Art Encyclopedia - Fresco Paintings

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Fresco Paintings
Fresco painting in its authentic form is defined as paintings done on wet plaster. Traditionally when painting a fresco the plastered wall is divided into areas roughly corresponding to the contours of the figures or the landscape, generally drawn on a rough underlayer of lime mortar in a red pigment called sinopia. On the rough layer of plaster a second final layer is added which is smoothed and perfected as the painting surface.

Fresco painting offers some challenges to the artist due to the forced deadline created by the drying plaster. A layer of plaster will generally dry within ten to twelve hours. An artist will begin the fresco painting after one hour and stop about two hours before the drying time. Careful planning by the artist is involved to ensure that the plaster does not dry with the painting not completely finished. If this does happen the plaster will have to be removed and the area painted from scratch.