When discussing painting, the standard that comes to mind is usually oil paint on canvas. Oil painting, however, is a relatively new medium when considering the history of art.

Oil painting was not used in the traditional sense until the fifteenth century. Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck popularized oil painting with famous works such as The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait (1434). Oil paint allowed Van Eyck and other Flemish artists to paint with much more detail than ever before, and achieve a much higher level of realism than previously possible. Oil paint is transparent and slow-drying, so it can be layered and blended to create depth and realistic color.

Jan Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Wedding Portrait, 1434, oil on panel

Leonardo da Vinci brought the new technique to Italy later on in the fifteenth century, and made some improvements to Van Eyck’s method. He added beeswax to the paint to keep it from darkening in color.

Oil painting soon replaced the techniques most often associated with Italian art – tempera painting and fresco. Tempera paint is a fast-drying paint that usually consists of pigment and egg yolk. Unlike oil paint, tempera paint cannot be layered or blended, so the colors usually appear very vivid.

Giotto, Crucifixion, 1304-1306, fresco.

Raphael’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints provides an example of the distinct, bold colors typical of a tempera painting – notably the red and blue. Frescoes, on the other hand, are created by painting into wet plaster, and must be completed before the plaster dries. This results in a more spontaneous, less detailed work of art. Evidence of this can be seen in works like Giotto’s Crucifixion.

Raphael, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints, 1504-1505, tempera on wood.