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Synonyms:See what "Sfumato" is in other dictionaries:
- (Italian sfumato, literally disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects, allowing you to convey the air enveloping them. The sfumato technique was developed by Leonardo da Vinci ... Modern Encyclopedia
- (Italian sfumato lit. disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the light and air environment surrounding them. The sfumato technique was developed by Leonardo da Vinci... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Italian sfumato shaded, literally disappeared like smoke), a technique in painting: softening the outlines of objects, figures and light and shade modeling in general, which allows you to convey the air that envelops them. Reception of sfumato as the most important element ... ... Art Encyclopedia
Painting, reception Dictionary of Russian synonyms. sfumato n., number of synonyms: 2 painting (41) reception ... Synonym dictionary
Sfumato- (Italian sfumato, literally disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects, allowing you to convey the air enveloping them. The sfumato technique was developed by Leonardo da Vinci. … Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Italian sfumato, literally disappeared like smoke), in painting, softening the outlines of objects with the help of a picturesque recreation of the light and air environment surrounding them. The sfumato technique was developed by Leonardo da Vinci. * * * SFUMATO SFUMATO (Italian sfumato, letters ... encyclopedic Dictionary
- (Italian sfumato shaded, literally disappeared like smoke) a technique in painting: softening the outlines of depicted objects, figures (and light and shade modeling in general), which allows you to convey the air enveloping them. Reception S., one of ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
sfumato- sfum ato, non-cl., cf ... Russian spelling dictionary
sfumato- unknown, p. Admission to the figurative art: help to outline the articles and subjects, as if giving the opportunity to convey again, what you feel ... Ukrainian glossy dictionary
sfumato- (Italian sfumato) mind. 1. not clear, spilled, matno (naslikano) 2. similar to good senki ... Macedonian dictionary
Books
- Sfumato, Cooper Yuri Leonidovich, Yuri Cooper is a world-famous artist whose works are kept in major museums and collections in the world, including the Tretyakov Gallery and the collection of the US Library of Congress. "Sfumato" is a big novel... Category: Modern Russian prose Publisher: AST,
- Sfumato, Yuri Cooper, Yuri Cooper is an internationally renowned artist whose work is held in major museums and collections around the world, including the Tretyakov Gallery and the US Library of Congress collection. "Sfumato" - a novel ... Category:
The sfumato technique is performed with almost transparent thin hatching and allows you to make transitions between lines, colors and tones. The blur effect is similar to vanishing smoke. The term comes from the Italian "sfumate" - "to muffle" or "haze". In painting, the Leonardo da Vinci technique refers to the process of layering thin glazes of translucent paint in such a way that there are no visible strokes in the transition of tones or clear lines separating light and dark areas.
Sfumato is applied away from the focal point of the painting. Midtones fade into shadows, color diffuses into monochromatic darks, as in a photographic image with a dense focal length range. The technique involves using a series of translucent layers to achieve a gradual tonal spectrum from dark to light.
Leonardo da Vinci
The great master of Western Renaissance painting, Leonardo da Vinci was a proponent of sfumato: that is, painting without lines or borders, in the form of smoke or outside the focal plane. Instead of hard edges, the painting relies on soft edges and finely ordered transitions of areas of varying color and tonal values. When applied correctly, it enhances the illusion of depth, atmosphere, but does not compromise the structural integrity of the objects within the painting.
Leonardo Davinci "Mona Lisa"
The work of Leonardo da Vinci is most often associated with this term - for example, the face of the Mona Lisa, especially the eyes. The artist was a master of the sfumato technique, as it contributed to realism and mystery. Leonardo da Vinci created the hair and glow of the skin of the “Mona Lisa” with the thinnest layers of translucent color, which allows you to convey the inner ethereal and magical glow of women's faces.
Features of watercolor painting technique
In the visual arts, sfumato in oil painting is like a curtain of smoke between the painting and the viewer. The Leonardo da Vinci method exists to:
- mute bright areas and lighten dark ones;
- make a soft, imperceptible transition between different tones, where the shades merge and smoothly transition into each other;
- create imperceptible gradations between tones and colors;
- make the picture realistic with minimal contrasts between light and shadow;
- the technique is also used to create subtle atmospheric, smoky effects, soft and realistic facial features.
Sfumato is less well known in oil painting than glaze, impasto or alla prima. Leonardo da Vinci's technique is performed with a huge amount of tonal variation that smoothes the boundaries and creates a visual texture of smoke. The contours are difficult to distinguish, but one can guess their location. There are no sharp lines in the paintings, only ghostly tonal areas that interlock and flow from one to another.
Painting on wet watercolor
Secrets of technology
There is no single recipe or instruction for obtaining the subtle, elegant sfumato effect. In fact, several Leonardo da Vinci techniques in oil painting are used for this technique:
Fine glaze
The use of thin glazes is one such method - the underpainting is modified, smoothed and improved with each subsequent layer of oil paint. The glaze used is clear, with just enough linseed oil to add to the skin color. The work is done with natural soft sable brushes. Appropriate mixtures of paint colors for the job - for skin or background shadow - are created on a palette and then applied as a smooth, transparent glaze to a specific area of the painting. Each layer hides and smoothes small bumps and brush marks, creating a soft sheen. 
Imprimatura in painting
Dry brush
Another technique in sfumato is the use of a dry brush. At the final stage of the painting, a small amount of oil paint is applied with the tip of a thin but hard brush.
Rags and fingers
Lubrication method using rags and fingers.
Cleaning
Dry cleaning is carefully carried out on large areas of the picture. Dark or pale shades of paint, slightly shaded in the appropriate areas, create effects like soft charcoal drawings. Contours are hidden and tone depth is enhanced. With each coat of paint, color and texture take on more importance to make the top smooth brushstroke with as few strokes as possible for a sfumato effect. By the end of the session, the dry mix of paint was applied around the most important features of the face or object, and after drying, cleaned up. Cleaning creates unrefined shading. An oil paint is then applied over the glazes and the cleaned area, which merges in tone with the main color of the selected area - this creates soft transition effects. 
The history of the Gothic style in painting
In pastels
At the end of the last century, the concept of sfumato began to be applied in pastel painting. The works begin to look like an almost abstract sketch. By changing the pressure of the brush while painting, you can avoid the effect of conventional painting and create a sense of depth and atmosphere. In the works it is recommended to use a blurry or wet underpainting in large forms, changing the tone and color depth.
The more underpainting softens the edges, the better the sfumato effect. Even when using additional color schemes for subsequent touch-up, underpainting maintains a smooth transition between areas. When applying pastels, thin strokes can be used to gradually transition between colors and tones. This visually subtle method allows you to blur the border between objects without changing the nature of the work and improve the appearance, form and perspective.
Features of hyperrealism as a style in painting
Sfumato is a subtle gradation of tone aimed at completely smoothing out sharp edges and creating synergy between light and shadow in a painting. With thin shading, the artist creates soft, imperceptible transitions between colors and shades. Leonardo da Vinci taught fine gradation, 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 representations of atmospheric phenomena and faces in portraits.
For some reason, in all the paintings, drawings and frescoes, Leonardo's women smile mysteriously. Sometimes you can see this half-smile in men. Smiling John the Baptist, pointing to the cross - a symbol of the future crucifixion. The Madonna Lita smiles, bending over the curly-haired Divine Infant. Volumes have been written about Gioconda's smile.
So smiles everyone who knows the great secret. Leonardo da Vinci, apparently, really knew a lot that is hidden from us even today. He was the first person to look at himself and us from the inside. One could be frightened and recoil from this infernal interweaving of living hoses and bone levers - it was not for nothing that the church forbade autopsies ... Leonardo violated the law, secretly descending at night into the cellars, where he dissected the bodies of the executed for a fee. At first, it seemed to him that people are just complex mechanisms. After all, he was an inventor himself. Together with anatomical sketches, drawings of a helicopter, a submarine, a space suit and even a bicycle have been preserved.
Leonardo's helicopters did not fly, submarines did not swim. But man functioned properly, although his Creator was always somewhere out of sight. And Leonardo began to look for the Creator in man...
Fly into the past
Amazing, prophetic inventions of the great Leonardo da Vinci, our contemporaries are increasingly amazed at the drawings. Some, however, make dummies for museum displays. It is believed that it is impossible to implement and use these projects in life: there are a lot of technical errors. Despite all these arguments, the 42-year-old mechanic from Bedfordshire, Steve Roberts, exactly according to the drawings of Leonardo, designed the working prototype of the modern hang glider, invented by da Vinci five centuries ago. An English craftsman made it exclusively from materials available during the life of a brilliant Italian. The apparatus is similar to the skeleton of a bird and is made of Italian poplar, reeds, animal tendons and linen treated with beetle secretion glaze. There was, or rather, there was also a brave tester who jumped with the wings of Leonardo from the hills of Surrey. Twice world champion hang glider Judy Liden admitted after: "It was the most dangerous flight of my life." As a result of 20 attempts, she still managed to lift da Vinci's invention to a height of 10 m and stay in the air for 17 seconds. This was enough to prove that the device really works. Although, no doubt, he is far from modern hang gliders. “It was almost impossible to control it, I flew where the wind was blowing, and I could not do anything about it. Probably, the tester of the first car in history felt the same way,” said Judy. The flights were carried out as part of a £1 million pilot television project.
A cipher for the ages
Leonardo encrypted a lot so that his ideas would be revealed gradually, as humanity "ripened" to them. The inventor wrote with his left hand and incredibly small letters, and even from right to left. But this is not enough - he turned all the letters in a mirror image. He spoke in riddles, sprinkled with metaphorical prophecies, loved to compose puzzles. Leonardo did not sign his works, but they have identification marks. For example, if you peer into the paintings, you can find a symbolic bird taking off. Apparently, there are quite a few such signs, so one or another of his offspring is suddenly discovered through the centuries. As was the case with the Benois Madonna, which for a long time as a home icon was taken with itinerant actors.
Sfumato
Leonardo invented the principle of scattering (or sfumato). The objects on his canvases do not have clear boundaries: everything, as in life, is blurry, penetrates one into another, which means it breathes, lives, awakens fantasy. The Italian advised one to practice this scattering, looking at spots on the walls arising from dampness, ashes, clouds or dirt. He deliberately smoked the room where he worked in order to look for images in clubs. Thanks to the sfumato effect, a flickering smile of the Gioconda appeared, when, depending on the focus of the gaze, it seems to the viewer that the heroine of the picture either smiles gently or grins predatorily. The second miracle of Mona Lisa is that she is "alive". Over the centuries, her smile changes, the corners of her lips rise higher. In the same way, the Master mixed the knowledge of different sciences, so his inventions find more and more applications over time. From the treatise on light and shadow come the beginnings of the sciences of penetrating power, oscillatory motion, and the propagation of waves. All of his 120 booksdispersed (sfumato) throughout the world and gradually open up to humanity.
analogy method
Leonardo preferred the method of analogy to all others. Approximation of analogy is an advantage over the accuracy of a syllogism, when a third inevitably follows from two conclusions. But one thing. But the more bizarre the analogy, the further the conclusions from it extend. Take at least the famous illustration of the Master, proving the proportionality of the human body. With outstretched arms and spread legs, the figure of a man fits into a circle. And with closed legs and raised arms - in a square, while forming a cross. This "mill" gave impetus to a number of different thoughts. The Florentine turned out to be the only one from whom the projects of churches came, when the altar is placed in the middle (the navel of a person), and the worshipers are evenly around. This church plan in the form of an octahedron served as another invention of genius - a ball bearing.
counterpost
Leonardo liked to use the rule of contraposta - opposition of opposites. Contrapost creates movement. When making a sculpture of a giant horse in Corte Vecchio, the artist placed the legs of the horse in contraposta, which created the illusion of a special free ride. Everyone who saw the statue involuntarily changed their gait to a more relaxed one.
Windows of incompleteness
Leonardo was never in a hurry to finish a work, for unfinishedness is an obligatory quality of life. To finish means to kill! The slowness of the creator was the talk of the town, he could make two or three strokes and leave the city for many days, for example, to improve the valleys of Lombardy or create an apparatus for walking on water. Almost every one of his significant works is "work in progress". Many were spoiled by water, fire, barbaric treatment, but the artist did not correct them. The Master had a special composition, with the help of which he seemed to specially make "windows of incompleteness" on the finished picture. Apparently, in this way he left a place where life itself could intervene, correct something.
History of Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa would have long been known only to connoisseurs of fine art, if not for her exceptional history, which made her world famous. The Mona Lisa received worldwide fame not only because of the qualities of Leonardo's work, which impress art lovers and professionals alike, would long remain only for connoisseurs of art, if its history were not also exceptional. From the beginning of the sixteenth century, the painting, acquired by Francis I directly from the hands of Leonardo da Vinci, remained in the royal collection after Leonardo's death. Since 1793 it has been placed in the Central Museum of Art in the Louvre. Mona Lisa has always remained in the Louvre as one of the property of the national collection. It was studied by historians, copied by painters, copied often, but on August 21, 1911, the painting was stolen by an Italian painter, Vincenzo Peruggia, in order to return it to its historical homeland. After police interrogation of all the suspects, the Cubist painter, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (on that day he called for the entire Louvre to be burned), and many others, the painting was found only two years later in Italy. It was examined and processed by restorers and hung in place with honors. During this time, Mona Lisa did not leave the covers of newspapers and magazines around the world.
Since then, the painting has become an object of cult and worship, as a masterpiece of world classics. In the twentieth century, the picture almost did not leave the Louvre. In 1963 he visited the USA and 1974 in Japan. The trips only cemented her success and fame.
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There are two classical painting styles associated with the old masters, the sfumato and the chiaroscuro, and they are no more similar than a piece of cheese and a piece of coal. But we still get confused in these two pines, often not making out which artist used which technique.
Sfumato and Leonardo
Sfumato uses subtle tonal transitions to mask clear contours and create a vibrant interplay of light and shadow. As one of the greatest art historians, Ernst Gombrich, explained, “... this is the famous invention of Leonardo ... thanks to blurry outlines and soft tones, one form merges with another and always leaves us room for imagination.”
Da Vinci used this technique with great skill: Mona Lisa's smile owes its mysteriousness to this method. The elusive smile seems to melt, and we can only think of the details.
How exactly did Leonardo achieve this effect? For the whole picture, he chose a certain range of tones that unite the entire canvas: these are blue, green and earthy shades of the same saturation. Bright highlights would break the muted color of the picture, so the master completely abandoned them. Leonardo quote: "If you want to create a portrait, write in cloudy weather or with the onset of evening."
However, sfumato also works against the background, and not just in the central part of the picture: the midtones gently fade into darkness, the color dissolves in monochrome shadows, as if in a photograph with a clearly tuned focus.
If your sitter is shy about wrinkles, sfumato is your choice!
Chiaroscuro and Rembrandt
In the paintings of Caravaggio, Correggio, and, of course, Rembrandt, the approach is completely different: there are no gentle tonal gradations, the border between light and shadow is clear and hard. The center of the composition is lit very brightly, as if by a spotlight, and the surroundings are dark and gloomy - burning brown tones turn into impenetrable black.
This is chiaroscuro, literally meaning "light and dark", a technique designed to convey spectacular dramatic contrasts. The effect is achieved by successive application of translucent brown tones. Unfortunately, brown paints, so beloved by the masters of the Renaissance, often. were based on resins, and now many canvases are in a deplorable state, as the resin seeps through the canvases all the time.
To achieve the effect of chiaroscuro these days, you can use a consistent application of umber (or burnt umber for warmer shades). Keep in mind that if you want to put light spots next to dark areas, you should warm up the tone by adding red paint to the paint mixture - this will balance out the cold shadows.
Good luck painting!
Free translation from English.
Meaning of the word
The Italian word "sfumato" literally means "disappearing like smoke." During the Renaissance, painters began to use this term, meaning by it a special shaded image. Later, this term began to be used to name a special technique for transferring halftones.
Technical features
It is believed that Leonardo da Vinci, who is considered the ancestor of sfumato, generalized and improved the methods of transferring halftones that existed during the Italian Renaissance. The technique consists in applying the thinnest, translucent layers that do not overlap each other, but only darken or brighten fragments of the canvas. Thin glazes of minimal color difference allow you to create a feeling of haze, fog. Sfumato in the painting of Leonardo da Vinci was brought to perfection. Modern research shows that he could apply layers as thin as 3-4 microns. Sfumato techniques are used to highlight the compositional center. Blurred contours allow you to more clearly and effectively emphasize the most important object on the canvas. Halftones gradually turn into a dense shadow, without creating transition boundaries visible to the eye.
Classic sfumato is created using special translucent paints and glazes. For work, the artists use light brushes made of sable, which allow you to make almost invisible strokes. Later, the “dry brush” technique appeared, when the artist walked over the main pictorial canvas with the lightest strokes with a small amount of dry coloring mixture. And after the image was completely dry, he still cleaned up the excess to leave a literally microscopic layer.
Distinctive features of sfumato
You can see all the beauty of sfumato in painting on the canvases of Leonardo da Vinci. The background on his canvases is devoid of clarity, pronounced lines and strokes. Haze and blurring of the background allows you to focus the viewer's attention on the main object of the picture. At the same time, the soft background gives the work atmosphere and depth.
There is a misconception that sfumato is an exclusively pictorial technique. This is wrong. The same Leonardo perfectly used the technique in a pencil drawing. Achieving shading and shading of the finest transitions. Also, this technique effectively works in the pastel technique. By changing the degree of pressure on the pastel brush, the artist achieves a different degree of color intensity, and the use of wet crayon allows you to get a different degree of image depth. Also in pastels, shading and tinting are used to create the sfumato effect. This allows you to erase the border between color and tonal transitions and get the desired effect of fog and haze.
Masterpieces by Leonardo
There are only a few geniuses who were able to come up with something exceptionally new in painting, and one of them is Leonardo da Vinci. The sfumato technique in painting, as well as spatial perspective, is the most important find of the artist. When we talk about sfumato, then, naturally, da Vinci's main masterpiece, La Gioconda, comes to mind. The background of this work is an example of classical "smoky" painting. The figure of Mona Lisa becomes more embossed and expressive precisely because of the blurry, dim and such an atmospheric background. The mystery of her smile is largely manifested precisely due to the transparency of the background. Also, the sfumato technique in painting is represented in several more works by the master, including Madonna in the Rocks, Madonna and Child, John the Baptist, Madonna with a Carnation.
Unione
Sfumato in painting received its development in the unione technique. It is characteristic primarily of Raphael. Compared to the classic sfumato, unione uses brighter colors, and the contours of the figures remain more pronounced. However, the basic principle of imperceptibility of tonal transitions and transparency is also preserved here, which creates a feeling of air on the canvas. This new technique, which incorporates the best features of the sfumato, as well as other techniques of Italian painting, is presented in such works by Raphael as the Three Graces and several Madonnas of the Florentine period.
Cangiante
The appearance of sfumato in painting has led to the emergence of several of its variations. So, Michelangelo creates his own version of the multi-layered manner of writing - kanjiante. The technique is based on the transmission of light and shadow, but, unlike sfumato, where the transitions were smoothed as much as possible, color contrast is used here. The task of reception is the same - giving the image depth and perspective. A striking example of this technique is Michelangelo's Madonna Doni.
Chiaroscuro
The appearance of sfumato in painting provoked artists to look for similar opportunities in graphics. This led to the emergence of the multi-layered chiaroscuro technique. It consists in successive imprinting of images from several boards, which allows you to convey the play of light and shadow and create a three-dimensional composition. The ancestor of this technique was the Italian artist Ugo da Carli. The most famous master who owned this technique was the French graphic artist Georges de Latour.
followers of 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 have used and are using this technique. The most notable followers of da Vinci are Titian, Johan Abeling, Omar Galliani.
1. Sfumato - the secret of painting by Leonardo da Vinci
For several centuries, mankind has been haunted by the mystery of the portrait of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The researchers did not offer any hypotheses of who is depicted on it: from a self-portrait of da Vinci himself or a portrait of his mother - to the image of the famous adventurer and mistress of the Florentine ruler Giuliano Medici Pacifica Brandano. Vasari's hypothesis that the model is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine Francesco del Giocondo, for some reason does not suit researchers of the work of the Great Leonardo.
But this is not the main secret. The subtlety and mastery of the image is striking. The famous biographer of the Italian Renaissance artists, Giorgio Vasari, wrote that if you look closely, it seems that you see a pulse in the deepening of the neck. “The portrait itself is revered as an extraordinary work, for life itself could not be different,” such is the opinion of Vasari. Perhaps the reason for such a striking effect of the portrait on the viewer lies in the technique sfumato, the virtuoso use of which is possible only within the framework of oil painting.
Sfumato means "disappearing like smoke" in Italian. Very small brush strokes allow you to achieve the finest transitions from light to shadow, from one color to another. But it was only very recently that French restorers discovered just how microscopic these strokes were. The thickness of the glaze layer was one to two microns. The restorers cannot explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to perform such a miracle. The artist himself invented additives to varnishes, paints, oils, he achieved the alternation of layers of paints, achieving a magnificent effect of different refraction of the rays of light falling on the picture. Thus, the impression of depth, volume, special liveliness and fluttering of colors was achieved.
One of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci was to improve the process of making oil paint by adding beeswax to it.
2. Oil paints have changed the way the painter works
Oil paints dry slowly. Unlike working with tempera and any glue paints, the artist can correct the picture, rewrite the layers. He has much more time to think, which means more opportunities for creative experimentation, for the embodiment of his ideas on the canvas. In addition, the paints with this technique do not fade, the shades of colors do not change, which contributes to the durability of works of art. It was these possibilities that made the discovery of oil paints truly revolutionary.
Art of Gandhara
3. New - well forgotten old
It just so happened to mankind that some inventions were known many centuries ago. The same thing happened with oil painting. In European art, this technique has become known since the 15th century, thanks to the efforts of the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.
But according to various sources, oil painting was invented five thousand years ago. More reliable information - this technique was widespread in Western Afghanistan in the 7th century AD. This is evidenced by the finds in the Bamiyan Valley of samples of Gandhara art, which left its mark on the murals of the complex of Buddhist monasteries.
4. The basis of paints is oil
The binder in oil painting are oils: walnut, linseed, safflower. The main elements of these paints are crushed pigment, binding oils and turpentine as a thinner. Both mineral and organic substances are used to create pigments. They were made even from semi-precious stones. In the past, ultramarine blue was the most expensive pigment. Lapis lazuli was used to create it, and this substance was once more expensive than gold.
Titian, painting "Flora"
5. Each master of painting of the past centuries had his own secrets of the composition of oil paints
Almost every great master of painting of the 16th-18th centuries invented his own ways of making oil paints. For example, Albrecht Dürer used walnut oil as a binder, he passed it through sifted coal. And Titian preferred poppy oil, which he lightened in the sun, and lavender essence. Rubens painted his wonderful canvases with varnish, which was created on the basis of coconut copra, lavender essence and poppy seed oil.
6. Oil paint was used to paint the shields
In the Middle Ages, oil paints found unexpected uses. Then, to create paintings and frescoes, tempera was preferred, but shields were painted with the likeness of oil paints. It was believed that in this way they became stronger.
Artist Jan van Eyck, painting "Our Lady of Canon van der Pale"
7. Cracks in the surface of a painting caused van Eyck to reinvent oil paint
There is a legend about what exactly made the artist look for a different composition of paints.
someone he created a beautiful canvas using tempera. He covered his painting with oil and left it to dry in the sun. Jan van Eyck was unpleasantly surprised that his canvas was covered with cracks. The artist began to look for oil that could be dried in the shade. Many attempts ended in failure, but van Eyck's efforts were ultimately successful. The already desperate artist mixed linseed oil and the so-called "white varnish from Bruges", which we now call turpentine. He added pigments to this solution, achieving the desired density. It turned out that such paint dries slowly, which allows you to make adjustments to the finished work. And most importantly - the finished picture is not covered with cracks and the colors do not fade.
8. The invention of the tube for storing oil paints contributed to the emergence of a new direction in painting.
One of the founders of impressionism, Pierre Renoir, said that without the invention of paints in tubes, there would be no impressionism. After all, the artists themselves made oil paints, they were tied to workshops, studios. It was very important for the Impressionists to capture the moment, the variability of the surrounding world. Without paints in tubes, working in the open air, in the open air, was very problematic. In 1841, the American artist John Rand invented a tin tube that could be compressed and squeezed out of it the required amount of paint. The tube was provided with a cap. All these improvements contributed to the fact that the paint did not dry out and the artist could easily create his painting in the open air.
9. How long does oil paint take to dry?
To 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, or even a year.
10. How oil paints harden
Hardening of this type of paint occurs due to oxidation with oxygen, and not evaporation.
Oil painting technique is one of the most accessible. Even a novice artist can master it. However, it is difficult to overestimate the role of this technique in the history of world art. Thanks to her, masterpieces were created, new trends in art arose. The use of oil paint contributed to a real revolution in painting.
A variety of techniques and expressive possibilities of oil painting in the hands of masters contributed to the emergence of the most amazing and mysterious phenomena in world culture.
1. Sfumato - the secret of painting by Leonardo da Vinci
For several centuries, mankind has been haunted by the mystery of the portrait of the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. The researchers did not offer any hypotheses of who is depicted on it: from a self-portrait of da Vinci himself or a portrait of his mother - to the image of the famous adventurer and mistress of the Florentine ruler Giuliano Medici Pacifica Brandano. Vasari's hypothesis that the model is Lisa Gherardini, the wife of the Florentine Francesco del Giocondo, for some reason does not suit researchers of the work of the Great Leonardo.
But this is not the main secret. The subtlety and mastery of the image is striking. The famous biographer of the Italian Renaissance artists, Giorgio Vasari, wrote that if you look closely, it seems that you see a pulse in the deepening of the neck. “The portrait itself is revered as an extraordinary work, for life itself could not be different,” such is the opinion of Vasari. Perhaps the reason for such a striking effect of the portrait on the viewer lies in the technique sfumato, the virtuoso use of which is possible only within the framework of oil painting.
Sfumato means "disappearing like smoke" in Italian. Very small brush strokes allow you to achieve the finest transitions from light to shadow, from one color to another. But it was only very recently that French restorers discovered just how microscopic these strokes were. The thickness of the glaze layer was one to two microns. The restorers cannot explain how Leonardo da Vinci was able to perform such a miracle. The artist himself invented additives to varnishes, paints, oils, he achieved the alternation of layers of paints, achieving a magnificent effect of different refraction of the rays of light falling on the picture. Thus, the impression of depth, volume, special liveliness and fluttering of colors was achieved.
One of the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci was to improve the process of making oil paint by adding beeswax to it.
2. Oil paints have changed the way the painter works
Oil paints dry slowly. Unlike working with tempera and any glue paints, the artist can correct the picture, rewrite the layers. He has much more time to think, which means more opportunities for creative experimentation, for the embodiment of his ideas on the canvas. In addition, the paints with this technique do not fade, the shades of colors do not change, which contributes to the durability of works of art. It was these possibilities that made the discovery of oil paints truly revolutionary.
Art of Gandhara
3. New - well forgotten old
It just so happened to mankind that some inventions were known many centuries ago. The same thing happened with oil painting. In European art, this technique has become known since the 15th century, thanks to the efforts of the Flemish artist Jan van Eyck.
But according to various sources, oil painting was invented five thousand years ago. More reliable information - this technique was widespread in Western Afghanistan in the 7th century AD. This is evidenced by the finds in the Bamiyan Valley of samples of Gandhara art, which left its mark on the murals of the complex of Buddhist monasteries.
4. The basis of paints is oil
The binder in oil painting are oils: walnut, linseed, safflower. The main elements of these paints are crushed pigment, binding oils and turpentine as a thinner. Both mineral and organic substances are used to create pigments. They were made even from semi-precious stones. In the past, ultramarine blue was the most expensive pigment. Lapis lazuli was used to create it, and this substance was once more expensive than gold.
Titian, painting "Flora"
5. Each master of painting of the past centuries had his own secrets of the composition of oil paints
Almost every great master of painting of the 16th-18th centuries invented his own ways of making oil paints. For example, Albrecht Dürer used walnut oil as a binder, he passed it through sifted coal. And Titian preferred poppy oil, which he lightened in the sun, and lavender essence. Rubens painted his wonderful canvases with varnish, which was created on the basis of coconut copra, lavender essence and poppy seed oil.
6. Oil paint was used to paint the shields
In the Middle Ages, oil paints found unexpected uses. Then, to create paintings and frescoes, tempera was preferred, but shields were painted with the likeness of oil paints. It was believed that in this way they became stronger.
Artist Jan van Eyck, painting "Our Lady of Canon van der Pale"
7. Cracks in the surface of a painting caused van Eyck to reinvent oil paint
There is a legend about what exactly made the artist look for a different composition of paints. Once he created a beautiful canvas using tempera. He covered his painting with oil and left it to dry in the sun. Jan van Eyck was unpleasantly surprised that his canvas was covered with cracks. The artist began to look for oil that could be dried in the shade. Many attempts ended in failure, but van Eyck's efforts were ultimately successful. The already desperate artist mixed linseed oil and the so-called "white varnish from Bruges", which we now call turpentine. He added pigments to this solution, achieving the desired density. It turned out that such paint dries slowly, which allows you to make adjustments to the finished work. And most importantly - the finished picture is not covered with cracks and the colors do not fade.
8. The invention of the tube for storing oil paints contributed to the emergence of a new direction in painting.
One of the founders of impressionism, Pierre Renoir, said that without the invention of paints in tubes, there would be no impressionism. After all, the artists themselves made oil paints, they were tied to workshops, studios. It was very important for the Impressionists to capture the moment, the variability of the surrounding world. Without paints in tubes, working in the open air, in the open air, was very problematic. In 1841, the American artist John Rand invented a tin tube that could be compressed and squeezed out of it the required amount of paint. The tube was provided with a cap. All these improvements contributed to the fact that the paint did not dry out and the artist could easily create his painting in the open air.
9. How long does oil paint take to dry?
To 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, or even a year.
10. How oil paints harden
Hardening of this type of paint occurs due to oxidation with oxygen, and not evaporation.
