Painters' Palettes: Michelangelo

Madonna and Child with St. John

This unfinished work shows us that Michelangelo used Terre Vert – made from green earth pigments found abundantly in nature – to underpaint areas of flesh using it as a neutral mid-tone and then adding shadows and highlights to it. It can also be seen that the underpainting has put in place the tonal values describing the folds in the Madonna’s cloak.