Da Vinci Didn't Use Oil Paints!
Da Vinci Didn't Use Oil Paints!
I find painting with oils is a pain. They are easy to use only if you use them alla prima; this means putting them down in one layer without over-painting, and using a minimum of painting mediums - much like the Impressionists did. But I like to paint in many layers using transparent and translucent glazes and scumbles so I can achieve a variety of effects. It could take me several weeks to complete a piece while I wait for the individual layers to dry. Add to this the vast array of possible painting mediums and the care needed to use them properly without compromising the integrity of the paint film, and I want to go running back to acrylics. But there are some luscious effects you can achieve with oils that can never be duplicated by any other medium…
Our modern tube oil colors are made of a simple combination of raw linseed and/or safflower oil, and the powdered pigment. But this was not always the case. Painters knew about drying oils like linseed oil for centuries before they actually started mixing powdered pigments with them to make paints. They would use them occasionally to glaze over areas of tempera paintings, but to actually make a painting using oil as the binder for the pigments like we do was not considered a good idea. Not only do these oils dry slowly, but they dry faster with some pigments than they do with others! So you can’t paint a fast drying color over a slow dryer, you know, the whole ‘Fat over Lean’ thing (see “Technical Corner” in the April 2000 issue). The other problem that these old painters noticed was that drying oils become increasingly dark and yellow with age. So why have oil paints been the paint of choice for the last 600 years or so? Because for the first 450 artists rarely used oil paints – they used Resin-Oil paints!
Making paints with oils really began in the 14th century when it was discovered that adding zinc and lead pigments to the oil made it dry faster. Also, the technology to distill solvents like turpentine was developed. Turpentine could be used to thin the oil and a thinner layer of oil paint dries faster. But more importantly, turpentine provided the means to dissolve hard resins like Copal, Mastic, and Damar. These resins dry fast, hard, and clear, and they don’t yellow much with age. By themselves they are too sticky to paint with and dry too hard and brittle. Linseed oil, on the other hand, dries slowly and yellows with age, but it is durable and flexible and is wonderful to push around under the brush. The old painters realized that the two combined would create a fast drying, clear paint that could make beautiful transparent glazes and sumptuous blended tones and colors, unlike anything anyone had been able to do with tempera paints. These resin-oil paints were far more brilliant than straight oil paints and the colors would dry faster and more evenly so the ‘Fat over Lean’ problem was effectively eliminated. It is also unlikely that these painters used raw oil to make their paints and mediums like we do today. Instead, they would have used Stand Oil and Sun Thickened oil. These oils are linseed oil (or another drying oil) that have been partially oxidized and polymerized through heat or exposure to sunlight. When a drying oil is polymerized in this way it dries faster, becomes more flexible and durable, and yellows less with age.
Jan Van Eyck (1385-1441) and Antonello De Messina (1430-1479) were among the first to exploit the potential of this new medium and the novel effects they achieved in their paintings were considered miraculous. Most of these early ‘oil’ painters continued to use tempera paints in combination with the new Resin-Oil paints. In this mixed technique the painters would apply resin-oil glazes over tempera underpaintings and then alternate between crisp tempera paint details and transparent glazes. By the time the great Renaissance masters like Titian (1487-1576) and Tintoretto (1518-1594) started painting they were using a combination of drying oils, beeswax, and resins to make their paints and mediums. Rubens (1577-1640) claimed a painter could finish a painting within a couple of days, complete with all the glazes and translucent effects! He sure wasn’t using the same tube oil colors and painting mediums we get at the art store! It is little wonder that modern painters have had so much trouble trying to duplicate the effects of the Old Masters.
So why are our tube oil paints made with only raw oil? The most important change happened in the 19th century when manufacturers started making paints for artists and packaging them in collapsible tin tubes. Because of packaging and shelf life Resin-Oil paints gave way to straight oil paints. As artists today we have access to a wide range of excellent products that is unmatched at any time in the history of art. Still, this is one trade off that has not served us well. The Schmincke company is the only one I know of that makes Resin-Oil paints.
If you like to grind your own paints using the powdered pigment then you can find a good recipe to make your own Resin-Oil paints. It is not enough to just add resin to your tube oil paint. You would not get a balanced formula. I use a simple method to alter my tube oil colors. I spread them out on a paper towel for a few minutes so that some of the oil gets soaked out of them, I then replace the oil with a resin rich painting medium. It is not the perfect solution but it is an improvement. If Da Vinci had our choices he would probably still mix his own paints, or buy the more expensive Resin-Oil paints – I think that’s what I’ll do.
