Fresco Painting
Characteristics, Types, History, Materials: Buon, Secco and Mezzo Frescoes.

God Passing Spark of Life to Adam.
From the Creation of Adam (c.1511)
from the Genesis Fresco by the
renaissance genius Michelangelo
on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Fresco Art

Contents

• Characteristics of Fresco Painting
• Types of Fresco Technique
• History of Frescoes
• Byzantine
• Italian Renaissance
• Mexican Mural Renaissance

The Last Supper (1495-7), Mixed-Media
Fresco by Leonardo Da Vinci. One of
the greatest paintings ever.

DIFFERENT FORMS OF ARTS
For a guide, see: Types of Art.

What is Fresco Painting? Characteristics

The art term Fresco (Italian for 'fresh') describes the method of painting in which pigments are mixed solely with water (no binding agent used) and then applied directly onto freshly laid lime-plaster ground (surface).

The surface is typically a plastered wall or ceiling. The liquid paint is absorbed by the plaster and as the plaster dries the pigments are retained in the wall. Before paint was applied, the artist usually made a preparatory drawing (sinopia) in red chalk.

Camera Degli Sposi Frescoes
Ceiling oculus panel, a perfect
example of quadratura, designed
and painted by Andrea Mantegna.

Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel frescoes
by Giotto.

Types of Fresco

There are three main types of fresco technique: Buon or true fresco, Secco and Mezzo-fresco. Buon fresco, the most common fresco method, involves the use of pigments mixed with water (without a binding agent) on a thin layer of wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster (intonaco). The pigment is absorbed into the wall as described above. By contrast, secco painting is done on dry plaster and therefore requires a binding medium, (eg. egg tempera, glue or oil) to attach the pigment to the wall, as in the famous mural painting known as The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci. Mezzo-fresco involves painting onto almost but not quite dry intonaco so that the pigment only penetrates slightly into the plaster. By 1600 this had largely replaced buon fresco on murals and ceilings.

The Apotheosis of St Ignatius
(1691-4) in San Ignazio, Rome.
The finest Quadratura fresco mural
of the Baroque, by Andrea Pozzo.

EARLY EUROPEAN FRESCOES
For a general guide, see:
Romanesque Painting (1000-1200)
For a more linear style of fresco, see:
Romanesque Painting in France.
For more Islamic-style fresco art, see:
Romanesque Painting in Spain.
For Byzantine-influenced murals, see:
Romanesque Painting in Italy.

History of Frescoes

Fresco was practised as early as 2000 BCE by the Minoans during the bronze age civilization of Crete. Famous Cretan buon fresco wall paintings include "The Toreador". Early frescoes were also painted in Morocco and Egypt, with Egyptian artists preferring the secco method for their tomb murals. Fresco paintings were also common in Greek art, as well as Etruscan culture and in Roman art (eg. Pompeii, Herculaneum), where they were mainly executed in buon fresco style. Indeed the style was popular with artists around the ancient Mediterranean and in Turkey. In addition, early examples of Buddhist fresco art, completed between 200 BCE and 1100 CE, were discovered at the Ajanta caves and the Brihadisvara Temple in India.

Byzantine Religious Frescoes

Eastern Orthodox Christianity relied heavily on fresco wall paintings (as well as icons) in its churches and cathedrals, to illustrate scenes from the Bible. In Russian medieval painting, the leading fresco mural painters included artists such as Theophanes the Greek (c.1340-1410) (see his fresco in the Church of the Transfiguration at Novgorod); Andrei Rublev (c.1360-1430) (note his mural paintings in the Cathedral of the Annunciation, Moscow, and the Cathedral of the Dormition at Vladimir); and Dionysius (c.1440-1502) (fresco murals at Ferapontov Monastery). This form of Byzantine art fused with the Gothic idiom in the Proto-Renaissance, led by Giotto.

PAINTING TERMS
For a list, see: Painting Glossary.

Italian Renaissance

It was during the Renaissance that fine art fresco painting reached its apogee. Except for Venice which was too damp, most cities in Italy used fresco art to decorate walls, especially those in their churches. Supreme examples include: the Proto-Renaissance cycle of fresco paintings in the Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel in Padua by Giotto, the Early-Renaissance religious fresco paintings in Florence by Masaccio (Brancacci Chapel frescoes [1424-8] and the astounding Holy Trinity [1428]), Piero della Francesca, and the Genesis and Last Judgement Sistine Chapel frescoes by Michelangelo in Rome. Note also Raffaello Santi's contribution in the Raphael Rooms at the Vatican. With the passing of the High Renaissance and the advent of Mannerism, popular taste began to favour large canvas oil painting and tapestries, which limited the use of fresco to upper wall areas and ceilings. But see works by Jacopo Pontormo (1494-1556), such as the frescoes in the Church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Outstanding exponents of such architectural - often illusionistic - frescoes, include: the Renaissance artists Andrea Mantegna (1430-1506) and Correggio (1489-1534), the Baroque painter Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and the Rococo virtuoso Tiepolo (1696-1770).

Mexican Mural Renaissance (1920s/1930s)

Diego Rivera (1886-1957), David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896-1974) and Jose Clemente Orozco (1883-1949) were the three greatest participants in the so-called Mural Renaissance in Mexico, which led to a major revival of fresco painting. See also our fine art essay: How To Appreciate Paintings.

Note About Fresco Paint Colours
For details of colour pigments, along with hues and other dyes used in frescos through the ages, see: Colour in Painting.

• For more about fresco, oil and watercolour painting, see: Art Encyclopedia.
• For facts about painting types, styles and history, see: Fine Art Painting.