fresco - Technique, Frescoes in history, Selected examples of Italian frescoes

An ancient technique for painting on walls, perfected in the 14th–16th-c in Italy; it is difficult, and is nowadays uncommon. The wall is prepared with layers of plaster, sometimes as many as four, the penultimate (arricciato) being marked out with the artist's design (underdrawing or sinopia). The final layer of lime-plaster (intonaco) is then laid and, while it is still wet (fresco means ‘fresh’ in Italian), the artist works on this with a water-based paint. Just enough intonaco is laid for one day's work (giornata). The colours bond into the plaster by chemical action and are therefore very permanent, but they dry lighter, a factor the artist must bear in mind.

Fresco paintings can be done in two ways: Buon fresco paintings are done on wet plaster, while a secco paintings are completed on dried plaster.

Technique

In painting a fresco, the surface of a plastered wall is divided into areas roughly corresponding to the contours of the figures or the landscape, generally drawn on a rough underlayer of plaster, called the arriccio. Many artists sketched their compositions on this underlayer, which would never be seen, in a red pigment called sinopia.

Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on wet, fresh, lime mortar or plaster (intonaco). after a number of hours, the plaster dries, and the pigment dries as well, a part of the wall.

A secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster.

Generally, buon fresco works are more durable than a secco works.

Buon frescoes are difficult to create because of the deadline associated with the drying plaster.

In a wall-sized fresco, there may be ten to twenty giornate, or separate areas of plaster.

Frescoes in history

The earliest form of fresco was Egyptian wall paintings in tombs, usually using the a secco technique.

Roman wall paintings, such as those at Pompeii and Herculaneum, were completed in buon fresco.

One of the rare examples of Islam fresco painting can be seen in Qasr Amra, the desert palace of the Umayyads in the 8th century.

The late Medieval period and the Renaissance saw the most prominent use of fresco, particularly in Italy, where most churches and many government buildings still feature fresco decoration.

Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.

Selected examples of Italian frescoes

Italian Late Medieval-Quattrocento

Panels (including Giotto, Lorenzetti, Martini and others) in upper and lower Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi Giotto, Cappella degli Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua Camposanto, Pisa Masaccio, Brancacci Chapel, Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena Piero della Francesca, Chiesa di San Francesco, Arezzo Ghirlandaio, Cappella Tornabuoni, Santa Maria Novella, Florence The Last Supper, Leonardo Da Vinci, Milan (technically a tempera on plaster and stone, not a true fresco ) Sistine Chapel Wall series: Botticelli, Perugino, Rossellini, Signorelli, and Ghirlandaio Luca Signorelli, Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto Luciano Medevici, a monochromatic fresco, destroyed in a fire in 1944.

Italian "High Renaissance"

Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling Raphael's Vatican Stanza Raphael's Villa Farnesina Giulio Romano's Palazzo del Tè, Mantua Mantegna, Camera degli Sposi, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua The dome of the Cathedral Santa Maria del Fiore of Florence

Italian Baroque

The Loves of the Gods, Annibale Carracci, Palazzo Farnese Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power, Pietro Da Cortona, Palazzo Barberini Ceilings, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, (New Residenz) Wurzburg, (Royal Palace) Madrid, (Villa Pisani) Stra, and others;