Topic 6 - Painting materials and techniques Flashcards
What is Tooling?
Any decorative work done with a tool.
What does Gesso mean?
Italian word for the white mineral gypsum. Used as a ground or preparatory layer to ensure a smooth surface for painting or gilding on wood. It was also sometimes used for the priming of canvas.
What is the medium used for tempera painting?
Egg yolk.
When is Gold leaf used?
In religious art and architecture, gold leaf has long been associated with the divine, symbolising the spiritual significance of the decoration.
What is a Stylus?
A pointed tool for writing or drawing or engraving.
What was Tempera the main medium for?
Painting and illuminated manuscripts in Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe and in the Byzantine Empire.
When did Tempera fall out of favour in Europe and why?
Fifteenth century when oil became popular.
What is an example of Egg tempera?
Duccio’s Maestà
- Painted for the central panel of the altarpiece for Siena Cathedral on poplar wood (a tree indigenous to central Italy).
- Wood panels were glued together, planed smooth and the surface stabilised using layers of gesso, sanded between coats ~ acted as a primer for the application of tempera.
- The use of gold leaf was prevalent at this time ~ entirely fitting as a medium to mirror the status of the Virgin Mary.
- Virgin’s back robes ~ painted using ground material of the semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli.
- Tempera uses the yolk of an egg mixed with water ~ dries very quickly ~ making modelling particularly difficult.
- Tempera needs to be applied in thin layers.
- Shading is indicated by juxtaposing two slightly different tones using hatching and cross-hatching ~ outcome can be fairly two-dimensional and stiff.
What is an example of Egg tempera?
Masaccio’s The Virgin and Child:
What does Chiaroscuro mean?
Light and shade.
Who are Magi?
The Three Wise Men.
In what ways does this tempera painting look different from a fresco?
- There is much more colour, pattern and decoration and tiny details.
- The overwhelming brilliance of reflected light from the gilded surface required a counterbalance of strong saturated blues and reds.
- The egg yolk binder makes all the colours opaque.
In what ways are tempera and fresco similar?
As with fresco, colours cannot be blended on the surface but need to be hatched in three tones of each colour to create tonal modelling of three-dimensional form. Also like fresco, tempera is durable and does not fade.
What is Gouache/Body colour?
A water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent, and sometimes additional inert material.
What does watercolour use to dilute and spread the pigment to produce transparent washes?
What can be added to make opaque?
What was this known as in Turner’s time?
we call it gouache today.
Water.
- White.
- Body colour ~ called gouache today.
Watercolour was not the only preparatory medium later taken up to help develop finished work.
What were the others?
Pastel, chalk and crayon.
What is Fresco?
A method of painting ~ been in use since the Bronze Age and is still used for murals.
How is paint made?
From coloured pigments mixed with various binders (water, egg yolk, oil, wax) to form a liquid that can be applied to a flat surface.
The availability and choice of pigments, and of binder or medium, will affect what?
The finished look of the painting, its style, and so impact on meaning.
How is fresco made?
Using lime-proof pigments and water and is painted into the surface of a freshly lime-plastered wall. The paint is then absorbed into the wall itself as the plaster dries.
Why did the deep blue paint on Mary’s robe, and the blue of the sky, peel off with time?
There were just two options for pure blue at the time - Lapis lazuli was too expensive for large areas of wall ~ Giotto had to use azurite instead ~ Azurite is not lime-proof ~ Giotto had to mix it with egg yolk and water and apply it to dry plaster rather than wet ~ the colour has deteriorated over time, although it would have looked magnificent originally.
From what you know of fresco, what aspects of Giotto’s image most reflect his choice of technique?
The process requires painting from the top down, so the composition of a fresco tends to be highly organised, often with clear horizontal elements.
What are Ferrules?
The metal collar holding the hairs of a brush.
Who were Post-Impressionists?
Artists who were influenced by impressionism.
What are the main characteristics of oil painting which artists could not achieve using tempera?
- Strong saturated colour.
- Blended tones.
- Fully modelled drapery forms with subtle tonal modelling from light to dark to create a three-dimensional effect.
- Range of naturalistic luminous light effects, including absorbed, reflected, glinting light.
- Translucent qualities.
- Capacity to emulate an enormous range of textures (over 50 in this painting).
- Tiny meticulous detail.
