Painting techniques of the masters
Titian (1487 - 1576)
Titians' style of painting changed dramatically over his career. His early works where delicate in technique and invited close scrutiny, whereas later in his career his brushwork was very much freer in style and had to seen from a distance to be appreciated.
In Titians' later work, the separation between the drawing and painting process has disappeared. X-rays show how the composition was worked directly in paint. The description of Titian's working method by one of his pupils, Palma Giovene, corroborates this: 'He laid in his pictures with a mass of colour, which served as groundwork for what he wanted to express. I myself have seen such vigourous underpainting in plain red earth for the halftones or in white lead. With the same brush dipped in red, black or yellow, he worked up the light parts and in four strokes, he could create a remarkably fine figure... Then he turned the picture to the wall and left it for months without looking at it, until he returned to it and stared critically at it, as if it were a mortal enemy. If he found something that displeased him he went to work like a surgeon, in the last stage using his fingers more than his brush.'
Venice, at the time, was a commercial centre and port giving artists access to high-grade pigments. Titians' early works display the whole range of the palette in large juxtaposed, colour blocks. In his later works, Titian broke up local colour and focused on the flickering effect of light on a surface. Complex pigment mixtures, however, were still not used, colour modulations being achieved with brushwork and glazes alone. The paint varying from thin washes to thick impasto and was applied by brushing, stippling, dabbing, scraping and smoothing, working very freely as he did so. Contemporaries commented on Titains' dramatically individual and expressive handling of the oil medium, which has since had a profound influence on later oil painters.
Example: The Death of Acteon (painted 1560s)
(This is one of Titians' later works)
Titian started with two pieces of canvas that were stitched together. At this time, the average loom was only 1m wide. This canvas was prepared with size made from animal glue and gesso, a mixture of gypsum and animal glue.
The composition was then roughly laid in using earth pigments and white.
The painting was then worked up in stages where careful attention was paid to the portrait and other areas of flesh, which contrasts with the very loose almost impressionistic style of the surrounding scene. Dark areas where built up in thin glazes, whereas the highlights are thickly laid opaque white paint.