Prelucrarea și comercializarea materialelor de pictură în Transilvania secolelor XV – XVIII
The processing and commercialization of painting materials in Transylvania during the 15th to 18th centuries

Summary/Abstract: This study entailed extensive laboratory and cabinet work, supported by newly discovered information from the field research undertaken. Thus, we are the participants in what follows the mysterious painting techniques and materials within the four centuries I have analysed. My aim was to bring together compelling data mostly about the pigments coming from the Eastern and the Western regions on the hectic roads often taken by the local traders. In the following paper we can enjoy numerous and diverse writings that refer to the chosen period and subject. Between the 15th and 18th centuries the painting materials were very hard to find, therefore the painter had the duty to make up for it by opting for the best quality ones and putting them to work in paintings of great sophistication, this way ensuring his next orders. There are many publications that mention the apprenticeship of craftsmen in foreign territories, including data about the arrival of established painting styles in the territory of Transylvania. After the second half of the 19th century, the modern man intervenes with a vast number of discoveries, including the coloring materials. In a relatively short period of time a multitude of synthetic pigments obtained by the interference of chemical substances in the laboratory were created. The advantage was huge, as one could purchase an original color that had never existed before, at a very low price compared to the painting materials obtained from the metals or minerals. This was quite beneficial to the painters, but devastating to their paintings, most of these materials being unstable and gradually breaking down over time.

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