Fresco Painting is a complicated and tedious form of painting. It basically consists of painting onto wet
plaster. This was used by various artists during the
renaissance however it is no longer commonly used as it takes such a long time to complete a painting. Artists such as
Masaccio and
Michelangelo were very fond of this method of painting.
The Process
Before starting a fresco
painting you need to do a first draft. This used to be done in
silver point on small paper. After the
first draft was completed the outlines of the painting would then be drawn up in full size and
perforated. This would then be held up to a wall were it would be covered in
charcoal.
The wet plaster would be applied in small amounts and would then be painted over, before it dried up. If the artist needed to use more than one colour they had to be prepared before hand or else the plaster would dry too quickly. The plaster needs to be wet in order for the paint to stay on. If the plaster were dry then it would be painting in secco the opposite of Fresco. The problem with painting in secco was that the paint would flake off.
Another inevitable problem one finds when using this method is that the colours on the actual painting vary depending on when they were done. Because the process takes so long one can only do small sections of the painting in one day. The part painted by an artist in one day is called a giornata. The differences in the colours are due to the paint not having the same consistency as the artists would have to make up their paint every day. There is a famous example of this in Masaccio's painting of the expulsion of Adam and Eve, where the sky is distinctly darker around Adam.