A Brief History of Oil Painting
FROM PIGS’ BLADDERS TO METAL TUBES
Before oils, Western artists painted with tempera—a mixture of pigment and egg binder that dried quickly, didn’t allow for soft blends, and cracked over time. In the 15th century, Jan van Eyck and his fellow Flemish artists of the time popularized the use of oils in Western painting, layering it in thin glazes to create subtle variations in light and shadow. His painting The Arnolfini Marriage (page 292) is often credited as one of the first examples of great oil technique and is thought to have paved the way for a new level of realism in art.
Early oil painting involved more than artistry—there was a little chemistry thrown in too. The first oil painters experimented with paint formulas, mixing ground pigments with assorted oils at varying temperatures. The most common oil used was—and still is—linseed oil (pressed from flaxseed), but some artists used walnut, safflower, or poppyseed oil. A few artists, including da Vinci, Messina, and Rubens, are known for adding their own ingredients to improve the paint’s characteristics.
Some early artists stored their paints in small sacks made of pigs’ bladders, which (as you might guess) helped seal in moisture. In the early 1840s, oil paints became available in collapsible metal tubes. No longer confined to their studios, artists ventured outside and learned to capture atmosphere and light in its presence, giving way to a painting approach called “plein air” and facilitating the birth of Impressionism. —ETG
FUN FACT
The earliest oil paintings yet discovered were found in Afghanistan’s Bamian caves. Experts date these murals of Buddhist imagery back to the 7th century—800 years before oils showed up in Western paintings!25