Abstract
The aim of the project is to write an integrated history of the introduction, dissemination and development of the use of oil media in panel painting from 1350 to 1550. Even though the importance of the introduction of oil for the art of painting can hardly been overrated, such a history has never been the subject of a monograph. Even though oil was used in various ways well before 1350, it is clear that entirely novel avenues were opened up from then on, and in particular with the Van Eycks around 1400. The art of Van Eyck and his colleagues in the Low Countries became widely famed in fifteenth-century Europe, and the general picture seems to be that in the wake of this prestige particular pictorial motifs and painting techniques migrated to various regions in Europe. Oil had become the most important medium by the beginning of the sixteenth century, and was to remain so until the end of the nineteenth century. Three types of source are available for the writing of such a history. First there are written sources relating to both the production and the reception of oil painting. Then there are the iconographical sources, comprising images of painters and workshops (which may present visual evidence concerning implements and workshop practice), and specific motifs (the dissemination and popularity of which were clearly related to the specific potential of painting in oil). Lastly, and quite importantly there are the material sources, that is to say the works of art themselves, and their physical and technical properties. Each type of source will be dealt with separately, and the results will be integrated in the planned monograph. The programme thus entails several interdependent projects: -a compendium and database of written and visual sources -a study and evaluation of the existing results of technical research into painting techniques in the period, and the examination of a selected group of relevant paintings, including comparative research of the pictorial effects of different oils and emulsions by means of technical studies and occasional reconstructions -a dissertation on essential aspects of oil painting techniques at the beginning of the period of study -a dissertation on major developments within the craft of painting with the arrival of Italian influences in the northern workshop from 1510 onwards -studies on the dissemination and spread of oil techniques and pictorial repertoires in various regions in Europe -a study of the effects of the achievements in oil painting on the other arts -the synthesis mentioned above, describing and analysing the potential and inherent power of oil, the rise and dissemination of oil painting, as well as the ways in which it took on a dominant role in the painter?s workshop.