Busacca Gallery

Burning Pearl is an oil painting created on a round, wooden panel. The panel was gilded with copper leaf before the image was painted. The wooden panel was created by Simon Liu using Baltic birch plywood. The surface was prepared with contemporary gesso which contains an acrylic binder. The gesso was sealed and a gilding size was applied on which the copper leaf was adhered. The copper was then sealed to prevent tarnishing. A circle was faintly inscribed, the pearl, prior to the washes of very thin oil paint.

Link: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/pane/hd_pane.htm

A seasoned plank—one that had been allowed to dry out for some time—was layered with several coats of size, a glue made from animal skins. In Italy, the planks used for panel paintings were most often made of native poplar, a widely available wood that was, however, soft and vulnerable to warping. A piece of linen soaked in size was often laid over the front of the panel to conceal any surface flaws. Over this, coats of gesso were applied. Gesso, a mixture of powdered calcium sulfate (commonly called gypsum) and animal glue, provided the ground for preliminary drawings.



When the underdrawing was complete, the panel was ready for gilding. Areas to be gilded were prepared with a layer of bole, a reddish clay that provided an adhesive surface for fragile gold leaf. The gold leaf was made by pounding a small amount of gold into thin sheets, which were then applied to the panel with great care using a tool called a gilder's tip. The gilded surface was rubbed with a hard-tipped instrument to smooth and polish the gold leaf, a process known as burnishing. After additional decoration was incised or "punched" into the surface, the panel was finally ready to be painted. The medieval artist used pigments tempered in egg yolk, or egg tempera. This medium produces a brilliant, pure hue.