Árbók Hins íslenzka fornleifafélags - 01.01.1973, Qupperneq 17

LÍKNESKJUSMÍÐ
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possible. Then you should press it down with your finger as evenly
as you can, so that the silver takes on a slightly red colour, on this
the first application. Then, when it is dry, you should apply gold
paint again, in the same way, making it as red as you think fitting.
You should take into account the fact that the cclour gets some-
what lighter when it dries.
Then, when it is dry, you should grind burnt bone with oil, and
this is called underwhite. It should be spread on the plaster base
with a paintbrush in those places where you intend to apply other
colours. All this should be allowed to dry thoroughly. Then you
should grind the pigment and the oil together, adding white of egg,
except in the case of green. Green should be ground with oil, as the
other colours, but temper with white if you want to mix colours, or
make cheaper paint for the sake of economy. White paint should
be used where you wish to alter something in the design.
SUMMARY
Kristian K&lund published a text of AM 194 8vo in Alfræði íslenzk, Koben-
havn 1908. The manuscript was written in Geirröðareyri, now Narfeyri, in
1387, by the priest Ólafur Ormsson. The last three pages of the MS. contain
instructions on how to decorate and gild statues, altarpieces and panels. The
last page is illegible; the text on the other two pages has been partly oblite-
rated, and is therefore hard to decipher. The text is reproduced here first with
the original spelling, and then in a modern standardized form. There is also
an English translation. No other Icelandic version of the text has been pre-
served. It is rich in loanwords which probably originated with craftsmen who
learnt their skills from foreigners. There are echoes of Theophilus’ De Diversis
Artibus at various points in the text, although there is no question of its being
a translation of that work. It is nonetheless possible that it relied on later
foreign sources which were themselves descended from the De Diversis Artibus.
The date of the text cannot be easily established, but it was probably written
somewhat before the time that the MS. AM 194 8vo was copied.
English version by Christopher Sanders.
Stofnun Árna Magnússonar á íslandi 1973.
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