What Was the Secret of the Old Masters?

The Alchemist Knew and So Shall You!

The incomparably vivid and transparent colors, glowing surface and centuries of permanence that we associate with paintings of Renaissance and Baroque masters are very often due to their use of painting mediums and varnishes which contain high concentrations of the jewel-like ancient resin - AMBER, which has remained unchanged for 40 million years.

How the old secrets and methods became lost

Following the deaths of Sir Peter Paul Rubens in 1640 and Sir Anthony van Dyck in 1641, by the year 1700, there remained little knowledge of the secret oil painting methods and mediums used by the Flemish Masters, due mainly to the disbanding of their studio systems.

Our research into the lost painting mediums used by the Flemish Masters has shown that the Old Masters painted in many instances with co-polymerized drying oil mediums and resin oil varnishes in addition to mixing essential oil varnishes with their paints. 

The use of these mediums accounts for the long-term permanence and unique optic effects found on their paintings.

In reality the Old Masters mediums were often varnishes rather than the oil mediums, as we know them today.

The most desirable of these varnishes was amber varnish made from the gemstone amber, a fossilized tree resin, which has been repeatedly recognized in early histories of painting techniques and early instruction manuals for painters. As the Industrial Revolution approached, commercial paint manufacturers appeared and artists gradually ceased making their own paints and mediums. Because of fire risks these new paint manufacturers favored cold rather than hot processes.

In a very short time the old methods were forgotten and lost.

Our media and varnishes are the by-products of our close working relationship with various well-known fine-arts painters and master craftsmen, as well as the twenty-eight years of hands-on experience in the arts of oil painting, musical instrument making and varnish making by our founder Donald C. Fels, Jr.

By limiting ourselves to using only centuries-old, time-tested methods of making varnishes, and by employing only those natural resins and oil media mentioned in 15th and 17th century writings, our media, made in small carefully controlled batches, are the closest thing to having your media custom made. Unlike modern mass-produced painting media, made up of metal-based driers, synthetic materials, and non-traditional resins like Damara, our media are easy to use, permanent , affordable , and historically accurate .

About Our Mediums

Alchemist® Inc. makes a variety of historical amber and non-amber based varnishes and co-polymerized drying oil mediums made according to historical recipes found in the 17th century notes of such painters and writers as John Smith, Edward Norgate, Sir Anthony van Dyck, and  Sir Theodore Turquet De Mayerne.

These painting mediums can be mixed separately or together with tube paints or powdered pigments to achieve optical effects and transparency of color lost to artists since the time of Rubens, Rembrandt and Van Eyck. Using these varnishes and mediums it is possible to paint in oil alone the finest lines and details, one layer over the other, wet into wet, in a vertical position, without running or disturbing lower layers and without the use or addition of egg or tempera mixtures of any kind.

How We Make Our Amber Mediums

Our light Varnishes both Linseed and Walnut are based on the recipes for Amber Varnish listed in the notes of the 15th century German physician Johannes De Ketham, found in B.M. Manuscript Sloane 345.

Our Dark Amber Varnishes both Linseed And Walnut are based on the recipes for Amber Varnishes found in the 17th century notes of Sir Theodore Turquet De Mayerne as they are listed in the De Mayerne Manuscript B.M. Sloane 2052.

Note to our customers: Our amber varnishes smell of succinic acid. The clear sign of a genuine amber varnish is the smell of succinic acid that occurs during the fusing of the amber resin into the drying oil with great heat. Only Baltic amber resins were used to manufacture amber varnishes for painting and musical instrument and only they contain succinic acid. This smell of succinic acid will stay in a bottle of varnish and will not fade away over time. If an amber varnish does not smell of succinic acid it is not geniuses. Amber resins were known under the following names: Bernstein, Siccinum, Agetstein, Glassa.

ALCHEMIST brand OLD MASTER'S AMBER VARNISH is available in two viscosities, mixed in either linseed or walnut oils. These superb products are made in accordance with Renaissance alchemical principles, avoiding the use of modern 21st century chemicals and manufacturing methods. This insures the permanence of amber mediums while retaining the historical accuracy of the finished product.

When dry, amber varnish is impervious to common solvents, preserving the colors under a hard yet flexible lustrous surface. Colors applied with amber medium require no finishing varnish since they are encased in a resinous protection. There is no greater insurance of permanence than with the use of amber mediums and varnishes, as attested to by Renaissance master works we so enjoy today, as vivid today as when they were first created.

ALCHEMIST, Inc. is proud to be a part of the movement toward the traditional approach to painting based on principles of the Old Masters, both time-tested and permanent. We hope that you will participate in this process of discovery as well.

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