LINSEED OIL: PAINTINGS’ REBIRTH
Painting A Definition
The Renaissance saw the introduction of linseed oil into painting. Linseed oil’s superior qualities replaced other mediums overnight. Mediums such as tempera (using egg yolk or egg white) and distemper (usually made from powdered chalk, lime, and size) almost disappeared. Fresco painting, where pigments are mixed with water to a wet lime plaster, continued to a lesser degree. These finishes could not compete with linseed oil’s versatility, durability, and flexibility.
The Introduction of Linseed Oil
The Renaissance saw the introduction of linseed oil into painting. Linseed oil’s superior qualities replaced other mediums overnight. Mediums such as tempera (using egg yolk or egg white), distemper (usually made from powdered chalk, lime, and size) almost disappeared. Fresco painting where pigments mixed with water to a wet lime plaster continued to a lesser degree. These finishes could not compete with linseed oil’s versatility, durability, and flexibility.
The Revolution In Painting
t is not a coincidence that the first oil paintings resemble stained glass windows. The oils in stained glass evaporated or fired off when fusing the pigments into the glass. The glass would then be repainted and refired to add depth to shadow and color, often multiple times. The fine artist incorporated these techniques of painting with linseed oil. With linseed oil, the panels dried in the air, sometimes with exposure to the sun. Once the oil dried, adding another layer of paint was possible. The layers added to the depth and complexity of the passage. This method gave a depth impossible with egg tempera.
Incorporating The Techniques From Other Trades
Framemakers were especially crucial in bringing linseed oil into painting. In fact, in the early Renaissance, they used linseed oil as a finish for wood and as a binder to apply paint to the carved and gilded altarpieces. There was a high demand for portable altars that they could not fulfill at this time. It was this demand that enabled painted religious scenes to become predominant. But linseed oil quickly replaced egg tempera on the panels.
Stained glass artists gave oil painting techniques on how to use oils. The thin glazes and painted grisailles designs worked to apply linseed oils.
Techniques From Stained Glass
It is not a coincidence that the first oil paintings have the appearance of stained glass windows. The oils in stained glass evaporated or fired off when fusing the pigments into the glass. The glass would then be repainted and refired to add depth to shadow and color, often multiple times. The fine artist incorporated these techniques of painting with linseed oil. With linseed oil, the panels dried in the air, sometimes with exposure to the sun. Once the oil dried, it was possible to add another layer of paint. The layers added to the depth and complexity of the passage. This method gave a depth impossible with egg tempera.
Problems to Avoid
In painting on glass, the water-based pigment often beads up or treacles. With glass, the solution is to wash and de-grease the glass with soap. When working with linseed oil, the problem is similar, and beading or treacling can occur. Linseed oil has a tough and impervious surface when dry. It does not dry; unlike most oils, it goes through a chemical reaction and changes into linoxin. This impervious quality of linoxin can cause subsequent paint not to adhere correctly to the previous layer of paint. It creates a problem only when painting wet paint over dry paint. Because a pigment mixed with linseed oil has a thickness and does not flow, it will appear to stick to the surface, but when the top paint dries, it may pull away from the underlayer. This separation months or years later may only affect specific passages of a painting that are difficult, if not impossible, to fix.
The Reason For The Problem
This erratic behavior is caused by different color pigments absorbing different quantities of oil when made. This inconsistent oiliness causes some colors to be oiler than others and be less able to bind with subsequent layers of paint. Different pigments, when dry, can appear shiny or flat. The flat colors have “sunk” and seem ready to accept another coat of paint but are prone to resist subsequent paint layers.
The Solution
It is possible to tell where the paint applied will hold once it has cured by testing the surface. This testing done by spreading or brushing on a small amount of pure linseed oil on the painting will show if the next coat of paint will adhere properly. If the oil treacles or beads up, there will probably be a problem with the paint correctly sticking, and cracking may result. Test each color and passage to avoid problems.