Editing Oil painting (section)

== History ==
[[File:Buddhas of Bamiyan.jpg|alt=|thumb|A section of the earliest discovered oil paintings ({{circa|650 AD}}) depicting Buddhist imagery in [[Bamiyan]], Afghanistan]]
[[File:Afghanistan oil Paintings.jpg|alt=A detail of the earliest known oil paintings in the world (circa. 650 AD) located in Bamiyan, Afghanistan.|thumb|A detail from the oldest oil paintings in the world ({{circa|650 AD}}), a series of Buddhist murals created in Bamiyan, Afghanistan]]
The earliest known surviving oil paintings are Buddhist murals created {{Circa|650 AD}} in [[Bamiyan]], Afghanistan. Bamiyan is a historic settlement along the [[Silk Road]] and is famous for the Bamiyan Buddhas, a series of giant statues, behind which rooms and tunnels are carved from the rock. The murals are located in these rooms. The artworks display a wide range of pigments and ingredients and even include the use of a final varnish layer. The application technique and refined level of the paint media used in the murals and their survival into the present day suggest that oil paints had been used in Asia for some time before the 7th century. The technique used, of binding pigments in oil, was unknown in Europe for another 900 years or so.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.esrf.eu/news/general-old/general-2008/bamiyan|title=Synchrotron light unveils oil in ancient Buddhist paintings from Bamiyan|website=European Synchrotron Radiation Facility |date=Apr 21, 2008 |language=en|access-date=12 April 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-26/afghan-caves-hold-worlds-first-oil-paintings-expert/1024106|title=Afghan caves hold world's first oil paintings: expert|date=25 January 2008|website=ABC News }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.livescience.com/2465-earliest-oil-paintings-discovered.html|title=Earliest Oil Paintings Discovered |website=Live Science |date=22 April 2008}}</ref>

In a treatise written about 1125, monk [[Theophilus Presbyter]] (a pseudonymous author who is sometimes identified as [[Roger of Helmarshausen]]<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Theophilus: German writer and painter |date=11 April 2024 |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theophilus-German-writer-and-artist |orig-date=First published 20 July 1998 |language=en |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica}}</ref>) gives instructions for oil-based painting in his treatise, {{lang|la|De diversis artibus}} ('on various arts'), written about 1125.<ref>Osborne (1970), pp. 787, 1132</ref> At this period, it was probably used for painting sculptures, carvings, and wood fittings, perhaps especially for outdoor use. Surfaces exposed to the weather or of items like shields—both those used in tournaments and those hung as decorations—were more durable when painted in oil-based media than when painted in traditional tempera paints. [[Cennino Cennini]], in his ''Book of Art'', also mentions and describes the oil technique. Most European [[Renaissance]] sources, in particular [[Vasari]], falsely credit northern European painters of the 15th century, and [[Jan van Eyck]] in particular, with the invention of oil paints.<ref>Borchert (2008), pp. 92–94</ref>

However, early Netherlandish paintings with artists like [[Van Eyck]] and [[Robert Campin]] in the early and mid-15th century were the first to make oil the usual painting medium and explore the use of layers and [[Glaze (painting technique)|glaze]]s, followed by the rest of Northern Europe, and then Italy.

Such works were painted on [[panel painting|wooden panel]]s, but towards the end of the 15th century [[canvas]] began to be used as a [[Support (art)|support]], as it was cheaper, easier to transport, allowed larger works, and did not require complicated preliminary layers of [[gesso]] (a fine type of plaster). [[Venice]], where sail-canvas was easily available, was a leader in the move to canvas. Small [[cabinet painting]]s were also made on metal, especially copper plates. These supports were more expensive but very firm, allowing intricately fine detail. Often printing plates from [[printmaking]] were reused for this purpose. The increasing use of oil spread through Italy from Northern Europe, starting in Venice in the late 15th century. By 1540, the previous method for painting on panel (tempera) had become all but extinct, although Italians continued to use chalk-based [[fresco]] for wall paintings, which was less successful and durable in damper northern climates.

Renaissance techniques used several thin almost transparent layers or [[Glaze (painting technique)|glazes]], usually each allowed to dry before the next was added, greatly increasing the time a painting took. The [[underpainting]] or [[Ground (art)|ground]] beneath these was usually white (typically gesso coated with a primer), allowing light to reflect through the layers. But van Eyck, and Robert Campin a little later, used a [[wet-on-wet]] technique in places, painting a second layer soon after the first. Initially, the aim was, as with the established techniques of [[tempera]] and [[fresco]], to produce a smooth surface when no attention was drawn to the brushstrokes or texture of the painted surface. Among the earliest [[impasto]] effects, using a raised or rough texture in the surface of the paint, are those from the later works of the Venetian painter [[Giovanni Bellini]], around 1500.<ref>Osborne (1970), p. 787</ref>

This became much more common in the 16th century, as many painters began to draw attention to the process of their painting, by leaving individual brushstrokes obvious, and a rough painted surface. Another Venetian, [[Titian]], was a leader in this. In the 17th century some artists, including [[Rembrandt]], began to use dark grounds. Until the mid-19th century, there was a division between artists who exploited "effects of handling" in their paintwork, and those who continued to aim at "an even, glassy surface from which all evidences of manipulation had been banished".<ref>Osborne (1970), pp. 787–788</ref>

Before the 19th century, artists or their apprentices ground pigments and mixed their paints for the range of [[List of artistic media#Painting|painting media]]. This made portability difficult and kept most painting activities confined to the [[studio]]. This changed when tubes of oil paint became widely available following the American portrait painter [[John Goffe Rand]]'s invention of the squeezable or collapsible metal tube in 1841. Artists could mix colors quickly and easily, which enabled, for the first time, relatively convenient [[plein air]] painting (a common approach in French [[Impressionism]])