Materials & Techniques of Fifteenth-Century Art

Materials & Techniquesof Fifteenth-Century Art By Tristan, Shaina, Jessica, & Vanessa (Shaded Areas)

Painters, Pigments, & Panels • Egg tempera was the material of choice for most painters (both in Italy and northern Europe) • CenninoCennini (a painter during the time period) mentioned that artists only mixed the egg yolk with the ground pigment, but analysis of paintings during the time revealed that some artists used the whole egg

Painters, Pigments, & Panels (cont.) • Oil paints became more widespread • Flemish artists were among the firsts to utilize oils • Reasons why oil paints grew in popularity: • Painters could build up deeper shades of colors through several coats of oil • Oils dry more uniformly & slowly, thus providing the artist time to rework areas • Leonardo da Vinci preferred oil paint because oils’ drying speed allowed him to create sfumato(smoky effect), which he was so famous for

Sfumato • Sfumato means “gone up in smoke” • It is a painting technique where there are no harsh outlines and areas blend together

Painters, Pigments, & Panels (cont.) • Wooden panels often served as the foundation for most paintings • They used woods such as oak, lime, beech, chestnut, cherry, pine, and silver fir • Linen canvas became increasingly popular during the time period • It was more portable than wooden panels

Edges & Borders • Before the use of simply affixing canvas to a wooden backbone, artists considered the frame an integral part of the painting • These frames were often painted or gilded • Surviving contracts reveal that as much as half of a piece’s cost is derived from the frame alone • Some paintings had the frames attached while others were made from a single piece of wood where the artist carved the inside to create a frame

Graphic Changes • A print is an artwork on paper • An edition is a set of prints an artist creates from a single print • The printmaking process involves the transfer of ink from a printing surface to paper • During the 15th century, artists most commonly used the relief and intaglio methods of printmaking

Relief Prints • It is the oldest and simplest form of printing • Artists produce relief prints by carving into a surface • It requires artists to conceptualize their images negatively • Because of this, it is difficult to create very thin, fluid, and closely spaced lines • This results in stark contrasts and sharp edges

Itaglio Method • In contrast to relief prints, the itaglio method involves a positive method • The image can be created manually (engraving) or chemically (etching) • The artist runs the plate and paper through a roller press and the paper absorbs the remaining ink, thus creating the print • Because the image is drawn directly, intaglio prints generally provide a wider variety of effects and are less harsh than relief prints

Graphic Changes (cont.) • The paper and ink artists use affect the finished look of the printed image. • The type of ink ingredients affect the consistency, color, and oiliness of inks, which various papers absorb differently. • Paper is light, thus prints were very portable • Also, because artists could reproduce them, prints were able to be sold at cheap costs, which appealed to artists during the Renaissance.

Materials & Techniques of Fifteenth-Century Art