Schmincke Mussini 

A rare pearl in the pictorial universe.

Mussini oils have been produced from natural resins to meet the highest expectations of artists for many years. These oils contain the best traditional pigments and a few new ones. Their purity and concentration is unmatched in the industry - ancient masters would be greatly impressed. The production process is one of great attention to detail and exact recipes are followed closely to obtain marvellous results with intense luminosity and depth of colour - Mussini colours are known for subtle but impressive glazes.

In 1881 the brother in law chemists Josef Horadam and Hermann Schmincke discovered the recipe of professor Cesare Mussini at the Florence academy of art in Italy. Themselves working on ingenious recipes to elaborate oil colours for artists, Horadam and Schmincke brought the Italian professor's recipe up to date with more modern resins, founding their own large scale production colour factory H Schmincke and Co in Dusseldorf in Germany at the same time.

Before the introduction of the collapsible tube, resin based oil colours had fallen by the wayside. Artists preferred to use leather or skin pouches that were only suitable for non-resin based oil colours. At that time resin based oil colours had a much shorter life than today. The particularity of Mussini oils lies with the combination of oils and resins carefully chosen and tested by the masters - a process that continues to this day.
Artists of the middle ages were already adding resin, as well as putty, to their colours to improve drying and intensity. Byzantine painters used natural resin to improve the brilliance and depth of colours.

All Mussini coats of paint dry simultaneously and uniformly if you compare them with traditional oil colours. The volume effect coming from the chemical drying process, in other words oxidisation, takes place on the surface where it is in contact with oxygen in the air. This is compensated by the evaporation of a part of the dammar further down. In fact thanks to microscopic pores allowing evaporation to occur, oxygen reaches the first coats allowing a uniform and homogenous drying out of all coats. This limits the cracks and stripes on the surface. Certain elements of the natural resin replace fatty oils (which yellow with time) and improve the refraction of the light on the surface.

Artists using Mussini oils have had to adapt a bit recently as Schmincke are no longer producing 118 colours. Now they are producing only 110! This 'sacrifice' of some colours is in fact a conscious move to make an enhancement - the range is now more based on single pigment colours and is therefore a purer range for the artist, which also means the colours mix better with each other. However difficult the choice of colours may seem to start your palette with this amount of choice, here are a few we recommend you start with.......
At first glance Flesh Tint seems no different to Traditional Flesh tint, but if you mix it with Warm Grey 2 you can create amazing shading. Schmincke also offers 2 exquisite greys - Sfumato, a semi transparent grey green to soften portraits, and Pigeon Grey - a dark grey with a hint of violet - ideal for mixing.
There is also a plethora of reds to satisfy your needs. Give way to the charm of Laque de Garance deep or maybe Carmine? In fact both are actually luminous deep reds but each has its masters - which will you master? And no doubt you will succumb to Bright Scarlet or Cadmium Red? Don't forget Transparent Red Oxide - which is iron based - a hot red brown - semi transparent used to rework and redefine Burnt Sienna.
Landscape artists like their greens and thanks to new colours, their work will continue to be a pleasure. Phthalo Green Deep, a pigment of phthalocyanine is a saturated green, transparent and luminous, with light blue reflections which are non mixable. Chromium Green Light is an intense, pure, opaque and very resistant hue. Golden Green Transparent is a real jewel and produces beautiful wash like effects.

The Mussini oil palette contains 18 brown shades, going from Clear Ochre to Asphalt Black. Yellow Ochre is a vibrant golden yellow suitable for numerous techniques. A mixture of Transparent Orange Oxide and Yellow Ochre creates a beautiful gold. Mineral Brown, another single pigment colour, is a pure, intense, and opaque deep brown - lighter and purer than a Burnt Umber. Schmincke also offer a Transparent Asphalt Black - a resistant, deep, and lightly transparent asphalt colour which was very popular in the 19th century.

Mussini colours are available in 15ml or 35ml tubes, whites are also available in 120ml tubes. Of course such quality does have its price, but this shouldn't be inhibitory to those who value their high expectations to produce and need this chromatic quality. Beginners should also have at least a few colours in their box, just to appreciate the quality. All new pigments conform to DIN 16525 standards and all shades have perfect light resistance on the blue wool test.