Tempera

Tempera (Italian: ), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the first century CE still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as 'tempera paint,' although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint.Spanish, Altar Frontal with Christ in Majesty and the Life of Saint Martin, 1250, The Walters Art MuseumGuido da Siena, Madonna, Church of San Regolo, Siena, tempera and gold on panel, 1285–1295Duccio, Madonna and Child with saints polyptych, tempera and gold on wood, 1311–1318Bernardo Daddi, Christ Enthroned with Saints Sebastian, Leo, Alexander, Peregrine, Philip, Rufianiaus, Justa, Concordius and Decentius, 14th centurySassetta, detail of Virgin and Child with Four Saints, tempera on wood, 1435Carlo Crivelli, Madonna with Child, tempera on wood, transferred to canvas, 1470Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, tempera on canvas, c. 1486Lorenzo d'Alessandro, The Crucifixion; Saint Michael, ca. 1480–1490, The Walters Art MuseumSandro Botticelli, tempera on panel, 1490–1500Antonio da Fabriano, Saint Jerome in His Study, 1541, The Walters Art MuseumMarianne Stokes, Melisande, tempera on canvas, 1895–1898Angélique Bègue, Odalisque with a yellow turban, tempera on wood, 2014 Tempera (Italian: ), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and examples from the first century CE still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as poster paint is also often referred to as 'tempera paint,' although the binders in this paint are different from traditional tempera paint. The term tempera is derived from the Italian dipingere a tempera ('paint in distemper'), from the Late Latin distemperare ('mix thoroughly'). Tempera painting has been found on early Egyptian sarcophagi decorations. Many of the Fayum mummy portraits use tempera, sometimes in combination with encaustic. A related technique has been used also in ancient and early medieval paintings found in several caves and rock-cut temples of India. High-quality art with the help of tempera was created in Bagh Caves between the late 4th and 10th centuries CE and in the 7th century CE in Ravan Chhaya rock shelter, Orissa. The murals of the mid-third-century CE Dura-Europos synagogue were created in tempera. The art technique was known from the classical world, where it appears to have taken over from encaustic painting and was the main medium used for panel painting and illuminated manuscripts in the Byzantine world and Medieval and Early renaissance Europe. Tempera painting was the primary panel painting medium for nearly every painter in the European Medieval and Early renaissance period up to 1500. For example, every surviving panel painting by Michelangelo is egg tempera. Oil paint, which may have originated in Afghanistan between the 5th and 9th centuries and migrated westward in the Middle Ages eventually superseded tempera. Oil replaced tempera as the principal medium used for creating artwork during the 15th century in Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe. Around 1500, oil paint replaced tempera in Italy. In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were intermittent revivals of tempera technique in Western art, among the Pre-Raphaelites, Social Realists, and others. Tempera painting continues to be used in Greece and Russia where it is the traditional medium for Orthodox icons. Tempera is traditionally created by hand-grinding dry powdered pigments into a binding agent or medium, such as egg yolk, milk (in the form of casein) and a variety of plant gums. The most common form of classical tempera painting is 'egg tempera'. For this form most often only the contents of the egg yolk is used. The white of the egg and the membrane of the yolk are discarded (the membrane of the yolk is dangled over a receptacle and punctured to drain off the liquid inside). Egg yolk is rarely used by itself with pigment; it dries almost immediately and can crack when it is dry. Some agent is always added, in variable proportions. One recipe calls for vinegar, but only in small amounts. A few drops of vinegar will preserve the solution for a week. (1:3 , 3 parts water, 1 part yolk; other recipes suggest white wine (1 part yolk, 2 parts wine). Some schools of egg tempera use various mixtures of egg yolk and water.