The 15th-century artist Cennino Cennini was a pupil of the famous early Renaissance artist Giotto. The earliest description of a recipe for tempera painting appears in his manual of techniques, The Book of Cennino Cennini's Art. Cennini writes: "You must mix the pigment with the egg yolk and keep the same amount of yolk as the pigment."
A few hundred years later, egg whites also entered the art scene, and in the 19th century, the process of albumen photographic print appeared. Photo paper would be coated with a mixture of egg white and salt. Art Kaplan, a photographic conservation scientist at the Getty Conservation Institute, says: "At that time, everything about photography relied on 'kitchen chemistry' - that's when people did all kinds of things at home. -that's when people collided with inspiration from various experiments at home."
In 1850, the French photographer Louis Desire Blanquart Evrard published a book on protein printing. Since then, it has been the most common method of making photographs in the 19th century. From Gustave Le Gray to Roger Fenton to Félix Nadar, all were beneficiaries of this process.
In a way, both techniques are successful, producing works of art that last a long time - contrary to the material's properties. However, making art from eggs is not without its risks. Sometimes the work is also quite fragile.
For example, tempera paintings are more difficult to preserve than oil paintings - because the protective layer formed by the material is very thin. As a result, substances such as dust and soot from the air often adhere to their surface, and they are not as intact as the surface layer of an oil painting," explains Professor Modestini. In oil painting, the pigment molecules fall to the bottom and glaze forms on the surface. This glaze becomes a more rigid surface layer as the linseed oil dries. On the other hand, there is no such glaze in tempera, and the colours are very exposed."
Egg white photographs are also very susceptible to damage. Compared to photo paper, which has a relatively faint surface such as gel, egg white photos are more susceptible to air penetration. Therefore, although this process quickly replaced salted photo paper because of the clarity of the presentation, it is susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity.
In these two thousand years, many artists have used the egg. Of course, new materials have been invented and developed, but the potential for the egg to play a significant role in the future is still there. In any case, it has already made its mark on art history.
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l'ultima cena, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
the birth of venus, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci
The egg painting has inspired me to think of other artistic uses for eggs, and I have always thought of using eggs to make paper.
After much research into chickens and eggs, it became clear that we have underestimated chickens, even ignoring them in legal terms. Even though chicken meat and eggs are the driving force behind our urban industrial life, they are called poultry. Eggs and chickens have been used throughout art history, and tempera paints produced delicate, thin layers of colour that set quickly and adhered well to a medieval taste for bright, flat colours. Unfortunately, tempera does not allow for the smooth interplay of different tones in the painting, and it is, therefore, difficult to show gradations in colour tone.
Eggs are kept fresh in the fridge for three weeks. But, mixed with paint and painted on a wooden board, it will keep for 2000 years. You may find the answer to how it can have such longevity in the kitchen. "Think of the egg yolks you have left on your breakfast plate - if you don't wash them in time, they are challenging to get off the scale.
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