Glossary

Note: all gilding techniques described below can be used with leafs made of other metal than gold

 

  • Binder: a substance mixed with pigments to create paint. Typical binders are egg yolk, animal glue, and oil.

  • Bole: red clay based paint applied in several coats before water-guilding to increase the warmth and reddish-hue of the gold leaf

  • Byzantine: of Byzantium, the Empire which stretched from all around the Mediterranean sea to the Eastern borders of modern-day Turkey. It emerged in 330 CE and fell in 1453 CE.

  • Cope: long ecclesiastical vestment, often without sleeves.

  • Burnishing: the rubbing, or polishing, of gilded surfaced with a precious stone or a tooth to increase its shine. The effect of the technique is described by Cennino Cennini in The Craftsman's Handbook: "when it is properly burnished, the gold will appear almost dark from its own brightness" (Cennini, 1437, 138)

  • Dalmatic: ceremonial vestment worn by high members of the clergy

  • Egg tempera: paint made by mixing pigments and egg yolk. It dries rather fast and cannot be mixed on the surface of the painting. It is applied in thin transparent layers containing little pigments, it therefore creates a pale and matt but long-lasting finish.

  • Glaze: coat of transparent paint added on top of a dry paint layer

  • Gilding: process of adding gold to a painted surface, mostly by sticking gold leaf but a large variety of techniques exist.

  • Granulation: texturing of a gilded surface by the stamping of small dots, often increasing the sparkliness of the gold.

  • Ground: preparatory underlayer added onto the support before the artist starts painting. In weaving, it refers to the fabric that constitutes the base of the woven textile and holds the pile. 

  • Lampas silk: a type of weave that uses four warps and three wefts, patterned using wefts.  It can also be brocaded.

  • Medium: substance with which an artwork is created. In painting, it tends to more precisely refer to the binder.

  • Mordant gilding: gilding techniques which consists in the sticking of gold leaf over a  previously applied resin (a mordant). The remaining gold leaf is brushed away. Gold leaf applied using this technique cannot be burnished.

  • Oil paint: paint made by mixing pigments with oil. Many types of oil can be used (linseed, poppyseed, walnut…). It dries rather slowly and can easily be mixed on the support, it therefore allows artists to work wet-on-wet. It can be applied in thin or thick layers, and glazes can be added in between coats of paint, hence  producing a shining and saturated but comparatively short-lived result as oil paint tends to deteriorate over time.

  • Pile: additional yarn looping around either the warp or the weft, hence sitting on top of the ground and creating texture in the fabric.

  • Punchmarking: stamping of a gilded surface with figures and motif carved onto a tool. The tool  is literally 'punched' onto the surface leaving a 'mark' of its pattern.

  • Silk: both the substance produced by silkworms, the thread produced from it, and the fabrics woven with this thread. Silk weaving is an ancient Asian craft dating back from 3630 BC.

  • Silkworm: type of caterpillar that makes it cocoon producing one long silk thread.

  • Sgraffito: gilding technique by which a layer of paint added onto a water gilded surface is 'scratched' away to reveal the gold beanth. This allows to create precise and regular gold patterns that can then be burnished.

  • Tartar cloth: general terms for central and far-east asian silks traded through the Mongol empire

  • Triptych: artwork composed of three panels, whether painted or sculpted, hinged together. The central panel is often larger than the two flanking side panels.

  • Velvet: a type of weave with pile. The addition of this yarn gives the fabric a 'fuzzy', often soft, surface.

  • Warp: longitudinal thread in weaving. Along with the weft, the warp  constitutes the ground of any type of weave. 

  • Water gilding: gilding technique by which gold leaf adhers onto bole by means of weting the surface of the latter. It relies on the principle of static electricity, by which the thin metal leaf once put into contact with water immediately sticks to it. Surfaces gilded using this method can be burnished.

  • Weft: horizontal thread in weaving. Along with the warp, the weft constitutes the ground of any type of weave.

  • Wet-on-wet: painting technique by which more paint is added onto paint that has not dried yet.
Glossary