Vermeer's Palette: Madder Lake

(red madder, rose madder)

Origin, History and Characteristics

Madder lake, also called red madder, is an extract made by boiling the root of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum). It was used as a textile dye in ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, being the most permanent of the maroon or ruby-red colors of natural dyestuff origin. It is said to have been introduced in Italy by the crusaders and was cultivated in Europe from the thirteenth century onwards. In painting, a "lake" ^{Today, an increasing number of companies use aluminum lake colours, which is essentially a blue colored additive used for coating drugs, foods, eye makeup items and products in blue colour. Aluminum lake colours are extensively used for coating cosmetics and tablets, as they’re very stable by nature. Lake colours are available in powder and liquid forms and are used for coloring edible items and products such as lipsticks, lips balms, cupcakes, chocolates, frosting. "What is the Difference between Lake Colors and Pigments?." Koel Colours Private Limited. Last accessed October 28, 2023.} pigment refers to a type of organic colorant, typically of plant or insect origin, that is made insoluble with the addition of a substrate or mordant, usually a metal salt. This process turns the colorant from a dye (soluble) into a pigment (insoluble), making it a paste suitable for use in painting. The term "lake" is derived from the practice of using lac, a resinous secretion from certain insects, as a primary source of these pigments. However, over time, the term expanded to include pigments made from other organic sources.

First the madder is uprooted from the ground and left to dry in fields in small piles. The madder plant is often so tall that it cannot stand on its own. Afterwards, it is piled larger for 2-3 days before drying in warm air houses. Next, the dried roots are crushed and separated from the bark by sifting. Finally, the roots are crushed with stones and sifted to a fine powder. Some madder cannot be used immediately for dyeing; Alsatian and Dutch madder must remain in barrels for one or two years where they ferment.

The best European madder is Dutch, though the one from Smyrna is said to be even finer. Since madder lake has very little bulk it must be precipitated on an inert pigment or lake base, in order to make it suitable for brushing. Clay or alum was often used for this purpose. Such pigments were known as lakes. Madder, like other pigments, absorbs much binder, about 100% by volume. Like blacks, red-lake pigments are slow-drying and require added driers.

Since red lakes were notoriously known to fade to varying degrees, artists, hoping to avoid this, sought the highest quality.. The fading is so rapid that artists must have observed it during their own lifetime. However, as no alternative red was both light fast and transparent, these artists used it extensively for the rich, saturated colour it lent to mixtures and glazes.^{E. Melanie Gifford and Lisha Deming Glinsman, "Collective Style and Personal Manner: Materials and Techniques of High-Life Genre Painting," in Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry, eds. Adriaan Waiboer and Eddy Schavemaker (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 2017), 69.}

Madder lake produces a fairly permanent (if used properly and not exposed to excessive light) brilliant ruby-red tone, unique among the very few bright red pigments available to the artists of Vermeer's time. Its highly transparent nature makes it excellent for glazing. Madder lake was often glazed over a light toned underpainting as can be observed in the detail of El Greco's Christ Driving the Traitors from the Temple (fig. 1). El Greco's method differed from common practices of the period. Most painters tempered the pigment with a more fluid oil medium which was applied in smooth strokes with a soft brush to achieve an unbroken glaze. An example of this more common method can be seen in Filipe IV, on Horse (fig. 2), by Velázquez. Vermeer never used this specific technique as he never painted pink drapery where it was usually employed.

Despite its tendency to fade, red madder was sometimes used to prevent the fiery vermilion, the brightest of all reds, from turning black. The seventeenth-century physician Theodore de Mayerne describes this rather complicated process for painting reds: "First, the dead-colors should be painted, that is, a first layer of vermilion and red lake. Let it dry. Then it should be glazed with a good red lake. In certain areas, intensify the color a bit more with the lake; and even more so with ivory black [in the shadows]— which, to promote drying, has been mixed with a touch of copper green. Finally, the highlights of the drapery are painted with an orangey mixture of vermilion and very good red lead, or a pale red mixture of vermilion and lead white." It was also mixed with black and a yellow lake to produce a deep, clear brown, or with black alone to make the dark lines of the inital drawing.

Madder Lake in Vermeer's Painting

Vermeer used the madder lake glaze over vermilion technique more than once. He first modeled the object to be represented in various tones of vermilion using white to lighten the tone and black to darken them. Black must be used very sparingly since even the smallest addition creates a rather sullen effect. Once the area was dry, it was glazed with red madder. Madder lake deepens the orange tone of vermilion, bringing it closer in hue to today's brilliant cadmium reds. Two excellent examples of this glazing technique can be found in Vermeer's work: the red satin gown of Girl with a Wineglass and the red plumed hat of Girl with a Red Hat (fig. 3).

According to Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., it is clear from Saint Praxedis, [presumably made from a copy of a work by the Italian painter Felice Ficherelli (1605–1660)] which he derived from one identifiable prototype, Vermeer was adept at emulating another artist's technique. Once learned, this technique would become part of his own repertoire. It might have been Ficherelli, for example, who inspired Vermeer to paint a dark imprimatura for the sky. Similarly, he might have learned from Ficherelli's example to paint a thin glaze of madder lake over a dense white base to suggest the sheen of red cloth illuminated by the sun."^{Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., Vermeer and the Art of Painting (London and New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995) 36.}

Madder lake was also used in the warmer parts of the flesh tones, such as the lips or cheeks. It was applied either by direct mixture or as a glaze, in conjunction with the basic lead white and yellow ochre mixture. Vermeer often used this mixture as a base for the lighter parts of flesh tones. The mouth of the Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted with madder lake. Some of the rather monochrome flesh tones seen in Vermeer's faces might be explained by madder lake's tendency to fade if used in minimum proportions.

Vermeer may have used a mixture of red madder and black to make the preliminary drawing on the canvas and in the shadowed areas of the flesh tones, like other Dutch painters. In Vermeer's paintings, madder lake has been detected as an admixture alongside other pigments.