Tempera (Italian: [ˈtɛmpera]), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting

medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually
glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium.
Tempera paintings are very longlasting, and examples from the first century AD still exist. Egg
tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention
of oil painting. A paint consisting of pigment and binder commonly used in the United States as
poster paint is also often referred to as "tempera paint", although the binders in this paint are
different from traditional tempera paint.

Etymology HistoryA 1367 tempera on wood by Niccolò Semitecolo. Tempera painting has been
found on early Egyptian sarcophagi decorations. Many of the Fayum mummy portraits use tempera,
sometimes in combination with encaustic. A related technique has been used also in ancient and
early medieval paintings found in several caves and rock-cut temples of India. [2] High-quality art
with the help of tempera was created in Bagh Caves between the late 4th and 10th centuries and in
the 7th century in Ravan Chhaya rock shelter, Orissa. [3] The murals of the 3rd century Dura-Europos
synagogue were created in tempera. The art technique was known from the classical world, where it
appears to have taken over from encaustic painting and was the main medium used for panel
painting and illuminated manuscripts in the Byzantine world and Medieval and Early Renaissance
Europe. Tempera painting was the primary panel painting medium for nearly every painter in the
European Medieval and Early renaissance period up to 1500. For example, most surviving panel
paintings attributed to Michelangelo are executed in egg tempera, an exception being his Doni
Tondo which uses both tempera and oil paint. Oil paint, which may have originated in Afghanistan
between the 5th and 9th centuries [4] and migrated westward in the Middle Ages [5] eventually
superseded tempera. Oil replaced tempera as the principal medium used for creating artwork during
the 15th century in Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe. Around 1500, oil paint replaced
tempera in Italy. In the 19th and 20th centuries, there were intermittent revivals of tempera
technique in Western art, among the Pre-Raphaelites, Social Realists, and others.

Tempera painting continues to be used in Greece and Russia where it is the traditional medium for
Orthodox icons.

Tempera is traditionally created by hand-grinding dry powdered pigments into a binding agent or
medium, such as egg yolk, milk (in the form of casein) and a variety of plant gums. The most
common form of classical tempera painting is "egg tempera". For this form most often only the
contents of the egg yolk is used. The white of the egg and the membrane of the yolk are discarded
(the membrane of the yolk is dangled over a receptacle and punctured to drain off the liquid inside).
Egg yolk is rarely used by itself with pigment; it dries almost immediately and can crack when it is
dry. Some agent is always added, in variable proportions. One recipe calls for vinegar, but only in
small amounts. A few drops of vinegar will preserve the solution for a week. (1:3 , 3 parts water, 1
part yolk; other recipes suggest white wine (1 part yolk, 2 parts wine). Some schools of egg tempera
use various mixtures of egg yolk and water. Powdered pigment, or pigment that has been ground in
distilled water, is placed onto a palette or bowl and mixed with a roughly equal volume of the
binder. [6] Some pigments require slightly more binder, some require less. When used to paint icons
on church walls, liquid myrrh is sometimes added to the mixture to give the paint a pleasing odor,
particularly as worshipers may find the egg tempera somewhat pungent for quite some time after
completion. The paint mixture has to be constantly adjusted to maintain a balance between a
"greasy" and "watery" consistency by adjusting the amount of water and yolk. As tempera dries, the
artist will add more Technique

Egg tempera

Pietro Lorenzetti's Tarlati polyptych, Tempera and gold on panel, 1320 water to preserve the
consistency and to balance the thickening of the yolk on contact with air. Once prepared, the paint
cannot be stored. Egg tempera is water-resistant, but not waterproof. Different preparations use the
egg white or the whole egg for a different effect. Other additives such as oil and wax emulsions can
modify the medium. Egg tempera is not a flexible paint and requires stiff boards; painting on canvas
will cause cracks to form and chips of paint to fall off. Adding oil in no more than a 1:1 ratio with the
egg yolk by volume produces a water-soluble medium with many of the color effects of oil paint,
although it cannot be painted thickly. Some of the pigments used by medieval painters, such as
cinnabar (contains mercury), orpiment (contains arsenic), or lead white (contains lead) are highly
toxic. Most artists today use modern synthetic pigments, which are less toxic but have similar color
properties to the older pigments. Even so, many (if not most) modern pigments are still dangerous
unless certain precautions are taken; these include keeping pigments wet in storage to avoid
breathing their dust. Tempera paint dries rapidly. It is normally applied in thin, semi-opaque or
transparent layers. Tempera painting allows for great precision when used with traditional
techniques that require the application of numerous small brush strokes applied in a cross-hatching
technique. When dry, it produces a smooth matte finish. Because it cannot be applied in thick layers
as oil paints can, tempera paintings rarely have the deep color saturation that oil paintings can
achieve because it can hold less pigment (lower pigment load). In this respect, the colors of an
unvarnished tempera painting resemble a pastel, although the color deepens if a varnish is applied.
On the other hand, tempera colors do not change over time, [7] whereas oil paints darken, yellow,
and become transparent with age. [8] Tempera adheres best to an absorbent ground that has a
lower oil content than the tempera binder used (the traditional rule of thumb is "fat over lean", and
never the other way around). [9][10] The ground traditionally used is inflexible Italian gesso, and the
substrate is usually rigid as well. [11] Historically wood panels were used as the substrate, and more
recently un-tempered masonite or medium density fiberboard (MDF) have been employed; heavy
paper is also used. Apart from the traditional process of mixing pigment with egg yolk, new methods
include egg tempera sold in tubes by manufacturers such as Sennelier and Daler-Rowney. These
paints do contain a slight amount of oil to enhance durability within the container. Marc Chagall
used Sennelier egg tempera tube paints extensively.

Tempera grassa

Pigments Application Ground Pre-made paints Although tempera has been out of favor since the
Late Renaissance and Baroque eras, it has been periodically rediscovered by later artists such as
William Blake, the Nazarenes, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Joseph Southall. The 20th century saw a
significant revival of tempera. European painters who worked with tempera include Giorgio de
Chirico, Otto Dix, Eliot Hodgkin, Pyke Koch, [12] and Pietro Annigoni, who used an emulsion of egg
yolks, stand oil and varnish. Spanish surrealist painter, Remedios Varo, worked extensively in egg
tempera. The tempera medium was used by American artists such as the Regionalists Andrew
Wyeth, Thomas Hart Benton and his student Roger Medearis; expressionists Ben Shahn, Mitchell
Siporin and John Langley Howard, magic realists George Tooker, Paul Cadmus, Jared French, Julia
Thecla and Louise E. Marianetti, realist painter David Hanna; Art Students League of New York
instructors Kenneth Hayes Miller and William C. Palmer, Social Realists Kyra Markham, Isabel Bishop,
Reginald Marsh, and Noel Rockmore, Edward Laning, Anton Refregier, Jacob Lawrence, Rudolph F.
Zallinger, Robert Vickrey, Peter Hurd, and science fiction artist John Schoenherr, notable as the cover
artist of Dune. In the early part of the 20th century, a large number of Indian artists, notably of
Bengal school took up tempera as one of their primary media of expression. Artists such as
Gaganendranath Tagore, Asit Kumar Haldar, Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose, Kalipada Ghoshal
and Sughra Rababi were foremost. After the 1950s, artists such as Jamini Roy and Ganesh Pyne
established tempera as a medium for the new age artists of India. Other practicing tempera artists
include Philip Aziz, Ernst Fuchs, Antonio Roybal, George Huszar, Donald Jackson, Tim Lowly, Altoon
Sultan, Shaul Shats, Sandro Chia, Alex Colville, Robert Vickrey, Andrew Wyeth, Andrew Grassie, and
Ganesh Pyne. Artists Revival in 20th-century American art 20th-century Indian art In contemporary
art GallerySpanish, Altar Frontal with Christ in Majesty and the Life of Saint Martin, 1250, The
Walters Art Museum Guido da Siena, Madonna, Church of San Regolo, Siena, tempera and gold on
panel, 1285–1295 Duccio, Madonna and Child with saints polyptych, tempera and gold on wood,
1311–1318