Support in Painting: What Do We Paint On?

Painting supports are those materials over which the painting layer can be

applied after they have been previously primed or prepared for painting. To better understand their role, they have been grouped according to their degree of flexibility and resistance as follows:

• Rigid supports;
• Semi-rigid supports;
• Elastic or flexible supports.

Rigid supports are characterized by their resistance over time, protecting the painting layer, favoring its durability over time. Among the rigid supports ideal for painting, we list:

• Stone. Recent research has shown that stone has been used as a painting medium since the Paleolithic era (somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 BC). The best-known examples are in Spain and southern France at Altamira and Lascaux, respectively.

Image of rock painting - Altamira - Spain

• Marble. It has been used by artists throughout time from Europe to Asia, from China where it was used for decades in Russian painting from the 18th-19th centuries. In Romania, in Iași, the Iconostasis of the Church of St. Three Hierarchs is painted on marble by Cararra, and the work The Crucifixion by Federico Zuccari (1542-1609), located at the National Museum of Art of Romania in Bucharest, is also painted on marble.

Iconostasis painted on marble Church of the Holy Three Hierarchs Iasi

• Slate. It was the support for a series of Rubens' paintings, located in the Chiesa Nuovo in Rome.

Slate panel – Peter Rubens, Rome, Chiesa Nuovo

• Plaster. It has always been an ideal and particularly resistant support for painting. It was used for techniques such as: fresco painting, tempera painting, encaustic, oil painting. Thus we find examples in all the painting of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, as well as all religious painting of all times. It should be noted that painting on this support is closely related to the architecture and construction of the building.

Fresco (painting on plaster) Raphael – School of Athens

• Metal. Here we have a multitude of variants, but the most commonly used was gold (gold leaf), since antiquity. Its qualities recommended it, being malleable, ductile, having a high durability, indestructible by atmospheric and chemical agents. Thus, painters in the Middle Ages in Italy, France and Germany used it as backgrounds for compositions, halos, stucco or in monumental tapestry and gobelin works. Silver (or silver leaf) was present in the works of artists, but much less than gold. Copper was also used in painting in the form of panels, both on miniature and monumental surfaces. Priming is more difficult, because lead minium or garlic juice is used, which however attracts moisture, oxidizing them in various shades, and for these reasons it was avoided by painters. Iron sheet has also been used as a support for painting, since the 14th-15th centuries. The work The Painter's Brushes (in a Green Cup), by Nicolae Grigorescu is supposed to be painted on iron. Tin (pewter), zinc or aluminum did not prove to be among the painters' favorites when it comes to painting supports, because they have technical insufficiencies.

Golden icon

• Ivory, bone, mother-of-pearl. These have also been approached since ancient times by artists for their qualities, usually painting on these supports was done with water techniques. In oriental art, true works of art with a decorative or artisanal character are found.

Miniature painted on ivory, 19th century

• Glass. Known to the Egyptians 2000 years BC, glass proved to be sought after by artists, inspiring their imagination, due to its unparalleled qualities of preciousness, brilliance and brightness of colors.
• Ceramics, faience, porcelain. It is also part of the fire arts like glass, and has known distinct eras, starting in our country with the Neolithic ceramics from Cucuteni, continuing with ancient Greek art.

Ceramic painting – Vase from the Cucuteni culture

• Wood. Of all the rigid supports for painting, wood is perhaps the oldest. We find it on Egyptian sarcophagi ennobled with the encaustic painting technique, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance. On Byzantine icons from the Mediterranean basin, on the painting support panel from Flanders, Germany, Italy and even today it is used both for miniature paintings and in monumental panels.

Semi-rigid supports . They fall between the rigidity of wood and the elasticity of canvas. Before starting to list these supports, we must clarify a process, namely that of maruflaj, which is often found in the category of semi-rigid supports. This process (maruflaj) consists of gluing together two supports, one flexible over one rigid. Thus we have:
Paper maruflaj on canvas. It is a durable support, which Leonardo Da Vinci recommends in his workshop practice, as he himself had works executed on this support.
Canvas maruflaj on another canvas. This is a process that has the role of consolidating a thinner canvas, such as one made of silk or cotton, glued to one made of linen, hemp or jute. The process is used especially in restoration work, of damaged canvas paintings.
Plain cardboard and cardboard maruflaj with canvas or paper. Cardboard is perhaps one of the most used supports for painting, being used especially in the artist's learning process. Ideally, cardboard should be 3-5 mm thick and it is advisable to use it in relatively small sizes, because in large sizes it bends. It is easy to transport, it is not attacked by insects, but it is sensitive to moisture, swelling, and in a too dry environment it curls. As a special recommendation, in the case of preparing it for painting (priming), it is to be prepared on both sides so that it will withstand time better and not curl as in the case of preparing only one of the sides.

Oil on cardboard, Stefan Luchian-Garoafe

Elastic or flexible supports.

• Paper. It is perhaps the most used and handy material for all painting techniques: drawing, watercolor, pastel, gouache, tempera, oil and more recently acrylic. It has the advantage of being light and cheap. For its resistance over time, it is advisable to mount it. As is known, there are a multitude of types, which we will not detail because they were also mentioned in the article Paper. For oil painting, it must contain linen or cotton threads, must be primed with a film of gelatin glue and must be mounted on a surface of wood, plywood, cardboard. There are known series of oil works by Leonardo, Durer, Rembrandt or Delacroix executed on paper mounted on wood.
• Parchment. It is a leather paper, made from the skin of small animals: calf, lamb, goat, rabbit, etc. After applying a primer on both sides, it can be painted in egg tempera, in oil. It was used for official documents, heraldic insignia and luxury works. False parchment is obtained by treating (immersing in a solution) paper with a solution of sulfuric acid and water which after drying becomes dense, resistant and translucent, also known as vegetable parchment, having a wide use in handicrafts, bookbinding and stationery products.

Goatskin parchment (stage in the manufacturing process)

• Canvas. From the category of flexible supports, canvas has been widely used. Being light, and in large sizes, by rolling it is easy to transport. It is sensitive to moisture and dryness, and can be easily destroyed by hitting and cutting. Canvases are divided into three categories:

a) vegetable canvases; they have cellulose as their main compound. These are: linen canvas (of all this has the best qualities for painting); hemp canvas; jute canvas and cotton canvas.
b) animal fiber canvases; we list here natural silk and wool, the latter of which is avoided by painters due to the excessive elasticity and elongation of the thread.
c) canvases made of artificial and synthetic fibers. Among artificial canvases we have viscose from which artificial silk is made, but it does not meet the qualities for painting, being used only for decorative works. Synthetic canvases such as those made of polyester fibers, polyamide fibers (nylon) are insensitive to humidity variations and are used in various fields, even painting increasingly.

Work on synthetic canvas with stitches and various collages