Artists including Botticelli and da Vinci used EGG YOLKS to stop paintings ... trends now
View
comments
Whether they're poached, scrambled or fried, everyone has their favourite way of preparing eggs.
But some of the world's most famous artists made use of them in a different manner – by adding them to paint, a study suggests.
The likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, also known as 'Old Master' artists, may have added protein to their oil paintings to overcome issues with humidity, surface wrinkling and yellowing, researchers have discovered.
And while the presence of protein in their masterpieces – which date back more than 500 years – has previously been detected, the reasons why they added the unusual ingredient has remained unknown.
A team led by scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany examined the effects of adding protein in the form of egg yolk to oil paints.
The likes of Sandro Botticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, also known as 'Old Master' artists, may have added protein to their oil paintings to overcome issues with humidity, surface wrinkling and yellowing, researchers have discovered. Pictured: Sandro Botticelli's masterpiece, the Lamentation of Christ
While the presence of protein in their masterpieces – which date back more than 500 years – has previously been detected, the reasons why they added the unusual ingredient has remained unknown. Pictured: Leonardo da Vinci's Madonna of the Carnation
They discovered water uptake from humid environments can be suppressed when the egg proteins formed a thin layer around the particles of paint pigment.
Adding egg yolk was also found to provide stiff paints with strong impasto - being able to layer it on thickly - and prevented wrinkling of the surface during drying.
Antioxidants within the yolk also helped prevent
