Punch marking and other decorative interventions
Paste-print reliefs, insertion of glass stones, engravings, punching, graining and other procedures used in the gilding of paintings to obtain the maximum brightness and splendor of the surface.
Punch marking, graining, paste-print engraving and reliefs
The gilding of the ancient paintings with a gold background involved a series of procedures aimed at obtaining the maximum brightness and splendor of the surface. In particular, between the ‘300 and ‘400 the halos, diadems, the borders of the clothes appear to be areas designated to accommodate minute decorative motifs. Cennino Cennini teaches how to insert glass stones, further pictorial interventions, how to create paste-print reliefs, how to grain surfaces. The interventions carried out through engravings or using punches capable of imprinting small decorative motifs on the surface appear very widespread: circles, stars, stylized flowers in order to enhance some spaces in ways that are very close to those experienced in contemporary goldsmith art, all to obtain different light reflections and reach the maximum splendor of the surface.
