Frame (painting)
The setting (v. Grasp , medium high German vazzen = grasp, grasp, grasp; old high German fazzon , word related to fixed ) denotes the color design of a sculpture , a relief , a picture or another surface ( painting , coloring ), as well as the Occupation of an object with precious metals , for example gold plating .
The setting of sculptures is created by the so-called barrel painter (also staff painter ), an independent profession.
After priming, the so-called “glue deletion” (e.g. with a glow glue) follows to block the surface or reduce its absorbency. The gilding or painting is done in one or more layers. Finally, the surface of the plastic is smoothed, polished or painted.
primer
The primer of a plastic or sculpture (made of wood, plaster of paris , stone or other materials) serves to smooth the surface so that an even application of paint or precious metals is possible and, in the case of wood, to prevent the paint from being sucked into the pores . The primer is often a few millimeters thick and sometimes details of the sculpture are only worked out in the primer. The primer is a combination of animal glue and various types of chalk , which is painted in several layers on the untreated surface of the sculpture with a soft brush while it is warm. After drying, each layer is sanded (with horsetail or sandpaper ).
The brightness of the primer and its reflectivity influence the color effect of the subsequent layers of the frame when the colors are applied translucently . A primer that is often translucent today is the result of physical and chemical aging processes in the frame, which were not necessarily intended from the outset.
Polished white socket
The polished white version was of great importance in the 18th century . The aim was to imitate more noble materials like marble , porcelain and colored materials. In one method, for example, a primer was applied particularly carefully and sanded with a specially prepared pumice stone . It has been given various additions. Finally, you could polish the surface with a dog's tooth or a specially shaped agate, creating the impression of delicate porcelain. Another method is to apply several layers of oil or resin-bonded paint over a primer.
Polychrome frame (multicolored)
The polychrome frame consists of several co-ordinated layers of color. Contemporary barrel painters usually use ready-made glue or egg tempera , which is applied to the primer and then polished. Before the industrial production of well pigmented paints, barrel painters made the paints themselves. For this purpose, pure pigments (dyes) were rubbed on a glass plate and mixed with binders (resins, glues, oils and others).
Another way to achieve colored surfaces is to layer different glazes with a more or less intense tint on top of one another. For bright red tones, for example, vermilion is painted on white chalk ground with an aqueous binder. A dark red oil glaze made of madder lacquer is placed on top of it, into which darker shades are painted in deep wrinkles .
Monochrome frame
This is a frame that consists of a single color, which is only modulated by white or black brightening or darkening. It is used to imitate certain materials, such as stone or metal. This grisaille painting was used for example. B. with the old Dutch painters of the 15th and 16th centuries.
Incarnate
The parts of a sculpture that reproduce skin surfaces (face, hands, etc.) are treated with particular care. These "meat parts" are called incarnates . The colors are applied finely and thinly on top of each other in several layers, which then result in the right skin tone. In medieval barrel painting, different color compositions (mostly stronger colors) are often chosen for men's faces than for women's faces.
The first layer bears the so-called “internal drawing” (outline of eyes, eyebrows, mouth and red cheeks). The upper layers are either applied as a glaze or they have a transparent, enamel-like white shimmer. These layers then neutralized the contours underneath. This overpainting creates a delicately flowing color effect that perfectly reproduces skin colors. Especially figures from the Rococo ( late Renaissance , refinement of the techniques) have very beautiful incarnates.
Gold leaf
The gold leaf was in earlier centuries by the gilder itself ducats beaten and other gold coins. Today you can buy the finished gold leaf in specialist shops. Gold leaf is made from flat gold plates that are placed between leather patches and hit with a heavy hammer until wafer-thin foils of up to 1/30000 mm are created. These foils are cut into eight by eight centimeter sheets and placed in paper booklets.
Leaf metal frame
Various techniques are used when gilding with gold leaf - or when applying silver . The most valuable type of gilding is poliment gilding. After the primer and "glue removal", the sculpture is provided with a further primer in red, ocher or rarely yellow, the bolus, in the areas to be gilded. Real gold leaf is applied to the bolus base with a special device: the gilding brush or a pin . The brush is statically charged and replaces hand contact, in which the gold leaf would inevitably disintegrate due to its nature. The dark red of the poliment sometimes shines through the gold and gives it a particularly beautiful shine as soon as it has been polished with an agate stone or animal tooth to remove the seams of the gold flakes.
A sculpture is covered with silver in the same way. Since silver oxidizes , a varnish must then be applied to prevent the metal from tarnishing and blackening or browning.
Areas that were hidden from the viewer, for example deep wrinkles, were covered with cheaper intermediate gold (an alloy of gold and silver) , especially in the Baroque period . At that time, where the individual metal flakes did not meet each other seamlessly, the imperfections were often evened out with a golden yellow plant varnish so that the continuous course of the surface was maintained. In the Middle Ages, gilding was often completely dispensed with in the areas that were not visible, and people contented themselves with the primer or the bolus.
Powder gold is used for fine, shiny gold lines . Finely ground gold is mixed with a binding agent (glue) and painted on. Another form of application of gold lines and patterns is the sgraffito in which a gold-plated surface is covered with a mostly dark layer of paint, from which the pattern is then scratched out while it is still wet, so that the gold shows through at these points. This technique was very common in the production of the Antwerp reredos in the 16th century. Sometimes the terms flourishing (gold ornamentation) and making music mean a very similar technique in other linguistic usage.
The technique of oil gilding, in which the gold leaf is placed on a solution called a mixture , allows work to be carried out very quickly. However, the gold cannot be polished after the work is completed. It remains matt and does not develop the typical gold sheen. Matt gold plating is often an indication of a new version in post-medieval times.
In addition to the use of real silver and gold, alloys made of less noble metals were also used until the late 19th century, so-called bronzes, which oxidized after a short time and formed spots in the gilding that were often just as ugly as the lack of gilding and today mostly removed and replaced by real gold leaf.
In the case of frames made only of metals, either the incarnate is applied in silver and the robe in gold or vice versa. However, these versions are very rare. As a rule, they are reserved for sculptures that are set up in churches.
Luster capture
This technique was also used, especially in the Baroque period, to imitate noble materials. Translucent green, red or blue glazes were painted over a layer of silver, creating the appearance of precious stones - for example on the hems of a garment. In the figurative decoration of churches there are occasionally lascivious garments, such as the usually blue clothing of the Madonna . Such a setting made a work appear more valuable.
Another variant of luster is the application of metals that have previously been colored: melting them together with solutions of resin soaps and essential oils causes a tint or discoloration of the precious metal, which can then be processed like paint. With modern chandeliers, there are color differences due to the addition of other metals ( iron oxide = red, uranium = yellow, mother-of-pearl = white).
varnish
The varnish is a transparent coating that protects the paint or metal layers from the harmful influences of the atmosphere (dust, oxygen, gases, moisture). Since varnishes are never neutral in color, but have a very slight inherent tint, they change the reflection of the light on a frame and therefore slightly influence the gloss and color effect. Varnishes become cloudy over time and need to be renewed occasionally. They are also not weatherproof. Even supposedly “unmounted” wooden sculptures from the Middle Ages are often varnished.
Examination of the frame and restoration
Nowadays, if you do a frame examination of sculptures, you can draw conclusions about the origin and age of a sculpture ( dating , chronological order ). These results therefore make it easier to understand the special development of a character. Some of the versions have been changed or completely redesigned over the centuries. In particular, in the event that an object has been recast several times , the frame is understood as the entirety of the associated colored areas (and surface areas). In this sense, the term is used in art history and restoration , and documents the history of the object. For example, the continued liturgical use of a sculpture over a long period is indicated by a multiple overlay. In the restoration process, the uppermost version is often retained today, even if it is more recent and the medieval version below it, as it is inseparable from the history of the object and the appearance would be decidedly disrupted if the version were removed.
swell
- Lexicon of Art
- "Version" panel in the Liebieghaus Frankfurt
literature
- Reclam's Handbook of Artistic Techniques . Reclam, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-15-030015-0 .
- Manfred Koller: Problems and methods of retouching polychrome sculpture , in: Maltechnik Restauro 85, 1979, 1, ISSN 0025-1445 , pp. 14–40.
- Michael Kühlenthal, Sadatoshi Miura (ed.): Historical polychromy. Sculpture version in Germany and Japan . Hirmer, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-7774-9900-5 .
- Jirina Lehmann (Ed.): The workshop book of Johan Arendt Müller zu Quakenbrück. A source document from the second half of the 18th century . Siegl, Munich 2002, ISBN 3-935643-04-7 , ( Hildesheim Contributions to the History of Materials and Techniques H. 1), (Notes on materials and procedures of an unknown barrel painter from the property of J. A Müller, original text and transfer in today's German).
- Ulrich Schießl : Baroque and Rococo techniques of barrel painting . Werner, Worms 1983, ISBN 3-88462-013-4 .
- Johannes Taubert: Colored Sculptures. Meaning, version, restoration 3rd edition. Callwey, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7667-0692-6 .
- Thomas Brachert, Friedrich Kobler, version of pictorial works, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, Vol. VII (1978), Col. 743–826; in: RDK Labor, URL: < http://www.rdklabor.de/w/?oldid=89490 > [24. February 2015].