![]() Leonardo da Vinci used it-alongside oil paint for The Last Supper. Another advantage of egg tempera is that, unlike oil paint, it is resistant to light, and its colors do not darken or change with age.īut egg tempera doesn’t always work. ![]() This lets the light penetrate through it and reflect off the white surface of the primer beneath it. Tempera is more transparent than oil and holds less pigment. Why do artists use egg tempera?Īsk any artist and they will tell you the greatest appeal of egg tempera is the glowing quality that made it ideal for Renaissance painters who wanted to capture ethereal biblical scenes. Mixing fine powdered pigment with egg yolk created a strong bind. This ability was harnessed by painters thousands of years ago. Many artists continue to use this ancient recipe, and luckily vegan alternatives are available.Īs anyone who has ever baked will know, the egg is a peculiarly sticky substance that indelibly binds together ingredients. Traditionally, tempera was applied to wooden panels, such as poplar, that were coated with gesso (a primer made from rabbit skin glue) and (usually white) pigment. So the surfaces needed priming with something that would do its bit to create the ideal surface. While non-porous surfaces, like the aluminum being used by modern artists, can peel. Untreated porous surfaces, like paper, canvas and wood will absorb the fluid, leaving the paint pigments alone and vulnerable to flaking off. Since the dawn of painting, there has been an age-old question: how do you get pigment (color) to stick to a surface? The answer is to create a binding or glue that fixes the pigment to that surface. Traditionally, tempera was applied to wooden panels, such as poplar, coated with a special primer called gesso. Egg tempera is created by mixing egg yolk with powdered pigments and a little water. Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus (image in the public domain) Does egg tempera actually have egg in it? ![]() More durable than oil and with a luminosity similar to watercolor, egg tempera offers many advantages to artists willing to embrace the challenge of working with this ancient medium.Īrtists mix their own colors using dry pigments that are still available today. For centuries, egg tempera was artists’ preferred medium for panel paintings, and many medieval and Renaissance masterpieces found in museums and art galleries were executed in egg tempera.
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