Giorgio Vasari

“ Among the other old painters, in whom the praises justly accorded to Cimabue, and Giotto, his disciple, for those advances in art which were rendering their names illustrious through all Italy, awakened alarm for their own reputation, was a certain Margaritone, of Arezzo, [1] a painter, who, with the others that had held the first place in art during that unhappy age, now perceived that the works of these masters must well-nigh extinguish his fame. ”

“ It is true that the people of Arezzo then allotted the amount of a toll levied on the surrounding districts as a perpetual revenue for this work, which has continued to be exacted to the present time, and is likely to continue so still. But to return to Margaritone. He appears to have been the first—judgingfrom what we see in his works in painting—who considered the precautions required by him who paints on wood, to the end that the joinings should hold firmly, and that no clefts and fissures should become apparent after the completion of the painting. ”

“ It was his custom to cover the whole surface with canvas, which he secured by means of a strong glue, made from the boiled shreds of parchment ; over this canvas, he next applied a layer of gypsum, as may be seen in his pictures, as well as in those of others ; on the gypsum, which was mixed with the glue above described, he then formed diadems and other ornaments in relief. He was also the inventor of grounding in bol-armoniac, whereon he laid leafgold, which he discovered the means of fixing and burnishing. ”