What is Sphumato Leonardo da Vinci. Sphumato

What is Sphumato Leonardo da Vinci. Sphumato

Sphumato

- (From the Italian SFUMATO - shaped, literally - disappeared as smoke), receiving in painting: mitigating the outlines of objects, figures and black and white modeling as a whole, which allows the air passing to them. Drinking Sphumato as the most important element of the air perspective was theoretically justified and leonardo da Vinci was applied.

(Ill. Leonardo da Vinci. Maria with a baby and with Holy Anna. Between 1500 and 1507)

Dictionary of terms of visual art. 2012

See also interpretations, synonyms, the meanings of the word and what is Sphumato in Russian in the dictionaries, encyclopedias and reference books:

  • Sphumato in the big encyclopedic dictionary:
    (ITAL. SFUMATO letters. - disappeared as smoke), in painting, mitigating the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the surrounding light-air environments. ...
  • Sphumato
    (ITAL. SFUMATO - Cooked, literally - disappeared as smoke), Reception in painting: Mitigating the outlines of the items depicted, figures (and black and white modeling ...
  • Sphumato in the modern encyclopedic dictionary:
  • Sphumato in the encyclopedic dictionaries:
    (Italian SFUMATO, literally - disappeared as smoke), in painting, mitigating the outlines of objects, allowing you to transfer the air enveloping them. Reception Sphumato is designed ...
  • Sphumato in the big Russian encyclopedic dictionary:
    SFUMATO (ITAL. SFUMATO, letters - disappeared as smoke), in painting, mitigating the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the surrounding light-air environment. ...
  • Sphumato in the dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language:
    painting, ...
  • Sphumato in the full spelling dictionary of the Russian language:
    sphumato, NK, ...
  • Sphumato in the spelling dictionary:
    sfum`Ato, NK., ...
  • Sphumato in the modern explanatory dictionary, BSE:
    (Ital. SFUMATO, letters. - disappeared as smoke), in painting, mitigating the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the surrounding light-air environment. ...
  • Smile Joconda in the Handbook of Wonders, Unusual Phenomena, UFOs and other things:
    "The most strange smile in the world", one of the most famous and unsolved secrets in the history of painting, the essence of which is definitely not formulated ...
  • Leonardo da Vinci in the Big Soviet Encyclopedia, BSE:
    da Vinci (15.4.1452, Vinci, near Florence, - 2.5.1519, CLA castle, near Amboise, Turnea, France), Italian painter, sculptor, ...
  • Sarto, Andrea Del in the Color dictionary:
    (SARTO, Andrea Del) (1486-1531), the Italian artist of the Florentine school, was born in Florence on July 16, 1486. \u200b\u200bAmong the first works of the artist - five ...
  • Pierrot di Kozimo in the Color dictionary:
    (Piero Di Cosimo; Piero di Lorenzo) (1462-1521), Florentine painter. The years of his creativity fell on the period of transition from the early to the high ...
  • Leonardo da Vinci in the Color dictionary:
    (Leonardo Da Vinci) (1452-1519), Great Italian artist, inventor, engineer and an anatom of the Renaissance. Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci (or near ...

Oil painting technique is one of the most affordable. She may even master the novice artist. However, it is difficult to overestimate the role of this technique in the history of world art. Thanks to her, masterpieces were created, new directions arose in art. The use of oil paint contributed to the real revolution in painting.

A variety of techniques and expressive oil painting capabilities in the hands of masters contributed to the emergence of the most amazing and mysterious phenomena in world culture.

1. Sphumato - Secret of painting Leonardo da Vinci

For several centuries, mankind does not give resting the secret of the portrait of Mona Lisa Brush Leonardo da Vinci. What is the hypotheses of the one who is depicted on it did not offer researchers: from the self-portrait of the daughter-Vinci himself or portrait of his mother - to the image of the famous adventurer and mistress of the Florentine ruler Juliano Medici PachiFiki Brandano. The hypothesis of Vazari that the model - Lisa Gerardini, the wife of Florentine Francesco Del Jocondo for some reason does not suit the research researchers of the Great Leonardo.

But not this is the main mystery. Amazes the subtlety and skill of the image. The famous biographer of artists of the Italian revival of George Vazari wrote that if you look at, it seems that you see the pulse beating in the deepening of the neck. "The very same portrait is revered by the work of an extraordinary, for and life itself could not be different," such an opinion of Vazari. May be the reason for the striking exposure to the portrait on the viewer lies in the technique sphumato, the virtuoso use of which is possible only within the framework of oil painting.

Sphumato in the Italian language means "disappearing as smoke." Very small brush strokes allow you to achieve the finest transitions from light to the shade, from one color to another. But only recently, French restorers opened up how microscopic these strokes were. The thickness of the layer of the lashes was one or two microns. Restorers cannot explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to commit such a miracle. The artist himself invented additives to varnishes, paints, oils, he sought alternating the layers of paints, reaching a magnificent effect of various refraction of the beams of light falling on the picture. This is how the impression of depth, volume, special liveliness and trembling of paints was achieved.

One of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci was to improve the process of manufacturing oil paint, due to the addition of bee wax in it.

2. Oil paints changed the way of work of the painter

Oil paints slowly dry. Unlike working with Tever and any adhesive paints, the artist can fix the picture, rewrite the layers. He has much more time to think, and therefore more opportunities for a creative experiment, for the embodiment of his ideas on the canvas. In addition, paints with this technique will not fade, shades of colors do not change, which contributes to the durability of works of art. It was these opportunities that the opening of oil paints was truly revolutionary.

Art of Gandhara

3. New - well forgotten old

It was so necessary for humanity that some inventions were known many more centuries ago. The same happened with oil painting. In European art, this technique has become known since the XV century, thanks to the efforts of the Flemish artist Jan Van Eyka.

But according to various sources, oil painting invented five thousand years ago. More reliable information - this technique was widespread in the territory of Western Afghanistan in the VII century of our era. This is evidenced by the finds in the Bamian Valley of the samples of the art of Gandhara, who left their mark in the painting of the complex of Buddhist monasteries.

4. Basis of paints - oil

The binder in oil painting is oils: walnut, linen, safflower. The main elements of these paints are chopped pigment, binding oils and turbid as a diluent. The creation of pigments go both minerals and organic. They were made even from semi-precious stones. In the past, the most expensive pigment was Blue Ultramarine. Lapis-azure was used to create it, and this substance was once more precious than gold.

Titian, picture "Flora"

5. Each masters of painting past centuries were their secrets of oil paints.

Almost every great master painting of the XVI-XVIII centuries invented its ways to manufacture oil paints. For example, Albrecht Durer used nut oil as a binder, he passed it through a sinking coal. And Titian preferred the poppy oil, which brightened into the sun and lavender essence. Rubens wrote his wonderful cloth with varnish, which was created on the basis of coconut copra, lavender essence and poppy oil.

6. Oil paint was used for coloring shields

In the Middle Ages, oil paints found unexpected use. Then, for the creation of paintings and frescoes, they preferred to the Teperu, but the shields were painted the selection of oil paints. It was believed that they became stronger.

Artist Jan Wang Ayke, Picture "Our Lady of Canonika Van der Pale"

7. Cracks on the surface of the picture forced Wang Eka again to invent oil paints

There is a legend that it was forced the artist to look for another composition of the paints. Somehow he created a wonderful cloth, using Teperu. He covered his painting with oil and left to dry her in the sun. Jan Van Ayke was unpleasantly amazed that he was cracked with cracks. The artist began to look for an oil that could be dried in the shade. Many attempts ended in failure, but the efforts of Van Eyka in the end were crowned with success. Already a desperate artist mixed linseed oil and the so-called "white varnish from Bruges", which we now calls Skipidar. In this solution, he added pigments, having achieved the necessary density. It turned out that such paint slowly dries, which allows you to make amendments to the ready job. And most importantly - the finished picture is not covered with cracks and paints will not fuss.

8. The invention of tube for storing oil paints contributed to the appearance of a new direction in painting

One of the founders of Impressionism Pierre Renoir said that without the invention of paints in the tubes there would be no impressionism. After all, artists themselves made oil paints, they were tied to workshops, studios. For impressionists it was very important to capture a moment, the variability of the world around. Without paints in tubes, work at the plenier, outdoors was very problematic. In 1841, a tin tube was invented by the American artist John Random, which could be compressed and squeeze the required amount of paints from it. The tube was equipped with a lid. All these improvements contributed to the fact that the paint did not dry and the artist could calmly create his picture at the plenier.

9. How long will oil paints dry

On the touch, oil paints become dry two weeks after the end of work on the picture. However, they can finally be considered dry only after six months, and even years.

10. How oil paints are harden

The hardening of this type of paints occurs due to oxidation of oxygen, not evaporation.

French researcher and consultant Leonardo Da Vinci Center in Los Angeles Jean Frank recently announced that he was able to repeat the unique technique of the Great Masters, thanks to which Jocona seems alive.

"From the point of view of execution technique, Mona Lisa has always been considered in an inexplicable. Now, I think I have an answer to this question," says Frank.

Reference: technique Sphumato - Invented Leonardo da Vinci Technique of painting. It is that items in the pictures should not have clear boundaries. Everything should be like in life: blurred, one to penetrate, breathe. Da Vinci practiced in this technique, looking at emerging from dampness spots on the walls, ashes, clouds or dirt. He specifically fured out the smoke room, where he worked to look for images in clubs.

According to Jean Frank, the main complexity of this technique is the smallest strokes (about a quarter of millimeters) that are not available for recognition of the microscope or by the help of X-ray. Thus, for writing a picture da Vinci, several hundred sessions took place. The image of the JoconDa consists of approximately 30 layers of liquid, almost transparent oil paint. For such jewelry, da Vinci, apparently, had to use a magnifying glass simultaneously with a brush.
According to the researcher, he managed to achieve only the level of the wizard's early works. However, already now, his research was honored to be near the canvas of the Great Leonardo da Vinci. The Uffizi Museum in Florence posted next to the masterpieces of the master 6 tables of the franc, on which it was gradually described how Da Vinci wrote Mona Lisa's eyes, and the two recreated paintings by Leonardo.

It is known that the composition "Mona Lisa" is built on "golden triangles". These triangles in turn are slices of the right star pentagon. But researchers do not see any secret meanings in this, they are more likely to explain the expressiveness of the Jocon technique of the spatial perspective.

This technique da Vinci took advantage of one of the first, he made the picture of the paintings unclear, slightly blurred, thereby increasing the focus on the outline of the foreground.

Jokonda Riphes

Unique techniques allowed Da Vinci to create such a living portrait of a woman that people, looking at him, perceive her feelings in different ways. Is it sad or smiles? Scientists managed to unravel this riddle. The computer program Urbana-Champaign, created by scientists from the Netherlands and the United States, made it possible to calculate that the smile of Mona Lisa is 83% happy, by 9% - the feeling of disgust, by 6% - full of fear and 2% - evil. The program analyzed the main features of the face, the bend of the lips and wrinkles around the eyes, and then appreciated the face of six main groups of emotions.

Technique Sphumato is performed with almost transparent thin hatching and allows you to make transitions between lines, colors and tones. The effect of blur is similar to the disappearing smoke. The term comes from the Italian "SFUMATE" - "muffle" or "haze". In painting, Leonardo da Vinci technique belongs to the process of layering of fine glaze of translucent paint in such a way that there are no visible smears when transitions of tones or clear lines separating light and dark areas.

Sphumato is used aside from the coordination center of the picture. The halftone merge into the shadow, the color is dissipated in monochromatic dark shades, as on a photographic image with a dense range of the focal length. The technique includes the use of a series of translucent layers to get a phased tonal spectrum from the dark to light.

Leonardo da Vinci

The great master of Western painting of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci was a supporter of Sfumato: That is, painting without lines or boundaries, in the form of smoke or outside the focal plane. Instead of tough borders, the picture is based on the soft edges and finely ordered transitions of areas of various colors and tonal values. With proper use, it enhances the illusion of depth, atmosphere, but does not threaten the structural integrity of objects within the picture.

Leonardo Davincchi »Mona Lisa»

Leonardo da Vinci works are most often associated with this term - for example, the face of Joconda, especially, eyes. The artist was a master of technician Sphumato, as she contributed to realism and mystery. Hair, leather luminescence "Mona Lisa" Leonardo da Vinci created the finest layers of translucent color, which allows you to transfer the inner essential and magical glow of female faces.

Features Watercolor drawing

In the visual art of Sfumato in oil painting, it looks like a curtain of smoke between the picture and the viewer. Method Leonardo da Vinci exists to:

  • muffle bright areas and brighten the dark;
  • make a soft, inconspicuous transition between different colors, where shades merge and smoothly go into each other;
  • create inconspicable gradations between tones and colors;
  • make a picture realistic with minimal contrasts between light and shadow;
  • the technique is also used to create fine atmospheric, smoky effects, soft and realistic features.

Sphumato is less known in oil painting than the glaze, impasto or Alla Prima. Technique Leonardo da Vinci is performed using a huge number of tonal variations, felt borders, and creates a visual smoke texture. The contours are difficult to distinguish, but you can guess about their location. There are no sharp lines in the pictures, only the ghostly tonal areas that are connected and flow from one to another.

Painting for raw watercolor

Secrets of technology


There is no single recipe or instructions for producing a thin elegant effect of spumato. In fact, several methods of Leonardo da Vinci in oil painting are used for this technique:

Thin icing

The use of thin glaze is one of these methods - submarike modifies, smoothes and is improved with each subsequent layer of oil paint. The glaze is used transparent, with a sufficient amount of flaxseed oil to add to corplate. Work is performed by natural soft sable tassels. Appropriate colors of paint colors for work - for the skin or background shadow, are created on the palette, and then smooth, transparent icing is used in a certain area of \u200b\u200bthe picture. Each layer hides and smoothes small irregularities and traces of the brush, creates a soft shine.

Imprimature in painting

Dry brush

Another method in Sfumato is the use of a dry brush. At the final stage of the picture, a small amount of oil paint is applied with a thin, but solid brush.

Ribs and fingers

Method of lubrication using winds and fingers.

Cleaning

Dry cleaning is neatly carried out at large sections of the picture. Dark or pale colors, slightly shaded in the appropriate areas, create effects, as in the patterns of soft charcoal. The contours are hidden, and the depth of the tone is enhanced. With each layer of paint, the color and texture are gaining more importance to make the upper smooth smear with a minimum number of strokes for the effect of spumato. By the end of the session, the dry mixture of paint was applied around the most important features of the face or object, and after drying it was screwed. Cleaning creates unrefined shading. Then oil paint is applied over the icing and the purified portion, which is merged by the main color of the selected area, it creates soft transition effects.

History of Gothic Style in Painting

In pastels

At the end of the last century, the concept of Sphumato began to be applied in pastel painting. Works begin to resemble almost an abstract sketch. By changing the handling pressure during drawing, you can avoid the effect of conventional coloring and create a sense of depth and atmospheric. In the works it is recommended to use blurred or wet foaming in large forms, changing the tonality and color depth.

The more submarock softens the edges, the better the effect of the spumato. Even when using additional color schemes for the subsequent tinting, submarike supports a soft transition between areas. When applied pastels, thin-faceted strokes can be used for gradual transition between colors and tonalities. This hardly distinguishable visual method allows you to erase the border between objects without changing the nature of the work and improve the appearance, form and perspective.

Features of hyperealism as style in painting

Sphumato is a thin tone gradation, aimed at full smoothing of sharp edges and the creation of synergy between light and shadow in the picture. The artist creates soft, imperceptible transitions between colors and shades. Leonardo Da Vinci taught to make a thin graduation, without lines or borders, from light to dark areas, and his followers - Johan Abeling, Omar Galliani, Stephen Mackey, Titian and others continued to use illusory images of atmospheric phenomena and persons in portraits.

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There are two classic picturesque styles associated with old masters: "Sphumato" and "Chiaroskuro", and similarities between them are no more than between cheese and coal. But we still get confused in these two pines, often without disassembled which artist used what technique.

Sphumato and Leonardo

Sphumato uses thin tones transitions to disguise clear contours and create live light and shadow interaction. As one of the largest historians of the art of Ernst Gombrich explained, "... This is the famous Leonardo invention ... Thanks to the blurred outlines and soft tones, one form merges from the other and always leaves us the space for imagination."


Yes Vinci enjoyed this technique with great skill: the smile of Mona Lisa is obliged to be the mysteriousness of this method. The elusive smile is melting, and we can only think of the items.

How exactly did Leonardo achieve this effect? For the whole picture, he picked up a certain range of tones uniting all the canvas: it is blue, green and earth shades of the same saturation. Bright glare would disturb the muffled coloring of the paintings, so the master refused them at all. Leonardo belongs to the quotation: "If you wish to create a portrait, write in cloudy weather or with the onset of the evening."

However, Sphumato works and on the background, and not only in the central part of the picture: the middle tones are gently go into the dark, the color dissolves in monochrome shadows, as if in the photo with a clearly tuned focus.

If your swimming machine is shy for wrinkles, Sphumato is your choice!

Chiaroskuro and Rembrandt.

In the paintings of Caravaggio, Corredjo, and, of course, Rembrandt approach is completely different: no delicate ton gradations, the boundary between the light and the shadow is clear and tough. The composition of the composition is highlighted very bright, as if the light is spotlight, and the dark and dark surroundings - burning brown tones are moving into an impenetrable black.

This is Chiaroskuro, literallying meaning "light and darkness", technique created to transmit spectacular dramatic contrasts. The effect is achieved by the sequential application of translucent brown tones. Unfortunately, brown paints, so favorite by the masters of revival, brave. They had a resin, and now many canvases are in a deplorable state, since resin all the time leaks through the canvas.


You can achieve Chiaroskuro's effect Nowadays, you can use the sequential application of Umbra (or Luggy Umbra for warmer shades). Remember that if you want to apply the lights of light next to the dark areas, you should make tone warmer, adding red paint in a mixture of red paint - it bales cold shadows.

Good luck in painting!

Free translation from English.

Meaning of the word

The Italian word "SFUMATO" literally denotes "disappearing as smoke." During the rebirth, this term began to use painters, implying a special shaded image under it. Later, this term became applied to the name of the special techniques for the transfer of halftone.

Technical features

It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci, who is considered by the Sphumato's sonlock, summarized and improved the methods of transmitting halftone existing during the Italian revival. The technique is to apply the finest, translucent layers that do not overlap each other, but only darken or lack the fragments of the canvas. Thin glaze minimal color differences allow you to create a feeling of haze, fog. Sphumato in painting Leonardo da Vinci was brought to perfection. Modern studies show that he could apply the layers with a thickness of only 3-4 microns. Sweatshops are used to highlight the composite center. Blurred contours allow more relief and effectively emphasize the most important object on the canvas. The halftone is gradually moving to a dense shadow, without creating visible to the eye of the transition boundaries.


Classic Sphumato is created using special translucent paints, glazes. Artists use lung brushes from a sable, which allow you to do almost invisible strokes. Later, the technique of "dry brushes" appeared when the artist passed on the main visual cannon, with a small amount of dry dyed mixture. And after complete drying of the image, he still cleared the surplus to leave a literally microscopic layer.

Distinctive signs of Sfumato

To see the beauty of Sphumato in painting can be on the canvas Leonardo da Vinci. The background on its canvases is deprived of clarity, severe lines and smears. The smoke and blur of the back plan allows to concentrate the attention of the viewer on the main object of the painting. In this case, the soft background gives the product of atmospheric and depth.

There is a delusion that Sphumato is an exceptionally picturesque technique. This is not true. The same Leonardo perfectly used the technique in the pencil drawing. After seeking hatching and decisiveness of the finest transitions. Also, this technique works effectively in pastel techniques. By changing the degree of pressure on the pastel brush, the artist reaches a different degree of color intensity, and the use of wet shallow allows you to get different degrees of depth of the image. Also in pastels to create the effect of Sphumato, a decisive and tinction is used. This allows you to erase the border between the color and tonal transitions and get the desired fog effect and haze.

Masterpiece Leonardo

There are only a few geniuses that could come up with something exclusively new in painting, and one of them is Leonardo da Vinci. Reception in Sphumato painting, as well as a spatial perspective, is the most important find of the artist. When we talk about Sphumato, then, naturally, the chief masterpiece da Vinci is remembered - "Jokonda". The background of this work is a sample of the classic "smoky" painting. The figure of Mona Lisa becomes relief and expressive thanks to the blurred, neuropsychiatric and such atmospheric rear plan. The mystery of her smile is largely manifested due to the transparency of the background. Also, the technique of Sphumato in painting is represented in several works of the master, including "Madonna in the rocks", "Madonna with a baby", "John-Baptist", "Madonna with a carnation".

Unione

The development of SFUMATO in painting was obtained by UNIONE technique. It is characteristic primarily for Raphael. In comparison with the classic Sphumato in UNIONE, brighter paints are used, and the contours of figures remain more pronounced. However, the basic principle of the incomprehensibility of tonal transitions and transparency is also preserved here, which creates a feeling of air on the canvas. This new technique that has enlightened the best features of the Sphumato, as well as other techniques of Italian painting are presented in such works of Raphael, as "three graces" and several "Madonn" of the Florentine period.

Candjiante

The appearance of Sphumato in painting led to the fact that several of its variations arise. So, Michelangelo creates a variant of the multi-layer manner of the letter - Cangeate. The technique is built on the transfer of light and shadow, but, unlike the Sphumato, where the transitions were as smoothed as much as possible, the color contrast applies here. The task of receiving the same - giving the depth and prospects. A vivid example of this technique is the work of Michelangelo "Madonna Donon".

Kyarostkuro

The appearance of Sphumato in painting provoked artists in search of such possibilities in the chart. This led to the emergence of multi-layer Chiaroskuro technique. It consists in a consistent print image from several boards, which allows you to transfer the game of light and shadow and create a bulk composition. The ancestor of this technique was the Italian artist Hugo and Carly. The most famous master who owned this technique was the French chart of Georges de latat.

Followers da Vinci

Since the time of Leonardo Sfumato in painting, examples of which can be found in different countries, has become a classic technique for creating deep, atmospheric works. Many artists applied and use this technique. The most noticeable followers da Vinci are considered Titian, Johan Abeling, Omar Galliani.

1. Sphumato - Secret of painting Leonardo da Vinci

For several centuries, mankind does not give resting the secret of the portrait of Mona Lisa Brush Leonardo da Vinci. What is the hypotheses of the one who is depicted on it did not offer researchers: from the self-portrait of the daughter-Vinci himself or portrait of his mother - to the image of the famous adventurer and mistress of the Florentine ruler Juliano Medici PachiFiki Brandano. The hypothesis of Vazari that the model - Lisa Gerardini, the wife of Florentine Francesco Del Jocondo for some reason does not suit the research researchers of the Great Leonardo.

But not this is the main mystery. Amazes the subtlety and skill of the image. The famous biographer of artists of the Italian revival of George Vazari wrote that if you look at, it seems that you see the pulse beating in the deepening of the neck. "The very same portrait is revered by the work of an extraordinary, for and life itself could not be different," such an opinion of Vazari. May be the reason for the striking exposure to the portrait on the viewer lies in the technique sphumato, the virtuoso use of which is possible only within the framework of oil painting.


Sphumato in the Italian language means "disappearing as smoke." Very small brush strokes allow you to achieve the finest transitions from light to the shade, from one color to another. But only recently, French restorers opened up how microscopic these strokes were. The thickness of the layer of the lashes was one or two microns. Restorers cannot explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to commit such a miracle. The artist himself invented additives to varnishes, paints, oils, he sought alternating the layers of paints, reaching a magnificent effect of various refraction of the beams of light falling on the picture. This is how the impression of depth, volume, special liveliness and trembling of paints was achieved.

One of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci was to improve the process of manufacturing oil paint, due to the addition of bee wax in it.

2. Oil paints changed the way of work of the painter

Oil paints slowly dry. Unlike working with Tever and any adhesive paints, the artist can fix the picture, rewrite the layers. He has much more time to think, and therefore more opportunities for a creative experiment, for the embodiment of his ideas on the canvas. In addition, paints with this technique will not fade, shades of colors do not change, which contributes to the durability of works of art. It was these opportunities that the opening of oil paints was truly revolutionary.

Art of Gandhara

3. New - well forgotten old

It was so necessary for humanity that some inventions were known many more centuries ago. The same happened with oil painting. In European art, this technique has become known since the XV century, thanks to the efforts of the Flemish artist Jan Van Eyka.

But according to various sources, oil painting invented five thousand years ago. More reliable information - this technique was widespread in the territory of Western Afghanistan in the VII century of our era. This is evidenced by the finds in the Bamian Valley of the samples of the art of Gandhara, who left their mark in the painting of the complex of Buddhist monasteries.

4. Basis of paints - oil

The binder in oil painting is oils: walnut, linen, safflower. The main elements of these paints are chopped pigment, binding oils and turbid as a diluent. The creation of pigments go both minerals and organic. They were made even from semi-precious stones. In the past, the most expensive pigment was Blue Ultramarine. Lapis-azure was used to create it, and this substance was once more precious than gold.

Titian, picture "Flora"

5. Each masters of painting past centuries were their secrets of oil paints.

Almost every great master painting of the XVI-XVIII centuries invented its ways to manufacture oil paints. For example, Albrecht Durer used nut oil as a binder, he passed it through a sinking coal. And Titian preferred the poppy oil, which brightened into the sun and lavender essence. Rubens wrote his wonderful cloth with varnish, which was created on the basis of coconut copra, lavender essence and poppy oil.

6. Oil paint was used for coloring shields

In the Middle Ages, oil paints found unexpected use. Then, for the creation of paintings and frescoes, they preferred to the Teperu, but the shields were painted the selection of oil paints. It was believed that they became stronger.

Artist Jan Wang Ayke, Picture "Our Lady of Canonika Van der Pale"

7. Cracks on the surface of the picture forced Wang Eka again to invent oil paints

There is a legend that it was forced the artist to look for another composition of the paints.


Something he created a wonderful cloth, using Teperu. He covered his painting with oil and left to dry her in the sun. Jan Van Ayke was unpleasantly amazed that he was cracked with cracks. The artist began to look for an oil that could be dried in the shade. Many attempts ended in failure, but the efforts of Van Eyka in the end were crowned with success. Already a desperate artist mixed linseed oil and the so-called "white varnish from Bruges", which we now calls Skipidar. In this solution, he added pigments, having achieved the necessary density. It turned out that such paint slowly dries, which allows you to make amendments to the ready job. And most importantly - the finished picture is not covered with cracks and paints will not fuss.

8. The invention of tube for storing oil paints contributed to the appearance of a new direction in painting

One of the founders of Impressionism Pierre Renoir said that without the invention of paints in the tubes there would be no impressionism. After all, artists themselves made oil paints, they were tied to workshops, studios. For impressionists it was very important to capture a moment, the variability of the world around. Without paints in tubes, work at the plenier, outdoors was very problematic. In 1841, a tin tube was invented by the American artist John Random, which could be compressed and squeeze the required amount of paints from it. The tube was equipped with a lid. All these improvements contributed to the fact that the paint did not dry and the artist could calmly create his picture at the plenier.

9. How long will oil paints dry

On the touch, oil paints become dry two weeks after the end of work on the picture. However, they can finally be considered dry only after six months, and even years.

10. How oil paints are harden

The hardening of this type of paints occurs due to oxidation of oxygen, not evaporation.