Following Alberti’s advice: the fifteenth-century shift to oil paint

In the fifteenth century, egg tempera, the medium used for painting in the fourteenth century, was increasingly replaced by oil paint. As Italian painters explored the possibilities offered by this new medium they realised its illusionistic potential. Unlike tempera, oil dries slowly and can be worked wet-on-wet, mixing colours directly on the surface of the painting, rather than in gradient layers. Additionally a transparent layer, or glaze, could be added in-between coats of paint to increase the depth and vibrancy of colours, opening up a whole new field of possibilities.

Fifteenth-century painters endeavoured to distance themselves from the status of the crafstman associated with manual labour, towards that of the artist (which held a higher intellectual value). Hence, they used the capacities of oil to create convincing illusions of reality, a skill that came to be more highly valued than gilding. Even, the influential and forward-thinking art theorist, Leon Battista Alberti wrote that :

"I should not wish gold to be used, for there is more admiration and praise for the painter who imitates the rays of gold with colour" (Alberti, On Painting, 1435, book II, 83)

As demonstrated byThe Virgin and child enthroned, Gentile Bellini (1460-1507) excelled in using oil paint to create the illusion of gold thread. The Virgin’s cloak shows a breathtaking level of mastery of oil as Gentile traces almost an infinity of tiny brush strokes of all shades of yellows and browns, to reproduce the striation, varied texture, and unevenly raised surface of the type of gold-brocaded velvet portrayed.