Yesterday I made my second fresco. I still have not actually posted photos of my first (sorry about that - see explanation below), but you can see part of the first process here.
This one was a lot easier, as it didn't involve chiseling out a section of an old brick wall first. It also presented some latitude in the types of images we could create, though I still wanted mine to be vaguely authentic or Italian in style.
For my image, I worked from a photograph of flowers that I took at the Villa de Maser, a beautiful Palladio and Veronese collaboration (now also a great vineyard) in the Veneto. These flowers were against a sort of terra cotta colored wall, and everyone who stood near them looked exquisitely serene and lovely. For me, it completely reinforced the idea of La Serenissima, in color, and has remained in my imagination as an iconic image of that summer.
I produced my cartoon to scale on a piece of tracing paper, which I later transferred using a modified incision method. I didn't want very deep grooves in my resulting image, so my incisions were very light and sparse - I later drew myself guidelines in a thin wash of pigment, which functioned as a sinopia layer.
We worked on the backs of 12″x12″ ceramic tiles, which were saturated with water beforehand. Because we did not create separate arriccio and intonaco layers, the mortar mixture was a 50/50 blend of coarse and fine sand, mixed with slaked lime.
Applying the fresco to the tile was characteristically arduous, but eventually it came together. The mortar is sort of a crumbly cookie dough consistency, and it takes a tremendous amount of pressure to consolidate it into a concrete-like solidity. Combined with the challenges of square edges and working on a raised surface, this did get a little frustrating, but I think the end result was worth it.
I regret that I didn't take more in-process photos, but I needed to work quickly, as my mixture was drying fast. Generally, you have about 3-4 hours before a fresco sets but because it had taken me so long to get my mortar applied, I knew the edges would start drying sooner.
For those unfamiliar with the fresco process, I should explain that we apply pigments made into a paste with deionized water directly to the lime mortar surface. A carbonation reaction occurs, wherein the lime reacts with carbon dioxide in the air and forms into solid calcium carbonate crystals, with water evaporating. As it does this, it incorporates the pigment particles into the structure of the wall, making fresco painting permanent and very durable.
This is my fresco immediately after pigment application:
As it dries, the colors will become lighter and slightly less saturated, so it is a little difficult to estimate the color balance by this image... but you get the idea.
Once completely dry, fresco can be buffed to a marble-like sheen (and I am planning to buff this one) - some Romans preferred frescoes in which they could see their reflections.
In addition to the buon fresco or true fresco application here, an artist can also apply fresco a secco, which is derived from the Italian secco (dry). In this process, pigments are mixed with the cream of the slaked lime (liquid which floats on the surface) and applied on top of the dry fresco. I will very likely do some a secco touch-ups to this fresco, as I did with my first one, though fresco a secco is nowhere near as strong or long-lasting as true fresco. It is also possible to gild fresco, though some friends and I are still trying to work out a good method for that.
Parenthetically, the reason I don't have photos of my first fresco is because I made numerous a secco corrections since the last photo I took, and it now looks nothing like that image. I need to go back and take another photo, and even though I walk by it nearly every time I'm on campus, I keep forgetting to take a picture.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this one dries, as well as experimenting with gilding anda secco techniques. It's very nice to have a portable fresco that I can keep in my home. You can bet I've already started researching materials and thinking about doing more of these on my own!
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