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Showing papers on "Mural published in 1972"


Journal ArticleDOI
23 Jan 1972-Leonardo
TL;DR: In this paper, it was shown that a traditional painting is composed of three parts: support, priming and paint layer or layers, and that a painting is not intended to be moved from its original locations for exhibition purposes.
Abstract: The function of a painting is to present images for contemplation that are endowed with aesthetic qualities and meaning. Since images are chosen for specific purposes, all the elements of which they are composed as well as the processes involved in the making of a painting are decisive for achieving the results desired. A traditional painting is composed of three parts: support, priming and paint layer or layers. The support for a mural painting is a wall. For an easel painting it may be a panel of wood or some other material, or a cloth stretched on a frame. A rigid support obviously has different properties from a stretched flexible material. By tradition, mural painting has been considered to be the highest hierarchical order in painting, therefore, I believe the intention is for a stretched flexible material to approach the properties of a wall. Evidently, the character of a support influences the manner in which a painting is executed and the visual qualities of the painting itself. An image painted on a wall, a panel of wood or on a stretched canvas will give quite different results. I find that the first will give to a painting a feeling of solidity, the second of rigidity and the third of tensility. If this is accepted, it means that one should not attempt to transfer styles of painting from one kind of support to another. The location of a painting is critical for its interpretation. Murals are commissioned for a specific place and the artist should take into account its environment. A mural is not intended to be moved, therefore, I object to murals being taken from their original locations for exhibition purposes. On the other hand, an easel painting generally is not made for any specific environment. A case can be made that stretched canvas evolved from painted banners in the early part of the fifteenth century [1] and, though much has been written on the concern of artists for the effect on a painting of weight of cloth, its tightness and closeness of weave, and its