"Printmaking and Oils"

1.      Oil painting was first developed in Europe and Italian collectors owned the earliest paintings done in this technique. Italian patrons would commission paintings from northern artists and this is what introduced Florentine painters to this technique.

2.      Tempera vs. Oils. In oils, pigments are mixed with linseed oil instead of egg yolk and slow drying time offered greater detail, better blending, and choice in consistency of the medium.

3.      Early oil paintings were completed on gessoed wood supports like tempera painting, but because of Venice’s high humidity canvas eventually was used.(linen)

4.      Artists: Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first Italian artists to use it extensively, Antonello da Messina studied with Flemish artists who spread the technique to Venice, impact and innovations made by Venetian painters (Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese) highly impacted European painting into the 20^th century.

5.      Compared to sculpture and architecture, printmaking was more accessible to a spectrum of society besides the elite. They were used to illustrate books, pamphlets, to show technical proficiency in printmaking, and as reproductions of artwork for other artists to use as reference.

6.   The two most important techniques in printmaking were engraving and woodblock print.

7.      The use of moveable type, invented by Johannes Gutenburg, dramatically changed the publishing and production of books and pamphlets. Presses were established in Rome (1467), Venice (1469), Florence (1471), and more than seventy Italian cities and towns by the end of the 15^th century.

8.     New techniques of creating artwork were being spread among artists throughout Europe, which eventually caused new ideas, improvements, innovations and inventions to result through European history.