PAINT

[Music] it took 30 days to paint a coach it took just as long to thank the first automobiles now it takes less than four hours [Music] paint has responded to a changing world since its earliest beginnings [Music] [Music] the first painters were hunters inspired perhaps by the shapes they saw in the rock they created a vivid world of animals but for these pictures for we can only guess but we do know how they painted them they use materials that lay in hand a piece of charred wood or bone for drawing the outlines and hot animal fat for binding their simple earth colors the smooth head of a leg bone in a hollow stone served as pestle and mortar and the bruised fibers of a green stick as a paintbrush a paste dried to a thin waterproof film of color from its beginnings 30,000 years ago paint has been not only decorative but durable bitumen was prized for its protective qualities by the early civilizations of Mesopotamia this too was a naturally occurring material pigment and binding medium in one used to waterproof boats made from woven reeds the Pharaohs employed artists to decorate their palaces temples and tombs [Music] they covered their walls with story pictures and painted the figures and household objects that were buried with the dead for a company in the afterlife [Music] the tools and materials they used have survived clay pots for mixing paints pallets reed brushes and pigments like the cave painters they used earths and sharks but extended their palette with more colorful minerals malachite haematite orpiment as a right and most interesting of all Egyptian blue this was the first synthetic pigment silica malachite and calcium carbonate fused together at a critical temperature wall paintings were usually carried out on dry plaster the pigments were bound with gums honey in size thinned with water rather like the water paints and distemper still in use today indeed the Egyptians were the first to have a real grasp of paint technology [Music] the Greeks and Romans adopted similar methods but their interest in solid form resulted in a very different style of painting [Music] they also learned to paint directly onto wet plaster which absorbed the pigment and bounded as a dried the beginning of fresco the technique Michelangelo was to use to paint the Sistine Chapel this portrait painted shortly before the fall of the Roman Empire was done in quite a different way using beeswax the Greeks used these wax bound paints as a protective coating on their ships of war so did the Romans they had to be applied hot for painting pictures they were melted on a heated bronze palette and applied to a wooden panel with a brush or a spatula and so round the shores of the Mediterranean paint slowly evolved from its crude beginnings to become a remarkably versatile material a thousand years later the arts of these early pagan civilizations had been transformed in the service of the Christian Church [Music] the books written and copied by the monks of the religious orders was superbly illuminated these manuscripts create a vivid world of saints and flowers and strange beasts but from their pages we can also see something in the real world and how it was decorated the painter of this vaulted ceiling was master of a craft that had changed little since antiquity most of the materials he used were those of Egypt Greece and Rome he acquired his skills through long years of apprenticeship learning how to decorate churches palaces chests and shields banners saddles and ships of war there was as yet no clear distinction between craftsmen and artists but this was to come the skills of the illuminator were soon to be extended beyond the confines of the page preoccupation with fine detail remained the care the artist lavished on his painting was reflected in the way he prepared his materials [Music] painting in egg tempera was an exacting technique peculiar to the Middle Ages the artist mixed the yoke with his chosen pigment and a little water he would prepare a range of the tones he wanted for say the painting of a red robe his brush made from specially chosen hairs of her Minh set in a goose quill had to be the finest onto a smooth ground of chalk or gypsum bound with rabbit skin glue called gesso he applied the color stroke by stroke the paint dried rapidly so modeling and shading could be built up finally in thin super imposed layers the techniques of painting were generally handed down by example and word-of-mouth but from time to time they were written down one of the most interesting manuscripts is by Theophilus a Benedictine monk of the 12th century take the pounded seed of flax place it in a pan with a little water and heat strongly afterwards fold it in a new cloth and place it in a press so that the oil may be extracted this is Theophilus giving instructions for making what were to become the most widely used materials of artists and craftsmen alike linseed oil and varnish grind red or vermilion with this oil upon a stone without water then with a paint brush apply it over the doors and panels that you want to stain red and dry them in the Sun finally apply over it a coat of the sticky substance called varnish which is made in this way put some linseed oil in a small new pot and add some finely powdered gum called sand direct heat it carefully every painting coated with this varnish becomes bright and decorative and completely durable but the oil paint and varnished Theophilus described were also stiff sticky and slow to dry suitable enough for doors furniture and farm implements but incapable of producing fine decorative detail the problem of painting in oils was only overcome 300 years later in the subtle work of the Flemish artists of the 15th century they were the first to perfect the technique by using a solvent alchemists had discovered that the resin tapped from pine trees could be distilled to produce turpentine a volatile liquid which could be used to thin the paint now the artist could make his paint creamy enough for detailed work with a fine brush the techniques of Van Eyck and his followers have never been surpassed their love of fine detail and high finish stem from their work as illuminators within the confines of the page their superb craftsmanship had created a world alive with atmosphere now they could translate it to the larger scale of the easel picture which has remained the principle medium of artistic expression ever since [Music] the development of paint during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance also had an influence on decoration as time went on the distinction between artists and craftsmen became more pronounced but like the artists the craftsman made his own paint the material supplied by the apothecary some of the more exotic ingredients were costly bought by the ounce paint was a luxury [Music] decoration became more elaborate and sophisticated and the demand for paint increased by the end of the 17th century the apothecary shop had given way to oil merchants color men and distillers [Music] the scale of paint making it change but it's manufacture was still based on the proven recipes of the artists in a search for more colors the Earth's of the cave haters and the minerals of the Egyptians had been augmented with tear Verret cinnabar railcar and lapis lazuli this was the source of ultramarine that picked them over the sea the preparation of other pigments was more complex chemical processes were involved the reaction of fermenting grapes with copper made a green verdigris and with let a pure white which became red when heated the fermented leaves of the indigo plant gave a very dark blue from buckthorn berries came a yellow dye made into a pigment by precipitating it on chalk or Helen there was a whole range of these organic pigments extracted from petals berries roots and even the crushed bodies of insects such as cochineal the yellow gamboge was a solid resin from Cambodia dragon's blood came from the fruit of the East Indian rattan palm paint had gained much from the trade which followed the voyages of discovery the import of gums and resins grew rapidly tragacanth and acacia mastic Dameron copal came from africa and india by the ton for blending with the oils of walnut poppy and linseed and from the pine forests of North America came turpentine for thinning almost every kind of paint the influence of trade was far reaching from the east came not only gums resins and dye stuffs but the lacquered wares of China and Japan [Music] the secret of this immaculate finish proved elusive but its popularity assured it's imitation blends of lynsee nut and lavender oils were cooked with amber copal colophony and sander egg to elaborate and secret recipes lacquer work became so popular that the demand could no longer be met by small groups of craftsmen factories were built to produce japan goods in quantity in its turn varnish making was to become an industry in its own right these varnish factory still relied on the traditional skills of the individual craftsmen testing for temperature was still rudimentary but they marked the beginnings of the modern paint industry along with pigment makers oil refiners and turpentine distillers they supplied the materials of the trade to an increasingly wide market the coach was the summit of the painters crab coat after coat primer filler color and varnish meticulously applied to achieve a brilliant and last and finish [Music] adjust as coach painting reached the peak of refinement the dictates of fashion were swept aside by the more urgent demands of the Industrial Revolution [Music] the artists of the New Age were the engineers their works were bold and justly celebrated but built of iron they suffered from one great drawback rust the 19th century turned to paint not only for decoration but for protection on a scale for which it was unprepared this was paint by the acre manufacturers experimented with new processes with new lead and zinc based paints to combat rust and corrosion but as the century advanced the limitations of paint became clear its performance was no match for this harsh new environment nor for what was to follow a revolution in the techniques of industrial production mass-production meant the end of paint making as a traditional craft the end of recipes derived from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance craftsmanship gave way to chemistry the raw materials of paint have changed more in the last 30 years than in the previous 30,000 evolved on the laboratory bench and processed through chemical plants on an industrial scale the new synthetic resins look much the same as those of the past the difference between them lies in the shapes of their molecules their predetermined arrangement and distribution the product of reactions between glycerol and phthalic anhydride epichlorohydrin and diphenyl all propane polyols and isocyanates vinyls and acrylics armed with these and with solvents each made to a specification equally precise armed with dryers and plasticizers wetting and dispersing agents the paint manufacture has overcome the problems of an industrial age [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] in a man-made world paint plays a crucial role controlling corrosion advancing the speeds of mass production in industry paint is both chemistry and engineering along with a change in its raw materials there's been a revolution in methods of applying [Music] [Applause] [Music] in adapting to the processes of modern industry paint has changed out of all recognition but it is more than a protective coating more than a surface finish ingeniously applied paint is colored and today color to his chemistry synthetic pigments not only answer the stringent needs of industry they crown the age long search of the artist for stable durable color [Music] ain't is decoration a unique form of individual expression universally available for every man's castle every woman's home [Music] paint is older than the wheel its manufacture is now a great industry based on science but it owes its existence to art demands enduring urge to give form and color to his experience of the world around him an urge which goes back to his earliest beginnings [Music]