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1 History
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 rockcut temples of India.[1] High-quality art with the help of
tempera was created in Bagh Caves between the late 4th
and 10th centuries AD and in the 7th century AD in Ravan Chhaya rock shelter, Orissa.[2]
The art technique was known from the classical world,
where it appears to have taken over from encaustic paintMadonna and Child by Duccio, tempera and gold on wood,
ing and was the main medium used for panel painting
1284, Siena
and illuminated manuscripts in the Byzantine world and
Medieval and Early renaissance Europe. Tempera painting was the primary panel painting medium for nearly evnent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored ery painter in the European Medieval and Early renaispigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usu- sance period up to 1500. For example, every surviving
ally a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other panel painting by Michelangelo is egg tempera.
size). Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this Oil paint, which may have originated in Afghanistan bemedium. Tempera paintings are very long lasting, and tween the 5th and 9th centuries[3] and migrated westward
examples from the 1st centuries AD still exist. Egg tem- in the Middle Ages[4] eventually superseded tempera. Oil
pera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 replaced tempera as the principal medium used for creatwhen it was superseded by the invention of oil painting. A ing artwork during the 15th century in Early Netherlanpaint consisting of pigment and glue size commonly used dish painting in northern Europe. Around 1500, oil paint
in the United States as poster paint is also often referred replaced tempera in Italy. In the 19th and 20th centuries,
to as tempera paint, although the binders and sizes in there were intermittent revivals of tempera technique in
this paint are dierent from traditional tempera paint.
Western art, among the Pre-Raphaelites, Social Realists,
1
TECHNIQUE
Technique
2.3 Pigments
2.4 Application
2.1
Egg tempera
3.2
Tempera artists
3.1
Tempera revival
American art
in
20th-century
See also
Glue-size
References
EXTERNAL LINKS
8 External links
[2] Ravan Chhaya rock shelter near Sitabinji, Wondermondo, May 23, 2010. Wondermondo.com. 2010-0523. Retrieved 2012-07-29.
Further reading
Altoon Sultan, The Luminous Brush: Painting With
Egg Tempera, Watson-Guptill Publications, New
York 1999.
Richard J. Boyle, Richard Newman, Hilton Brown:
Milk and Eggs: The American Revival of Tempera
Painting, 1930-1950 Brandywine River Museum
Sta, Akron Art Museum Sta ISBN 0295981903
(0-295-98190-3) Softcover, University of Washington Press
Lara Broecke,'Cennino Cenninis Il Libro dell'Arte:
a New English Translation and Commentary with
Italian Transcription', Archetype Publications 2015.
ISBN 978-190-949-228-8
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr., Materials and Techniques
of Medieval Painting, Dover: explanation and expansion on Cenninis works
Daniel V. Thompson, Jr. The Practice of Tempera
Painting: Materials and Methods, Dover Publications, Inc. 1962..
9.1
Text
9.2
Images
9.3
Content license