Old Masters

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As techniques were passed from painter to painter they were also shared between countries.  Such was the case with oil painting applied over the tempera grisaille underpainting during the Renaissance.    

Our story unfolds Titian (1485-1576), painter in Venice who is accredited with developing the Venetian Grisaille Method of painting. 

Titian learned about a new kind of paint being used by the Flemish painters of Northern Europe, the van Eyck brothers, who were famous for painting illuminated manuscripts and alterpieces in Flanders. 

Their new paint, called oil paint, offered the artist more flexibility and a longer time to blend wet colors, thus producing more highly refined art works.  

When news of this oil painting reached Venice in southern Europe it was met with mixed emotions.  Some masters were very excited to try it while others were skeptical at such a new and different invention.   

In northern Europe, the artists were painting on small smooth wooden panels and their goal was to render exquisitely fine detail and create luminous art works with jewel-like colors and realistic qualities. They discovered that oil is a natural conductor of light.  So, they added lots of oil and sometimes hard resin to their pigments when making their oil paint. 

But, in Venice, the artists were hired by wealthy noblemen to paint huge wall murals for palatial walls, or by papal leaders of the Catholic church to paint large and prestigious religious scenes on their cathedral walls and ceilings.  Oily paint produced a glare or shine on walls which was not acceptable. 

Additionally, large wooden surfaces were not practical for these huge commissions.  Thereby, the Venetians searched for a different ground for their  art works.  Venice was a shipping port and there were ample rolls of canvas available.  Canvas could be painted in the master's studio then rolled up for transport to the palace or cathedral and installed on the walls in one of several different ways. 

To solve the "glare" challenge, Titian developed a new painting medium with beeswax added to black oil which allowed him to cover large wall areas without the glare or shine.  His medium dried to a beautiful soft matte finish. 

The Flemish masters of northern Europe made "long paint" that was packed full of oil and very easy to manipulate with soft hair brushes.  However, the canvas of Venice was far more rough and textured and the Flemish system of long paint and soft brushes didn't work for the Venetian canvas. 

Venetian painters switched to stiff bristle brushes for use on their rough canvas, and with paints lacking the extra oil, they successfully developed their own painting technique, called the Venetian Method.  Titian is credited with much of that development.

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