This document provides an overview of various painting media used by artists, including encaustic, fresco, tempera, oil painting, watercolor, and gouache. It discusses the characteristics and techniques of each medium, provides examples of famous works to illustrate the properties of the media, and outlines some of the creative processes involved. Key points covered include how encaustic uses pigment and hot wax, fresco applies pigment to wet or dry plaster, tempera combines pigment with egg yolk, and oil painting allows for blending and glazing effects. Watercolor spreads color along paper fibers while gouache produces opaque color. The document examines artistic works to demonstrate the qualities and expressions afforded by different painting media.

1. WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART
CHAPTER
EIGHTH EDITION
World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.
Painting
9

2. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
1 of 21 of 2
1. Distinguish among the early painting
media—encaustic, fresco, and
tempera.
2. Describe what is distinctive about oil
painting as a medium.
3. Explain why watercolor is perhaps the
most expressive of the painting media.

3. Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives
2 of 22 of 2
4. Discuss some of the advantages
offered the artist by synthetic painting
media.
5. Outline some of the ways that painting
has combined itself with other media.

4. IntroductionIntroduction
• A figure known as La Pittura, "the
picture," emerged in Italian art around
the fifteenth century.
 This personification of painting
announced the cultural arrival as
painting as an art.
• Artemisia Gentileschi's Self-Portrait
presents the artist as both a real
person and La Pittura.

5. Giorgio Vasari, The Art of Painting.
1542. Fresco of the vault of the Main Room, Casa Vasari, Arezzo, Italy.
Canali Photobank, Milan, Italy. [Fig. 9-1]

6. Artemisia Gentileschi, Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting.
1630. Oil on canvas, 35-1/4 ✕ 29". The Royal Collection.
Bridgeman Images. Photo: C. Cooper Ltd. © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2015.
[Fig. 9-2]

7. Early Painting MediaEarly Painting Media
1 of 21 of 2
• Artists use pigments suspended in a
medium, or binder, that anchors the
pigment to the support or painting
surface.
• Most supports are too absorbent to
allow easy application, so they are
primed with a paintlike ground.

8. Early Painting MediaEarly Painting Media
2 of 22 of 2
• A solvent or vehicle is a thinner that
allows the paint to flow more readily;
often, it is water- or oil-based,
depending on the base used to create
the paint.

9. EncausticEncaustic
1 of 21 of 2
• One of the oldest painting media,
encaustic is made by combining a
pigment with hot wax.
• Most surviving paintings come from
Faiyum in Egypt.
 A transplanted Greek artist may have
been responsible for Mummy Portrait of
a Man; there is remarkable skill with the
brush.

10. Mummy Portrait of a Man, Faiyum, Egypt.
ca. 160–70 CE. Encaustic on wood, 14 × 18". Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York.
Charles Clifton Fund, 1938. © 2015. Albright Knox Art Gallery/Art Resource, New
York/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-3]

11. EncausticEncaustic
2 of 22 of 2
• Encaustic requires the painter to work
quickly while the wax is still liquid.
• Luminosity afforded by the medium has
led to a recent revival, as seen in
Jasper Johns's Flag.

12. FrescoFresco
1 of 51 of 5
• Early frescoes were discovered well at
Pompeii and Herculaneum.
 Still Life with Eggs and Thrushes
features objects painted to life-size.
• Fresco was the preferred medium for
wall painting.
 Pigment is mixed with limewater and
applied to a lime plaster wall either still
wet (buon fresco) or dry (fresco secco).

13. Still Life with Eggs and Thrushes, Villa of Julia Felix, Pompeii.
Before 79 CE. Fresco, 35" × 4' National Archaeological Museum, Naples.
© 2015. Photo Scala, Florence, courtesy of the Ministero Beni e Att. Culturali. [Fig. 9-4]

14. FrescoFresco
2 of 52 of 5
• Artists must work quickly with buon
fresco before the plaster dries, but with
fresco secco, the artist's pace can be as
slow or quick as desired.
 However, a disadvantage of fresco secco
is that moisture can creep between the
plaster and the paint. They survive best
in arid climates.

15. FrescoFresco
3 of 53 of 5
• The Bodhisattva from India was created
with layers of mud and straw as well
as gypsum or lime plaster.
 The figure is lavishly adorned with
jewelry and forms a teaching mudra in
his right hand.
• Italian Renaissance and later frescoes
emphasized creating the illusion of
reality.

16. Bodhisattva, detail of a fresco wall painting in Cave I, Ajanta, Maharashtra, India.
ca. 475 CE.
© Dinodia Photos/Alamy. [Fig. 9-5]

17. FrescoFresco
4 of 54 of 5
• The Scrovegni Chapel was designed to
house 38 individual scenes of the lives
of the Virgin and Christ.
 In Lamentation, lines between different
sections of the fresco are apparent,
especially in the sky.
• Giornata, or a "day's work," is what
we call sections of frescoes that are
able to be completed in a day.

18. Giotto, Lamentation.
ca. 1305. Fresco, approx. 5' 10" × 6' 6". Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.
© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 9-6]

19. FrescoFresco
5 of 55 of 5
• A Baroque illusion ceiling is seen in The
Glorification of St. Ignatius by Fra
Andrea Pozzo.
 From the point of view of the
congregation, it is as though the roof of
the church were removed to reveal the
glories of heaven.
 Dramatic foreshortening adds to the
effect.

20. Fra Andrea Pozzo, The Glorification of St. Ignatius.
1691–94. Ceiling fresco. Nave of Sant' Ignazio, Rome.
© Vincenzo Pirozzi, Rome. [Fig. 9-7]

21. TemperaTempera
1 of 41 of 4
• Tempera paint is made by combining
water, pigment, and a gummy material
such as egg yolk.
• In Renaissance times, working with
tempera meant colors could not be
blended readily and chiaroscuro was
accomplished through the means of
hatching.

22. TemperaTempera
2 of 42 of 4
• Gesso, made from glue and plaster or
chalk, prepares a surface for tempera
paint.
• Giotto's Madonna and Child Enthroned
exhibits an effort to advance the
realism.
 The painting denotes a Madonna and
Child, but connotes the greater love of
God for humanity.

23. Giotto, Madonna and Child Enthroned.
ca. 1310. Tempera on panel, 10' 8" × 6' 8-1/4". Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy.
© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 9-8]

24. TemperaTempera
3 of 43 of 4
• The didactism, or ability of a work to
teach or elevate the mind, was
important to audiences in Giotto's time.
• Sandro Botticelli's Primavera is one of
the greatest tempera paintings ever
achieved.
 Much is known about the process
utilized to layer paints and washes due
to its restoration in 1978.

25. Sandro Botticelli, Primavera.
ca. 1482. Tempera on a gesso ground on poplar panel, 6' 8" × 10' 3-1/4". Galleria degli
Uffizi, Florence.
© Studio Fotografico Quattrone, Florence. [Fig. 9-11]

26. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
1 of 21 of 2
• Preparing to Paint the Sistine Chapel:
Michelangelo's Libyan Sibyl
 Pope Julius II had originally envisioned a
commission for the ceiling of the Sistine
Chapel to include geometric ornaments
and the Apostles.
 The new design containing 12 Old
Testament prophets alternating with 12
sibyls was laid in cartoons traced with a
stylus prior to being painted.

27. Michelangelo, Study for the Libyan Sibyl.
1510. Red chalk on paper, 11-3/8 × 8-7⁄16". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Purchase, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, 1924 (24.197.2). Image © Metropolitan Museum of
Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-9]

28. Michelangelo, The Libyan Sibyl.
1511–12. Fresco, detail of the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Vatican City.
© Vatican Museums, Vatican City. Photograph: A. Braccetti/P. Zigrossi/IKONA. [Fig. 9-
10]

29. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
2 of 22 of 2
• Preparing to Paint the Sistine Chapel:
Michelangelo's Libyan Sibyl
 A surviving study shows the figure of a
woman twisting in an almost spiral
contrapposto.
 The severity of line and detail in the
original sketch has been reduced in the
final painting.

30. TemperaTempera
4 of 44 of 4
• Julie Green's Don't Name Fish after
Friends features faint traces of earlier
paintings beneath the surface of the
current version.
 It was painted overtop a portrait of a
Hasidic Jewish man, along with a
portrayal an armadillo and a dozen
other versions.

31. Julie Green, Don't Name Fish after Friends.
1999–2009. Egg tempera on panel, 24 × 18".
Courtesy of the artist. [Fig. 9-12]

32. Oil PaintingOil Painting
1 of 61 of 6
• Painters in Europe realized that oil
paint was a more versatile medium
than tempera.
 It can be blended on the painting
surface, thinned with turpentine, taken
straight from the tube for impasto, and
is slower to dry.
• Glazing the painting causes painted
objects to appear to reflect light.

33. Diagram of a section of a 15th-century oil painting, demonstrating the luminosity of the
medium.
[Fig. 9-13]

34. Oil PaintingOil Painting
2 of 62 of 6
• Robert Campin and his workshop
created The Mérode Altarpiece in oil to
realistic effect.
 It is portable at only 2 feet square.
 Details of the Annunciation scene
include rays of sunlight that enter the
room to fall directly on Mary's abdomen;
a miniature Christ carrying the cross
reveals that his entire life enters her
body at the moment of conception.

35. Robert Campin and workshop, The Annunciation (The Mérode Altarpiece).
ca. 1425–30. Oil on wood, triptych, central panel 25-1/4 × 24-7/8", each wing 25-3/8 ×
10-3/4". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Cloisters Collection, 1956.70. © 2015. Image © Metropolitan Museum of Art/Art
Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-14]

36. Robert Campin and workshop, The Annunciation (The Mérode Altarpiece) (detail).
ca. 1425–30.
[Fig. 9-15]

37. Oil PaintingOil Painting
3 of 63 of 6
• Jan de Heem's Still Life with Lobster
depicts the wealth of the Dutch with a
vanitas warning.
 These paintings remind us of the
frivolous vanity of human existence;
material goods do not last as long as
spiritual gifts.

38. Jan de Heem, Still Life with Lobster.
Late 1640s. Oil on canvas, 25-1/8 × 33-1/4". Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.
Photo: Photography Incorporated, Toledo. [Fig. 9-16]

39. Oil PaintingOil Painting
4 of 64 of 6
• New Refrigerator by Antonio López
exemplifies a contemporary still life.
 The contrast between the light in the
room compared with the abstract
blotches of items within the refrigerator
still reflects the vanitas theme.

40. Antonio López García, New Refrigerator.
1991–94. Oil on canvas, 7' 10-1/2" × 6' 2-13⁄16". Collection of the artist.
Photo © Francisco Fernández, Unidad Móvil Fotografía Especializada. © 2015 Artists
Rights Society (ARS), New York/VEGAP, Madrid. [Fig. 9-17]

41. Oil PaintingOil Painting
5 of 65 of 6
• Josephine Halvorson's Carcass shows
the expressive potential of the oil
medium.
 The artist paints overlooked objects in
single, day-long sittings on site to draw
attention to what brought her to the
object in the first place.
 This particular painting was created for
a carcass from a slaughterhouse.

42. Josephine Halvorson, Carcass.
2011. Oil on linen, 34 × 28".
Courtesy of the artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York. [Fig. 9-18]

43. Oil PaintingOil Painting
6 of 66 of 6
• Rackstraw Downes traveled widesly in a
search for interesting material.
 Presidio... was painted on the
Mexico/U.S. border en plein air,
referring to a work made on site,
outdoors.
• ATV tracks swirl through the hills in a
representation of man's impact on
nature.
 His paintings distort to a bird's eye,
180-degree view.

44. Rackstraw Downes, Presidio in the Sand Hills Looking East with ATV Tracks and Water
Tower.
2012. Oil on canvas, 16-1/2" × 5' 5-1/4".
Courtesy of Betty Cuningham Gallery, New York. [Fig. 9-19]

45. Watercolor and GouacheWatercolor and Gouache
1 of 41 of 4
• Watercolor paintings are made by
applying pigments suspended in water
and gum arabic to dampened paper.
• Depending on paper absorbency,
watercolor spreads along the fibers of
the paper when it is applied.
• Winslow Homer's A Wall, Nassau
features spaces of unpainted paper,
dense color, and transparent washes.

46. Winslow Homer, A Wall, Nassau.
1898. Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, 14-3/4 × 21-1/2". Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York.
Amelia B. Lazarus Fund, 1910.228.90. © 2015. Image copyright Metropolitan Museum of
Art/Art Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-20]

47. Watercolor and GouacheWatercolor and Gouache
2 of 42 of 4
• Marin's Untitled (The Blue Sea) was the
result of abstract trends.
 Rather than a visual recording of a
Maine coastline, it features basic forms
of the landscape swept by washes of
watercolor in an effort to capture the
"moving of me" the artist wished to
express.

48. John Marin, Untitled (The Blue Sea).
ca. 1921. Watercolor and charcoal on paper, 16-1/2 × 19-5/8". Smithsonian American
Art Museum, Washington, D.C.
Museum Purchase, 1964.2V. © 2015. Photo Smithsonian American Art Museum/Art
Resource/Scala, Florence. © 2015 Estate of John Marin/Artists Rights Society (ARS),
New York. [Fig. 9-21]

49. Watercolor and GouacheWatercolor and Gouache
3 of 43 of 4
• Gouache is opaque rather than
transparent.
 Essentially, it contains watercolor mixed
with Chinese chalk.
 It is well qualified to create large, flat,
colored forms, but not to blend
brushstrokes and color together.

50. Watercolor and GouacheWatercolor and Gouache
4 of 44 of 4
• The painting from Jacob Lawrence's
Harlem Series appears in drunken,
disoriented imbalance created by
flattened space.
• John Singer Sargent's Rushing Brook
combines watercolor and gouache for a
textured effect.

51. Jacob Lawrence, You can buy bootleg whiskey for twenty-five cents a quart, from the
Harlem Series.
1942–43. Gouache on paper, 15-1/2 × 22-1/2". Portland Art Museum, Oregon.
Helen Thurston Ayer Fund. © 2015 Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence Foundation,
Seattle/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 9-22]

52. John Singer Sargent, Rushing Brook.
ca. 1904–11. Watercolor, gouache, and graphite underdrawing on off-white wove paper,
18-3/8 × 12-3/8". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1950.130.80i. Digital Image copyright Metropolitan Museum
of Art, New York/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-23]

53. Synthetic MediaSynthetic Media
1 of 41 of 4
• Oil painting outdoors proved frustrating
due to itsslow-drying properties
compared with continual exposure to
the elements.
• Los Tres Grandes, Siqueiros, Rivera,
and Orozco, were a group of Mexican
painters who experimented with
synthetic media; they first used
pyroxylin, an automobile paint.

54. Synthetic MediaSynthetic Media
2 of 42 of 4
• Water-based acrylic paints were
produced beginning in 1956.
• Helen Frankenthaler worked with stain
on unprimed canvas, a technique that
attracted painters who were
experimenting with acrylic Magna.
 The Bay has an atmospheric presence,
looking spontaneous despite its large
size.

55. Helen Frankenthaler, The Bay.
1963. Acrylic on canvas, 6' 8-3/4" × 6' 9-1/2". Detroit Institute of Arts.
Founders Society Purchase, Dr. & Mrs. Hilbert H. Delawter Fund. Bridgeman Images. ©
2015 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
[Fig. 9-24]

56. Synthetic MediaSynthetic Media
3 of 43 of 4
• Acrylic surfaces were durable and well
suited for outdoor and indoor spaces.
• Jeremy Deller's A Good Day for Cyclists
mural features a hen harrier sinking its
talons into a Range Rover.
 The work symbolizes an incident of two
hen harriers being shot out of the sky
by Prince Harry and his friend in 2007.

57. Jeremy Deller, A Good Day for Cyclists (painted by Sarah Tynan).
2013. Acrylic on wall, as installed in Jeremy Deller's English Magic, British Pavilion, 55th
Venice Biennale.
Photo: Cristiano Corte. [Fig. 9-25]

58. Synthetic MediaSynthetic Media
4 of 44 of 4
• Acrylic paint in aerosol cans is the
foundation of graffiti writing.
 While still considered a criminal activity
by many, graffiti has entered the
mainstream art world.
• Kenny Scharf's part of the mural on
Houston Street in SoHo was painted
with a predetermined plan over the
course of five days.

59. Kenny Scharf, Mural on Houston Street, SoHo, Manhattan, New York, as it appeared on
May 31, 2011.
May 31, 2011. © Michel Setboun/Corbis. [Fig. 9-26]

60. Mixed MediaMixed Media
• When artists purposely combine various
media, their work is classified as mixed
media.
• Its primary purpose is that it violates
the integrity of painting as a medium
by introducing everyday materials to
painting.

61. Collage and PhotomontageCollage and Photomontage
1 of 21 of 2
• Collage involves pasting or gluing
fragments of printed matter or flat
material onto a two-dimensional
surface.
• Juan Gris, in The Table, raises the
question of what is "real" and "false" in
art.
 Woodgrain designs are "real" wallpaper,
but "false" wood.

62. Juan Gris, The Table.
1914. Colored papers, printed matter, charcoal on paper mounted on canvas, 23-1/2 ×
17-1/2". Philadelphia Museum of Art.
A. E. Gallatin Collection, 1952. © 2015 Photo Philadelphia Museum of Art/Art
Resource/Scala, Florence. [Fig. 9-27]

63. Collage and PhotomontageCollage and Photomontage
2 of 22 of 2
• When collage consists entirely of
photographs, it is called
photomontage.
 Martha Rosler combined news
photographs of the Iraq war and
advertisements from magazines for
Gladiators.

64. Martha Rosler, Gladiators, from the series House Beautiful: Bringing the War Home.
2004. Photomontage, dimensions variable.
Courtesy of Martha Rosler and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York. [Fig. 9-28]

65. The Creative ProcessThe Creative Process
• Political Collage: Hannah Höch's
Cut with the Kitchen Knife
 Hannah Höch utilized photomontage as
a means of protesting the nationalism of
Nazi art.
 In the image, identifiable figures are
engaged in activities discussing
Dadaism.

66. Hannah Höch, Study for "Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer
Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany."
1919. Ballpoint pen sketch on white board, 10-5/8 × 8-5/8". Staatliche Museen, Berlin,
Preussischer Kulturbesitz Nationalgalerie.
bpk/Nationalgalerie, SMB/Jörg P. Anders. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New
York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. [Fig. 9-29]

67. Hannah Höch, Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly
Cultural Epoch of Germany.
1919. Collage, 44-7/8 × 35-7⁄16". Nationalgalerie Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
Inv. NG 57/91. Photo: Jorg P. Anders, Berlin. © 2015 Photo Scala, Florence/bpk,
Bildagentur fuer Kunst, Kultur und Geschichte, Berlin. © 2015 Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn. [Fig. 9-30]

68. Painting Beyond the FramePainting Beyond the Frame
1 of 31 of 3
• Kara Walker's installations seem
unsculptural due to her use of
silhouette.
• What transforms her installation into a
sculptural work are the light projections
from the ceiling that activate the scene
as well as insert the viewers' own
shadows.

69. Kara Walker, Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On).
2000. Installation views, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Cut paper
silhouettes and light projections, site-specific dimensions.
Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive
Committee Members, 2000. Photo: Ellen Labenski. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York. © Kara Walker. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins. [Fig. 9-31]

70. Kara Walker, Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On).
2000. Installation views, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Cut paper
silhouettes and light projections, site-specific dimensions.
Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council and Executive
Committee Members, 2000. Photo: Ellen Labenski. © Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York. © Kara Walker. Courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins. [Fig. 9-32]

71. Painting Beyond the FramePainting Beyond the Frame
2 of 32 of 3
• Robert Rauschenberg's Monogram is a
combine-painting, or high-relief
collage.
 The work brings together various
objects, allowing them to coexist
without unity.
 Rauschenberg found the goat in a
secondhand store and struggled with
finding a way to make it look as though
it belonged in the painting.

72. Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram.
1955–59. Freestanding combine: oil, fabric, wood, on canvas and wood, rubber heel,
tennis ball, metal plaque, hardware, stuffed Angora goat, rubber tire, mounted on four
wheels, 42" × 5' 3-1/4" × 5' 4-1/2".
Art © Robert Rauschenberg Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York. [Fig. 9-33]

73. Painting Beyond the FramePainting Beyond the Frame
3 of 33 of 3
• Matte painting in cinema is a relatively
new extension of painting.
 They were traditionally made by artists
using paints or pastels on large sheets
of glass in which live-action footage
might be filmed.
 For The Bucket List, the matte painting
of the Taj Mahal was wider than the
actual Taj Mahal to allow for matching
perspective.

74. The Critical Process: Thinking aboutThe Critical Process: Thinking about
PaintingPainting
1 of 21 of 2
• Representation is not the sole goal of
painting, despite being an important
one.
• Fred Tomaselli combines painting with
mixed media to form his
representations.

75. Fred Tomaselli, Airborne Event.
2003. Mixed media, acrylic, and resin on wood, 7' × 5' × 1-1/2".
© Fred Tomaselli/Courtesy of James Cohan Gallery, New York and Shanghai. [Fig. 9-34]

76. The Critical Process: Thinking aboutThe Critical Process: Thinking about
PaintingPainting
2 of 22 of 2
• In Airborne Event, he portrays what
appears to be an image of a
psychadelic high, but with a price.
 The "jewel-like nature" of pills can also
be considered.
 Additionally, an "airborne event" can
include the spread of disease or
disaster.

77. Thinking BackThinking Back
1 of 21 of 2
1. Distinguish among the early painting
media— encaustic, fresco, and
tempera.
2. Describe what is distinctive about oil
painting as a medium.
3. Explain why watercolor is perhaps the
most expressive of the painting media.

78. Thinking BackThinking Back
2 of 22 of 2
4. Discuss some of the advantages
offered the artist by synthetic painting
media.
5. Outline some of the ways that painting
has combined itself with other media.