estimated sagaciously by Mr. Arthur Hind of the British
Museum within the last few months. It is not possible as yet
to see the relationships of style and technique in medieval
painting with such clarity; for the technical elements are
more complicated and more obscure. This little book can
by no means make them clear; but it may answer some of
the questions which acquaintance with medieval paintings
always raises. I hope that the answers will be found free
both from pedantry and from romantic surmise.

Postponing the great issues of technical manipulation, I
have discussed here only the materials of painting in
medieval Europe. I have tried to assess the present state of
our knowledge, and to incorporate some measure of new
understanding drawn from a study of many unpublished
medieval documents, as well as to review the content of
such medieval writings on art-technology as have been
edited. This literary evidence has been examined wherever
possible in the light of experimental and analytical
evidence. By far the largest and most orderly body of
analytical observation of medieval painting materials so far
available has been presented by Dr. A. P. Laurie, whose
studies in the physical nature of medieval paintings provide
invaluable assistance in the interpretation and estimation
of the documents.A large part of this book is based upon
a course of lectures, "Technique in Medieval Art," given
in the autumn of 1935 at the Courtauld Institute of Art in
the University of London, and I owe to that Institute's
Director, Professor W. G. Constable, both the incentive to
formulate this study and encouragement to publish it.

LONDON, D. V. T.

January 1, 1936

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