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574! CHAPTER 20 Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Northern Europe

MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES

Tempera and Oil Painting The generic words paint and pigment encompass a wide range of substances that artists have used through the ages. Fresco aside (see “Fresco Painting,” page 428), during the 14th century, egg tempera was the material of choice for most painters, both in Italy and northern Europe. Tempera consists of egg combined with a wet paste of ground pigment. In his influential 1437 guidebook Il libro dell’arte (The Handbook of Art; see “Imitation and Emulation in Renaissance Art,” page 606), Cennino Cennini (ca. 1370–ca. 1440) noted that artists mixed only the egg yolk with the ground pigment, but analyses of paintings from this period have revealed that some artists chose to use the entire egg. Images painted with tempera have a velvety sheen. Artists usually applied tempera to the painting surface with a light touch because thick application of the pig- ment mixture would result in premature cracking and flaking.

Some artists used oil paints (powdered pigments mixed with lin- seed oil) as far back as the eighth century, but not until the early 1400s did oil painting become widespread. Melchior Broederlam (FIG. 20-4), Robert Campin (FIG. 20-8), and other Flemish artists were among the first to employ oils extensively, often mixing them with tempera, as Broederlam did. (Italian painters soon followed suit, underscoring that artistic exchanges across the Alps went in both directions during the Renaissance.)

The discovery of better drying components in the early 15th century enhanced the setting capabilities of oils. Rather than apply these oils in the light, flecked brushstrokes that the tempera technique encouraged, artists laid down the oils in transparent layers, or glazes, over opaque or

semiopaque underlayers. In this manner, painters could build up deep and subtly gradated tones through repeated glazing. Unlike works in tempera, whose surface dries quickly due to water evaporation, oils dry more uniformly and slowly, giving the artist time to rework areas. This flexibility must have been particularly appealing to artists who worked very deliberately, such as Campin, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Wey- den, and the other Flemish masters discussed in this chapter, as well as the Italian Leonardo da Vinci (FIGS. 22-2 and 22-5). Leonardo also preferred oil paint because its gradual drying process and consistency enabled him to blend the pigments, thereby creating the impressive sfu- mato (smoky) effect that contributed to his fame. Moreover, while dry- ing, oil paints smooth out, erasing any trace of the brush that applied the paint. Oil paints also produce a glowing surface, creating a rich visual effect unlike the duller sheen of tempera.

Both tempera and oils can be applied to various surfaces. Through the early 16th century, wood panels served as the foundation for most paintings. Italians painted on poplar. Northern European artists used oak, lime, beech, chestnut, cherry, pine, and silver fir. Local availability of these timbers determined the choice of wood. Linen canvas became increasingly popular in the late 16th century. Although evidence sug- gests that artists did not intend permanency for their early images on canvas, the material proved particularly useful in areas such as Venice where high humidity warped wood panels and made fresco unfeasible. Furthermore, until artists began to use wood bars to stretch the can- vas to form a taut surface, canvas paintings could be rolled and were lighter and more compact and therefore more easily portable than wood panels.

20-8 Robert Campin (Master of Flémalle), Mérode Triptych (open), ca. 1425–1428. Oil on wood, center panel 29 1380 × 29 780, each wing 29 1380 × 10 780. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (0e Cloisters Collection, 1956).

Campin was the leading painter of Tournai and an early master of oil painting. In the Mérode Triptych, he set the Annunciation in a Flemish merchant’s home in which many objects have symbolic significance.

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