Rubens’ methods were extensively documented by a contemporary. Do they reveal or conceal any dark secrets?
oil painting
The advent of wet-in-wet, canvas supports, fewer layers, impasto, and visible brushstrokes.
Did Antonello da Messina learn to paint with oils in Flanders, and bring back a revolution to Italy?
A detailed look at the materials and technique in van Eyck’s mature works, and those of Lucas Cranach the Elder.
The major problems in oil painting had been solved before the van Eycks. One was a reliable supply of solvent/diluent spirits.
Introduction to a series explaining the history of oil paint, effects on techniques, hence on paintings themselves.
His visit to Italy resulted in some of the finest paintings of Venice, several completed shortly before his untimely death.
Although he did not even make his 26th birthday, Bonington was very successful, and a great influence on Delacroix and others since.
We still associate brushmarks with sketchiness, speed of painting, spontaneity, bravura, and panache – and smooth paint surfaces, assembled from multiple layers and glazes, as being heartless mechanical essays in technique.
It is hard to be sure when oil painting outdoors first started, but the oldest such paintings date from before 1700.
The Eclectic Light Company 