Fascinating History Of Traditional Oil Paintings

When people think of art and culture, they often think of museums and art galleries. These are highly anticipated stops on any European tourist trip. Most people aren't aware of the long history that oil paintings as artworks have had.

Oil painting is the process of using oil based paints to create a work of art. Oil paints were once made from boiling a natural resin with oil. The oil came from natural sources, typically linseed but not excluding walnut or safflower oil as well as poppyseed oil. Using a resin such as frankincense would make a varnish that was highly prized as a medium because of its body and gloss.

When people consider the history of oil painting, they think usually of the 15th century. However, there is an actual treatise written by the pseudonymous author Theophilus Presbyter regarding the use of oil paints that is dated 1125. Indian and Chinese painters were using oil based paints in Afghanistan as far back as the fifth and ninth centuries.

European artworks that were popular in the 15th century were typically comprised of three subject matters. One was that of the common person. There is a painting called Bust of an Old Man with Helmet that is very popular. Another is simply called The Blue Boy. Painters were also commissioned by royalty and nobility to be in residence in order to paint portraits of famous people. The third most popular type of oil painting was that of mythological scenes such as the Rape of Europa or religious scenes from the bible, such as the infamous Raising of the Cross painting.

One of the most famous oil paintings in existence is that of the Mona Lisa. Surrounded by mystery for hundreds of years, the painting was finally considered finished by Leonardo da Vinci just before his death in 1525. A margin note found in 2005 correctly identifies the sitter as Lisa del Giocondo, for whom the picture was painted in celebration of the birth of her second son and her family's acquisition of a new home.

Looking on the Mona Lisa, people always call her beautiful. However it's also true that she is not an orthodox type of beauty, not even in comparison to women of the era of the painting. The reality is that da Vinci was an honest painter who was true to his subject matter. People thought that the sitter had plucked out her eyelashes and eyebrows as many women of the time did, but in truth a closer look has revealed that these were once evident on the painting. It's likely that over cleaning has since wiped them off.

In 1911, an employee of the Louvre museum stole the artwork during museum hours by hiding it under his jacket. His intention was to have it returned to its homeland of Italy. It was kept there for two years before its final return back to the Louvre, and the man served only six months for his crime but was considered a heroic patriot by his people.

Oil paintings have the ability to take people back to days when art was hard, when paints weren't water soluble, and artists had to work in their studios because they made their own pigments themselves. Now, modern art appreciation allows people to look back into history and see how things were done and how people lived. This is purely thanks to the painstaking work of famous painters, to whom modern art collectors owe, an immense debt of gratitude.

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