Encaustics - A Cautionary Tale

A couple of years ago I was giving a public lecture on encaustics. I began my presentation by stating that several encaustic artists in the early 1960s had suffered with lung cancer. One participant at the lecture raised their hand and stated that they had beeswax to make their own product. As gently as I could, I reminded them of the risks. Four more times during that lecture the participant enthusiastically made the same statements on making their own products. Feeling as if my words of warning were falling on deaf ears, finally, I stated that I would rather spend my time creating with the product than making the product and that if they wished to continue down the road of making their products I hoped that they would take the appropriate precautions.


At the core of all these posts is artist safety. As artists we often pick-up a new artform out of excitement and practice without any thought to dangers inherent in that art form. Due to the heating of chemicals during the arts of encaustics an understanding of how to protect yourself from wax vapors and decomposition fumes is vital. So, with this post I am hearkening back to my “raison d’etre” for writing these articles, artist safety.



Natalie Shifrin Whitson states in “The Specter of the Golem: The Quest for Safer Encaustical Painting in the Age of OSHA” published in Leondardo, Vol 33, No. 4, 2000, pp 299 - 304 that encaustic artists have reduced the dangers associated by exposure to solvents required in oil painting. She continues that heating pigments creates airborne substances that can cause longer term health effects to the artists who do not take precautions. Dry pigment particles can be smaller than 0.3 micron, making a specific respirator and good ventilation a must when working with encaustic products. And to my fellow artists who insist on making their own products, Lissa Rankin in her book “Encaustic Art: The Complete Guide to Creating Fine Art with Wax” clearly states the artist should “use commercially prepared products.”  

Encaustic is a very flexible artform. As a practitioner I create everything from traditional portraiture with the medium, sculpture, and mono-prints using a hot plate and encaustic waxes. Encaustic is about the only material that I use in mixed media pieces. The structure of the beeswax allows the product to absorb any carbon based products, such as a charcoal drawing, which can be transferred into the cool wax. The damar varnish within the material also allows for the inclusion of oil paints into the finished product. Many artists of the renaissance would incorporate beeswax with their oil paints. 


Years ago I made my own beeswax based medium to mix with powdered pigments for all my oil paintings, a medium that created a product with the quality of butter. Encaustic products can be used to create relief areas on an other wise smooth painting.

 Yours in Service to the Dream
Addison

Encaustic - Preserved in Wax

Derived from the Greek word "enkaustikos" the term means to burn or fuse. Encaustic paints are nothing more than pigment suspended in beeswax and a little damar varnish. Historians believe that the paint was first used by the Greeks in the 5th century BC, making beeswax one of the oldest known pigment binders. It is the properties of beeswax, especially it being impervious to moisture, that spurred on the use of encaustics. It is believed that the Greeks applied the wax to the hulls of ships to aid in waterproofing. Homer tells us that pigments were added allowing for decoration with icons in a single stroke. (You caught what I did there, right?).


Greeks eventually settled in Egypt practicing the same art form, but, due to the moisture resistant properties of beeswax began using the medium to honor the dead with funerial portraits, known to us as the Fayum portraits. Fayum portraits were created between the 1st and 3rd centuries CE, some 3,500 years ago. Pliny wrote of the art form and the slow difficult process of encaustic painting. Pliny also spoke of Roman aristocrats having in their possession ancient works of art created in encaustics. Encaustic led to terra cotta work in Roman interiors painted with encaustics. These eventually led to mosaic borders in the Roman interiors.

After Rome fell, like many arts, encaustic processes fell into obscurity. Egg tempera became heir in the art community. Knowledge of encaustic portraits remained with Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo reportedly dabbled with encaustics, but the medium never caught hold. The art form languished until the 20th century.

Oil Painting - It's Complicated

 Glazing is no longer a common process, what happened? In "Glazing" by Michael Wilcox he states that Impressionism, prevelent in the late 1800s, and the desire to capture "fleeting eccentricities of light" brought about the change.

How does glazing differ? Thin layers of transparent colors are applied to the surface that allow the color beneath to show through, this creates the mix of colors. Instead of actually mixing the colors on a palette and applying them to the panel as would be done post impressionist.

"Alla Prima" roughly translated as "all at once" refers to applying paint wet-into-wet is also a period technique.  Alla prima is the standard application of oil paint taught today.


During period glazing was often used for principal figures in the painting, usually rendered by the master, while alla prima was used for unimportant beground images that were often rendered by apprentices.

Benefits of Glazing:

1. Glazing allowed artists to create colors when a pigment was not available.
2. Glazing provides a depth and intensity not found in other methods.

Benefits of Alla prima:

1. Alla prima allows for speed.
2. Alla prima is often opaque.

The cold weather in Northern Europe benefited oil painters as glazing layers dried more efficiently. Violets and bright orange pigments were absent in the palette and could be created through glazing; i.e. red thinly layered over blue would create a violet creating colors otherwise not available.

Panel Preparation

Preparation of the panel and the general approach to initiating the painting altered little from those for egg tempera, especially in the early years of oil painting. 

Underpainting

Underpainting allows for the establishment of the composition, solidification of perspective and the value range of the painting. The cartoon, or study, is refined further by the underpainting, particularly value. Jan van Eyck used egg tempera for the underpainting working on wooden panels. This process was later adopted by Venetian painters.

Underpainting varied by school and artist.

Priming of the panel by washing a base color on the surface and wiping it off evenly is called imprimatura. Imprimatura is done for effect by different artists or schools.

Grisaille is also known as "dead color" is the term derived from the French word "gris" meaning grey. Greys are mixed with black and white to draw in the subject, forming the value range for each element. Greys could be created by combining blue with burnt umber with white (usually lead white). Remember when working with pigments, mixed or powdered to take appropriate precautions. Lead white is toxic and carcinogenic that is absorbed through the skin.

Verdaille uses opague greys or green greys for the understudy, and was used by Titian.

If a brown is used to create the understudy it is referred to as brunaille.

Terra verte, a grey green earth pigment, can be used for the underpainting and is referred to as verdaccio. Verdaccio was used beneath areas of flesh to aid in creating flesh tones even beneath egg tempera. Difficult to replicate today as the best deposits of terra verte have long since been exhausted. It can be replicated by mixing cerulean blue, hansa yellow then dulling the color with cadmium red light. This process was updated by 1500s. This color and technique can be seen in the "Manchester Madonna" by Michaelangelo.

Application of Color

Glazing consists of layers of transparent paint, often of different colors. A strong understanding of color and the color wheel is very beneficial when using this technique. The light penetrates each layer as if it were created in glass reflecting each layer back to the eye. The effect is a deeper and richer painting that cannot be replicated by other techniques.

In his book, Wilcox also suggests that brocades were rendered by applying the painting layer then removing the pattern of the fabric brocade with a wooden or ivory tool. This technique would not perform well using other painting techniques.

Renaissance for the Not Faint of Heart

Renaissance is a term brandished as a sharpened sword by a samurai. But, what was the renaissance? In Old French it means "rebirth" and traditionally Giorgio Vasari, the 16th century artist and historian, is credited with first applying the term to the period in Western Europe from the 14th to 17th centuries. Some experts credit Florence as the seat of the renaissance. What is certain is that each culture moved into the renaissance in its own time and contributed its own elements. Catalysts for the renaissance was the discovery of classical models, the unearthing of Greek and Roman statue from the Classical Period and a rich economy. Humanism and naturalism contributed to the renaissance as well, But, was everything that occurred in the period a "rebirth"?

Speaking in broad strokes, the renaissance restored the human nude to art after the Classical Period. Sculpturally, "Fortitude" on the pulpit in the Baptistery at the Cathedral of Pisa (1302 - 1310) by Nicola Pisano is considered by may experts to be the earliest of human nudes in the renaissance. Early paintings of import to be considered is the monumental female nude, Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli painted around 1486. The commission of the Sistine Chapel ceiling on May 10, 1508 brought nudity into the religious context with well known controversy. Previously, the innovation of oil paints into Western Europe were noted. As the origin of these posts is with artist safety, remember the inherent dangers of powdered pigment usage when blending paints. Improvements in oil paints may have spread from Northern Europe into Italy altering painting. Antonello da Messina, Naples, used oil paints for portraits and religious paintings possibly as early as 1450. Some credit Messina with taking oil paints into Venice. Without oil paint being introduced to Venice, Tiziano Vecelli, known as Titian, would not have become known as "the Sun Amidst Small Stars". Along with Giorgione, Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (1477 - 1510), Titian is considered the founder of the Venetian School of painting. Giorgione's "Dresden Venus" or "Sleeping Venus" c. 1510 set a trend for female nudes that stood for centuries. Gorigione's use of landscape in the Sleeping Venus to frame the central figure is considered innovative by many experts. Giorgione and Titian were contemporaries and Titian is believed to have assisted Giorgione on some of his later works. Titian applied gossamer thin layers of oil paint in a process referred to as "glazing", sometimes as many as sixteen (16), to obtain the proper skin tones. Tempera allowed for thin layers of color, but is now being applied to the new oil medium.

Not everything was a rebirth during the renaissance. The Byzantine School maintained a formal, anti-naturalistic character which was counter to the renaissance ideal. Artists in the Western World had not painted night time scenes, sociologically, night was a time when nothing good could happen and was therefore avoided, especially in Christian art. Giotto di Bondone painted the crucifixion in the Arena Chapel in 1304 with a darkened blue sky that is interpreted to be a night sky. Giotto also used forced perspective in a manner not seen before the renaissance. Giotto's apprentice, Taddeo Gaddi, painted "The Angelic Announcement" c. 1332 - 1338 taking knowledge of the night time impact from his master to the next level.

The Byzantine School dictated that if a person was not looking at you then the person was malevolent. Observation of any number of last supper paintings, the one apostle with his back turned to the viewer is Judas. With the renaissance focus on naturalism things changed. Giotto, mentioned above, developed a manner of figurative painting that was unprecedentedly naturalistic, three-dimensional, life-life and classist unknown at the time. Consider "The Meeting at the Golden Gate" c. 1306 in the Scrovegni Chapel (Arena Chapel) in Padua. Notice how rounded the figures are as they meet at the gate, how Joachim and Anne kiss in greeting and how their halos intertwine. But, look at the black cloaked figure in the background, see how the face is concealed. The meaning of this draped figure remains contentious. Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, call Masaccio, 12/21/1402 - 1428, is considered to be the first great painter of the Quattrocento. Masaccio is credited with making the human form more solid than his predecessor and used linear perspective in his paintings by using the concept of a vanishing point in art for the first time and used chiaroscuro, a strong contrast between light and dark, for a more naturalistic effect and the illusion of three-dimensional form. Leonardo da Vinci used chiaroscuro in the few surviving panels, consider the "Virgin of the Rocks" (1482 - 1485). Leonardo da Vinci was also a prominent user of the technique for softening the transition between colors referred to as sfumato, meaning "smoke". Purportedly, da Vinci used his study of optics as an explanation for his use of sfumato, the technique is a fine shading meant to produce a soft transition without lines or edges between colors and tones.

The architect and artist, Filippo Brunelleschi between 1415 and 1420 drew buildings in Florence in order to refine and correct perspective and creating the catalyst for other Florentine artist to use geometrical perspective in art. Sometime later Leon Battista Alberti wrote a treatise, "Da picture" (1435/1436), on perspective using Brunelleschi's studies and techniques.

Color theory was also expounded upon during the renaissance. Marcia B. Hall, art historian, suggests four modes of painting color in Italian High Renaissance; sfumato, chiaroscuro, cangiante, and unione. Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, known as Raphael, is credited with inventing unione. Similar to sfumato, unione is used on the transitional edges between colors and strives for harmony and unity between colors. Searching for the correct "tonal key" unione is softer than chiaroscuro creating harmony between the light and dark without excess.

Cangiante transitions color from light to darkness based upon the original color. Highlights are no longer created b y adding white to lighten the tone, nor are shadows created by adding black, cangiante utilizes the base tone at full strength for the highlight and adjacent colors to transition to shadow. Giotto was an early practitioner of cangiante, but Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known as Michelangelo, is considered to be the master of the technique. Look at the transition of light into shadow on the robes in Michelangelo's "Doni Tondo" where the yellow is applied at full strength transitioning to orange, then burnt sienna, then umber to create shadow, hence depth and roundness.

In retrospect, the Renaissance, was it rebirth, or innovation?

In Service to the Dream
Addison