Theres no point in silverpoint now I have a pencil, no point in lapis lazuli now I have ultramarine, no point in egg emulsion now I have acrylic and oil. But to use all of the old materials and techniques is an education in how to use the modern equivalent. I now know, because I have been there.
In “Image of the Body” Michael Gill makes the observation that the same desire to record every detail produced double entry bookkeeping accounts and Florentine art. It makes sense that the patrons of the C15 should bring the same attitudes to Art as they did to business.
And I have mused about the cultures that tend to Realism before. The Dutch invented the stock market and exported it to Boston and New York. Academic Realism that Americans preserve from C19 English Empire and C19 French, has the same love of detailed “finish”. They bring the same aesthetic to the nude as they do to chrome automobiles.
This weakness is to be avoided. That does not mean that the whole style is to be avoided.For me, the brushmark must finally be triumphant, and that is why Rubens is a touchstone