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• #PAINTING OVER WET PLASTER HOW TO#

#PAINTING OVER WET PLASTER HOW TO#

The Sienese painters' guild, for example, proclaimed themselves 'by the grace of God, the expositors of sacred writ to the ignorant who know not how to read.'

The artists took their mission very seriously. They taught Christian history and dogma, promoted good citizenship, and harmonized with the architectural space for a completely unified interior. In monumental frescoes they filled both didactic and aesthetic needs. The church used paintings on the walls and ceilings to teach religious doctrine to a largely illiterate public. "Fresco painting flourished in Italy in the late Middle Ages, an era of widespread building by the Catholic church and the government. Throughout the project, Balma referred to this and other sources daily. Cennino Cennini documented the techniques these artists used in The Craftsman's Handbook, written in 1437. "The American public is most familiar with frescoes painted by the great Italian masters. Fresco painting is not uniquely a Western convention, however it is found around around the world on every continent. Following a visual tradition that began with the cave paintings at Lascaux more than 15,000 years ago, it has been used throughout the ages as a means of religious and secular communication. The perforated tracing paper was used twice, first to transfer the entire cartoon on to the rough plaster layer and then to mark each day's fresh intonaco coat. The pattern left on the plaster surface formed a kind of connect-the-dots road map for Balma and his assistants to follow. Next comes a step called 'pouncing,' tracing paper is positioned on the ceiling and tapped lightly with a muslin bag filled with dry charcoal. The cartoon then is perforated with a small needle to create an image of the design. mark the transfer of the design to the ceiling. Thomas project, explains the process of fresco painting: "Before the smooth intonaco coat is applied, the ceiling is gridded using a snap-line coated in sinopia, a red earth pigment. Maren Nelson, former administrative assistant at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and an assistant to Balma on the St. If the artist feels dissatisfied with some part, the plaster and paint either must be scraped off while still wet, or if dry, chipped off and the process started over again with the arriccio layer. This is called a "day section." Unlike acrylic or oil, fresco painting cannot be covered over, thus making every stroke permanent. Because plaster dries quickly, only the area the artist can paint in one day is plastered. To "build" a fresco, plaster is applied in several layers, starting with the rough arriccio layer and finishing with the intonaco coat.

Even the time-honored method of mixing the plaster with a hoe in a trough proved to be superior to using a jackhammer-like mixing power tool. Earth pigments, mined from sources around the world, were ground by hand, a crucial task that must be performed properly to ensure the stability of the pigments in the plaster. The paint brushes were specially made in Italy from boar's hair, which resists the lime's highly alkaline quality. The Vatican quarry that provided lime for Michelangelo's fresco masterpiece, the Sistine Chapel ceiling, provided lime for the St. The project began in 1993, continued in 1994 and was completed in 1995.Īrtist Mark Balma used the same materials and methods as the great Italian fresco masters, from Giotto to Tiepolo, on the Frescoes of St. Thomas project was done only during the summer, when conditions were optimal.

As the plaster dries, a chemical process bonds the pigment and plaster together.īecause humid weather is ideal for fresco painting, work on the ceiling and pillars of the St. Fresco, the Italian word for fresh, is a form of mural painting in which earth pigments are painted directly on fresh, wet, lime plaster.