Tempera

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For the Japanese fried food, see Tempura

A 1367 tempera on wood by Niccolò Semitecolo.

Tempera, or temper is the medium used to bind a range of pigments, it is a term used across medieval Europe. Tempers include egg yolk (tempera), gum arabic, oil and egg white. Temper(a) in historical artistic terms is not confined to egg yolk. Egg tempera has become the modern byword for medieval painting, but in fact egg tempera was mostly popular in Southern Europe, northern Europe favouring oil and animal glue based paints.

Tempera (or egg tempera) is the primary type of artist's paint and associated art techniques that were prevalent in Southern Europe's Middle Ages, and the required medium for Orthodox icons. It is paint made by binding pigment in an egg medium. However, the term tempera in modern times is also used by some manufacturers to refer to ordinary poster paint, which is a form of gouache that has nothing to do with real egg tempera.

One can know by washing breakfast dishes that egg yolk dries quickly and adheres firmly. Tempera was traditionally created by hand-grinding dry powdered pigments into egg yolk (which was the primary binding agent or medium), sometimes along with other materials such as honey, water, milk (in the form of casein) and a variety of plant gums. After the invention of oil paint in the middle ages (Theophilus mentions oil media in the 11th Century), tempera continued to be used for awhile as the underpainting (base layer) with translucent or transparent oil glazes on top. This transitional, mixed technique was followed by oil painting techniques, which for the most part replaced tempera in the 16th century. In the twentieth century there was a revival of tempera technique in western art, primarily among the Social Realists.

Tempera paint dries rapidly. The techniques of tempera painting can be more precise when used with traditional techniques that require the application of numerous small brush strokes applied in a cross-hatching technique. The colors, which are painted over each other, resemble a pastel when unvarnished, or the deeper colors when varnished.

Tempera is normally applied in thin semi-opaque or transparent layers. When dry, it produces a smooth matte finish. Because it cannot be applied in thick layers as oil paints can, tempera paintings rarely have the deep color saturation that oil paintings can achieve. On the other hand, tempera colors do not change over time<ref>Ralph Mayer, The Artist's Handbook of Materials and Techniques, Fourth ed., Viking Penguin Inc., New York 1985, p. 215</ref>, whereas oil paints darken, yellow, and go transparent with age.<ref>Mayer, p. 119</ref>

True tempera paintings are quite permanent and examples from the first centuries AD still exist.

1 Ground
2 Making tempera
3 Some Tempera Artists
4 References
5 Further Reading
6 External links

[edit] Ground

Tempera must be applied to an absorbent ground that has a lower “oil” content than the tempera binder used (the traditional rule of thumb is “fat over lean... and never the other way around”). Since the ground traditionally used is inflexible Italian Gesso, the substrate has to be rigid as well. Historically wood panels were used as the substrate, and more recently un-tempered masonite and modern composite boards have been employed.

[edit] Making tempera

Place a small amount of the pigment paste onto a palette, dish or bowl.
Add about an equal volume of the egg medium and mix well making sure there are no lumps of pigment. Some pigments require slightly more egg medium, some require less.
Add distilled water (usually less than a teaspoon per egg yolk), trial and error will dictate just how much water is required.

Most often only the contents of the yolk are used. The white of the egg and the membrane of the yolk are discarded. After isolating the yolk and drying the membrane slightly by rolling it on a paper towel, pick up the yolk gently by the membrane, dangle it over a receptacle and puncture the membrane with [for instance] a toothpick to drain off the liquid inside.

If the paint contains too much yolk, the paint will look greasy and clumpy; too much water makes it run. So makers of paint have to finely adjust the amount of water and yolk to achieve a consistent paint. As tempera dries, the artist will add more water to preserve the consistency and to balance the thickening of the yolk on contact with air.

Different preparations use the egg white or the whole egg for different effect. Also other additives such as oil and wax emulsions can modify the medium. Adding oil for instance in no more than a 1:1 ratio with the egg yolk by volume will produce a water soluble medium with many of the colour effects of oil paint, although it cannot be painted thickly.

Many of the pigments used by medieval painters, such as Vermilion (made from mercury ore), are highly toxic. Most artists today use artificial pigments, which are less toxic but have similar color properties to the older pigments. Even so, many (if not most) modern pigments are still dangerous to be used without care and precautions such as keeping pigments wet in storage must be taken to avoid breathing their dust.

[edit] Some Tempera Artists

Prominent egg tempera artists include nearly every painter of the Italian Renaissance before 1500 AD. For example, every surviving panel painting by Michelangelo is egg tempera. Artists of the twentieth-century revival include the Regionalist Thomas Hart Benton; Social Realists Isabel Bishop, Reginald Marsh, and Ben Shahn; Paul Cadmus, Jared French, George Tooker, Robert Vickrey, and Andrew Wyeth.

Other practicing tempera artists include Philip Aziz, Michael Bergt, Rob Milliken, Koo Schadler, Phil Schirmer, Ernst Fuchs, Antonio Roybal, George Huszar, Altoon Sultan, Grégoire Michonze, and Shaul Shats.

[edit] References

[edit] Further Reading

Altoon Sultan, The Luminous Brush: Painting With Egg Tempera, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York 1999.
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. (translator), Cennino de Cennini, Il Libro Dell' Arte, Dover, the most well known treatise on painting and other related techniques
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting, Dover: explanation and expansion on Cennini's works
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. The Practice of Tempera Painting: Materials and Methods, Dover Publications, Inc. 1962.