Gilded brocade garments

The punzonatura treatment of the gold surface was by no means the only use of gold in painting. In Italy and in the countries of Western Europe in general, in the painting of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, the method of depicting brocade garments on previously laid gold leaf was widespread. In this case, writes Cennini (ch. 141), gold was first treated as when gilding background planes and halos, and after polishing it was covered with two layers of paint of any color in the appropriate places of shadow and illuminated areas of clothing. Then, depending on what kind of fabric they wanted to depict, a corresponding pattern was applied with powder - coal or white (depending on the color of the fabric), inside the contour of which the paint was removed. If desired, tracing could also be applied to the vacated area of gold (Chapter 142).

De Mayern describes a similar way of depicting brocade: "Put gold or silver in thick leaves on your work; polish. Cover the top with a brush with azure or other paint mixed with egg white. Do the work, scratching it with a bone point or awl, and then varnish it" (§37).