Fresco Painting
Characteristics, Types, History: Buon,
Secco, Mezzo Frescoes.
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Fresco Painting |
 Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel frescoes The most influential series of fresco paintings of the Proto Renaissance. By Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337). |
Fresco PaintingContents • Characteristics
of Fresco Painting |
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What is Fresco Painting? Characteristics The art term Fresco (Italian for 'fresh') describes the method of painting in which colour 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 trompe l'oeil, designed and painted by Andrea Mantegna. |
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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. |
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EARLY EUROPEAN 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. Early Christian art in Rome, notably in the catacombs, also featured fresco murals. Indeed the style was popular with artists throughout 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. Eastern Orthodox Christian art relied heavily on fresco wall paintings (as well as icons and mosaics) 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. |
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PAINTING TERMS DIFFERENT FORMS OF ARTS |
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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]); 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). From the Bolognese school of painting, led by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609), to the dazzling quadratura of Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709), via such artists as Guercino (1591-1666), Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669) and Luca Giordano (1634-1705), the era of Baroque art was the last period to associate painting in the grand manner with the medium of fresco. By the time of the great Rococo artist Tiepolo (1696-1770), fresco was in general decline. During the 19th century, two highly acclaimed mural painters included Theodore Chasseriau (1819-56) and Puvis de Chavannes (1824-98), both of whom produced some outstanding decorations for the city of Paris. 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 Mexican Murals Renaissance, which led to a major revival of fresco painting. North of the border in the United States, the Lithuanian-born social realist painter Ben Shahn (1898-1969) was also a successful fresco painter, with a number of public arts projects to his name. See also our fine art essay: How To Appreciate Paintings. |
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• For more about fresco paintings, see: Art Encyclopedia.
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