A few fun facts about pigments and paper.
I am working on a new video for my youtube channel, the history of watercolour. It is taking much more time than it should though. I am almost finished now, however, just the last 100 years to go... I know, I know, it shouldn't be that big of a deal, but I do want to check all the facts so that I will present as accurate historical facts as I can find. There are many fun and interesting facts about the history of watercolour based paint, and their pigments, and the paper, and the... well, you get the picture. It is easy to get lost and just continue reading all day...
Here are a few interesting facts I did not know:
The ancient Egyptians already used watercolour. That is, pigment mixed with a glue-like gum. So not much has actually changed in the history of watercolours, except for what we are painting on.
Did you know that the first chemically produced pigment is about 4000 years old (or more) and is the Egyptian Blue from, you guessed it, ancient Egypt. At this time they were otherwise only using natural pigments, earth pigments like ochre or precious and half precious stone like Lapis Lapsuli. The problem with the blue pigment that they got from either Lapis Lapsuli or Azurite was that is was not locally found, and very expensive. The ancient Egyptian did love their blue for painting though, so they started to manufacture their own blue pigment. Don't ask me how, it was by combining existing minerals they did have.
Some of the best red pigments you could get during the middle ages were made from insects.
When we talk about 'fresco' paintings, I always assumed it meant simply wall paintings. Not so. Fresco is a term that is generally used for wall painting, but if you want to be picky and absolutely correct, fresco painting means painting with pigment mixed with water in a thin layer of wet plaster on a wall. The paintings you find in ancient Greece and Italy ( like Pompei) are frescoes, as is the famous ceiling in the Sixtine chapel by Michelangelo. The wall paintings in the tombs of ancient Egypt are mostly made in Fresco-secco. (secco meaning 'dry'). Fresco-secco is when you paint with a version of Tempera paint (pigment with egg as a binder) on a dry wall, and possibly sealed with a varnish. Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have painted his famous 'The last supper' in fresco-secco. The only reason I could find for it is that plaster dry very quickly in a hot climate, and some of the pigments do not adhere well into wet plaster. Especially the blue pigment that the Egyptians loved. Even in more recent frescoes, if you see a strong dark blue colour on a fresco wall painting, it is most probably added with a tempera paint last when the wall was dry.
The most used paper before the 15th century was made of parchment (stretched animal skin) To put it into perspective how much the modern paper influenced the bookmaking and artists: A bible made from parchment required skins from about 250 sheep, and if it was illustrated, it could take a few years to complete. Wow!
Our modern recipe for paper came from China and reached Europe in the 12th century. It was mostly made of linen and cotton rags until the 17th century. It took Europe about 300 years to trust this new paper, as they did not trust that this 'modity' was of any good quality. In the end, the economy won over quality.
The paper press was invented in the 1450-s and the first daily newspaper was published in 1702. After that, the demand on paper became so big that there were not enough linen and cotton rags to make paper of. That is when they started to use tree pulp for making paper in Europe.
One of the first papermills in Europe was started in Fabriano in Italy in the 13th century. Sounds familiar? Well, they are still making paper!
The first time it is mentioned in writing how they made a brush in Europe, is from the 'Artists handbook' by Cennino Cennini, written in the late 15th century or early 16th century. There are pictures if not words in how parchment was made from quite early on, but nobody seems to have thought that it was important to document how brushes were made.
I could go on, but as I will publish this video next week, you just have to wait until then!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Here are a few interesting facts I did not know:
The ancient Egyptians already used watercolour. That is, pigment mixed with a glue-like gum. So not much has actually changed in the history of watercolours, except for what we are painting on.
Did you know that the first chemically produced pigment is about 4000 years old (or more) and is the Egyptian Blue from, you guessed it, ancient Egypt. At this time they were otherwise only using natural pigments, earth pigments like ochre or precious and half precious stone like Lapis Lapsuli. The problem with the blue pigment that they got from either Lapis Lapsuli or Azurite was that is was not locally found, and very expensive. The ancient Egyptian did love their blue for painting though, so they started to manufacture their own blue pigment. Don't ask me how, it was by combining existing minerals they did have.
Some of the best red pigments you could get during the middle ages were made from insects.
When we talk about 'fresco' paintings, I always assumed it meant simply wall paintings. Not so. Fresco is a term that is generally used for wall painting, but if you want to be picky and absolutely correct, fresco painting means painting with pigment mixed with water in a thin layer of wet plaster on a wall. The paintings you find in ancient Greece and Italy ( like Pompei) are frescoes, as is the famous ceiling in the Sixtine chapel by Michelangelo. The wall paintings in the tombs of ancient Egypt are mostly made in Fresco-secco. (secco meaning 'dry'). Fresco-secco is when you paint with a version of Tempera paint (pigment with egg as a binder) on a dry wall, and possibly sealed with a varnish. Leonardo Da Vinci is said to have painted his famous 'The last supper' in fresco-secco. The only reason I could find for it is that plaster dry very quickly in a hot climate, and some of the pigments do not adhere well into wet plaster. Especially the blue pigment that the Egyptians loved. Even in more recent frescoes, if you see a strong dark blue colour on a fresco wall painting, it is most probably added with a tempera paint last when the wall was dry.
The most used paper before the 15th century was made of parchment (stretched animal skin) To put it into perspective how much the modern paper influenced the bookmaking and artists: A bible made from parchment required skins from about 250 sheep, and if it was illustrated, it could take a few years to complete. Wow!
Our modern recipe for paper came from China and reached Europe in the 12th century. It was mostly made of linen and cotton rags until the 17th century. It took Europe about 300 years to trust this new paper, as they did not trust that this 'modity' was of any good quality. In the end, the economy won over quality.
The paper press was invented in the 1450-s and the first daily newspaper was published in 1702. After that, the demand on paper became so big that there were not enough linen and cotton rags to make paper of. That is when they started to use tree pulp for making paper in Europe.
One of the first papermills in Europe was started in Fabriano in Italy in the 13th century. Sounds familiar? Well, they are still making paper!
The first time it is mentioned in writing how they made a brush in Europe, is from the 'Artists handbook' by Cennino Cennini, written in the late 15th century or early 16th century. There are pictures if not words in how parchment was made from quite early on, but nobody seems to have thought that it was important to document how brushes were made.
I could go on, but as I will publish this video next week, you just have to wait until then!
Have a great weekend everyone!
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