Re: Kallitype Permanence ( Leonardo)

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From: Thor Bols (thorbols@hotmail.com)
Date: 03/14/01-08:03:27 AM Z

The subject of Leonardo's "Last Supper" is a curious one.  Its seems he used an oil-based paint in this fresco, a very rare, and disaster prone technique, for as we all know oil and water (the wet plaster) don't mix.  He must have had some kind of "plan", but art historians are hard pressed to come up with what is was.  In any event, the paint began flaking off almost immediatelty.  It certainly can NOT be said, though, that Leonardo was concerned about permanance, or he would have used a more established and time-proven technique.  Or maybe his concern was equal to those now using kallitype!

BTW, does anybody know if Leonardo has any other "conventional" frescos?



 

>A somewhat belated thought on permanence: I don't know whether this is
>proven by historical sources, but I once read in an autobiography of
>Leonardo da Vinci that he was concerned in his lifetime about the already
>noticable prospect of dammage for his fresco "The Last Supper". However,
>without digging deeper in my shaky knowledge of art history, I think the
>point can be safely made that permanence has been a concern among
>occidental artists for a long time who tried to make their products to
>last, and the same goes for other cultural products.
>
>Japanese aesthetics is, I think, interestingly different in this respect:
>transiency is taken as an intrinsic part of beauty.
>
>So, I think, whatever the general public demands, a concern for permanence
>is not completely out of the way, and IS an artistic statement, an
>acknowledgement of a certain tradition, if you like.
>
>Again, this is not debating the value of kallitypes!
>
>Lukas
>

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