57-69,
321-328.
Memling, Gerard David, and Geertgen tot Sint Jans are all known to
have sketched with black chalk in their underdrawings, although usually
in combination with a more detailed brush underdrawing that fixes the
forms. It is worth noting as well that as Memling gradually systematized
his workshop routine, he turned more and more to the exclusive use
of black chalk for his freely-sketched compositional layouts; and this
phenomenon can be documented in the works of other masters.54
Scorel seems to have escaped the influence of the volumetric
underdrawings modeled on Drers woodcuts which were endemic to
the Antwerp retable industry and also appeared in Leiden in the early
paintings of Lucas van Leyden.55 For sinuous, flowing contours combined
with regularized hatching, Scorel must have been impressed instead by
the drawing techniques of Raphael and his shop assistants. Black chalk
was often employed by these artists because of its breadth and ease of
handling, especially in the large-scale cartoons associated with the Stanze
and other commissions; and there was a resurgence of this technique in
Raphaels studio towards the end of the 1510s.56 To some degree, Scorel
has a counterpart in the south Netherlandish painter, Bernard van Orley.
This artist also increasingly incorporated sketchy black chalk underdrawings
into the preparatory stages of his paintings around c. 1520-1522, ostensibly
under the influence of Tomasso Vincidor, who was one of Raphaels
assistants working in Brussels.57
Scorels underdrawings often show the signs of how they were made. Fig. 6a
Although research to date has not revealed axis lines aligning the Jan van Scorel, Holy
Kinship Altarpiece, 1519.
compositions, as has been discovered in the works of Raphael, the artist Obervellach, Pfarrkirche
frequently uses a straight edge to position forms, and occasionally even St. Martin. IR showing
works out the full perspective of a scene in the underdrawing layout scribby underdrawn lines
in the faces in the middle
methods that are both fairly standard practices.58 In his earliest dated panel
work, Scorel relied on squaring in the underdrawing to transfer the
design to the ground, a technique he most likely inherited from Jacob Fig. 6b
Jacob Cornelisz van
Cornelisz van Oostsanen, and one that is not repeated in any of the artists Oostsanen, The
paintings in the Centraal Museum.59 Nor has pouncing been detected in Adoration of the Christ
Child, 1512. Naples,
Scorels paintings, a method of compositional transfer that was already
Museo di Capodimonte.
known in the Netherlands and one that also typifies the working procedure IRR showing scribby
of many Italian artists, including Raphael.60 It is possible that traces of underdrawn lines in the
faces of the donors
pouncing dots might have been erased, but if so, Scorels subsequent
family (IRR: MF; digital
working out of the underdrawing is still remarkably free and spontaneous. composite: Catharina
Though colour notations are often found in underdrawings from this van Dalen)
29

61 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 97.
62 See note 9.
63 Faries 1983, pp. 512, and
Faries 2007, especially p. 108
(note 20).
64 Titian underdrew nude legs
under drapery in a study of the
Vendramin Family; see Meijer
1981, p. 279 and plate 32.
65 For an illustration of Jan van
Scorels Flagellation, c. 1527-1529.
Panel, 130 x 48 cm. Utrecht,
Museum Catharijneconvent,
see Faries in Cassanelli 1998, p.
307, figs. 14-15. The overlapping
of drapery folds on underlying
contours also appears in some
of Scorels drawings on paper.
66 Outlines for limbs,
overlapped by drapery folds,
also occur in the underdrawing
of Jan van Scorels Finding of the
True Cross Triptych, 1535-1540.
Panel, 232 x 261.5 cm (middle
panel), 232 x 125 cm (wings),
Breda, Grote Kerk, in the figure
of a man furthest to the right
in the middle panel; see Faries
1975, p. 186, fig. 64a.
period, they occur only rarely in Scorels works.61 The word coper found
in the layout of the exterior wings of the Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no. 22) is
an exception; it may indicate that the form in the paint surface was to
imitate a metal (brass or bronze) plaque (fig. 7).
Some of Scorels underdrawing practices do, however, have stronger
connections with Italy. In the Tobias and the
Angel dated 1521, Scorel underdrew the figure
of the angel unclothed and then added
drapery in the paint stage (fig. 8a).62 Even
though this underdrawing may be dependent
on a drawing or print after an antique statue,
such as the famous Apollo Belvedere, Scorels
layout sketch still recalls Raphaels methods
and Albertis recommendation to draw figures
unclothed. Lately, other examples of draped
figures underdrawn nude have been
discovered, suggesting that this practice was
indeed more widespread in Italy.63 There are
instances of this practice in Titians work that
are strikingly similar to the long, undulating
contours Scorel used to outline his figures.64
Scorel repeats this procedure in the Lokhorst
Triptych (fig. 8b). Although the male figure just behind the kneeling Fig. 7
woman in the middle panel does not wear bulky robes, Scorel nonetheless Jan van Scorel,
The Lokhorst Triptych,
underdrew the outlines of his body without any clothing at all, and then c. 1526. Utrecht,
added the shirt and drapery only in the paint stage. This method relates to Centraal Museum.
Scorels general practice of drawing the outline of a torso, arm, or leg first, IRR revealing the word
coper in the left
then going over it with shading and/or fold lines of drapery. There are exterior wing (IRR: MF)
many examples of this practice, including the underdrawing in the
Flagellation of Christ, where the first lines of a tormentors torso run
through Christs back, and a background detail from the same Crucifixion
Triptych.65 Similar outlines of limbs under drapery can also be found in
large-scale paintings (fig. 8c-d), giving us a good idea of these first
placement lines for figures that are otherwise obscured when
underdrawings are further worked out.66
Portraiture was a mainstay for Scorel from his earliest paintings to the
end of his career. The method for layout that first appears in some of
Scorels portraits done in Venice continues in the artists later works. Scorel
restricts the underdrawing to assuredly drawn, schematic contours, and
any foreshortenings in the face are already incorporated in the layout,
suggesting that the artist was following separate drawings of his sitters.
In the Centraal Museums collection, such features can be seen in the
underdrawings of the portraits of pilgrims to Jerusalem (see cat. no. 21,
fig. 2, cat. no. 26, figs. 1 and 2, and cat. no. 29, figs. 1 and 2). From the
beginning, Scorels portraits are also life-sized.
The Paint Layers
Everything about the preceding stages in the painting process was calculated
to facilitate quick and efficient production, and this applies to Scorels paint
stage as well. Because of the quality of the oak support, it was possible to
restrict the thickness of the ground and priming to a minimum. From the
time of his first works in Utrecht, Scorel choose a material and drawing
method that would allow the greatest possible streamlining of the layout
stage. In addition, paint is laid directly on top of the underdrawing in this
paint-layer sequence.
30
 Fig. 8a
Jan van Scorel, Tobias and
the Angel, 1521. Dsseldorf,
Kunstmuseum.
IRR of the angel underdrawn
unclothed (IRR: Prof. Dr. J.R.J.
van Asperen de Boer/Stichting
RKD; digital composite: MF)
Fig. 8b
Jan van Scorel, The Lokhorst
Triptych, c. 1526. Utrecht,
Centraal Museum.
IRR of a figure underdrawn
as nude (IRR and digital
composite: MolArt/nwo)
Fig. 8c
Jan van Scorel, Polyptych with SS.
Stephen and James the Great, c. 1540.
Douai, Muse de la Chartreuse.
IRR of the innermost left wing showing
the underdrawn contour of a leg
overlapped by drapery folds (IRR:
Prof. Dr. M. Faries/Stichting RKD;
digital composite: MF)
Fig. 8d
Jan van Scorel, Polyptych with
SS. Stephen and James the
Great, c. 1540. Douai, Muse de
la Chartreuse.
IR of the innermost left wing
showing the underdrawn
contour of a leg overlapped by
drapery folds

67 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
p. 52; Faries in The Dictionary of
Art 1996, p. 218.
68 Specifically, Lucas van
Leydens Last Judgment, 1527.
Panel, 301 x 435 cm (open
with frame). Leiden, Stedelijk
Museum de Lakenhal; see Van
Asperen de Boer, Faries and
Filedt Kok 1986, p. 109.
69 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 108.
70 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 108; for
black shading in Heemskerck,
as well as other artists, see
Faries 1995 and Faries 2003,
p. 11.
71 Faries 2003, pp. 10-11. Only
in Scorels early Holy Kinship
Altarpiece (note 7) is green
undermodeled with a grey layer
(AB sample no. A 123/1).
72 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
p. 52. Four of Scorels paintings
in the Centraal Museums
collection have been tested by
AB for medium, the Lokhorst
While similar in many respects to that of his contemporaries, the
structure of Scorels painting stage also exhibits significant differences. The
paint is laid on thinly: it is usually only two to three times the thickness of
the priming layer, or around 50 m (0.05 mm), and the build-up is quite
simple.67 Cross-sections showing more than two layers are infrequent.
Underpainting is rare, except in reds, as most colours are achieved through
mixture rather than by superimposition of layers, features of technique
that are comparable to what has been found in works by Lucas van
Leyden.68 It is possible that the white priming layer took over one of the
functions of underpainting in Scorels works, for its reflective brightness
would have maintained the luminosity and clarity of the overlying colours.
Scorels compressed paint-layer structure may be linked with what is seen
as a general simplication in technique over that of the fifteenth century,
but there are still many options for nuanced mixtures and modeling that
can vary from shop to shop.69 There is no definitive evidence, for instance,
Triptych (cat. no. 22), the that Scorel shaded by adding black to his colours, as has been found in the
Lamentation (cat. no. 25), the early Heemskerck, and in works by later sixteenth-century artists such as
Lamentation with Members of Aertgen van Leyden and Pieter Aertsen.70 Nor is there any indication that
the Van Egmond Family (cat.
no. 33), and Five Members of Scorel relied on underlying black or greyish layers to darken or undermodel
the Utrecht Brotherhood of a colour such as blue, a technique occurring in works by Geertgen tot Sint
Jerusalem Pilgrims (cat. no. 29),
and all showed the presence
Jans as well as several early sixteenth-century southern Netherlandish
of oil. To date, no medium masters such as Jan Gossart.71 Scorels use of a rose layer under blue, on the
analysis has been performed by other hand, is exceptional. The staining tests that have been done so far
more advanced instrumental
techniques. confirm that the medium of Scorels paint is oil, as would be expected.72

31
 3
73 For an excellent
introduction to early European
pigments, their preparation and
use, see London 1989, pp. 30-43;
many of these same pigments
in Netherlandish painting are
discussed in Campbell, Foister
and Roy 1997a, pp. 34-40.
74 As also found in a study
of the London National
Gallerys collection of early
Netherlandish paintings, see
Campbell, Foister and Roy
1997a, p. 34.
75 AB has also tentatively
identified blue verditer, an
artificial azurite, in a few of
Scorels works on the basis of
its optical qualities (see Van
Asperen de Boer, Faries and
Filedt Kok 1986, p. 109); the
pigment may have been used
in less important sections of
paintings, such as an outer
wing of the Marchiennes SS.
Stephen and James polyptych
and the robes of donors on the
outer shutters of The Lochorst
Triptych (cat. no. 22); Jan van
Scorel, Polyptych with SS.
Stephen and James the Great,
c. 1540. Panel, 219 x 151 cm
(middle panel), 234 x 73/83 cm
(four wings). Douai, Muse de
la Chartreuse.
76 Faries 2003, p. 10; see also
the discussion of ultramarine
blue in Jan van Scorels
Lamentation (cat. no. 25).
77 Smalt was identified in the
Landscape with Bathsheba (cat.
no. 28) by AB on the basis of its
optical appearance in cross-
Fig. 9
Jan van Scorel,
The Lokhorst Triptych,
c. 1526. Utrecht,
Centraal Museum.
Cross-section from
Christs purple robe in the
middle panel showing
3) wet-in-wet application
of larger blue particles
over
2) a layer with blue,
white, and more red
lake on top of
1) white priming layer
500 x 0n 35 mm film
sections (sample nos. A 97/2, 7
and 9); see Faries 1987, pp. 94-96.
78 Smalt was identified in the Scorel group where a reddish glaze has been superimposed on a violet or
Raising of Lazarus by AB on the
basis of its optical appearance
in cross-sections (sample nos.
A 34/1, 2, 3, and 9), see van
Asperen de Boer 1977, pp. 53-54. As a solid, saturated colour, it is usually mixed with red lake particles in a
79 As in the garment of
St. Hubert in Jan van Scorels, black particles, for both flesh areas and occasional pink primings. The
Finding of the True Cross
Triptych (note 66) (AB sample
no. A 14/19).
32
The pigments found in Scorels paintings, with only one major exception,
conform to those generally used in the Netherlands. In fact, the range of
pigments available at this time was fairly limited and, for the most part,
would have been similar in both northern and southern Europe.73 In the
Scorel group, azurite is the most commonly used pigment for blues.74 It is
also prevalent in mixtures: occasionally for greys, frequently to darken
greens, and always as an admixture along with red and white for purples.
There is little evidence for other blues, except smalt and natural
ultramarine.75 Smalt, a cobalt blue pigment, appears only a few times in
Scorels paintings, but, when combined with the results of other technical
studies, these occurrences are critical for the history of this pigment in the
north Netherlands and its more frequent appearance there after the late
1530s.76 It occurs, for instance, in Scorels Landscape with Bathsheba,
which may be dated to the early 1540s (cat. no. 28).77 The identification of
smalt in the Raising of Lazarus in the Centraal Museum helps confirm
this observation, for dendrochronology suggests an earliest possible date
for the panels use as 1543 (cat. no. 35).78 For dark blue using azurite, such
as that in the drapery just to the right of Peters head in the middle panel
of the Lokhorst Triptych, the crystals are densely packed, and in this case,
also mixed with some red. Scorels purples usually include this pigment
in one-layered mixtures, although that in Christs robe in the Lokhorst
Triptych has more red lake particles concentrating near the bottom of the
layer (fig. 9). Because there is no clear demarcation between layers, the
strokes of paint may have been blended together, wet in wet. In contrast
to fifteenth-century painting, there are only a very few instances in the
blue underpainting to create purple. One of those was to create a special
effect, that of a deep, red-purple velvet.79
Scorel used vermilion, the bright red-orange pigment, only sparingly.
single, opaque layer. It also occurs in pinks, mixed with white and some
other basic red in Scorels works is a red lake, a colour based on an organic
dyestuff. It was customary at this time to precipitate the pigment from one

Fig. 10a
Jan van Scorel, Lamentation
of Christ with a Donor, c. 1535.
Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
Detail of John the Evangelists
red robe.
Fig. 10b
Cross-section showing from
the bottom up:
1) ground,
2) traces of white priming,
3) black chalk underdrawing,
4) light rose layer with red lake
particles in a white matrix,
5) a white highlight layer,
6) transparent red glaze
500 x on 35 mm film
Fig. 10c
Cross-section showing from
the ground up:
1) ground,
2) white priming layer,
3) layer with more red lake, a
few red-orange particles,
and less white,
4) red glaze, and
5) loose varnish layer with
possible retouching
500 x on 35 mm film
80 See note 74, and Campbell,
Foister and Roy 1997a and 1997c,
pp. 37-38 and 94.
81 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
p. 52.
82 Campbell, Foister and 1997a,
p. 39.
83 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 109; for
the original identification, see
Van Asperen de Boer 1977, p. 54.
33
6
5
4
3
2
1
3 4
of two sources: either the madder plant or the kermes scale insect. The
latter red lake becomes more common in the early sixteenth century and is
thought to be the source of some reds in Jan Gossarts works.80 In Scorels
paintings, the reds exhibit a traditional build-up, with a glaze over one or
more layers of underpainting. Samples taken from John the Evangelists
robe on the left side of Scorels large Lamentation in the Centraal Museum
(cat. no. 25) illustrate this painting technique (figs. 10a-c). The depth of
colour is actually modulated beneath the red glaze in the underpainting
layer(s), with either less or more red lake particles in the white matrix.
The lighter red even shows a white highlight just under the glaze on the
red mid-tone. The complexity of the reds in the Lamentation contrasts
sharply with some examples in Scorels later SS. Stephen and James
polyptych for Marchiennes, where the red glaze is sometimes painted
directly on the priming layer.81 There is not that much difference in the size
of these works, but the Marchiennes commission was a greater ensemble
made, in a sense, for export, and with more participation of the shop. The
Lamentation (cat. no. 25) demanded more of Scorels undivided attention,
and that is reflected in the more complicated build-up of paint.
The majority of greens in the Scorel group would have been based on
the material in most widespread use, verdigris, a copper salt. Once again,
the paint-layer structure for this colour is usually quite simple, although
some green glazes do appear. In the exterior wings of the Lokhorst Triptych,
along the edge of John the Evangelists shoulder just above his goblet, strokes
of the transparent green glaze of his mantle splashed over onto the colour
of the background when the paint was applied (fig. 11). Resin has
sometimes been found added to such glazes, according to technical
analyses carried out at the London National Gallery, but we do not yet have
confirmation of this practice in the Scorel group.82 To characterize greens
fully, instrumental analysis is required, such as Fourier Transform infrared
spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. One other green in Scorels works was
verified by the latter method: a copper sulfate, possibly synthetic, that is
similar in composition to the mineral posnjakite. Around the time this
pigment was identified in Scorels works, it was also discovered in Lucas
van Leydens Last Judgment altarpiece.83 Even more occurrences have been

84 See for an overview of
these instances, Faries 2003,
pp. 6-7.
85 Green verditer and
malachite have been
suggested; see Van Asperen
de Boer 1977, p. 54.
86 Van Asperen de Boer
1977, p. 52; and for a more
recent discussion, see Higgitt,
Spring and Saunders 2003, pp.
75-91.
87 For realgar and the related
pigment orpiment, both of
which have been identified in
a painting by Maarten van
Heemskerck, see Van Asperen
de Boer, Faries and Filedt Kok
1986, p. 91. The possible
occurrences in Utrecht paintings,
the Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no.
22) and the Lamentation (cat.
no. 25) (AB sample numbers
A 28/3, 31 and A 26/13), require
further analysis.
88 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 109;
Faries 1987 and Faries 2003,
pp. 9-10.
89 For ultramarine blue in
Gossarts works, see New York
2010, p. 81; it can also be
expected in some works by
Quentin Massys and Joos van
Cleve.
90 See note 9.
91 See note 34, Jan van Scorel,
Mary Magdalene, c. 1530. Panel,
66.3 x 76 cm. Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum. For discussion
of the ultramarine blue in
these paintings, see Faries 1987,
pp. 90-94.
reported since, suggesting that the pigment was more common than
formerly thought.84 A few other greens have been suggested for Scorels
paintings on the basis of visual microscopy alone.85 Greens are often
darkened by the addition of azurite, but to date, there is little evidence in
the Scorel group for mixtures of blue and yellow to create green, although
Fig. 11 this has been found in Utrechts collection in the De Visscher van der
Jan van Scorel, The Gheer triptych (cat. no. 34). The yellow pigment, lead-tin yellow, most
Lokhorst Triptych,
c. 1526. Utrecht, likely occurs throughout Scorels works; its presence is suggested by the
Centraal Museum. transparent inclusions that are typically seen in paint of this colour when
Photomicrograph studied microscopically (fig. 12). In recent years, such inclusions have
showing splashes of
green glaze. 3 x on 35 been interpreted as metal soaps formed by the reaction of the pigment
mm film with the oil medium.86 The orangish pigment, realgar, is a possibility for
Scorel, but, as yet, its use remains speculative.87 Little sampling was done
Fig. 12
Jan van Scorel, for other yellows, such as ochres, or browns and blacks.
Lamentation of As far as we now know, Jan van Scorel was the only sixteenth-century
Christ with a Donor,
north Netherlandish painter to have used natural ultramarine blue in his
c. 1535. Utrecht,
Centraal Museum. works.88 This pigment, which is obtained from the semi-precious stone,
Photomicrograph lapis lazuli, was prohibitively expensive. As we learn from Drers writings,
showing translucent it was available in Antwerp, but it cost as much as gold. Although it is
inclusions in lead-tin
yellow paint, 9 x on known to occur in the works of Jan Gossart, the overall extent to which
35 mm film natural ultramarine might have been used in contemporary south
Netherlandish painting has not yet been determined.89 Obviously, its
occurrence in the north Netherlands was exceptional. Since Scorel first
used ultramarine in the 1521 Tobias and the angel, a painting he most likely
executed in Venice, it stands to reason that the artist brought back a supply
of this pigment from this city, which was one of the main ports importing
the mineral from Afghanistan.90 He then used this costly blue after he
returned north, but only very selectively: it occurs in the Rijksmuseums
Mary Magdalene, the Baptism of Christ in Haarlem and the Lamentation
in the Centraal Museums collection (cat. no. 25).91 The pigment accounts
for the striking purplish-blue in a large expanse of drapery (the Virgins
robe) in the Lamentation. In the Baptism and the Mary Magdalene, Scorel
also used ultramarine for other areas, including the hazy, powdery-blue
mountains in the background landscapes. We must assume Scorels supply
of the pigment did not last into the 1540s, since the artist was forced to use
34

92 See Faries 1987, pp. 90-96.
See also the discussion of
Scorels Lamentation (cat. no. 25).
93 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 109.
94 See note 91. These instances
were first published by Van
Asperen de Boer 1977, p. 53; see
also Faries 1987, pp. 90-92.
95 Campbell, Foister and Roy
1997a, p. 34, and it differs from
fifteenth-century purples, p. 37.
96 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
p. 53.
97 This applies both to the
early and late Raphael, see Roy,
Spring and Plazzotta 2004, p. 9,
14, and 16, and Rossi Manaresi
1990, p. 130 and plates 149-150.
98 For instance, Titian (where
blue over rose also appears), see
Lucas and Plesters 1978, pp. 40
and 46, plates 6c-d; and Cima,
see Dunkerton and Roy 1986,
pp. 10 and 19. Ultramarine blue
in the landscape background
has also been noted in another
of Titians works, see Birkmaier,
Wallert and Rothe 1995, p. 122.
99 Van Asperen de Boer 1977,
pp. 53-54.
4
2
1
a substitute, blue smalt, when painting the Landscape with Bathsheba (cat. Fig. 13a
no. 28).92 From this date onwards, smalt also increasingly substituted for Jan van Scorel,
Lamentation of Christ
azurite blues.93 with a Donor, c. 1535.
In the Lamentation, a rose colour clearly shimmers through the precious Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
ultramarine blue giving the Virgins robe a violet cast (figs. 13a-c); and paint Detail of the Virgins
purplish-blue robe.
samples confirm that Scorel applied the blue over a rose underpainting.
The artist repeated this paint-layer structure in the distant mountains in Fig. 13b
his Haarlem Baptism.94 This superimposition of colours contrasts with Cross-section taken from
the Virgins robe, showing
earlier fifteenth-century practice in the Netherlands, where ultramarine from the bottom up:
blue was usually painted over underlayers of the cheaper pigment, azurite.95 1) white priming layer,
2) underdrawing,
There are, however, decided parallels with Italian painting technique.
3) rose underpainting
By the time of the 1977 Scorel exhibition in Utrecht, it was known that a with red lake particles
blue-on-rose layer structure occurred in the works of a number of Italian in a white matrix, and
painters, including Botticelli, Mocetto, and Folgolino.96 Although azurite 4) a layer with darker
and lighter natural
underpaintings are also known to occur under ultramarine blues in Italian ultramarine particles in
works, the blue-on-rose variation must also have been fairly widespread a white matrix
practice in Italy, because it has since been discovered in the works of still 500 x on 35 mm film
more painters, notably Raphael.97 In Italian works, ultramarine can often
Fig. 13c
be found throughout the painting, including skies and background Photomicrograph showing
landscapes, something that Scorel was only able to duplicate in part.98 The the rose underlayer
4.5 x on 35 mm film
blue-over-rose colour effect is not restricted just to ultramarine in Scorels
works: it plays a wider role in other blues and purples, colours often
painted wet in wet, such as Christs drapery in the Lokhorst Triptych
mentioned above.99 These inter-related aspects of Scorels technique
underscore how extensively Scorels Italian experience influenced the
overall palette of his post-Italy paintings.
Studying Scorels paintings close-up or with the stereomicroscope is a
revelation. Not only can the condition of a work be better understood, but
one can also make tentative identifications of pigments, specify colours in
mixtures, and recognize the idiosyncracies of an artists handling of paint.
35

100 Friedlnder 1967-1976,
vol. 12 (1975), p. 84.
101 See note 8.
102 Compare the hair in
Scorels Madonna with Wild
Roses, cat. no. 24 with that
in two workshop replicas,
Madonna and Child.
Panel, 44 x 37 cm. Berlin,
Gemldegalerie, and Madonna
with Daffodils and Two
Donors. Panel, 55.5 x 76.2 cm.
Madrid, Museo Thyssen-
Bornemisza.
103 Paint sample AB A 28/8.
104 Paint sample AB A 26/13.
105 Another good example of
scumbling can be seen in the
exterior wings of the Lokhorst
Triptych (cat. no. 22): Herman
van Lokhorsts red-orange
vestment has been modeled
with white and grey highlights
that have been dragged over
the underlayer to create a
gauze-like effect.
106 Fingerprints and blottings
appear in Netherlandish
painting from Jan van Eyck on;
see, for instance, Dunkerton
2000, pp. 287-292.
Fig. 14
Jan van Scorel, Adoration
of the Magi, c. 1519.
Chicago, Art Institute.
Detail of background
figures
107 This relates to the criticism
of Scorel, Lucas van Leyden,
and others, that the highlights
were too sharply cut off made
by Karel van Mander; see for
further discussion, Filedt Kok
1978, p. 147.
36
To the great connoisseur of Netherlandish painting, Max J. Friedlnder,
Scorels vision was that of a true painter, and he remarked, His tints are
imbued with a bright luminosity [they] remain moist and fluid in
effect.100 Such effects can be seen from Scorels earliest paintings on. In a
close-up detail from Scorels early Adoration of the Magi in Chicago, c. 1519,
the application of the highlights gives a silvery sheen
to the figures (fig. 14).101 In later works, highlights of
white and lead-tin yellow regularly convey the play of
light, as seen, for instance, in the impasted
concentrations of pigment in the masonry lit by the
blazing sun in Scorels luminous city of Jerusalem in
the Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no. 22, fig. 4), or in the
globules of yellow paint that suggest reflections on
metallic surfaces, such as the golden chains worn by
the members of Utrechts Jerusalem brotherhood
(cat. no. 21, fig. 3). When such highlights appear in
hair, the locks shine like silken ribbons. It is
interesting to observe that when such details were
repeated in shop replicas, Scorels assistants were
unable to recreate the same effect (figs. 15a-c).102
Occasionally, Scorel develops more complicated
colouristic effects, as in areas of shot colour. In the
exterior wings of the Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no.
22), John the Evangelist stands next to the golden,
violet-tinged light emanating from the heavenly
figures, and his robe is a fluorescent orangish-brown
shot with green highlights. The light green strokes
were not juxtaposed with the brown but were
applied on top of the underlying orange-brown layer, as confirmed by
close-up study as well as a cross-section.103 One of the Marys in Scorels
Lamentation (cat. no. 25) stands just above the Virgin and clasps her
hands; her arms and shoulders are wrapped with a yellow robe that is
shaded with purplish-brown. The artist was striving for a complex effect
here, for highlights in lead-tin yellow are applied over an underlying
orange-yellow layer, and they are in turn modeled with a wash of red
and blue crystals.104 White highlights that are scumbled on, in other
words, lightly applied to allow the darker underlayer to show through,
appear in the green foliage of the same painting.105 The white touches
seem to be blotted in one area, either with a fabric or perhaps with a
finger, a practice that now appears to be quite common (fig. 16).106 In the
Lokhorst Triptych (cat. no. 22), there is much more variety in the green
foliage. Three different colours appear in the leaves of the tree behind St.
Anthony Abbot in the inner left wing: light blue, light green, and a light
yellow-green over a dark, transparent green (figs. 17a-b). Blue highlights
in foliage do not appear here for the first time, since they can also be seen
in Scorels earliest works.
Overall, Scorel applies his paint smoothly, in broad planes of colour.
Sometimes the artist adds a thin surface film of paint to modulate volume
more fully by suggesting backlighting; this more direct manner of painting
can be observed in a well-preserved work such as the Lamentation in
Utrecht (cat. no. 25). The back-lit areas occur in shadows, not highlights,
and are particularly noticeable in faces.107 The characteristics of the artists
smooth, blended paint can perhaps best be sensed by comparing one of
Scorels portraits with one by his Amsterdam master, Jacob Cornelisz van
Oostsanen (figs. 18a-b). Jacob Cornelisz is known for his graphic manner:

108 For the elucidation of this
aspect of Jacob Corneliszs
technique, see Meuwissen in
Faries 2006a, pp. 55-81.
109 Van Mander 1604, fol. 236r.
110 Van Mander 1604, fols.
245r and 230v.
111 See Faries 1975, pp. 90-91.
112 For these estimates, see
Martens and Peeters in Faries
2006a, pp. 211-222.
113 See Faries 2003, p. 31, for
an overview of this issue, with
references to earlier literature.
he literally draws with paint.108 Scorel, on the other hand, emphasizes the
smooth transition of tone across the surface planes of the face.
Jan van Scorel often made changes as he painted. Remarkably, one of
these is still visible to the unaided eye in the artists Lamentation. Just
under the cross, Joseph of Arimatheas head was first delimited in profile
view, and this shape can still be seen to the left of the head (cat. no. 25,
figs. 6a-b). In the finalized form, the head is foreshortened, looking down
to the figure of Christ.
Jan van Scorel and his Workshop
Artists workshops varied in size: most were small, one-person enterprises
while some could be much larger. Van Manders account of Scorels life
implies that the artist expanded his shop during his stay in Haarlem from
1527-1530, when seeing that he had many callers and he was often asked
to take in pupils, Scorel rented a house in Haarlem.109 Yet Van Mander
speaks of only two pupils, Maarten van Heemskerck, who should more
correctly be regarded as an assistant since he had had training with several
other masters before joining Scorels shop, and Anthonis Mor.110 Even if
Utrechts guild records had survived listing other possible apprentices, it
is unlikely that Scorels name would have appeared since, as a cleric, he
was exempt from guild regulations.111 Nonetheless, technical investigation
reveals that Scorel must have had collaborators, since other hands have
been revealed in the execution of large altarpieces and shop replicas. As
the research shows, these assistants had enough training to be able to
participate in both the underdrawing and paint stages. Recent study also
makes it plausible that an artist like Lambert Sustris had contact with Scorels
shop before going on to Italy, and Scorels son, Pieter, must have trained
with his father. When compared with estimates of shop size in Antwerp,
Scorels was larger than average, but still considerably smaller than the
largest shops in that city, those with five or more registered apprentices,
which were quite rare. If we assume a minimum of two apprentices, Scorels
son and Anthonis Mor, this size shop was attained by only around 10% of
Antwerps master painters.112
Underdrawings in paintings by Scorel and his shop exhibit differences
in approach as well as style, factors that can relate both to the function of
the underdrawing and the extent of collaboration. Many paintings are
freely sketched, giving the impression that the design is being worked out
on the ground of the panel. These works can often be attributed to Scorel Fig. 15a
himself, especially when the creative process continues into the paint Jan van Scorel, Madonna
with Wild Roses, c. 1530.
stage with many changes and revisions of form. Scorels Lamentation is an Utrecht, Centraal Museum.
excellent example of such a process (cat. no. 25, figs. 1, 3a-b and 6a-b). More The Christ childs hair
schematic forms of layout also appear in Scorels works. The systematization
Fig. 15b
of the underdrawing did not occur as soon as Scorel returned from Italy: Jan van Scorel (workshop),
it is noted for the first time in paintings from Scorels Haarlem period, Madonna and Child, c. 1530.
Berlin, Gemldegalerie.
when we can assume the artist was expanding shop activities and
The Christ childs hair
standardizing his workshop routine. A more diagrammatic underdrawing
evolved, with more regularized hatching and stronger demarcations of Fig. 15c
compositional elements.113 The underdrawing in the Lamentation with Jan van Scorel and
workshop, Madonna and
Members of the Van Egmond Family exemplifies this kind of underdrawing Child, c. 1530. Madrid,
(see cat. no. 33, fig. 1). It is conceivable that some skilled shop assistants Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.
could have learned to make underdrawings of this type. Although this is The Christ childs hair
unlikely for the layout of the Egmond Lamentation, the paint stage can
still be attributed to a member of Scorels shop. Other underdrawings are
still more methodical and take various forms: a schematic array of loose,
37
 placement lines; a rigid, block-like configuration suggesting volumes; or
exacting contour lines.114 Since underdrawings consisting solely of outlines
often occur in shop replicas, they may reflect the transfer of a design or
cartoon to the ground of the panel, an activity that could be entrusted to
shop assistants.115 This may be the case with the middle panel of the De
Visscher van der Gheer triptych, a composition supposedly based on a
model from Scorels shop (cat. no. 34, fig. 4).
It must be pointed out that the underdrawing type cannot automatically
be used as a criterion for attribution. A master or an assistant can draw in
any mode, as Scorel does, for instance, when using strict contour
underdrawing for the portraits of pilgrims to Jerusalem. Conversely, the
Adoration of the Magi (cat. no. 30), executed almost entirely by one of
Scorels assistants, is underdrawn in a sketchy manner. The monumental
altarpieces Scorels shop produced around 1535-1540 for the Grote Kerk in
Breda and the Benedictine abbey of Marchiennes in northern France were
underdrawn in two completely different ways: one is freely sketched while
the other is laid out with exacting contours.116 Scorel was working with
assistants in both, and the production method must have been adapted to
the different circumstances of each commission, a phenomenon that has
been documented in the works of other Netherlandish masters.117
To say that the master designs or underdraws and the shop
Fig. 16 assistants carry out the painted execution grossly oversimplifies the actual
Jan van Scorel, situation in Scorels workshop. Collaboration can occur in any stage of the
Lamentation of
Christ with a Donor, painting process, the underdrawing as well as the paint stage, and even in
c. 1535. Utrecht, preparatory drawings on paper. Collaboration can be either juxtaposed or
Centraal Museum. superimposed in one and the same work. In the Lamentation with Egmonds
Photomicrograph
showing white highlight mentioned above (cat. no. 33), a studio assistant finished off the painting
scumbles in green based on Scorels layout sketch, while in the Adoration of the Magi (cat.
foliage, 3x on 35 mm no. 30), Scorel may have executed details in the paint surface of a work
film
that can otherwise be considered a shop product. In addition, as has been
found in the Scorel group, entire panels can be given over to a studio
associate. The latter practice has made it possible to identify one of Scorels
assistants, the Master of the Good Samaritan (see Master of the Good
114 As discussed in Utrecht
2000a, p. 10. Samaritan biography and cat. no. 10). This artist worked in Scorels shop
from around 1537 on and has a small core oeuvre of two paintings and two
115 In Scorels shop, the lines
are more often drawn in an drawings, along with a few additional attributions.118 A division of labor
unhesitating way, suggesting that makes assistants responsible for entire paintings or separate panels in
that they have gone over, or an altarpiece may be easier to discern in the sixteenth century, and other
reinforced, the actual lines of
the transfer. identifications can be expected in ongoing studies of workshop practice.
For these same reasons, technical investigations have also helped define
116 See notes 66 and 75, and
for further discussion Faries
the interaction of Scorel with his former Haarlem assistant, Maarten van
1975. Heemskerck.119
We can assume that Jan van Scorel, like other masters, made designs
117 See for further discussion
of this phenomenon, Faries for paintings on paper and assembled these and other items for use as
2003, p. 31, and Faries 2006a, workshop models. Technical study, particularly infrared reflectography,
pp. 6-7.
can often verify the existence of such models and provide clues about their
118 Faries 1975, pp. 161-176. use. In addition, these initial design stages often reveal Scorels sources in
a more overt manner.120 Scorel must have made preparatory drawings
119 See Faries 2003, p. 32, as
well as the discussion of Scorels from the very beginning of his career, for the squaring discovered in the
Lamentation (cat. no. 25). 1519 Holy Kinship Altarpiece in Obervellach already implies compositional
transfer from a drawing on paper to the ground of the panel.121 Karel van
120 For further discussion of
this point, see cat. nos. 11 and 25. Mander also makes specific mention of some of Scorels model drawings.
One was a portrayal of the city of Jerusalem that Van Mander says Scorel
121 See note 7.
used for the background of the Lokhorst Triptych.122 The infrared details
122 Van Mander 1604, fol. 235v. documenting this part of the painting show only a few lines marking out

38

119 See Faries 2003, p. 32,
as well as the discussion of
Scorels Lamentation (cat.
no. 25).
120 For further discussion
of this point, see cat. nos. 11
and 25.
121 See note 7.
122 Van Mander 1604, fol.
235v.
123 See note 75. Faries 1975,
pp. 138-140, and Faries 1998,
p. 128. This model must have
been used again for Herman
van Borculos woodcut of
Jerusalem (see the discussion
in cat. no. 22).
124 Van Mander 1604, fol.
235r.
125 Cornelis Bos after Jan van
Scorel, The Israelites Carrying
the Ark Across the Jordan,
1547. Engraving, 780 x 1100
mm. Jan van Scorel, David
and Goliath, c. 1538. Panel,
108.5 x 155.5 cm. Dresden,
Gemldegalerie.
126 Faries and Bonadies 1998,
pp. 77-78.
127 Jan van Scorel, Madonna
and Child, c. 1527-1530. Panel,
66 x 44 cm. Tambov, Kartinaja
Galeria.
128 See note 7, and Utrecht
2000a, appendix, pp. 4-6.
129 See Utrecht 2000a,
pp. 17-19.
Fig. 17a-b
Jan van Scorel,
The Lokhorst Triptych,
c. 1526. Utrecht,
Centraal Museum.
Close-up of the foliage
130 This phenomenon, the
survival of workshop models
from the masters shop in
works by the presumably
younger generation of studio
assistants, has been
documented in technical
studies of other Netherlandish
painters; see for examples,
Faries 2003, pp. 22 and 31.
39
the general position of the main buildings (see cat. no. 22, fig. 6b), proving
that Scorel must have referred to an outside model both for the underdrawing
and subsequent execution of the city in paint. This image of Jerusalem
was a workshop model, for a similar vista of the city appears in the
underdrawing of the artists later Stoning of Stephen, even though the
buildings have been changed completely in the paint surface.123 Another
drawing that served as a model for a landscape was the pen sketch Van
Mander said the artist incorporated into his painting of the children of
Israel crossing the Jordan River.124 A print (1547) survives of this subject
along with another work that has a similar landscape background, the
painting of David and Goliath in Dresden.125 Since the underdrawing in
the landscape not the paint surface matches the print exactly, both
must go back to a common workshop model.126 Scorels Raising of Lazarus
composition confirms this practice. The print of this subject does not
follow the finished surface of the painting, but is instead identical to the
underdrawing, once again implying the existence of a shop model (see cat.
no. 35). In these cases, there was a basic template that could be developed
further as required, into either a painting or a print.
Jan van Scorels Madonnas provide us with not only more examples of
models, but also instances of their survival from one workshop to another.
In the Madonna and Child (cat. no. 23), Scorel changed the position of the
childs standing leg; the underdrawn leg is quite different, showing the
entire foot in a more frontal view. In combination with the higher, bent leg,
the underdrawn posture is almost identical to Christs legs in the artists
Tambov Madonna, although in reverse (figs. 19-20).127 The positions are
too close for one not to derive from the other, or from a common model.
In turn, the finished figures of Mary and Christ in the Utrecht painting
provided the direct model for a Holy Kinship scene painted by an entirely
different master and dated as late as c. 1550.128 In Scorels Madonna with
Wild Roses, the underlying pose of the Christ child was not followed in
the paint stage (see cat. no. 24, fig. 5). It is not the surface form but the
underlying pose that reappears in several works by Scorels former studio
assistant, Maarten van Heemskerck. Heemskerck must have become
acquainted with the motif when he worked in Scorels shop in Haarlem,
and he then repeated it several times before leaving for Italy in 1532.129
Heemskerck is known to have reused models from Scorels workshop on
more than one occasion (see also cat. no. 25).130
There is still more evidence of systematization in Scorels shop. One clear
example is the serial production that can be dated to the period when
 Fig. 18
Jacob Cornelisz
van Oostsanen,
The Adoration of the
Christ Child, 1512.
Naples, Museo di
Capodimonte.
The female donors
face
131 See Leeflang 2007, p. 153.
132 See notes 7 and 59.
133 For the Dresden painting,
see note 125. Master of the
Good Samaritan, David and
Goliath, 1538. Panel, 52 x
38.5 cm. Bonn, Rheinisches
Landesmuseum.
134 For the David and Goliath
compositions, see Faries 1975,
pp. 165-171.
Scorel organized a larger shop in Haarlem. At this time Scorel developed Fig. 19
and repeated a repertory of standard subjects, such as the Crucifixion, Jan van Scorel,
Twelve Members
the Adoration of the Magi, and the Madonna and Child. The serialization of the Utrecht
of Madonnas is not an innovation on Scorels part, for repetitions of this Brotherhood of
subject were already common by the late fifteenth century, both in the Jerusalem Pilgrims,
c. 1525. Utrecht,
southern Netherlands and Italy. Scorels series of Madonna and Child Centraal Museum.
paintings is by no means on the scale of a contemporary Antwerp master Detail of a pilgrim
such as Joos van Cleve, whose serial production accounts for more than
30% of his entire oeuvre.131 Nor does Scorel produce shop replicas all of
the same size, as was more common in Antwerp and Bruges. Instead, the
artist seems to have used a system of proportional reduction in those
works that derive from the original. This would imply a method such as
squaring, which Scorel employed as early as the Holy Kinship Altarpiece
(1519).132 Since the actual squaring lines were not revealed in any of the
Madonnas underdrawings, squaring may have been used to create the
slightly downsized designs or models for the paintings produced in series.
Scorel must also have applied a system of proportional reduction for
compositional variants the shop put out somewhat later, such as the
paintings of David and Goliath in Dresden and Bonn.133 The Dresden
painting is underdrawn and painted by Jan van Scorel, while the variant in
Bonn is by an assistant. The latter artist maintains the relative proportions
of the Dresden panel, even while reducing its size and changing the format
from horizontal to vertical, and downscaling the main figures by half.
There are a few minor modifications in the main figures in the Bonn panel,
such as the shortening of Goliaths legs, but the figures in the two paintings
are otherwise such exact duplicates that some mechanical means of
reproduction must have been employed.134
Just as technical studies have provided evidence that Scorels working
procedure included the use of shop models and that these models could
be resized and reused, infrared reflectography has contributed critical
information about the relationship of underdrawings to extant drawings
on paper and the further systematization of the design stage in Scorels
40

135 For these drawings, see
Faries 1975, pp. 154-61, 171-76;
and Amsterdam 1986, cat. nos.
110-114, pp. 230-234.
136 Robinson and Wolff 1986,
p. 34.
137 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 114.
138 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, p. 111.
139 This has been proposed, in
particular, for Jan van Scorels
Stoning of Stephen, c. 1540. Pen
in brown ink with grey wash,
229 x 204 mm. Paris, Fondation
Custodia (Collection F. Lugt),
and a drawing for stained
glass with the Adoration of
Shepherds and the Adoration
of Kings, c. 1540. Pen in brown
ink with gray wash, 285 x 425
mm. Utrecht, HUA, the latter of
which remained in the family
of the donor for some time; see
Faries 1975, pp. 158-159.
140 Faries 1998, pp. 77-78.
141 Van Mander 1604, fol. 234v.
works. This concerns a number of washed drawings eighteen in total,
all datable to the years around Scorels commissions for monumental
altarpieces, c. 1535-1540. Because the drawings are all compositional studies,
they had formerly been considered copy drawings after finished paintings.
But infrared reflectography was able to demonstrate conclusively that the
wash sketches correspond to underdrawings, proving that the drawings had
to belong to the design stage of Scorels painting process.135 They complement
the underdrawing, in fact, by showing the overall illumination and position
of shadows in two tones of grey washes. Although no such drawings appear
earlier in Scorels career, it cannot be excluded that this type of drawing
first emerged when the artist standardized his shop routine in Haarlem,
1527-1530. The regularization of zones of shade in the underdrawing would
parallel the closer definition of light and shadow in the preparatory studies.
Drawings done in this technique were known earlier in the north; in the
1520s, for instance, washed drawings gradually replaced chiaroscuro sketches
as designs for stained glass.136 Scorel, however, is more likely to have been
influenced by a stage in the design sequence that typified Raphaels studio,
the modello, the stage that synthesized the placement of forms in the
composition with the overall lighting.137 Given the specific links to Italian
painting technique in Scorels works, the artist is likely to have had direct
contact with Raphaels followers and could have observed their workshop
procedures. This aspect of Scorels shop routine was influential in the north,
for it links with the increasing prevalence of washed drawings by artists
such as Lucas van Leyden, Jan Swart, and Pieter Aertsen, just to mention
a few north Netherlandish painters.138
These drawings do not provide us with a complete record of Scorels
design stage; we have no free sketches that could presumably represent
the first ideas for a composition. Still, we can postulate that the surviving
drawings had various purposes. Some were almost certainly presentation
drawings, or vidimi, drawings shown to a patron for approval.139 Others
show little or no relationship with surviving paintings, suggesting that
they were alternate versions of compositions. As described above, the
wash drawings were clearly studies of light and shade, but some were also
taken through a sequence of repetitions. The Stoning of Stephen composition
exists as three drawings, in both horizontal and vertical formats, and in
two media, pen and ink and pen and wash. Shop collaborators also
participated in this particular sequence, suggesting that Scorel used this
type of drawing in the workshop as Raphael did, as an organizational and
teaching tool. Scorels practice parallels Raphaels in another respect: modelli
were used as the models for prints rather than finished works. This has
been shown to be true of works by Scorel discussed above and Marcantonio
Raimondis engravings after Raphaels compositions.140 In making models
for various media, Scorel defines his activity as that of the archetypal
sixteenth-century designer-painter, although his models were limited to
painting, stained glass, and prints and one might add, church furnishings
and polder design rather than the tapestry production that characterized
the southern Netherlands.
Conclusions
We cannot fully grasp Scorels importance for north Netherlandish painting
without understanding his artistic practice and working procedure. Earlier
studies have intimated that Karel van Mander was referring, at least in part,
to Scorels technique when he characterized the artist as the road builder of
our art.141 It has not been possible, however, to make more than assumptions
41
 Fig. 20a about Scorels drawing and painting technique until the last few decades,
Jan van Scorel, when various types of technical study began to elucidate the build-up of
Madonna and Child,
c. 1530. Tambov, Scorels works in a more precise way. These investigations revealed, first
Kartinaja Galeria. and foremost, the importance of Scorels design stage. Infrared
IRR showing reflectography documented the routine use of black chalk for
underdrawing of the
Christ childs legs underdrawings in Scorels workshop after his return from Italy. This
(IRR and digital material is said to have revolutionized the technique of drawing, because
composite: MolArt/ it offered greater freedom of style and was suitable for compositions of
nwo)
greater breadth.142 This was surely also the case with underdrawings. The
Fig. 20b sweeping change in the Netherlands between 1520 and 1530, from detailed
Jan van Scorel, underdrawings in brush to broader sketches in black chalk, must relate to
Madonna and Child
c. 1527-1530. Utrecht, Scorels dissemination of this technique.143 Scorels use of black chalk went
Centraal Museum. hand in hand with his reversal of the traditional underdrawing/priming
IRR showing structure, putting the priming in the position that Vasari describes, and in
underdrawing of the
Christ childs legs Scorels case, making the priming the source of the luminosity of his
(IRR and digital paintings. With the exception of natural ultramarine blue, most of the
composite: MolArt/ pigments Scorel employed were common at the time. The blue-over-rose
nwo)
build-up of colour has direct parallels with Italian painting practice, and
this paint-layer structure affects many of the blues and purples in the
artists general palette. Scorels activity is also characterized by the
establishment of a productive shop, one in which the artist employed the
most up-to-date design methods. The use of preparatory drawings and
shop models was certainly not exclusive to Scorel, but the size of his studio
demanded a higher level of systematization in shop production. In many
142 James et al. 1997, p. 68. respects, one could say that Scorel synchronized his drawing and painting
technique with widespread European practice, both in the southern
143 Van Asperen de Boer, Faries
and Filedt Kok 1986, pp. 108 Netherlands and Italy. In that sense, Jan van Scorel became a pioneer in
and 110. his native land.

42