Gold Leaf
Techniques. Resources. Creative Processes. Genres
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Gold Leaf
Gold leaf is the technique that consists in applying very thin layers of gold on wood, gypsum, canvases, crystal and also other metals, generally with decorative purposes.
We can find gold applied with this technique to furniture, statues, altarpieces, religious icons, pieces of goldsmithing, frames of paintings and mirrors, paintings —as the one chosen for this posting—, and also in architectonic details. The layers of gold were already used in the Ancient Egypt, in the decoration of the rooms destined to the tombs of the pharaohs.
In Greece it can be appreciated in the decoration of statues and in the creation of Chryselephantine statues. The name comes from the Greek words “gold” and “ivory”, as the statues were made of ivory and decorated with gold.
In the Middle Age the illuminated (illustrated) manuscripts were embellished with this technique and then it was used in painting. It can be found in religious painting (Byzantine and Gothic art) as background of the work or in the halo of the sacred characters, for example.
In the 16th and 17th centuries it was applied to wood sculptures with the technique “stoffato.” “Stoffa” means rich cloth in Italian, and the name of the technique is due to the fact that usually the gold was applied to enrich the color and richness of the clothing. The stoffato consists in applying gold leaf on wood, then you paint it with colors that will be in turn scratched according to the design of the “cloth” with a pointed object, for the gold to be exposed enriching the color.
And near the end of the 19th century it can be seen in Klimt’s works that were characteristic of the modernism —also called art nouveau—; the movement of sensuality and exquisite decoration, which the gold leaf makes even more beautiful.
Image: Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (The Woman in Gold). 1907. Gustav Klimt
Recommended links:
Timeline: from Neoclassicism till the end of the 19th century.
Characteristic Elements of Art Nouveau Painting.
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