DOI Heft:
Nr. 150 (September 1905)
DOI Artikel:Vallance, Aymer: The Tempera Exhibition at the Carfax Gallery
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20712#0308
The Tempera Exhibition
House, and should have formulated within its walls
the rules and objects of the newly constituted
Society. This took place on November xst fol-
lowing ; at an interval, that is, of just six months
after the exhibition.
The purpose of the Society is summed up briefly
as, “ the improvement in the art of Tempera paint-
ing by the interchange of the knowledge and experi-
ence of the members.” And this end the Society
seeks, in its corporate capacity, to promote by holding
periodical meetings, at which a paper, followed by
general discussion, is read by some qualified autho-
rity on various aspects of tempera - work and
matters connected with it, such as the preparation
of grounds and the respective merits of different
kinds of grounds ; on methods of tempera brush-
work ; of illumination, gilding, etc. There are no
fixed intervals for the members to meet, but they
have managed to assemble, on an average, three or
four times a year from the date of the Society’s
foundation to the present.
As to the qualification for membership, it should
be observed that, in addi-
tion to painters in tempera
themselves, others are eligi-
ble “whose art or know-
ledge would promote the
object of the Society.”
Thus it appears that merely
to have an appreciative
sympathy with tempera-
work, without being, or
ever intending to be, an
actual executant, is enough
to entitle one to seek enrol-
ment in the ranks of the
Society. It is, of course,
easy to understand how
those who practise the old
method of gilding — that
most important auxiliary
to tempera-work—are ad-
mitted to the Society; while,
by a less obvious compre-
hensiveness, a certain num-
ber of persons skilled in
the ancient art of illumina-
tion are also included.
And, next, with regard
to the precise significance
of the word “ tempera ”
itself, as defined by the
Society, their rule says:
“The term ‘tempera’ shall
be held to include colours mixed with egg or
size, or Other similar substance, and to exclude
colours mixed with gums or resins, or with vege-
table or mineral oils.” It is essential to have a
clear understanding as to what is meant by “ tem-
pera,” since, as I pointed out in my article on
“The Revival of Tempera Painting” in The
Studio of August, 1901, the word in its literal
origin conveys no sense other than that of dilu-
tion ; whereas its restriction to an egg medium or
the like is, after all, an acquired meaning that has
grown up only out of arbitrary usage and asso-
ciation of terms.
Although the employment of an egg medium or
its equivalent, in distinction to oil, had, through
centuries of desuetude, become a thing abnormal
among painters, it is not to be denied that from
time to time there arose men who were dissatisfied
with the banal routine practice of their contempo-
raries, and who yearned for some different and
more fervent mode of artistic expression. For
such as these, in the absence of living tradition to
'TRES GENTIL CHAUCER'
BY NORMAN WILKINSON
29O
House, and should have formulated within its walls
the rules and objects of the newly constituted
Society. This took place on November xst fol-
lowing ; at an interval, that is, of just six months
after the exhibition.
The purpose of the Society is summed up briefly
as, “ the improvement in the art of Tempera paint-
ing by the interchange of the knowledge and experi-
ence of the members.” And this end the Society
seeks, in its corporate capacity, to promote by holding
periodical meetings, at which a paper, followed by
general discussion, is read by some qualified autho-
rity on various aspects of tempera - work and
matters connected with it, such as the preparation
of grounds and the respective merits of different
kinds of grounds ; on methods of tempera brush-
work ; of illumination, gilding, etc. There are no
fixed intervals for the members to meet, but they
have managed to assemble, on an average, three or
four times a year from the date of the Society’s
foundation to the present.
As to the qualification for membership, it should
be observed that, in addi-
tion to painters in tempera
themselves, others are eligi-
ble “whose art or know-
ledge would promote the
object of the Society.”
Thus it appears that merely
to have an appreciative
sympathy with tempera-
work, without being, or
ever intending to be, an
actual executant, is enough
to entitle one to seek enrol-
ment in the ranks of the
Society. It is, of course,
easy to understand how
those who practise the old
method of gilding — that
most important auxiliary
to tempera-work—are ad-
mitted to the Society; while,
by a less obvious compre-
hensiveness, a certain num-
ber of persons skilled in
the ancient art of illumina-
tion are also included.
And, next, with regard
to the precise significance
of the word “ tempera ”
itself, as defined by the
Society, their rule says:
“The term ‘tempera’ shall
be held to include colours mixed with egg or
size, or Other similar substance, and to exclude
colours mixed with gums or resins, or with vege-
table or mineral oils.” It is essential to have a
clear understanding as to what is meant by “ tem-
pera,” since, as I pointed out in my article on
“The Revival of Tempera Painting” in The
Studio of August, 1901, the word in its literal
origin conveys no sense other than that of dilu-
tion ; whereas its restriction to an egg medium or
the like is, after all, an acquired meaning that has
grown up only out of arbitrary usage and asso-
ciation of terms.
Although the employment of an egg medium or
its equivalent, in distinction to oil, had, through
centuries of desuetude, become a thing abnormal
among painters, it is not to be denied that from
time to time there arose men who were dissatisfied
with the banal routine practice of their contempo-
raries, and who yearned for some different and
more fervent mode of artistic expression. For
such as these, in the absence of living tradition to
'TRES GENTIL CHAUCER'
BY NORMAN WILKINSON
29O