Frescoes Defined
Sibyl of Delphi
Frescoes Defined
Fresco, the buon fresco of the Renaissance, is the art of painting on freshly-spread moist lime plaster with pigments suspended in a water vehicle. Archaeologists have studied frescoes to learn about the daily lives and customs of people from past civilizations.
Many ancient frescoes were not fresco by true definition. The artists actually applied paint to the plaster after it had dried. This is known as fresco secco. The artist added a lime mixture or albumen (an organic binding agent) to the pigment, which allowed it to adhere to the dried plaster. Colors generally used were black (carbonaceous shale), white (hydrate of lime), red (haematite), yellow (ochre), blue (silicate of copper), and green (blue and yellow mixes).
For simplicity sake, ‘fresco’ and ‘frescoes’ are used in the text regardless of whether the methods referenced are buon fresco or fresco secco.
