Fresco Painting
History, Materials: Type of Fine Art Paint Method: Buon, Secco and Mezzo Frescoes: Used in Greek, Roman, Byzantine and Renaissance Arts.
Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art - HOMEPAGE

Early Fresco Painting from the Ajanta
Caves, India.

Fresco

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.

Fresco Of A Young Woman, Pompeii

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 "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.

Fresco From The House Of Marcus
Lucretius Fronto, Pompeii

Examples 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.

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

PAINTING TERMS
For a list, see: Painting Glossary.

Italian Renaissance

It was during the Renaissance that 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 Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua by Giotto, the Early-Renaissance religious fresco paintings in Florence by Piero della Francesca, and the Genesis and Last Judgement Sistine Chapel frescoes by Michelangelo in Rome. 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.

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.

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