"Painting upon the life": Colour knowledge and colour practice in English art writing and cosmetic treatises of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

The English verb >to paint< means both, painting with (oil) colors on panel and painting with cosmetics on the human face. Accordingly, English treatises on painting have discussed cosmetics since the late 16th century, like Richard Haydocke in his famous translation of Giovanni Paolo Lomazzos treatise on painting. Likewise, treatises on cosmetics analogized painting panels and painting faces. The paper analyzes how English cosmetic treatises of the 17th century dealt with color. Alongside practical color recipes and treatises on painting and cosmetic, it discusses if these writings talked about colors in terms of artisan production or aesthetic theory. However, the paper focuses on the question of the materials employed, i. e. the pigments described, their local or imported origin and the traditional or industrial nature of their production.