Peter Paul Rubens, 1577 - 1640 Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1620 Painting A Brief Non-Inclusive overview of painting as a practice that is informed by the physical properties of the medium Fresco Painting This form of painting has been practiced throughout history, in many forms and across many parts of the globe... Fresco painting, Pompeii: Portrait of a Woman, 50AD Fresco painting, Ajanta caves: Lovers, 600AD Fresco Painting Technique • Technique 1 - Buon fresco (sometimes called ʻtrue frescoʼ): pigments plus water painted onto wet, fresh plaster. The paint is an integral part of the plaster, therefore it needs no binder (glue) to hold it onto the surface. It is a very durable way of painting with the finished result able to last for years. Giotto, 1266 - 1337: The Crucification, The Scrovegni Chapel, c1300 Giotto, 1266 - 1337: The Lamentation, The Scrovegni Chapel, c1300 This technique necessitated working against the rapidly drying plaster. For this reason the painting was done in small, manageable ‘chunks’. These chunks were called giornata (or "day's work") Giotto, 1266 - 1337: The Lamentation, The Scrovegni Chapel, c1300 Fresco Painting Technique • Technique 2 - A Secco: this is painted onto dry plaster and therefore requiers a glue. This glue is usually made out of eggs (tempera). Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452 - 1519: The Last Supper, 1495-97 This technique is not durable as this detail from Leonardo’s ‘The Last Supper’ shows. This is because the paint ‘sits on top‘ of the plaster as opposed to being an integral part of it. Leonardo Da Vinci, 1266 - 1337: The Last Supper, 1495-97 Fresco Painting Technique • Technique 3 - Mezzo-Fresco: this is a very sophisticated version of Buon Fresco in which the plaster is semi-wet (firm enough to take a thumb print). It was used by late period Renaissance artists... Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770: Apotheosis of the Spanish Royal Family, 1762 - 1766 Michelangelo, 1475 - 1564: The Prophet Jonah (Sistine Chapel), 1475 - 1564 Fresco Painting Technique • Buon fresco vs A Seco: in practice these two techniques were often used in conjunction with each other. The durability of Buon Fresco was moderated by the ease of use of A Seco. • Also... some pigments were not suited to Buon Fresco (e.g. blue) and were often added on ʻA Secoʼ. • When, in 1984, the Cistine Chapel was renovated the assumptions was made that the artist used a single approach to it painting (buon fresco). All paint that was not an explicit part of the plaster was removed. This, it turned out, was a really, really stupid mistake. They had removed a large part of what Michelangelo had intended. They had vandalised the original. Detail: Cistine Chapel, before ʻrestorationʼ Detail: Cistine Chapel, after ʻrestorationʼ Detail: Cistine Chapel, before ʻrestorationʼ Detail: Cistine Chapel, after ʻrestorationʼ Light Dark Dark Light Detail: Cistine Chapel, before ʻrestorationʼ Detail: Cistine Chapel, after ʻrestorationʼ Fresco Painting Issues One of the problems with painting this fast was that everything had to be planned very well if there were to be no corrections. A well prepared drawing was physically transfered using one of the following two methods: Fresco Painting Issues Drawing transfer method 1: a life size drawing on velum (sort of like paper) was transfered onto the wet plaster surface. This was done by pricking the lines of the drawing with small holes through and rubbing fine soot through the holes onto the surface. This was called ʻpouncingʼ and was done with a pouncing wheel (pictured). Fresco Painting Issues Drawing transfer method 2: an outline of what was to be painted was sketched out onto the rough under-plaster surface. This was painted in a red paint called sinopia. This technique is also called ʻsinopiaʼ. Fresco Painting Issues Most fresco paintings were made for the room in which they were situated and sometimes they explicitly took their form from the shape of the room. The illustrations that we find online and in books, do not do them justice. We miss the ʻsite specificʼ nature of their construction. Interior, Holy Cross Chapel Wawel Cathedral, Poland, 1600s Fresco Painting Issues This spacial integration often included elements of trompe-l'œil with architectural elements being painted into the fresco that echoed the real architecture of the paintings location. Workshop of Raphael, 1483 - 1520 The Donation of Constantine, c1508 Raphael Rooms, Palace of the Vatican Fresco Painting Issues The tone scope (dynamic range) of the painting was very narrow. This was because: - The whites in a fresco painting are derived from the white of the plaster (which was a dirty yellow). - The darks are derived from a thin solution of carbon (burned bone), soaked into the plaster. Dynamic range of a fresco painting Fresco Painting Issues It was very difficult to blend two or more areas of paint. Three tone (light middle dark) construction was done in parts, with little ʻblurringʻ between the areas. This resulted in very un-complex tone construction. Andrea Del Sarto, 1486/87 -1530/1531 Giotto, 1266 - 1337: Detail: Madona and Child, 1525 Detail: The Scrovegni Chapel, c1300 Fresco Painting Issues The net result of: - Spacial integration - Low dynamic range - Non complex tone construction ...was an overall flatness of effect. This was not suitable to the growing interset in the optical mechanics of appearance. From the early, flat frescos of the 12th century... Banquet of Herod, c1160 church at the Convent of Saint Johann ...to the complex frescos of the 16th century which attempted to convey a Raphael, 1483 - 1520 real sense of light and Deliverance of Saint Peter, c1508 space. Raphael Rooms, Palace of the Vatican Oil Painting In Western art history the artist Jan van Eyck Oil (1395 - 1441) is commonly (though mistakenly) credited with the invention of oil painting. In fact it was practiced in ancient times by Indian and Chinese painters since the fifth century. However, without a doubt he was the first to really exploit the medium. Jan van Eyck, 1390 - 1441 Portrait of a man with a turban, 1433 Jan van Eyck, 1390 - 1441 The Arnolfini Marriage, 1434 Oil Painting Some observation about the social context of oil painting: • In the early 15th century Northern Europe was growing in economic power. What was unique was that the bulk of this power was located in a large number of merchant class families. This was very different to the few, fabulously wealthy noble families who held the reigns of financial power in Southern Europe. • These families were also Protestant in their belief, very different to the Catholics of the South. • Northern Europe was (and is) characterised by its gloomy and dark weather, unlike the sunny South. Oil Painting All these facts informed the kind of paintings that were made in these times: • The protestant disinclination to visual extravagance gave rise to a subject matter that was humble, modern and ʻrealʼ. • This was the first time in Western history that the modern was given any kind of value in art. Old classical themes were re-done in very ʻcontemporaryʼ ways. Brueghel paints an ancient fable using people and props taken directly from the time Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1525 - 1569 in which he lived. Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, 1555 Oil Painting • The merchants did not want to (and could not afford to) employ a painter to paint a pice ʻin situʼ within the home. They wanted to go to a ʻshopʼ and buy their art just like they would an item of furniture. • This was how the public art gallery and the art dealer was born. Small, mobile, relatively cheap paintings for sale! Frans II Francken the Elder, 1525 - 1569 The Art Dealer Jan Snellinck in Antwerp 1621 Oil Painting • The darkness of Northern Europe encouraged a different way of handling light. Dark shadows were pierced by brightly light areas. The method of painting was known as chiaroscuro (ʻlight - darkʼ). • It was also conducive to the ʻrealnessʼ that was sweeping through art. The gloomy dark of Northern Europe = Chiaroscuro! Caravaggio, 1572 - 1610 Supper at Emmaus, 1601 Oil Painting Oil painting was very suitable to these needs. • It could be done on canvas stretched over wooden frames (ʻstretchersʼ). This made them light and portable. • The making of the canvas (like many aspects of painting) is subject to a host of detail and personal preference. Oil Painting Preparation Painting preparation is where the painting begins. It can be very complex and take a lot of time. It can also consist of many layers: Sometimes a fully-featured preliminary painting was done underneath the main painting. This might be in a quick drying paint Underpainting such as tempera (eggs). Sometimes the under painting was just a plain single color to compliment to main colors of the main painting. This was traditionally oil based but is now more commonly acrylic polymer emulsion. Many layers were needed and it could be treated Primer in different ways to provide variously a rough/smooth, absorbant/ non-absorbant, light/dark surface. This could be linen (expensive) or cotton. Linen would stretch more Canvas in one direction than another. Oil Painting Preparation Painting preparation is where the painting begins. Preparation can be very complex and take a lot of time. It can also consist of many layers. Though many early paintings were painted on wooden or metal sheets, nowadays most oil painting is done on canvas which has been stretched over a wooden frame called a stretcher. The wooden frame over which the canvas was stretched was called a stretcher. There are many different ways to make stretchers.This one has detachable cross bars so the canvas does not push against the spars. The joints are simple ‘but‘ joints fixed with long nails.