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StillnessArt technique

In true fresco, the painter brushes pigment mixed only with water onto fresh, wet lime plaster. As the plaster dries, it reacts with the air and binds the colour into the wall itself, which is why frescoes can last for centuries.

Art technique

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Fresco means “fresh” in Italian. Wet lime plaster absorbs carbon dioxide from the air and slowly turns into calcium carbonate, a kind of limestone, trapping the pigment as it hardens. The plaster sets within the day, so each morning only as much fresh plaster is laid as can be painted that day. This patch is called a giornata, Italian for “a day's work”, and its faint seams often remain visible. A mistake means chipping the plaster off and starting again. Some colours, especially blues such as ultramarine, did not work in wet lime, so they were added later on dry plaster, a method called secco (“dry”); paint applied this way flakes off more easily. Among the oldest known true frescoes are Minoan wall paintings from Crete and Santorini of the second millennium BC. Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling are famous later examples.

Türkçe oku
Gerçek fresk tekniğinde ressam, yalnızca suyla karıştırılmış toz boyayı taze, yaş kireç sıvaya sürer. Sıva kururken havayla tepkimeye girer ve rengi duvarın içine hapseder; freskler yüzyıllarca bu sayede dayanır.

Fresco, İtalyancada “taze” demektir. Yaş kireç sıva havadaki karbondioksiti emerek yavaş yavaş kalsiyum karbonata, yani bir tür kireç taşına dönüşür; sertleşirken de boyayı içine hapseder. Sıva aynı gün içinde katılaştığı için her sabah yalnızca o gün boyanacak kadar taze sıva sürülür. Bir günde işlenen bu parçaya İtalyanca “günlük iş” anlamında giornata denir; parçaların ince birleşme izleri çoğu zaman bugün de görülür. Hata yapılırsa sıva kazınır ve iş baştan alınır. Ultramarin gibi bazı maviler yaş kireçle iyi sonuç vermediği için sonradan kuru sıvaya sürülürdü. Secco (“kuru”) denen bu yöntemle sürülen boya daha kolay dökülür. Bilinen en eski gerçek fresklerin arasında, MÖ 2. binyılda Girit'te ve Santorini'de yapılmış Minos duvar resimleri vardır. Giotto'nun Padova'daki Scrovegni Şapeli ve Michelangelo'nun Sistina Şapeli tavanı sonraki dönemlerin ünlü örnekleridir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Fresco
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Bach's official title was Thomaskantor, music master of St Thomas School, and he held the post from 1723 until his death in 1750. Each cantata had to suit that Sunday's Bible readings and was performed during the service at St Thomas or St Nicholas church. His first annual cycle began on 30 May 1723; alongside the new works he restaged and adapted some cantatas from his earlier post in Weimar. Music paused for most of Advent and Lent, the quiet seasons before Christmas and Easter. Senior pupils of the school sang in the choir and helped rehearse and copy out the parts by hand. His obituary, written by his son Carl Philipp Emanuel and a former pupil, speaks of five complete annual cycles. More than 200 of his cantatas survive; many others are lost.

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Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican between 1508 and 1512 standing on a tall wooden scaffold with his head tilted back, not lying down as is often imagined. The ceiling, about 35 by 14 metres, holds more than 300 figures.

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