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To
paint with beeswax is an art, which was known as long ago as 400 BC. The Ancients of Greece, Rome and probably Egypt, used this
fascination method to paint. In fact the word "encaustic" is Greek and means "burned in".
This
method was a little difficult as you had to melt the wax and mix it with
pigments as indigo, ochre etc. They
painted with palette knifes, stiff brushes and small sticks in the
molten wax.
The
Roman author Plinius the elder (23 - 79 AC), who died in the ruins
under Pompeii during the eruption of the volcano Versus in the year of
79 has written a book which he called "Natural History".
In this book he describes the technique. However, his knowledge of painting with wax was very
insufficient, he describes the different ways the artists used the wax,
whether they painted portraits, scenes of mythology or decorated marble
or terracotta. Plinius tells for example that the painter Apelles, who was
the portrait painter of Alexander the Great, made portraits which were
so unbelievable that the people who mastered interpretation of foreheads
could tell how many years the person on the picture would live or how
long he had been living.
The Greeks proofed their ships with beeswax that they were watertight. Then
they got the idea of mixing pigments with the wax and at
the same time decorate the ships. The poet Homer has described the wax painted ships, which the Greeks used in
the battle of Troy. They were decorated with awesome monsters that frightened the enemies.
The well-known Encaustic paintings today are the mummy portraits from
the valley of Fayum in Egypt. After Alexander the Greats conquest of Egypt (322 BC) many Greeks moved to
Egypt. In the valley of
Fayum they joined the Egypt artists who painted mummy portraits and icons. The
Greek taught the
Egypt's how to paint with beeswax, and soon more than 50 % of all the
mummy portraits were Encaustic paintings.
Fortunately many of these portraits are preserved, and today you can
admire them in our great museums all over the world. In the Copenhagen National Museum two very fine portraits of a
man and
a woman are placed in the collection of antiques.
Owing to the very difficult method gradually very few painted wax-paintings. Only a few
Italian monasteries had monks who painted images - icons. However in the 1980`s an Englishman, Michael Bossom found out
that wax paintings could be painted with some special constructed low
heat electrical tools. A painting iron and a stylus heated exactly to the 60,2 degrees Celsius
where the wax is melting. This invention caused that many artists has revived this very
old technique. In Germany
and in Holland there are a great deal of Encaustic-painters and even in
Denmark the number is increasing. Several artists are mixing the techniques and paint oil- acryl- and wax
paintings, generating very fascinating works of art.
Browse on "the net" and have a look at "encaustic", "enkaustik" or
"enkaustikos".
You will find plenty of inspiration.
Best
wishes
Ingrid
Slott
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