I am interested in the various substrates used by 15-16th century painters– specifically wood. Which species of wood was commonly used and how were the panels constructed? I am assuming they had to be constructed very well in order to have lasted centuries without warping– a problem I am currently having. I am using birch plywood with Gamblin’s Traditional Gesso.

Bethan,

In the 15th and 16th centuries, artists typically used a local wood cut with the grain from the center of large trees. That kind of panel is hard to get these days. Italians liked woods such as poplar, cutting panels thick (up to an inch). Northern Europeans liked harder woods such as oak, which was usually cut thinner.

Panels were typically cut and planed to size, then seasoned for a year or more in the studio, with additional planing as needed as seasoning progressed. Modern authors often suggest finding seasoned high quality wood from old furniture or doors that might otherwise be discarded.

Warping is common with traditional gesso, since hide glue is very strong (stronger than most modern glues). I usually apply several coats of hide glue to the back of a panel to counteract the stress on the front. You can also gesso both sides equally. Some artists glue braces to the back of their panels, but that itself can cause problems. A carpenter can also construct a cradle using sliding dovetail joins which place less stress on the panel. You can find examples at www.realgesso.com.

I have found that birch plywood varies considerably in quality. It best to use furniture-grade or marine grade plywood rather than the stuff you find in any given home supply store. I also paint on tempered pressed wood panels (hardboard). These have been used since the early 20th century with mixed results. They are made differently now than they used to be, and the quality is variable. With care, it seems to work reasonably well.

Of course, the best panel material is high-grade aluminum honeycomb, but that’s incredibly expensive and hard to find.

Good luck!

I think that’s a false economy. I believe that, in order for paintings to be thought of as valuable, they should be made from fine materials using excellent craftsmanship. Imagine if a maker of handmade violins thought that balsa wood was just as good as a good hardwood, or that generic spray varnish produces just as good a finish and tone as a properly prepared resin varnish. That would not be an “innovative” way to save money on violin-making supplies. Working like that could possibly produce a violin that looks OK, and maybe it could even sound OK, but it would not be an object of craftsmanship.

I’m not an elitist. I have limited money to spend on art materials, too. I buy inexpensive Venice turpentine from a tack shop instead of the costly stuff from the art store, because it seems to be the same stuff and is a lot cheaper. I make my own traditional gesso panels because I can’t afford to have the guys at Real Gesso make them for me (theirs are better than mine).

I understand the desire to come up with personal solutions that feel more clever than the fancy stuff in the art store. But hardware store boiled linseed oil is junk. It’s made for tasks like protecting the wooden handle of a gardening tool from the elements, not for making permanent artwork. Adding a little bit of cheap oil (or leftover bacon grease) to your paint won’t make it explode. Painting on latex house paint “gesso” may not cause noticeable problems. The painting may last long enough, under decent conditions. And it is certainly the case that most of us will never produce a masterpiece that will deserve to hang in a museum 200 years from now.

But I can’t make paintings that way. Using house paint, cheap boiled oil, or any other junk material makes me feel like a hack, not a craftsman. Decent materials are not that expensive. And while junk materials may work out OK, they may well not, and they may cause a good painting to fail prematurely. Plenty of 19th century painters discovered that when they forgot the traditions of craftsmanship and just used whatever seemed to work they often got paintings that didn’t last. While I sometimes hear anecdotal stories about any number of weird materials being used with “no problems so far,” my own bias is to use quality materials from companies I trust, not jury-rigged stuff that is “just as good.”