Late Classical and Hellenistic Painting Techniques and Materials: A Review of the Technical Literature
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English Slovak |
| ISSN: | ISSN 1605-8410 |
| Online Access: | http://www.viks.sk/chk/revincon16.doc |
| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. This paper aims to provide an overview of the techniques and materials used in paintings from different geographical regions that reflect the Hellenistic culture. Results from the various technical studies, both published and unpublished, are presented in the context of their art historical and archaeological perspective although where appropriate other paintings of different cultures and periods were used as comparanda. The aim is to provide a chronological and geographical understanding of the development or changes in painting techniques. CONCLUSION. However readily ideas may have moved around the Mediterranean, it is clear from the technical studies that local materials were preferred [3]. These were carefully selected, and used with reference to the location and desired effect of the painting. Materials such as crushed terracotta aggregates have been found in hydraulic mortars in Greece, and volcanic tuff in Pompeii. Similarly, fossiliferous limestones found on the coast of the Eastern Mediterranean (Cyprus, Israel and Egypt) characterise the aggregates of plasters in these areas. Natural ochres follow a similar trend with local sources being utilised, but rarer pigments were treated differently. There is strong evidence that many were traded [3]. Particular trades appear to have been maintained for green earth and probably Egyptian blue. The former appears in Egypt for the first time during the Hellenistic period. Its presence in Egypt is significant since the only known green pigments used until that time had been green frit and the polymorphs of copper chloride, primarily atacamite [50]. The presence of green earth in this period in Egypt is to be associated with the reign of the Macedonian Ptolemies, and the direct and indirect influences on Alexandria from Macedonia and other centres of Hellenistic culture. The pigment is likely to have been imported into both Egypt and the Levant from the neighbouring island of Cyprus - a Ptolemaic possession during the Hellenistic period - renowned in antiquity for its good quality celadonite mineral [3]. The sources of blue are more difficult to trace since variations observed in both its microstructure and composition suggest that a number of different centres of manufacture may have existed [3, 47]. Assessment is complicated by the fact that most of the samples studied were taken from paintings and not from samples of the raw pigment material. Further study is required to elucidate the characteristics of the manufacture of this pigment; it may prove possible to make exact conclusions about the production and trading of Egyptian blue over the century of its use. |
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| ISSN: | ISSN 1605-8410 |
