tempera grassa

[sabine]

Hi!

I'm going to try "tempera grassa", as I find pure tempera a little difficult for the kind of painting I'd like to achieve...

But there is still less information on that technique than on "normal" tempera - I have a few recipes and that's about it

Does anyone have any experience with tempera grassa?

Thank you for any advice!

Sabine

[scottawms]

Hi Sabine,
Take a look at David Rourke's blog. He has two posts regarding Tempera Grassa. The following URL will take you to his second post, with a link to his first entry at the beginning:

http://allthestrangehours.blogspot.com/2006/07/tempera-grassa-2.html


----> Scott

[sabine]

Thank you very much! THis link seems full of usefull informations! Anyway, I've tried one recipe already and I'm quite happy with it... but a few tips are realyy welcome :grin:

[Salamander]

Check also:

http://eggtempera.free.fr

[sabine]

Thanks :-)

[extraordinegg]

I have a few versions of a tempera grassa recipe from pupils of Pietro Annigoni. I have never tried painting with it myself. Pardon the length of this post. Enjoy!

1) Transcription of Pietro Annigoni's "tempera grassa" recipe
as recorded by Antonio Ciccone forwarded to David C. Hancock June 21, 2004:

Tempera Grassa

Titanium n110
gn. 100 bianco zinco 2 gr.120
ocre n120, 125
terra ombra n200
Prussia oltermare n180, 200
terra siena terra rossa n120
lacca grasaiise (?) n180 (gray lake? lacquer?)
rosso Indhi n130
nero avorio n250
cadmio 120
cobalt 250
vede emerald 200

Emulsione
(1 part:) 2 uove rossi e uno intero
(1 part:) 1/2 olio lino cando + 1/2 vernice mastice


2) (from Dawn Cookson, Appendix, Painting witih Annigoni: A Haleyon Decade as a Student in Florence 1958-68. London: Unicorn Press, 2000.
This formula is Cookson's own, and is not strictly attributed to Annigoni):

Formula for oil-tempera medium

For those who may find the procedure of personal interest:--

To make the emulsion:

Eggs, in the proportion of one whole egg to two yolks, 4 parts
Mastic varnish 1 part
Equalling half the quantity of eggs
Stand oil 1 part

To make an average mix of approximately 18-20 colours (this varies according to size of painting) 18-20 eggs are needed, as they often vary in size.

Colours (in ground powders) Dry Quantity Emulsion
1 Titanium white 100 grams 110 grams
2 Cadmium yellow light 100 140
3 Cadmium yellow dark 100 200
4 Raw umber natural 100 200
5 Burnt umber 100 120/25
6 Burnt siena 100 120/25
7 Yellow ochre pale 100 120/25
8 Yellow ochre dark 100 120/25
9 Red pozzuolo 100 120/25
10 Crimson lake 100 180
11 Cadmium red (dark and light) 100 140
12 Cadmium orange 100 140
13 Cobalt blue 100 250
14 Ultramarine blue 100 180
15 Emerald green (viridian) 100 200
16 Morellone 100
17 Black (ivory) 100 250
18 Prussian blue—if necessary 100 180/200
(very strong colour; only small quantity)

The eggs must be carefully separated and poured into a glass cylinder in multiples of 3 at a time, dividing quantity exactly in half to add the appropriate amount of emulsion. Then this mixture transferred to a suitable metal container to whisk thoroughly for half an hour in order to amalgamate the mixture which becomes a creamy white colour and smooth consistency. An electric mixer saves time and energy. Meantime the powder colours are carefully measured according to the various amounts required, starting with the lightest colours, and each one mixed on a marble slab with dry white wine, using a spatula or palette knife, and then measured carefully against the appropriate quantity of emulsion in a thoroughly cleaned container and mixed well together. The resulting liquid poured into clean plastic bottles and well capped and sealed. When mixing the powder colours, add very little wine at a time to form a paste which should not be too liquid; when the colours are added to the emulsion they become more liquid and therefore shakeable.
Obviously a larger amount of white is needed, next the earth colours, yellow, blues and green and lesser quantities of reds and black. So select different sized plastic bottles accordingly.
This process demands precision, care, time and patience. The slab, palette and mixer container must be washed thoroughly between each mixing. When the desired selection of colours are mixed, bottled and sealed these should be placed in a suitably large ceramic or plastic bowl containing damp sand and kept moist in a cool place—away from heat or cold. This way they will keep for up to 4-6 months, after which colours deteriorate and begin to smell strongly!
Before using each time, every bottle must be well shaken. A special metal palette with small pans attached around the edges to hold the liquid colours is necessary, taking care to only pour out sufficient quantities for each day's work. These can be covered with strips of dampened cloth to avoid them drying out overnight. So that they can be used or added to for several days. However, do not return any excess paint back into bottles. There is inevitably some wastage, as with oil colours and this has to be discarded. Therefore only put out small quantities at a time.
When using and mixing the desired colours, water is used and added by brush on the palette—not into the colour pans. The colours can be used as thickly as with oils for an 'impasto' base, and thinly as with watercolours for glazes and fine drawing.
The possibilities of this medium are endless but not for a beginner or a speedy painter 'alla prima'!
__________________________
P. 43-5: "Annigoni had evolved his own special medium of tempera grassa (oily tempera), which involved fresh eggs, very dry white wine, stand oil and mastic varnish, the addition of oil giving the medium more flexibility and the pigments greater expansion. This medium takes much patience and time to prepare. Very simply explained, the process erquires 18 to 20 powder colours, scales to measure them, an electric mixer, a chemist's glass cylinder into which to measure the proportions of the emulsion, a slab of marble (we used porfora, which is very cold) on which to mix the powder colours, sufficient dry white wine to form a paste, the appropriate number of plastic bottles for each colour to be kept in, and at least a day to complete the mixing of pigments with the emulsion (each colour requires a different proportion). A nearby sink into which to thoroughly wash all the implements used between each colour is also necessary.
This method involves a lot of washing up as you go along. The procedure has to be watched in order to understand each stage of the process, and that is the way I learnt, observing Nando. Thereafter I was able to prepare my own colours and recorded each mixing in a book, as the quantities varied according to the size and number of the paintings. I found this an invaluable reference and time saver.
Maintained in a large ceramic or plastic bowl containing damp sand these colours keep fairly well in cool weather, usually for about four to six months, provided the bottles are vigorously shaken each time before they are used and well sealed afterwards. All this is not as easily portable as a box of oil paints, and nor is the support wood panel on which to paint. This is, ideally, a board of well-seasoned poplar wood, although I have since worked on blockboards, suitably prepared. In either case the board needs to be covered with a fine canvas well glued down with animal size (i.e. rabbit's foot). Finally the canvas must be given two coats of gesso to obtain as smooth a surface as possible . . .


3) Michael John Angel on Annigoni's Painting technique:

(Visit http://www.davidchancock.com/Elements/AnnigoniRecipe.jpg
for paint recipe)
Eggs: 3 yolks, 2 egg whites beat together
Mix 30-40 minutes total, to the book. Then add 1/4 volume stand oil & 1/4 vol. varnish.
Use an old electric hand-mixer; new ones are too strong. If mix too fast, separates the medium rather than emulsifies it.
Or else use an electric drill on lowest speed with a paint mixer attached.
Annigoni used copal varnish, which darkens like crazy; Mastic varnish yellows. Can use either.
Pigments ground in wine, ground in the smallest amount of wine possible, to a cakey paste. Use dry white wine--A. used Lacrimi Christi.
Acid in wine acts as preservative and cuts greasiness of yolk (DCH-& strengthens paint bond)
Grind emulsion with wine and pigment (don't just mix!)

Medium: emulsion or water.
Used a custom metal palette.

[Alessandra Kelley]

I did some work with what we called "egg-oil emulsion" in school, where we made our medium from egg yolk and linseed oil, then blended it with pigment pastes the way tempera is made.

I did not much like it. It smelled peculiar and I found it difficult to work with. It had neither the brightness of tempera nor the unctuousness of oils. But I only worked with it a little while, not necessarily long enough to get a feel for it.

[Salamander]

I have messed around abit with various egg/oil emulsions during the past few years and really it all comes down to yolk is better alone, as is oil. The combinations ,while fun to experiment with, never seem better than their parts alone.
-Eric

[jeff]

I thinks its true that added oil does kill the colour somewhat. I suppose it makes it more saturated and means it may be suitable for a different tonal range than is normally used in pure yolk ET. Once you get used to the drying rates for pure yolk everything seems wrong with the oil added.

jeff

[sabine]

Hi!

thanks extraordinaryeggs for answering to my old post!

I didn't understand all of it, but caught the idea of using bottles rather than tubes to store my paintings...

For the recipe, meanwhile I found my own very favourite - which is: 1 yolk+ 1 teaspoon linseed oil+ 1 teaspoon spike essence+1 small teapsoon vinagre

I don't like to use damar varnish, I think it makes the paint sticky...

For the "classical" recipe (half egg/half oil), that I think you did experiment, Alexandra, I find it very difficult to paint with, too.

That recipe of mine, I find very EASY, on the contrary... and if used in thin layers, I don't see any problems with the colours...

But I guess everyone has to find his/her own way??

Oh , and by the way, I now paint on big scales again, using simply linen canvas streched on chassis, prepared with one RSG coat, then 2 thin coats of gesso(+ 1 teaspoon of linseed oil) - for those who are interested ;)

and this kind of egg oil emulsion really goes quite well for bigg scales paintings...