Eggs, oil, wine, and ground cadmium. Yumm! Sounds good enough to eat. Watch how portrait painter Pietro Annigoni (1910-1988) mixes his egg tempera.
Direct link to YouTube video
Wikipedia on Annigoni
Painting with Annigoni: A Halcyon Decade
Thanks, Keita
Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to try that!
ReplyDeletewow, thanks for digging up that video ! Answered some of my questions about tempera for sure
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteRuuhkis, thanks, that's fine.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks to Keita Hopkinson for telling me about this video. Michael John Angel, who has the atelier in Florence, was a student of Annigoni, and is passing on much of his knowledge.
mmmm cadmium!
ReplyDeleteIt's probably better to use readymade tube paints before trying to make your own egg tempera. Badly mixed paints may not work right and end up discouraging those wanting to work in egg tempera.
ReplyDeleteThis is very strange. I was just looking for egg tempera recipes a couple of days ago. I feel like my mind is being read.
ReplyDeleteWas that stand oil that PA mixed w/ the eggs?
I think what Annigoni is making is an egg/oil emulsion. There are other recipes and techniques. Seems to me that I have seen on the internet an old American Artist magazine article showing step by step his process. His portraits are pretty amazing.
ReplyDeleteColin Adams sent me this and asked me to post it:
ReplyDelete"I'm an illustrator, maker, and avid reader of your blog. I just watched the Tempera recipe video, and noticed that the ratio the announcer mentioned didn't look like what he was actually doing. As he filled the cylinder, it was supposed to be six parts egg yolk, to one part oil (and one part varnish, which means he pre-mixed the varnish and oil to use that much in the film). But as you can see in the attached screen grab from the end of his pour, it's a bit more than two parts, if that is the mix. If it was just oil, than the recipe would be very different once he mixed it all."
Fascinating. Does anybody know where one can watch the rest of this video (if it exists somewhere on cyber space)? I searched around but to no avail.
ReplyDeleteTino, try the British Pathe site, which has viewable clips of old newsreel footage, and apparently a lot of stuff on Annigoni:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.britishpathe.com/results.php?search=annigoni
very intresting.
ReplyDeletei love the vintage feel of the film.
I dont use traditonal medium and i have never used temprea. does the egg cause the painting to "rot". it seems like it would brown and smell over time.
very neat find. james.
Youngstudios-
ReplyDeleteNo, it wouldn't "rot" any more than dried blood would rot. Many old (pre 1500) masters used this method, and as soon as it dries, along with the oil, it oxidizes. If you have ever seen an egg broken on the sidewalk, you will see that it forms a hard "glue" in a few days.
--Colin