Egg-tempera TECHNIQUE
In the past egg-tempera was a medium used universally in ltaly during the fourteenth century and up to the middle and to about the close of the fifteenth century. It is a most luminous and ever lasting medium. The preparation of the gessoed wood panels and selection of pigments might be time consuming, but egg-yolk diluted with water gives most rewarding results and permanence to the painting. When applied to a smooth gesso ground, colours tempered with egg produce enamel like surfaces of beautiful texture. With time egg-tempera becomes very hard, durable and waterproof. It never discolours with age. Most of, centuries old, tempera paintings are today as fresh as if painted yesterday.
Andre Dzierzynski’s use of egg-tempera in his Italian and Provencal landscapes records vividly the beauty and tranquility of those lands and also recalls the memory of Cennino Cennini a native of Colle val d’Elsa in Tuscany, who after the year 1390 wrote famous treatise on the technique of egg-tempera painting “ll Libro dell’Arte”. Andre Dzierzynski signs all his egg-tempera paintings on reverse “Detto Andrea delle Casette” with his logo.
Photo © Jorge Lewinski/The Lewinski Archive at Chatsworth