Sunday, May 25, 2014

A History Of Botticelli Paintings

By Darren Hartley


Botticelli paintings were perfections of the methods of the previous century. Despite this conservativeness, they also change procedures that were considered traditional to infuse current innovations into them. As evidence, they used a new medium named tempera grassa. In this medium, the egg yolk was mixed with oil to product a more transparent paint.

The finest pigments of the period were utilized in Botticelli paintings. They were applied in scumbles, i.e., thin and opaque layers. However, the reds and greens were glazed more often than not. These pigments produced an exquisite, enamelled effect, from its composition of infinite tonal gradations.

The fullness of the beauty of Botticelli paintings, unfortunate as it is, has been lost in the passage of time. Some of this loss can be blamed on abrasiveness and over-zealousness in restoration efforts. The more significant cause, however, can be attributed to the natural tendency of colors to change nature and to gain more transparency with the passage of a considerable period of time.

The flesh tones in Botticelli paintings constitute the most refined among its many components. The faces of women were pale and porcelain like, the infants and children endowed with more intensely colored, ruddier complexions while the men appeared with darker flesh.

Chalk, pen, bistre and tempera were among the media in which Botticelli perfected his skills. This is very evident in Botticelli paintings. He used paper tinted with roses, violets, yellows and grays. This pioneering technique modelled up figures with whites in the light and modelled them down with darker colors.

Unique Botticelli paintings come in the form of the Dante illustrations which were executed only in outline. Actually, Botticelli intended to color them but did not find the time to do so. Comprising of 92 parchment sheets, they vary greatly in completion, some were not even begun.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment