Tempera Painting
History, Ingredients, Paint Used on Panels & Illuminated Manuscripts.

Portrait of a Man and Woman
At a Casement (c.1440), by
Fra Filippo Lippi. Tempera
on Wood.

Tempera

Tempera (also called egg tempera) was the fine art painting medium that superceded the encaustic method, only to be itself replaced by oil painting. Its name stems from the Latin word temperare, meaning 'to mix in proportion'. Unlike encaustic paints which contain beeswax to bind the pigments, or oil paints which use oils, tempera employs an emulsion of water, egg yolks or whole eggs (occasionally with a little glue, honey or milk).

Prepared Surface

Tempera is typically applied onto a prepared surface. For example, wood panels were prepared with layers of gesso (a mixture of size and chalk) to form a smooth surface. The tempera was then applied (over a prepared drawing or sketch) and built up slowly in a series of thin, transparent layers.

Holy Trinity Icon (c.1411)
By Andrei Rublev, Russia's
greatest medieval icon painter.
Egg tempera on wood panel,
Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Madonna and Child Enthroned
with Saints (c.1504), by Raphael.
Tempera and Gold on Wood.

PAINTING TERMS
For a list, see: Painting Glossary.

See also our fine art essay:
How To Appreciate Paintings.

Unlike oil paint, tempera cannot be applied too thickly, and thus lack the deep colouration of oils. But tempera colors do not discolour over time, while oil paints tend to darken or lose colour with age.

Tempera Popular In Byzantine, Italian, Greek, Russian Art

The history of art records the use of tempera in both Egyptian and Greek art, and the method was commonly used in Italian Renaissance art, both for panel painting and fresco murals. In addition, tempera was the principal technique for creating illuminated manuscripts in Byzantine art and in medieval Europe. It was the authentic medium for Orthodox Christian icon painting in Byzantium and later in Kiev, Novgorod and Moscow, where it became an important form of Russian medieval painting. Among the greatest tempera panel painters of the Russian tradition, were: Theophanes the Greek (c.1340-1410), the Constantinople artist who founded the Novgorod school of icon painting; his pupil Andrei Rublev (c.1360-1430), arguably the most famous of all Russian iconographers; and Dionysius (c.1440-1502), noted for his panels in the Volokolamsky monastery.

Superceded By Oils

The use of tempera declined in Northern Europe during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while Italian artists continued using it until the onset of the High Renaissance period at the start of the sixteenth century.

Thus Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the first artists in Italy to use oil paints instead of the traditional egg tempera, but made errors along the way; while Michelangelo (1475-1564) who worked during the High Renaissance painted more often in oils (although everyone of his surviving panels is egg tempera).

Tempera paint was one of the traditional types of art resorted to during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries by the Social Realists (eg. Paul Cadmus, Jared French, George Tooker, Isabel Bishop, Reginald Marsh and Ben Shahn), as well as other schools of artists, but the laborious layering-technique required has deterred all but the most specific use.

Note About Tempera Paint Colours
For details of colour pigments, along with hues and other dyes used in tempera works 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.