Shooting targets as the work of folk or peripheral painters are a certain continuation or prolongation of the life of medieval board or panel painting into the 18th and 19th centuries. Only everything is rougher, less refined, as dictated by the purpose. Less attention ivas paid to the selection of the wood, the boards are narrower, stuck together and the panels are held together on the reverse side usually by means of two movable cross-pieces. On the reverse side the structure of the wood is rough, the boards are usually left in the state they were in when they came from the water-driven. Only the right side of the panel was planed after being glued together; but because no great length of life was expected and the boards were insufficiently dried, in a very short time the boards shrank in volume and the annual rings stood out, an inseparable part of the characteristic surface of the targets. In many cases it is possible to follow the stroke of the brush across the annual rings, crossing the corrugated surface – from this it may be judged that the finished panel was allowed the »mature« for about a year before it was painted.

The standing-out annual rings, engraved circles and fact that the details on the paintings sometimes avoid the holes left by the shots force one to consider which came first – the painting or the shooting? It is impossible to state anything with certainty, but small signs discovered during restoring, induding the observation mentioned above, force one to the conclusion that at least some of the shooting targets were painted subsequently, after the shooting, as a »commemoration« of successful shooting. The layer of paint sometimes covers the burnt surface around the hole made by the shot or even trickled into it. But with the frequent re-painting to which the targets were often subjected it is not so far possible to be completely certain, and it is possible to suppose both versions – both painting after shooting and shooting after painting.

The technique usually found is oil-painting, with imprimi tur or a base coat, but also without a ground. But everything is rougher than in the case of professional high-quality painting. If there is sky painted on the target it is usually a thick paste and shines with the brightness of the lead white, not the ground shining through. The pigments used are usually more roughly mixed, so that when removing later layers of varnish it is necessary to overcome unevenness of the surface caused by larger particles (lumps) of colour in the painting. In contrast to this rough application are the relatively lightly placed shadows, through which sometimes even the wood can be seen. Although the compositions keep to the late medieval concept of space (we might perhaps call it the »style of the Limburg brothers«) and in the drawing of architecture linear articulation is used rather than spadal modelling, in the technique of shooting targets at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries use is made of the new attitude to paint material brought by the Baroque period. Considerable use is made of additions of resins and balsams, which give the paintings rich relief and allow the implementation of all the volume effects of Baroque painting. As the 19th century progresses, however, these qualities gradually vanish j the relief of the paint applied is flattened out, the painting becomes smooth and insipid, and »more professiona«.

The original layer of varnish is usually preserved on the older targets became it is unusually difficult to remove it. The shooting targets in the collection of the Museum of Prague were repaired in the years 1900-1916 by J. Nerad, who luckily managed to remove the old varnishes from only a small part and who concealed the resulting discrepancies by general repainting.




A shooting target with a rider, 1813. Silesian Museum at Opava.

Details of shooting targetwith the inscription If the tongue of false accuser pierces you.

These are oil-resin varnishes containing a great many impurities, applied in too thick a layer which became scaly after drying. The optical quality was brought back by partial thinning, but the added charm (by ageing and darkening) of their effect in detail was preserved, i.e. filling with glaring varnish of the unevennesses of the surface, thus emphasising the plasticity of the brush-strokes.

Not all the targets were completely painted in oils. On some targets from the Opava Museum we were surprised to find a combined technique. This applies in particular to a target which was investigated in detail – a target with a picture of a rider on horseback aiming his spear at a wreath hung between two pillars. The exceptional brightness of the picture after the removal of later layers of varnish was caused by the tempera (almost aquarelle) technique, not subject to the yellowing which affects oil-painting applied with a palette-knife. The paint layer of the basic painting is very thin, it lacks the roughness associated with the application of oil paints, the little shadows of the landscape in the foreground and of the hills in the background are translucent, immaterial. Only in the second phase was the painting completed with oils and impasto applied details added. The tempera underpainting (guazzo) of the Opava target, as well as the above-described qualities of the oil-resin technique, only go to show that the interest of technological research should also concentrate in the future on folk and fringe works of art.

  author
Rumjana Najdenova, AHVT A 013 (J. D.)