lundi 26 mai 2014

Botticelli Paintings

By Darren Hartley


Botticelli adopted a certain conservativeness in his approach to painting. As a matter of fact, he employed the same methods over and over again throughout his career. Still, Botticelli paintings underwent revisions in traditional procedures to give in to new innovations. The employment of a paint with more transparency was evidence of this innovation. This paint, known as tempera grassa, was a combination of egg yolk and oil.

Only the finest pigments of the era were used in Botticelli paintings. While the reds and greens were glazed in most instances, the pigments were applied in thin and opaque layers called scumbles. They acquired a compact density, in a gradual manner, as the painting built up. There was an extraordinarily luminous subtlety to them, created from their infinitely tonal gradations. This was particularly eminent in the painted areas representing reflected light.

The fullness of the beauty of Botticelli paintings, unfortunate as it is, has been lost in the passage of time. Some of this loss can be blamed on abrasiveness and over-zealousness in restoration efforts. The more significant cause, however, can be attributed to the natural tendency of colors to change nature and to gain more transparency with the passage of a considerable period of time.

The flesh tones in Botticelli paintings constitute the most refined among its many components. The faces of women were pale and porcelain like, the infants and children endowed with more intensely colored, ruddier complexions while the men appeared with darker flesh.

Chalk, pen, bistre and tempera were among the media in which Botticelli perfected his skills. This is very evident in Botticelli paintings. He used paper tinted with roses, violets, yellows and grays. This pioneering technique modelled up figures with whites in the light and modelled them down with darker colors.

Unique Botticelli paintings come in the form of the Dante illustrations which were executed only in outline. Actually, Botticelli intended to color them but did not find the time to do so. Comprising of 92 parchment sheets, they vary greatly in completion, some were not even begun.




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