January 27, 2012
Oil Paintings Take People Through History
The pursuit of art and culture often bring to mind visits to galleries and trips to museums. Anyone planning a touring vacation in Europe will set their sights on such places as must-see stops. Oil paintings are historic evidence of humanity's commitment to beauty and art.
Oil painting is the process of using oil based paints to create a work of art. Oil paints were once made from boiling a natural resin with oil. The oil came from natural sources, typically linseed but not excluding walnut or safflower oil as well as poppyseed oil. Using a resin such as frankincense would make a varnish that was highly prized as a medium because of its body and gloss.
When people look back through the history of oil painting, they usually settle on the 15th century as where it originated. In truth, Indian and Chinese painters were using this type of paint as far back as the fifth through ninth centuries. There is also an important treatise written by Theophilus Presbyter dated in 1125 all about how to use oil based paints.
During the 15th century when oil painting became popular in European countries, most pictures were of three types. There were the illustrious supernatural images taken from mythology or the bible, such as the Rape of Europa and the Raising of the Cross. Famous kings and queens appreciated portrait work and would often hire an artist to be in residence at court. Painters also enjoyed capturing common people, such as the picture The Blue Boy or another called Bust of an Old Man with Helmet.
Hardly anyone wouldn't recognize the Mona Lisa painting upon seeing it. Cloaked in the unknown for hundreds of years, Leonardo da Vinci didn't consider himself finished with it until near his death in 1525. People now know that the sitter was not an unknown woman but a wealthy lady named Lisa Del Giacondo, thanks to a margin note located in 2005. The painting was in celebration of the family's newest home and the birth of their second son.
Many people have wondered about the assumed beauty of the lady sitting in the Mona Lisa. She is considered as evidence of da Vinci's talent as well as honesty, as compared even to other women of her era, she was not thought to be beautiful. Without eyelashes and eyebrows, many people thought she had plucked these out prior to the painting, as many women of that era did. However, closer inspection shows that these were once painted on the picture but were wiped away by overzealous cleaning over the centuries.
In 1911, an employee of the Louvre museum stole the artwork during museum hours by hiding it under his jacket. His intention was to have it returned to its homeland of Italy. It was kept there for two years before its final return back to the Louvre, and the man served only six months for his crime but was considered a heroic patriot by his people.
Once upon a time, paints couldn't be taken very far from the artist's studio because they had to be made by the artist on the spot. Making great artworks in those days was hard, and paints weren't water soluble and required patience. Nowadays, people do not take this effort for granted by any means. The oil paintings of old are looked upon with great gratitude and appreciation.
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Filed under Dance Camps by Barb

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