Page 20 - Artist Materials Advisor

The technique followed by painters in medieval Western Europe to prepare and paint tempera panels and that used by painters in Russia of the same period are closely allied. However, there are some differences in the process, from the preparation of the panel to the final varnish. These differences are interesting to note and can provide some insight into the technique and process used by the earliest Byzantine artists to make panel paintings.

In the previous article of this series, we introduced the idea of collecting your pigments in the article, Pigments from the Earth. In this article, the second in the series, we will discuss the processes involved in preparing the samples of soil you have gathered—grinding, sifting, washing, drying, mulling, and storing the pigment.

Painters interested in Old Master effects benefit from a good understanding of the differences between modern tube oil paints and those used by the Old Masters whose works they admire. Too often, this critical issue is overlooked, and the focus tends to be disproportionately on mediums and additives, while the paints generally receive too little attention. There are significant differences to be acknowledged between modern and oil paints in use in the 17th century and earlier.

Third, in our technical series on painting icons, this article discusses the different types of braces found in Russian icons since the 12th century and their use in icon panels from the past to today. This series of articles applies specifically to preparing and painting icon panels but has a broader application to preparing wood panels for painting.

Not all tempera painters strictly use egg yolk as the binder for their paint. Some of the most popular recipes are egg, casein, and gum tempera, shared by Russian and Ukrainian painters. What follows are formulas and instructions on making and using tempera and emulsion paints.

Gold fascinated medieval society. The medieval love of gold is exemplified during the Byzantine period by resplendent domes, mosaics, icons, and architecture. Illuminated manuscripts echoed these achievements in miniature. Gold became an intrinsic element of the illuminated page.

Second, in our technical series on painting icons, this article discusses the technique of making joined icon panels from several boards in detail, from wood structure to joinery. Although this article applies specifically to icon boards, it has a broader application to making solid wood panels for painting.

Thanks to developments in chemistry over the past 300 years, painters today have hundreds of pure and permanent colors from which to choose. Although fewer pigments were available to painters of Medieval Europe, they had minerals, earth, plants, bones, shells, and insects, and they knew how to transform these into pigments. The question arises whether the extensive range of modern synthetic pigments provides artists of today with anything superior to the natural and artificial pigments used by Medieval and Renaissance masters. Working with natural pigments may offer a renaissance in our understanding of color language. This article discusses what the unique properties of natural mineral pigments can offer to contemporary painters.

Roger de Piles (October 7, 1635–April 5, 1709) was an art critic, theorist, and collector whose significant contribution to aesthetic theory rests on his Dialogue sur le coloris ("Dialogue on colors"), in which he initiated his famous defense of Rubens in an argument started in 1671 by Philippe de Champaigne on the relative merits of drawing and color in the work of Titian. In 1668, he published an annotated translation of Charles-Alphonse Dufresnoy's De Arte Graphica that greatly influenced the aesthetic discussions of the day. De Piles later published several painting manuals that became essential resources for oil painters in the following centuries. The following is a translation by the editor of chapter 4 (incomplete) of Roger de Piles' Les Elémens de Peinture Pratique.

Recipes that we have tried and used. Grind the gallnuts to a fine powder and immerse them in half the water. In a few weeks, mold will cover the top surface. Skim off the mold and pour the liquid through a filter. Dissolve gum Arabic in a small amount of water and add it to the liquid. Dissolve the ferrous sulfate in water and add it to the liquid.