Francisco Benitez
Featured Artist
8
Spring
a larger decorative wall fresco scheme. One of the
most stunning examples is at the House of the Vettii
at Pompeii, where we can recognize masterpieces
by Zeuxis, Timomachos of Byzantium, and others.
Metope from the Tomb of the Swing, 4th c BC,
encaustic, Louvre
In the Natural History, Pliny states that it is
not agreed who invented encaustic--but the first
artist to become famous as a true encaustic artist
in his own right was Pausias. Although we have little
idea as to the scale and appearance of his work,
Pliny mentions his work was smaller scale on wood,
and often the subject matter was children and floral
arrangements. Pausias also did ceiling paintings,
frescoes, and large paintings. It is not clear whether
he used encaustic with those projects. One thing
that is known about his encaustic painting was that
was a slow process and to counter criticism, he
executed what came to be known as the “One-Day
Boy”, as he did a full length picture of a boy in a
single day.
The master who taught encaustic to
Pausias was Pamphilos, who happened to be
the teacher of Apelles--considered the greatest
painter of antiquity. Although the jury is still out on
whether Apelles was an encaustic or tempera
painter, there is no doubt he raised painting to a
level which would not be equaled until the Renaissance
nearly 1,500 years later. Apelles was not only
the personal court artist to Alexander the Great, he
pushed projectivist space outwards, inwards, and
all around. His figures were steeped in atmospheric
perspective ; his compositions were ambitious
and full of mathematical complexity. According to
a recent study , the author of the famous painting
upon which Alexander mosaic at the Museo
Nazionale in Naples is based, is actually by Apelles
and not Philoxenos, as has been widely believed.
There is a mention that “Apelles’ wax would fain
have inscribed you…” in Statius’ Silvae. It is hard
to believe such a vast and ambitious composition
such as Alexander Vanquishing Darius could
have been done with such a painstaking method
such as heated encaustic. One thing that must be
remembered is that in antiquity there was a cold
and hot method for encaustic. Perhaps for larger
compositions, the cold technique, also known as
“Punic wax”, was used.
Alexander Mosaic, Museo Nazionale, Naples
The meaning of encaustic in Greek is to
“burn in”; therefore it would seem a contradiction
in terms to say that a cold wax method needed
to be burned in. Although Punic wax’s origins are
unclear—from the name we can assume there is
some connection with Carthage or North Africa—
it became a widely used wax technique. It was
made by boiling purified beeswax, and adding
natrum, or the equivalent of a saponifying agent
such as potash or sodium bicarbonate. In essence,
it becomes a soapy wax which air dries, and can
further be manipulated and fused by approaching
a heating element such as a thermastris, or its
modern equivalent--a heat gun or iron. Although
Punic wax lacks the luminosity of heated wax, it
is nonetheless beautiful as it has the appearance
of a kind of wax-like tempera. Numerous studies
Encaustic setup by Euphrosyne Doxiadis,
author of the Mysterious Fayum Portraits]
www.EAINM.com