What Is a Painting? - podcast cover

What Is a Painting?

What do you see when you look at a painting? You see the subject and the style of the work but also the materials and technologies used to create it and the traces of everything that has happened to it. Professional paintings conservator Jean Dommermuth considers how all of those factors contribute to what a painting is. You don’t need to know anything about art history to enjoy this podcast, but no matter what, you’ll never look at a painting the same way again. You can find images and related materials at jeandommermuth.com/podcast
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Episodes

Episode 26 - Particular Magic

How did Venetian painters of the 16th century use canvas supports and oil medium to create a new kind of painting?

Jul 25, 202534 minEp. 26

Episode 25 - A Big Cloth

How have natural aqueous media been used over the centuries, including by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century?

Jun 10, 202536 minEp. 25

Episode 24 - Reinforcements

What can be done to reinforce a degraded canvas support of a painting, and how can that change that painting's look?

Apr 24, 202530 minEp. 24

Episode 23 - Glue and Blues

How does paint made from animal glue and different blue pigments work, look, and age?

Feb 03, 202532 minEp. 23

Episode 17 - A Changing Landscape

How did Early Netherlandish painters use different materials to create different kinds of landscapes, and how have those paintings changed over time?

Mar 18, 202429 minEp. 17

Episode 13 - A Dark Mirror

How do Early Netherlandish paintings differ from Early Italian paintings - in how they look, what they mean, and what they are?

Oct 03, 202331 minEp. 13

Episode 10 - New Again

How do modern and contemporary paintings reflect some of the physical aspects of Early Italian paintings? Some thoughts about engaged frames and the use of gold leaf.

May 23, 202330 minEp. 10

Episode 8 - Egg and Bright Earth

What are the components of the paint used by Early Italian painters, how did they use it, and how has it changed over the centuries?

Feb 20, 202330 minEp. 8

Episode 6 - Sinew and Stone

Episode 6 - How did painters turn natural materials from animal and mineral sources into the perfect preparation for their panel paintings? A look at Early Italian gesso grounds.

Dec 27, 202228 minEp. 6

Episode 5 - Memories of the Forest

How does a tree become a support for a painting, and how does the memory of its life in the forest affect that support? A look at Early Italian panels.

Nov 20, 202225 minEp. 5

Episode 4 - A Vision of Eternity

How did European painters and patrons before about 1400 understand what paintings were and how did that affect how they were made? A look at Early Italian images of the Madonna and Child.

Oct 22, 202226 minEp. 4

Episode 2 - A Mystery Novel

What clues about a painting's materials and history can you find just by looking? A look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Galleries, Florence.

Sep 29, 202232 minEp. 2

Episode 1 - A Three Dimensional Object

What is the physical structure of a painting, and how does that relate to how a painting looks in person? A look at Rembrandt's Aristotle Looking at a Bust of Homer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Sep 25, 202226 minEp. 1
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