An alphabet of colors

Abstract

A close reading of the first handbook for teachers written in the Dutch Republic by Dirck Adriaensz Valcooch and the color recipes it contained, offers some answers to broader questions concerning the role of art making in general education: was the broad literacy movement in the Protestant Republic beneficial to creative practices? Did the ubiquitous presence of art works support the emergence of practice-based learning? And were pedagogical and artistic expertise related when it came to teaching art? In order to move the teacher’s manual closer to the domain of art history, this article first addresses the difficulties that instructive descriptions of color-related processes posed for Karel van Mander and others, and then briefly looks at how general education welcomed or discouraged creative practices before and around 1600. The analysis of Valcooch’s chapter on ink and paint against the background of wider pedagogical developments, argues that educational writings can significantly add to our understanding about how the artistic use of colors was conveyed in teaching.