old masters

The color of the old masters was more granular and had more body than oil colors today. Anyone who has ever painted with hand-ground colors will recognize the difference.

Dramatic changes in the techniques and materials used by artists began to occur in the latter half of the eighteenth century as the binding media was given much more attention than in previous centuries. This is related to the rising professional status of artists and the formation of academies for training artists, especially in Britain. Rather than using well-tested and reliable methods and materials based on studio practice and apprenticeship, artists began trying out new processes. This, in turn, is related to the vain search for the ‘lost secrets of the masters that led to even more experimentation and scandals, such as that experienced by the Royal Academy of Arts and its president, Benjamin West, at the turn of the nineteenth century.