Tempera Painting

Tempera Painting, method of painting in which the pigment is dissolved in water and “tempered”, or mixed into a paste, with egg, casein, gum, or glycerine solution. The process of painting in tempera is the oldest method of painting known; the wall paintings of ancient Egypt and Babylonia, and of the Mycenaean period in Greece, were probably executed in tempera with a medium of egg yolk, to which a little vinegar was sometimes added. The use of tempera subsequently became widespread throughout Europe and reached its height in Italy. The ground on which the 13th- and 14th-century Florentine painters Giotto, Cimabue, and their contemporaries painted was usually plaster of paris, known as gesso. The method of preparing a panel was first to fill all the cracks and crevices in a poplar, lime, or willow panel with a mixture of size, or glue, and sawdust. The panel was then covered with a piece of fine linen cloth, which was kept in place with size, and this surface was coated with heavy gesso, known as gesso grasso. Finally, a lighter gesso coating called gesso sottile, which provided the painting surface, was laid on with a brush.

Because the surface was very absorbent, the painter was forced to work with great rapidity and sureness. The result was an attractively smooth surface, though the range of colours was limited. Oil paints began to replace tempera in the 15th century.

The Italian painters of the Renaissance ground their colours by hand and mixed the powdered colours with the medium. Today, however, tempera paints, which are enjoying a revival, are prepared in tubes and pots, requiring only the addition of water or of some other medium, usually casein. Tempera paints are opaque and matte (not glossy), and keep their colour for long periods.