I once asked an artist I know what he did about varnishing his oil paintings. I had read about "varnishing day" at the great salon exhibits in Paris in the 19th century and wondered what it was like ...

In his 1550 volume Lives of the Artists, painter and architect Giorgio Vasari snuck in praise for the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck in his chapter on the Italian painter Antonello da Messina. Vasari ...