Art Lesson 36
In this lesson, you will discover How to Paint like the Old Masters
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How to Paint like the Old Masters
Many artists complain about wrong materials but only a few about lack of skills.
We are about to discover how the greatest artistic geniuses managed to excel in the art of painting using very limited and common materials that were available to all their contemporaries.
In the following video lessons we will analyze two of the greatest masters of all times – Titian and Rembrandt. Their painting techniques fascinated artists and collectors even in their own lifetimes, and they continue to influence artists today.
In Rembrandt’s case, we examine his tonal painting approach, and in the case of Titian, we will research a painting approach based on color.
All technical information described in the videos is based on scientific research, not on my speculations.
Titian and Rembrandt have left us a huge legacy. Both masters had more than one fixed working method that they used throughout their careers. Of course it is not possible to cover and technically analyze all their artworks. First of all, not all major museums share to the public the technical research they have accumulated during many decades. Second, the available information is quite fragmentary, as it is possible to examine the cross-sections of only a few spots of the painting, so we have to be content with what we have.
This section of the Old Masters Academy is a compilation of the up-to-date technical information I have gathered from publications by leading scholars from the scientific departments of major museums, such as the National Gallery, London; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; and the State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
In the video lessons, there will be mention of the historical pigments that were available in the artists’ time. Many of them are not in use today as they have been abandoned for more stable equivalents, so there is no need to look for exactly the same pigments. The Old Masters Academy Palette adequately replaces the obsolete historical pigments.
Reference literature:
- The National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 2
- The National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 15
- The National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 28
- The National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 31
- The National Gallery Technical Bulletin. Volume 34
- A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume I – 1625-1631
- A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume II – 1631-1634
- A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume III – 1635-1642
- A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume IV – Self-Portraits
- A Corpus of Rembrandt Paintings. Volume V – Small scale history paintings
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. Volume 63
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. Volume 64
- Titian and Venetian painting, 1450 – 1590 by Bruce Cole
- Art in the making. Rembrandt (the National Gallery of London) by David Bomford, Jo Kirby, Ashok Roy, Alex Ruger, Raymond White
- Rembrandt: The Late Works (National Gallery London) by Jonathan Bikker, Gregor J.M. Weber
- The Sixteenth-Century Italian Paintings. Volume II: Venice 1540-1600 (National Gallery Catalogues) by Nicholas Penny
- Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese: Rivals in Renaissance Venice by Frederick Ilchman, David Rosand, Linda Borean, Patricia Brown, John Garton
