J.M.W. Turner: Sketchbooks, Drawings and Watercolours

St Jerome by Correggio | Painted upon Panel upon a rich ground | rather green, so that the first colour | produces a neutral tone approaching | to Green or Brown as cold or warm color is used. thus arrives the Beautiful cold grey | through all the flesh of the Infant and | Virgin | Some red and a reddish Brown sometimes are | used in the Shadows, for the ground is not rely’d | upon, but in the Breadths the shadows of | the drapery are surely scumbled [Finberg: ?merely crumbled] over the glazing, which is prepared with its own | color and highlights [Finberg: heightened] by glazing, and as the | drapery more or less receives the light or are contrasted [Finberg: compounded] so they lose their pellucid | quality and richness – as the Magdalene; this kept in check by the Vermillion of St. Jerome | which always has a ponderous effect [continued on folio 33 verso] this I do not conceive a defect in the | painter but the Materials. For a disadvantage | one way it contributes to give the flesh | softness and by his mode of admitting | reflection and the thin [Finberg: demi (?)] grey tint roundness in his reflections a warmer lies under the | Brown scumbling tone as the nature of the | subject demands. Sometimes pure vermillion, but so hid as to escape superficial observation. His Blue draperys are by far the thickest of | color owing to the power of the ground. But in this picture the Blue has been touched for | the harmony is hurt by protruding itself [Finberg: forward (?)] | to St. Jerome or the Magdalen.