Background
Egg tempera was the paint used by virtually all artists during the Middle Ages. In fact, the use of tempera paint can be traced back to ancient Egypt. In the early Renaissance, artists used egg yolk as a binding agent, mixing in colored pigments to create egg tempera paint. Egg tempera had its limitations. It could not be stored, so each color was mixed when it was needed. Mixing too little paint was a disaster because mixing additional paint to match the first batch perfectly was very difficult. Mixing too much paint was a waste of expensive materials. Because egg tempera dries very quickly, artists had to paint small areas at one time. The fast drying time made blending one color into another difficult, so artists layered one color over another dry color to create modeling; a way to give three-dimensionality to forms by shading or blending. The limitations of tempera paint did not stop its use in Medieval Europe. Most artists were painting pictures of religious figures and these paintings were not meant to tell viewers what the saints looked like. The images were meant to represent the saints. As the Renaissance took hold, artists became more interested in describing what the world around them looked like in their paintings. As landscapes and real people began to appear in paintings, the problem of tempera became more apparent. Oil paint provided a solution.
Oil paint was used as early as the 12th century in Northern Europe but its potential was not realized until 15th century painters in the Netherlands used oil paint to combine extraordinary realism with brilliant color. Oil paint is very flexible so it can be applied in both thick textured brushstrokes and thin fine detail. It dries very slowly, allowing artists to mix larger batches of paint and keep it for more than one painting session. Slow drying paint can be carefully blended to make soft, seamless shadows necessary for the modeling that suggests three-dimensional form. The oil in oil paint makes pigments translucent, allowing artists to apply colors in thin layers or glazes, generating rich, glowing colors. All these properties make it especially good for communicating textures of different surfaces from polished marble to sparkling eyes, from soft feathers to dazzling highlights on a crystal glass.
As artists traveled between the Netherlands and Southern Europe, the techniques of oil painting spread and grew. Many artists used tempera to prepare most of the painting and then applied glazes of transparent oil paint over the tempera. As more and more artists used oil paint, tempera was used less and less. By 1800, artists no longer needed to mix their own paints. They could buy pre-mixed oil colors in tubes. While most painters today do not paint in the style of the Renaissance, they still largely prefer oil paint and draw on techniques and traditions that have been practiced for the last 500 years. Classroom Time Objectives
Pennsylvania Academic Standards
Materials
Optional Resources *Canvasette is plastic or canvas pre-primed "paper" that comes in tablets of different sizes and can be easily cut with a scissors, available at most art supply outlets. Art Lesson 1. Setting the Stage In the early Renaissance, artists created paintings with powdered, colored pigments mixed with egg yolk as a binding agent, called egg tempera paint. Egg tempera dries very quickly, so artists had to paint small areas at one time. If students have ever painted with watercolor paint, the drying time is much the same. Later in the Renaissance, oil paint was invented. Oil paint is translucent; it lets more light through and dries much more slowly. Oil paint allowed Renaissance artists to build up layers of color to show light and depth more realistically. Artists learned techniques with oil paint that allowed them to convincingly recreate the world around them in their paintings. The success of these techniques encouraged artists to strive for representing reality rather than religious subjects in their paintings. Show students reproductions of Adoration of the Magi (Kress Monogramist) and Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine Alexandria (Giovanni del Biondo). Ask if they can tell which is painted with egg tempera and which is painted with oil paints. Explain that they will get another chance to guess after they compare painting with oil paint and painting with tempera paint.
2. The Renaissance Connection If students have not worked with oil paint before, they may need to be shown how to use solvent to clean their brushes and get a safety lesson on working with paint solvent and oil. Make certain students understand that paper towels soaked with solvent can be combustible and should be disposed of safely. Students should also understand that prolonged exposure to solvents could cause skin and breathing problems. Instruct the students to paint the square marked tempera with the tempera paint. Before students paint the square marked oil, show students how to squeeze a small amount of oil paint from the tube onto the palette. Thin the paint with a little oil if it's too thick. Instruct students to use their brush to pick up a bit of the oil paint and apply it to the paper in the square marked oil. Ask students how the two paints feel when they are applied with the brush? Which is more opaque and which is more translucent? Ask students to notice how long it takes the tempera paint to dry. Next, have students paint the square marked oil glazing with oil paint, explaining that it will need to dry a bit before glazing is added. Demonstrate for students how to blend one color into another with oil paint before students try with their own paint. Lay down one color in half of the area to be painted. Clean the brush and lay down another color into the other half of the area, bringing it right up to the edge of the first color. Clean and dry the brush and draw it along the edge (not across the edge) where the two colors meet, blending each color into the other. Once students have seen the demonstration, instruct them to try the technique in the squares they have marked, first with oil paint, then with tempera. Which type of paint was easier to blend? Which type of paint resulted in the most seamless blending? If the square marked oil glazing has dried to the touch, students can thin another color of oil paint with oil until it is very translucent and then apply it over half of the oil paint square. Remind students that artists in Renaissance used oil paint to glaze pictures previously painted with tempera. What effect does glazing have on the original color that the square was painted? How does it compare with the square marked oil blending? 3. Summary 4. Assessment 5. Related Activity Vocabulary egg tempera: colored pigments, ground into powder, and mixed with egg yolks to create paint. modeling: in painting or drawing, a method for depicting three-dimensional form. An artist traditionally uses hatching and subtle gradations of light and dark colors to create the appearance of shadows and highlights. oil paint: Paint that is created by mixing oil with colored pigments that are ground into powder. solvent: a liquid, often turpentine, which dissolves oil and oil paint. translucent: allowing light to pass through, having a glowing appearance as if light were coming through. |
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