Very interesting. Did not know of encaustic iconography or the techniques. The rationale behind iconography was also something I did not know enough about. Really appreciate the work you do.
I know of a few iconographers who are trying encaustic, but most people these days rather shy away from it. Just the logistics (and hopeless messiness) of using hot wax in the studio is difficult. I think it's just a difficult annoying medium to use, and once people figured out you can use egg yolks to get the same effect without all the misery it more or less died.
One thing I find fascinating is that these techniques were ever tried in the first instance. I still wonder how wax or egg yolk was considered a possible source of, for lack of a better word, “paint”. But more interesting is that these artists were so determined to create that they created these techniques. The art is lovely, but the processes astound me. This fascination is why each time I have seen The David” I spend 80% of my time there staring at the detail of the palm of the right hand.
The photographs of San Vitale were very lovely. Mosaics are my favorite and I did a three day side trip to Ravenna to spend time amidst the mosaics there, but especially San Vitale. Thank you for that one as well.
Well, I don't know if I would ever have figured to mix pigment in it, but even I noticed how hard egg yolk can dry on a surface. And people who paint are pretty innovative and independent thinkers, in my experience. Even now they are really the most DIY-oriented people I know. You figure stuff out as you go, then you tell your friends. Give that process a couple thousand years, and bob's-your-uncle.
"This fascination is why each time I have seen The David” I spend 80% of my time there staring at the detail of the palm of the right hand."
This is totally me. I go to Italian museums armed with a magnifying lens, notebook and camera to get at the brushstrokes. As a painter, I'm obsessed with exactly how the paint was laid down, how the drawing was transferred, what exact pigments were used. it's why I can't get enough of those super-duper high res photos the museums are putting online now.
Agreed. I am enjoying what technology is providing in the way of the high-resolution photography. It’s been difficult until recently to convey in photos what we’re seeing in, say, San Vitale, or San Marco in Venice. Those turquoise and blues in your San Vitale photos were never done their justice in older photographs.
I just want to say that I became a paid subscriber because the history of the church and it’s reflection in art that is portrayed in this Substack is wonderful. I am also using some of the photographs here for meditation during Lent.
Very interesting. Did not know of encaustic iconography or the techniques. The rationale behind iconography was also something I did not know enough about. Really appreciate the work you do.
I know of a few iconographers who are trying encaustic, but most people these days rather shy away from it. Just the logistics (and hopeless messiness) of using hot wax in the studio is difficult. I think it's just a difficult annoying medium to use, and once people figured out you can use egg yolks to get the same effect without all the misery it more or less died.
One thing I find fascinating is that these techniques were ever tried in the first instance. I still wonder how wax or egg yolk was considered a possible source of, for lack of a better word, “paint”. But more interesting is that these artists were so determined to create that they created these techniques. The art is lovely, but the processes astound me. This fascination is why each time I have seen The David” I spend 80% of my time there staring at the detail of the palm of the right hand.
The photographs of San Vitale were very lovely. Mosaics are my favorite and I did a three day side trip to Ravenna to spend time amidst the mosaics there, but especially San Vitale. Thank you for that one as well.
Well, I don't know if I would ever have figured to mix pigment in it, but even I noticed how hard egg yolk can dry on a surface. And people who paint are pretty innovative and independent thinkers, in my experience. Even now they are really the most DIY-oriented people I know. You figure stuff out as you go, then you tell your friends. Give that process a couple thousand years, and bob's-your-uncle.
"This fascination is why each time I have seen The David” I spend 80% of my time there staring at the detail of the palm of the right hand."
This is totally me. I go to Italian museums armed with a magnifying lens, notebook and camera to get at the brushstrokes. As a painter, I'm obsessed with exactly how the paint was laid down, how the drawing was transferred, what exact pigments were used. it's why I can't get enough of those super-duper high res photos the museums are putting online now.
Agreed. I am enjoying what technology is providing in the way of the high-resolution photography. It’s been difficult until recently to convey in photos what we’re seeing in, say, San Vitale, or San Marco in Venice. Those turquoise and blues in your San Vitale photos were never done their justice in older photographs.
I just want to say that I became a paid subscriber because the history of the church and it’s reflection in art that is portrayed in this Substack is wonderful. I am also using some of the photographs here for meditation during Lent.