" ... The direction here given, it will be remembered, refers to solid painting, in which the effect of the colours is not calculated on the light ground underneath. The sharpness which is so remarkable in well preserved Venetian pictures of the best time is of a still different quality from that alluded to by Hoogstraten, and is altogether incompatible with the employment of a thick vehicle. Even the distinctness of Rembrandt’s touch, produced by a rapidly drying varnish, has not the peculiar crispness of the Venetians."
Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters
Charles L. Eastlake