What, exactly, is Fresco (in the art world) ?

Answer 1

Here you go.

A fresco (plural frescoes) is a term for several related painting types. The word comes from the Italian phrase buon fresco ("really fresh") a technical term in opposition to in secco ("on dry surface").

The surface of the wall was divided into areas roughly corresponding to the contours of the figures, drawn on rough plaster. Such an area was called arriccio.

True fresco (buon fresco) technique consists of painting in pigment in a water medium on wet or fresh lime mortar or plaster (intenazo). One of the first painters to use this technique was the Isaac Master in the Upper Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.

In secco painting is done on dry plaster and with the pigments in a binding medium, like egg.

The difference between the two techniques is that as it dries the wet plaster absorbs the pigment and the painting becomes part of the wall surface rather than resting on top of it. This makes a durable work of art; if the wall is destroyed the painting can often be reassembled because of the size of the plaster parts.

Because of the need to work on freshly-laid plaster, careful study of the wall surface can reveal the area worked on in one day. In Renaissance Italy this was commonly called a giornata ("daily amount"). These divisions are perceptible with some magnification and even the naked eye if the plastering technique was not good.

Painters in fresco often add details later in secco. These details are not part of the wall and so they are much less durable.

Answer 2

There are two types of fresco painting. The most common is buon fresco, or "good fresh" in Italian. With buon fresco, you coat a section of a wall or ceiling with wet plaster and use pigment on top of it to make your painting, so you're literally painting in the wall instead of on. It's permanent, unless you cut out that part of the wall and bring it somewhere. And to paint outside is "en plein air", which some Impressionists did in the mid to late 1800's in France.

Answer 3

A fresco is when paint is applied to wet plaster. It makes the painting an actual part of the wall.

Answer 4

El fresco means outside

Answer 5

a fresco is a painting that has been painted into a wall before the plaster of the wall had dried, giving it a certain texture and making it more permanent. much of what we know about ancient greek and egyptian art is from frescoes that survived thousands of years intact.

Answer 6

Tempera (water based egg paint medium) is applied to plaster while still wet or fresh as an exterior or interior wall decoration. Paint must be added to plaster base while still fresh thus limiting the working time and area an artist can complete practically. The finish is matte and to some (DaVinci) unappealing, resulting in a failed experiment/gamble that an oil based paint in a plaster ground would survive as a permanent, undamaged and complete work of art as the artist had envisioned .

Answer 7

They are wall paintings on fresh plaster, hence the name fresco, meaning fresh in English. Diego Rivera is probably the most famous artists of the style.

Answer 8

IN A NUT SHELL: IT RELATES TO WHEN A WORK IS PAINTED ON THE WALL WHILE THE MORTAR (OR WHATEVER MATERIAL IT IS THAT COVERS THE WALLS) IS STILL FRESH. FRESH IS ACTUALLY THE MEANING OF THE WORD "FRESCO". THEY HAD TO BE DONE RELATIVELY QUICKLY. THIS TECHNIQUE HELPS "TRAPP" THE PAINTING AND THUS PRESERVE IT MUCH MORE EFFECTIVELY THAN BY JUST MAKING A MURAL, WHICH IS BASICALLY PAINTING OVER A DRY WALL.

Answer 9

think the michael angelo (spelling??) church project is the best example of the fresco. it's like a painted series of the bible on the walls of some church in italy.

Answer 10

Basically it's painting on plaster, wet or dry.