Techniques

Question 1

Tempera

What century and location did this technique originate?
Outline the Pigment, Ground and Support used.
How was gilding applied?

Answer 1

12th Century+
Technique developed in Europe involving applying multiple layers of translucent ‘tempera’ paint on wood panels, giving greater luminosity and detail than fresco

Pigment: pigment made workable (tempered) with egg yolk and mixed with a type of gum
Ground: Prepared with gesso (plaster mixed with size)
Support: Wood panelling

Sections to be gilded: Covered in a red clay (bose), burnished and covered in a thin layer of gold.

Question 2

Fresco

What century and location did this technique originate?
Outline the Pigment, Ground and Support used.

Answer 2

Perfected late in the 13th Century

Technique perfected by the Italians, referring to mural painting where pigment is absorbed into a Ground layer/medium - typically plaster when wet and fresh (‘fresco’ in italian)

Question 3

Sinopia

Define this term and explain why it is used

Answer 3

Underpainting of frescos, applied in red pigment to the first (support) layer of plaster, to guide application of the second, and division between ‘gionate’

Question 4

Gionata (plur. gionate)

Define and translate this term and explain why it is used

Answer 4

Italian for ‘a day’s work’, referencing discrete sections of a fresco, painted one at a time. Because plaster dries quickly, each ‘gionata’ represents a feasible section that can be completed during one sitting.

Question 5

Oil painting

When did this technique start to become popular and in what form?
Outline the Pigment, Ground and Support used.

Answer 5

Technique that came to surpass tempera in popularity in 15th Century Europe, despite having variously existed in some form in Roman times and the Middle Ages. Transparent layers of oil paint could be used to produce extraordinary luminosity.

In the 15th century, Jan van Eyck and other painters in the Netherlands evolved mixtures that included oil from linseed/nuts fused with a soft or hard resin (hard: amber or copal) diluted with oil derived from lavender or rosemary, forming a light, fluid medium that dried easily but slowly.

Hard resin mix:
Ground: panel or fine linen glued to the support
Support: wooden support

Soft resin mix:
Ground: stretched canvas
Support: wooden frame

Question 6

Scumbling

Define this technique

Answer 6

Oil painting technique which involves applying a layer of opaque or semi-opaque paint irregularly so some of the colour beneath remains visible.

Question 7

Intaglio

Define this technique

Answer 7

Family of printing and printmaking techniques in which the image is incised into a surface and the incised line or sunken area holds the ink.It is the direct opposite of a relief print, where the parts of the matrix that make the image stand above the main surface

Question 8

Relief printing

Define this technique

Answer 8

Family of printing methods where a printing block, plate or matrix that has had ink applied to its surface, but not to any recessed areas, is brought into contact with paper.

Question 9

Cire perdue

Answer 9

‘Lost wax’ method of casting a sculpture.