Observation On The History of Oil Painting

Oil painting has been a lifestyle for people for centuries. Artists such as Jan Van Eyck, Antonello De Messina, Leonardo Da Vinci, Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto were all extremely influential on creating the actually oil paint. The modern technique of oil painting was created circa 1410 by Jan Van Eyck. Though van Eyck was not the first artist to use oil paint, he was the first who is known to have produced a stable oil mixture which could be used to bind mineral pigments. Van Eyck’s mixture probably consisted of piled glass, calcined bones, and mineral pigments boiled in linseed oil until reaching a viscous state. Antonello De Messina later introduced another improvement to oil paint: he added lead oxide to the mixture. The new mixture had a honey-like consistency and increased siccative properties. This medium was known as oglio cotto—"cooked oil." Leonardo Da Vinci improved the technique even further by cooking the mixture at a low temperature and adding 5 to 10% beeswax, which prevented dramatic darkening of the finished paint. Giorgione, Titian, and Tintoretto each slightly altered this recipe for their own purposes. Obviously, when oil painting first became popular men seemed to take over. Every artists previously stated were all male. Females were not influential in the beginnings of the oil painting culture. Oil painting mainly took place in early modern Europe. Over time, subject matter has changed dramatically. At first all paintings were of bored looking people or fruit. More modern art consists of more abstract current ways of thinking.