Studio: international art (23.1901)

Tempera Painting

on the Madonna (No. 809) are shown to have had
all the flesh parts grounded in terre verte. The
same greenish tint may be detected beneath the
surface in the Christ (No. 567), by Segna di
Buonaventura. It is true that this last is a rood,
and as such its colouring was regulated by con-
ditions of light and the altitude of its place in the
church for which it was designed. It was never
meant, of course, to look green, as it does in its
present position; but the presence of that colour
usefully demonstrates the old process.

In the above-mentioned works of Michael
Angelo's the draperies are executed with the
heaviest painting for the dark parts and a thinner
glaze for the lighter parts, while the high lights are
rendered by the white gesso ground being left to
show uncovered. To-day, individual artists have
somewhat variant methods. One claims to obtain
the best result, when he wishes to depict a green
drapery, by executing the shadows in red, and
glazing over with green. Again, Mr. Southall,
though in general he deprecates the neutralising
effects of superimposing colour upon colour, finds
it enhances the richness of red to apply first a thin
coat of yellow. He does not recommend any
other method of shading than by intensification of
the local colour. Thus, to represent the folds of a
crimson robe, he would go on applying repeated
coats of the same pigment until the necessary
depth of tone had been attained. This is with
Mr. Southall a matter almost of principle. A
coloured surface does not become neutral by being
cast into shade, but retains its colour still in greater
intensity. Mr. Southall contends, therefore, that
to depict shadow by darkening with brown or grey
is to produce a dead and murky effect alien to the
essence of tempera, of which one of the most
beautiful characteristics is luminosity.

This property is of special value in decorative
paintings carried out, like the old devotional
subjects, on a gold background. The gilding, it
may be observed, should be laid on according to
the ancient method, with red Armenian bole,
instead of the ordinary pale-greenish size, and then
burnished. Next, to enable the pigment to adhere
to the gold, all the parts of the surface that are to
be painted must be coated with a wash of size
containing a ftw drops of methylated spirit.
Where a diapered drapery is to be represented,
the colour, provided it has not been laid on long
enough to set hard, may, after damping, be scraped
away in correspondence with the lines of the
pattern, producing the rich effect of gold tissue and
coloured silk and velvet. Tempera furthermore
164

admits of the introduction of raised ornament
where it may be desired for such details as crowns,
jewellery, or the borders of robes, for the
priming being actually of gesso, there is no
objection against piling up the ground to the
extent of modelling in low relief prior to the
application of colour.

To conclude, tempera artists one and all are
enthusiastic in praise of their medium, and claim
for it capabilities equal to, and in some regards
superior to, oil or water-colour. Its technique is
so simple that it should be worth every artist's
while to acquire it, even though he or she might
purpose only to adopt it as an auxiliary to oil-
painting. By means of tempera there may be
obtained all the depth and richness of oil effects,
with the smoothness and fluency in execution of
water-colour. " Tempera presents," writes Mr.
Walter Crane, " no particular difficulties except the
quick drying which to some is rather an advantage
than otherwise, especially as it favours direct
painting; and in tempera-painting one can take
up the work at any time, and paint over and add
or alter freely" (I quote, without editing, Mr.
Crane's views exactly, although they contradict one
of the remarks I made above), " knowing that it
will be all of a piece and stays where it dries,
without absorption and unequal drying and sinking
in of oil. The luminous and brilliant clear and
strong effect obtainable is very valuable, especially
to painters who value decorative effect and
allegorical methods of expression." Mrs. Adrian
Stokes regards the choice of medium as prac-
tically a matter of ethics. " It seems to me,"
says this artist, who cannot speak too highly of
tempera, "a medium which lends itself most to
spirituality, sincerity, and purity of colour. Much
of the charm of quatro cento art is due, not only
to the spirit of the time, but also to the medium
which does not allow irreverent work. An im-
patient nature will never find its best medium in
tempera;" and this accounts for the fact that
though we all profess great admiration for the old
masters, and many modern artists are so far consis-
tent as to try tempera, the majority of them
abandon it as promptly as tried, finding the quick
sketch a more congenial expression of the haste
and hurry of the age. Michael Angelo himself, if
we may credit Vasari, was particularly scornful on
the subject of oil-painting, describing it as an
occupation only suitable for women and lazy men.
Another, a French critic, oddly enough, M.
Mottez, declares that oil-painting has "destroyed
monumental painting . . . developing," as it has