Sorry, this is not a cooking lesson, Egg Tempera is one of the oldest and most durable painting mediums. Used primarily during Europe's Early Renaissance period and in Egypt and Greece, Egg Tempera was a staple for Christian Religious artwork. Created by grinding dry powdered pigments into egg yolk along with other materials like honey and plant gums, this fast drying paint was still used for nearly 200 years after the fall of the Byzantine Empire (400 AD-1202 AD. Generally painted in thin layers and then painted over again and again until it reached a very thick opaque consistency on wood and later canvas with a cross-hatching process, when Egg Tempera dries it produces a smooth finish but because of this it rarely has the deep color saturation that oil paintings have. When unvarnished, the colors are light and generally resemble pastels, but when they are varnished, the colors are deeper. Tempera was used mostly in Egypt and Greece to paint

While Tempera was no longer used as a primary painting source after Oil Paint was created, it had a large impact. Egg Tempera had a great effect on Oil Paintings as most were varnished or primed with Egg Tempera to help bring out the colors and because of its rich hues and help in binding. Egg-oil emulsions are good because the egg helps prevent cracking and peeling on the canvas by oil paintings. Egg Tempera was used as the backing for oil paintings because of it's smooth finish.

Today’s Usage: Today Tempera is used to refer to water based acrylic paint, though there are some people who remain concerned with preserving the usage of the original nature of Egg Tempera. You can buy Egg-oil temperas from several companies and all that is required before usage is thinning the paint with distilled water, but many artists prefer to make it themselves.

You can make Egg Tempera paint at home by combining egg yolk, linseed oil and the dried pigment of your choice. If you don’t have a motor and pestle handy you can mix them by hand or in a blender, please note, many dried pigments are poisonous so be wary of this when selecting your color pigments.



Article wrote by Aleka (CL3)

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