The yolk of fresh hens’ eggs used as a binder for fine and thin brushstrokes, from about 1250-1500, and revived in 19th and 20th centuries.
Masaccio
Painting onto dry plaster using ‘secco’ isn’t durable, so ‘buon fresco’ was devised to apply paint to wet plaster instead. The technique is complex, painstaking, and resulted in the death of some of its exponents.
The red that lasts hundreds of years without fading, but it’s a highly toxic salt of mercury. Used in European paintings from the Romans to the late 19th century.
Multiplex narrative, from Ancient Rome soon after 11 BCE, through Masaccio, to Corot in 1836, followed by Lovis Corinth and Benton in 1947.
Paintings mimicking an architectural frieze, with figures flattened into a plane parallel to the picture plane. Used deliberately by Ferdinand Hodler and others.
Ultramarine blue for Mary’s cloak, red for the Passion, cardinals and the scarlet woman. Other colour codes, including their importance in multiplex narrative.
Three panels, hinged together, first for an altarpiece, later for secular narratives. Examples from 1420, through those of Bosch, to the Eve of St Agnes by Arthur Hughes.
In their heyday, worked elaborately in gold leaf, but lost with the realism of the Renaissance. Revived by the Pre-Raphaelites, and rarely used for secular figures.
Paintings by Jan van Eyck, Masaccio, Tintoretto and Delacroix with detailed explanations of their reading and background.
Storm in the Bay of Biscay, a deep fake of 1808, a dedication for a wedding present, the Trojan Horse, and remarkable modern narratives.
The Eclectic Light Company 