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Cennino Cennini – Giotto’s technique

The Book of Art, written towards the end of the Fourteenth Century by Cennino Cennini, still remains the primary source for the knowledge of the artistic techniques of the Fourteenth Century. The composition was outlined with willow charcoal, darkening the folds and faces, then the tablet was dusted …

Simone Martini – Egg Tempera

The painting of the skin tones, which, according to Cennini’s painting rules, is the final operation, requires a green base which, obtained with green earth and lead white …

Crivelli – Mixed media

The use of a mixed technique can be recognized for most of the paintings between the Fourteenth and Sixteenth Centuries: in fact, if we define the paintings whose only binder is egg yolk as “egg tempera” …

Botticelli – The tempera grassa

The transition from egg tempera to oil technique was, unlike what is usually thought, particularly slow and gradual and meant much more …