Beyond the Image: 14th and 15th Century Italian Tempera Painting

Introduction

Egg tempera was the dominant medium for Italian painters up to the turn of the 16th century, at which point the method of using oil was increasingly favoured.  

Culture had a large impact on the uses of tempera. Tempera paintings of the early Italian renaissance present a more spiritually focused view of the world, reflecting the perspective of society. Representations of forms in these paintings were more idealised, and less naturalistic and three-dimensional. But this is not to say that tempera was incapable of prodcuing realistic figures. During the 1400s artists, responding to societal interest in humanism, began to experiment with tempera by emphasizing the humanness of the religious figures. 

Beyond the Image looks past iconography, to the materiality of works of art and how they came into being. Aspects of a painting that may appear to be dictated by the medium, can just as plausibly be dictated by the tastes of the patrons. This exhibition, in presenting changes in tempera painting over two centuries, is also revealing changes within society.

Beyond the Image makes use of evidence from investigations conducted by the scientific department of the National Gallery, London. Presented here, they offer visitors the rare opportunity to catch a glimpse of the working processes behind renaissance paintings.