Art Encyclopedia - Egg Tempera

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Egg Tempera
Egg tempera is artist paint made by binding pigment in an egg medium. In the art of Southern Europe's Middle Ages egg tempera was the primary type of artist's paint used and it was the required medium for the painting of Orthodox icons.

Traditionally egg tempera is created by hand-grinding powdered pigments into egg yolk sometimes adding honey, water, milk and plant gums. Egg tempera paint dries rapidly and is traditionally applied as numerous small brush strokes applied in a cross-hatching technique. Colours of an egg tempera painting can either resemble pastels when unvarnished or display deeper colours when varnished. Because egg tempera cannot be applied in thick layers as oil paints can, tempera paintings rarely have the deep color saturation that oil paintings can achieve. The advantage of egg tempera over oil paints is that tempera colours do not change over time while oil paints darken, yellow and become transparent with age.

Current notable egg tempera artists include: Linda Paul, Philip Aziz, Michael Bergt, Rob Milliken, Neville Sattentau, Koo Schadler, Phil Schirmer, Ernst Fuchs, Antonio Roybal, George Huszar, Altoon Sultan, Grégoire Michonze, and Shaul Shats.