ARHI 2300 Lecture Notes - Lecture 65: Sistine Chapel Ceiling, Fayum Mummy Portraits, Buon Fresco
2 Mar 2017
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Document Summary
Artists have painted surfaces of many kinds for tens of thousands of years. Paint in its most basic form is composed of pigment suspended in a liquid binder that dries after it has been applied. Pigments have been extracted from minerals, soils, vegetable matter, and animal by- products. Binders are traditionally beeswax, egg yolk, vegetable oils and gums, and water; in modern times, art-supply manufacturers have developed such complex chemical substances as polymers. To use encaustic, an artist must mix pigments with hot wax and then apply the mixture quickly. Artists can apply the paint with brushes, palette knives, or rags, or can simply pour it. A stiff-backed support is necessary because encaustic, when cool, is not very flexible and may crack. This type of portrait would have been used as a funerary adornment that was placed over the face of the mummified deceased or on the outside of the sarcophagus in the face position.
