Online Encyclopedia
Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.
ENCAUSTIC PAINTING
Online EncyclopediaEncyclopedia Home :: EMS-EUD
del.icio.us it!
|
ENCAUSTIC See also:PAINTING . The name encaustic (from the See also:Greek for " burnt in ") is applied to paintings executed with vehicles in which See also:wax is the See also:chief ingredient. The See also:term was appropriately applied to the See also:ancient methods of painting in wax, because these required See also:heat to effect them. Wax may be used as a vehicle for painting without heat being requisite; nevertheless the ancient term encaustic has been retained, and is indiscriminately applied to all methods of painting in wax. The durability of wax, and its See also:power of resisting the effects of the See also:atmosphere, were well known to the Greeks, who used it for the See also:protection of their sculptures. As a vehicle for painting it was commonly employed by them and by the See also:Romans and Egyptians; but in See also:recent times it has met with only a limited application. Of See also:modern encaustic paintings those by Schnorr in the Residenz at See also:Munich are the most important. Modern paintings in wax, in their See also:chromatic range and in their See also:general effect, occupy a See also:middle See also:place between those executed in oil and in See also:fresco. Wax painting is not so easy as oil, but presents fewer technical difficulties than fresco. Ancient authors often make mention of encaustic, which, if it had been described by the word inurere, to See also:burn in, one might have supposed to have been a See also:species of See also:enamel painting. .But the expressions " incausto pingere," "pictura encaustica," " ceris pingere," " pictura inurere," used by See also:Pliny and other ancient writers, make it clear that some other species of painting is meant. Pliny distinguishes three species of encaustic painting. In the first they used a stylus, and painted either on See also:ivory or on polished See also:wood, previously saturated with some certain See also:colour; the point of the stylus or stigma served for this operation, and its broad or blade end cleared off the small filaments which arose from the outlines made by the stylus in the wax preparation. In the second method it appears that the wax See also:colours, being prepared beforehand, and formed into small cylinders for use, were smoothly spread by the spatula after the outlines were determined, and thus the picture was proceeded with and finished. By the See also:side of the painter stood a See also:brazier which was used to heat the spatula and probably the prepared colours. This is the method which was probably used by the painters who decorated the houses of See also:Herculaneum and of See also:Pompeii, as artists practising this method of painting are depicted in the decorations. The third method was by painting by a See also:brush dipped into wax liquefied by heat; the colours so applied attained considerable hardness, and could not be damaged either by the heat of the See also:sun or by the effects of See also:sea-See also:water. It was thus that See also:ships were decorated; and this See also:kind of encaustic was therefore styled " See also:ship-painting." About the See also:year 1749 See also:Count See also:Caylus and J. J. Bachelier, apainter, made some experiments in encaustic painting, and the count undertook to explain an obscure passage' in Pliny, supposed to be the following (See also:xxxv. 39): " Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere quis See also:primus excogitaverit non constat. Quidam Aristidis inventum putant, postea consummaturn a Praxitele; sed aliquanto vetustiores encausticae picturae exstitere, ut Polygnoti et Nicanoris et Arcesilai Pariorum. See also:Lysippus quoque Aeginae picturae suae inscripsit vbicauQev, quod profecto non fecisset nisi encaustica inventa." There are other passages in Pliny bearing upon this subject, in one of which (xxi. 49) he gives an See also:account of the preparation of "Punica cera." The nature of this Punic wax, which was the essential ingredient of the ancient painting in encaustic, has not been definitely ascertained. The See also:chevalier Lorgna, who investigated the subject in a small but valuable See also:tract, asserts that the nitron which Pliny mentions is not the See also:nitre of the moderns, but the natron of the ancients, viz. the native See also:salt which is found crystallized in See also:Egypt and other hot countries in sands surrounding lakes of salt water. This substance the Carthaginians, according to Pliny, used in, pre-paring their wax, and hence the name Punic seems to be derived. Lorgna made a number of experiments with this salt, using from three to twenty parts of See also: Another method suggested about this See also:time, and one which seems to See also:tally srery well with Pliny's description, is the following. Melt the wax with strong See also:solution of salt of See also:tartar, and let the colours be ground up in it. Place the picture when finished before the fire till by degrees the wax melts, swells, and is bloated up upon the picture; the picture is then gradually removed from the fire, and the colours, without being injuriously affected by the operation of the fire, become unalterable, See also:spirits of See also:wine having been burnt upon them without doing the least harm. Count Caylus's method was different, and much simpler: (I) the See also:cloth or wood designed for the picture is waxed over, by rubbing it simply with a piece of beeswax; (2) the colours are mixed up with pure water; but as these colours will not adhere to the wax, the whole ground must be rubbed over with See also:chalk or See also:whiting before the colour is applied; and (3) when the picture is dry it is put near the fire, whereby the wax is melted and absorbs the colours. It must be allowed that nothing could well be simpler than this See also:process, and it was thought that this kind of painting would be capable of withstanding the See also:weather and of lasting longer than oil painting. This kind ofpainting has not the See also:gloss of oil painting, so that the picture may be seen in any See also:light, a quality of the very first importance in all methods of mural painting. The colours too, when so secured, are See also:firm, and will See also:bear washing, and have a See also:property which is perhaps more important still, viz. that exposure to See also:smoke and foul vapours merely leaves a See also:deposit on the See also:surface without injuring the See also:work. The " encausto pingendi " of the ancients could not have been enamelling, as the word" inurere," taken in its rigorous sense, might at first See also:lead one to suppose, nor could it have been painting produced in the same manner as encaustic tiles or encaustic tesserae; but that it must have been something akin to the count's process would appear from the words of Pliny already quoted, " Ceris pingere ac picturam inurere." See also:Werner of See also:Neustadt found the following process very effectual in making wax soluble in water. For each See also:pound of white wax he took twenty-four ounces of potash, which he dissolved in two pints of water, warming it gently. In this ley he boiled the wax, cut into litle bits, for See also:half an See also:hour, after which he removed it from the fire and allowed it to cool. The wax floated on the surface of the liquor in the See also:form of a white saponaceous See also:matter; and this being triturated with water produced a sort of emulsion, which he called wax milk, or encaustic wax. This preparation may be mixed with all kinds of colours, and consequently can be applied in a single operation. Mrs See also: Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click, and select "copy." Then paste it into your website, email, or other HTML. Site content, images, and layout Copyright © 2006 - Net Industries, worldwide. |
|
|
[back] ENCAENIA |
[next] ENCEINTE (Lat. in, within, cinctus, girdled; to be ... |