History Egg Tempera
History Egg Tempera
History Egg Tempera
craftsmanship, produced a masterful body of tempera paintings (as evidenced by the many Renaissance
works in good to excellent condition to this day). Works by Fra Angelico, Mantegna, Ghirlandaio, and
Botticelli are examples of this technical and artistic virtuosity.
Northern European painters were not as immersed in an egg tempera tradition, and their guilds were not
as beholden to a particular school or working method. Northern Europe also had a history of an early
form of oil painting behind it. Thus it was in the north that more experimental materials and methods
began to develop. In his book on the lives of famous painters, the 16th c. historian Giorgio Vasari credits
Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck with single-handedly creating the revolutionary technique of oil painting.
In actuality the use of drying oils in easel painting can be traced back to a long and gradual development.
Oils were used in decorative painting and as protective coatings throughout the middle ages, probably
earlier. These early oils were generally dark, thick, and not well suited to easel painting. But by the
1400s texts began to appear describing how to refine drying oils to make them lighter in tone, faster
drying and with better working properties. A commercial renaissance was taking place throughout
Europe and with it came the distribution of the new materials, methods, and the paintings that resulted.
By the late 1300s to early 1400s, northern European painters were working partly or entirely in oil. 1
Slow drying oil paints blend more readily than fast drying, linear tempera. This makes it easier in oil to
paint smooth transitions and three-dimensional forms. Because of its higher refractive index, oil is
capable of darker shadows than can be achieved in tempera. Whereas tempera must be applied in thin
layers, oil can be applied thickly (impasto), which contributes opacity to lights and highlights and makes
them pop. In other words, oil is better suited to creating natural light effects, atmosphere and more
realistic imagery in general. Greater realism suited the less spiritually oriented, more scientific and
humanistic culture of the Renaissance.
Northern artwork purchased by Italian collectors began to travel southward. Italian painters were deeply
impressed by the new work. They either emulated the aesthetics of the north, and/or adopted the new oil
medium and working methods. Artists of the mid to late Renaissance painted in a variety of ways:
- Some artists continued to work in pure egg tempera. Although Fra Angelico adopted northern
aesthetics (lower chroma palette, more natural light effects), as is evident when his early and
later work are compared, his medium remained traditional egg tempera (as well as fresco).
- Other artists combined egg tempera underpaintings with oil overpaintings. An unfinished
work by Michelangelo, The Manchester Madonna, 1497, shows a green earth underpainting
done in egg tempera. It is likely that Michelangelo would have finished the work in oil since it
was the emerging medium, it facilitated the rendering of form consistently evident in his work,
and other paintings of Michelangelos from this period are in oil.
- Some Renaissance paintings incorporate both mediums. A painter might use egg tempera for
parts of an image with light values and/or cool color temperature, such as whites or blues
(since tempera neither darkens nor yellows with age). Areas with dark values, such as blacks,
were painted in oil (since darks in oils are more saturated and deeper than in tempera). Three
Saints by the Pollaiolo brothers, painted in 1468, exemplifies this approach.
- Some painters mixed egg yolk and oil together to create an egg and oil emulsion paint known
as tempera grassa. Several Lorenzo Lotto paintings from the early 1500s that were analyzed in
2011 are said definitively to contain areas painted in tempera grassa. Botticellis Primavera,
1482, is believed to have been painted partly in tempera grassa.2
1
For more on the transition from egg tempera to oil, read my handout on this topic.
There is uncertainty about the extent to which tempera grassa was used in the 1400s. No contemporary descriptions are
known, and it is one of the most difficult mediums to analyze, for reasons outlined in National Gallery Technical Bulletin, Vol.
26, 2005. At this point, no Renaissance work painted fully in tempera grassa has been reliably identified; however some
paintings appear to contain sections painted with an egg and oil emulsion.
2
Still other artists started as tempera painters but converted fully to oil. Piero della Francesca
was one of the first who began as an egg tempera master, was then introduced to oil, and soon
adopted it as his primary medium.
Artists also switched among the various mediums. Botticellis oeuvre includes many paintings
of pure egg tempera, others partly in tempera grassa, some in pure oil. Botticellis work is at
times described as tempera and oil which doesnt clarify whether it is tempera grassa, oil
over tempera, or areas in tempera alongside areas in oil. 3
As is evident, the 1400s were an interesting era in western art history! Unfortunately the period is not yet
well documented, studied or understood in all its complexity. The National Gallery in London is doing
some of the best research in this area, and offers an excellent selection of technical bulletins (available on
line as free downloads) and books on the subject. Images and descriptions of the museums extensive
collection of Renaissance paintings are available from the Gallerys website.
The effects of oil were acclaimed in both north and south. By the advent of the sixteenth century the
materials and working methods of oil painting were sufficiently developed, understood, and available to
be used to good effect and began to predominate. Tempera fell out of fashion and out of use. Within a
short time oil painting became the primary form of easel painting throughout Europe, and, with the
exception of icon painters, egg tempera painting was virtually obsolete.
One of the consequences of the preeminence of oil paint was the
subsequent lack of knowledge of tempera, and the incorrect description
(begun by Vasari and continuing to this day) of many Renaissance egg
tempera paintings as oils. Confusion persists. I have seen Jan Van
Eycks Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride in the National Gallery in
London described in different books as egg tempera, tempera with oil,
and oil.4 To this day, leaf through an art history text or visit a museum
and often you will find the caption under a Renaissance painting
describe it simply as a panel, which describes what support was used
but not which medium. Rarely are paintings listed as egg tempera; at
best, a work might be labeled tempera, which doesnt specify what
binder was used, only that the paint was water-based. Hopefully
improvements in technical analysis will lead to better documentation of
mediums, especially considering the aesthetic and technical differences
that exist between egg tempera and oil. In fact, considering the
significant distinctions between the two mediums, it is surprising that
there is not more discussion of the revolutionary change that occurred in
the 1400s as artists transitioned from egg tempera to oils.
Given the variety of mediums used during this period, how does one distinguish between an egg tempera
painting, a work in oil, or some combination of the two? Scientific testing currently is limited in what it
can discern. A combination of careful technical and visual analysis is needed to determine (not always
precisely) what medium(s) were used. Additionally, many paintings have not been analyzed, and/or had
the results of their analysis published.
3
Current technology can generally determine that both oil and egg proteins are present in a paint film, but cant distinguish in
what order they were applied, and/or if they were combined into a single paint (nor can conservators always distinguish
between original paint layers and later restorations, done in different mediums, that have seeped into underlying layers).
4
The National Gallery in London, through recent analysis, now concludes that the Arnolfini painting is composed of oil,
probably with some egg tempera, on oak.