Renaissance Watercolours: materials and techniques | V&A

Focussing on the three types of object featured in the V&A display Renaissance Watercolours: illuminated manuscripts, portrait miniatures and coloured drawings, this film showcases the qualities that made watercolour the medium of choice for many artists during the Renaissance.
A modern-day painting of a pomegranate, using traditional watercolour techniques, by artist Lucy Smith, also demonstrates how watercolour painting remains a versatile medium, ideal for capturing life-like details that help us to record our diverse world.
Take a look at our Watercolour Collection: www.vam.ac.uk/collections/wat...
* Correction:
Caption at 0:43 should read:
Portrait miniature of Alice Brandon, Mrs. Hilliard, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578
End credit for this image at 4:58 should read:
Portrait miniature of Alice Brandon, Mrs. Hilliard, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578, France. Museum no. P.2-1942. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

[@vamuseum]

*Correction*: Caption at 0:43 should read: Portrait miniature of Alice Brandon, Mrs. Hilliard, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578 End credit for this image at 4:58 should read: Portrait miniature of Alice Brandon, Mrs. Hilliard, by Nicholas Hilliard, 1578, France. Museum no. P.2-1942. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

[@uyenst]

Omg, the artworks are so vibrant I thought they were contemporary recreation. Those were some top notch quality paints to stay beautiful for half a millennia!

[@barbaramccoy3592]

What beautiful example of Nicholas Hilliard’s breathtaking work, even to the cipher of his and his wife’s initials on both sides of her image.

[@bluewren65]

You know a guy loves you when he does a portrait like that!

[@londonhodnet4079]

Thank you for all you have done over COVID, hopefully we will be seeing you soon, love watercolour medium

[@tea98988]

Watercolor is the most difficult to master and most under-appreciated medium in the art industry. Galleries still price watercolor much lower than the oil paintings.

[@rickh3714]

Oil/egg tempera, frescoes and multi-plate intaglio and stone lithography say "hold my beer🍺" regarding difficulty. But yes, water colour is underappreciated.

[@opheliadarkthorn]

I agree. One drop of water and your painting is ruined. But I wouldn't exchange watercolour for anything in the world..

[@CeridwenHafMorys]

@@rickh3714 I've never used tempera because of this reason!

[@rickh3714]

@@CeridwenHafMorys I've done quite a bit of m/p intaglio and even some stone lithography but never actually tempera. I once did a semi successful egg/oil emulsion painting. I think Xavier Langlais ? proprietary mix from Le Franc and Bourgeois. There is a difference between egg oil emulsions and oil egg emulsions . I think the former uses water and the latter oil but it is complicated unless you do them frequently. There are pre mixed egg temperas in tubes which I forget the make of ( Sennelier?)

[@sarroumarbeu6810]

2:09 Literally painting lace??? In watercolor?? During the Renaissance?? Wow

[@furuki60]

And in white watercolor😭

[@uyenst]

And miniature lace!!!!

[@Red_Rebel]

I love medieval art! Especially Illuminated Manuscripts and Codex

[@kanderson140]

Beautiful objects, all of them!

[@jconnet]

Thank you for this interesting video! Great that you are posting on watercolor. It gives us so much inspiration for the we use the technique. Please keep it coming!

[@annettefournier9655]

Those are amazing !

[@arquemuse]

Vraiment passionnant! Merci!

[@esotericexplorersmartinez493]

Stunning! Wonderful video

[@obcl8569]

EDIT: My bad! I hadn't seen the pinned comment! Quick correction & with due respect, the miniature in the opening of the clip is indeed Mrs. Hilliard, Alice Branson as referenced a few moments later, but is mis-identified as Catherine De Medici, a miniature (by François Clouet) of whom also resides at the V&A. Thank you for these incredible videos :)

[@marnidamoulakis3827]

I’d love to see a detailed video of the manuscripts you have at the museum, I love seeing them so much

[@vamuseum]

Keep an eye on the channel - next week's video might do just that!

[@marnidamoulakis3827]

That would make me soooo happy!!!!

[@kathryncarter6143]

Excelente!

[@SirenUniverse381]

Quite informative. Wow.😮

[@gallaxylhlovehope1051]

Yeah

[@furuki60]

I love watercolor❤️

[@ChrisPollitt]

Nice!

[@veronicagubert2518]

Lovely

[@isabelladestegonzaga5529]

Für winzige Flächen und Akzente benutze ich Zucker oder Honig als Bindemittel. Der Pinsel bleibt relativ lange streichfähig, bevor er abtrocknet.

[@xtsdagger6956]

The text attribution at 0:45 contradicts the body of the work that comes later. Accuracy and consistency are important, especially if you are trying to impart knowledge.

[@peckinpahlady]

I was just about to comment on the same thing, Yes, they do not match. Other than that a very interesting video.

[@snowpony001]

I was going to comment on this also. Going to check out their site to see if I can find the actual identification.

[@jooanhoos5435]

😯wow.

[@carinwiseman4309]

You forgot to mention that watercolor was used early on because oils were not available!

[@nunyabiznes33]

Didn't they always had linseed oil?

[@xjAlbert]

"Contemporary watercolour painting of a pomegranate by Lucy Smith" seen in credits at 4:58 ʕ•́؈•̀ʔ

[@nshwhdushdb397]

The Victoria and Albert museum also has some of the most exquisite Mughal miniatures, painted by exceptionally skillful artists. Please make videos on your collections of Indian Miniatures as well. They are of equal , if not greater excellence..

[@jazmeen04]

Probably better and even older than their collection as Europe inherited these techniques from the islamic world, though they don't like to say it. These watercolors and the techniques were already in use before the renaissance. This is what I have been noticing lately, whenever you see a documentary about the west, they try and remove anyone's influence but theirs. But when they make documentaries about other cultures, they make sure they insert themselves even when it's not true.

[@nshwhdushdb397]

@@jazmeen04 so true

[@mellow5123]

Hmm. Contradicting information. The lower third first shown of the woman's portrait says Catharine de Medici by Francois Clouet. in 1555 (00:45), and then at 2:23 the narrations says it's by Hillyard of his wife in 1578. Then in the credits it again says Medici by Clouet. Which is it, my dears?

[@beautifulu6171]

The artists were so talented in old days

[@marvona3531]

🌸🌺🌸🌺🌸🌺

[@ryushogun9890]

Where can I learn to do art like that? I mean the ancient ones, not modern watercolor.

[@siir5727]

keşke Türkçe alt yazı seçeneği koysanız.

[@isabelladestegonzaga5529]

Auf keinen Fall für die ersten Farbschichten Gummi arabicum benutzen! Besser ein nicht so leicht wasserlösliches Dextrin, ein Kohlehydrat auf Maisbasis verwenden. Erst beim späteren Bildaufbau Gummi arabicum einsetzen. Zum Beispiel bei den Lichtern. Also ganz zuletzt.

[@isabelladestegonzaga5529]

Dieses hellgrün-blaue Pigment am Anfang des Videos, ist das Kupfercarbonat oder echter Malachit ?

[@CeridwenHafMorys]

Is this really watercolour as we understand it today, or is some of it egg tempera? They're both water based mediums but it would be helpful to the audience to know the difference. I think a lot of early paintings were done in egg tempera.

[@paigiboo4969]

They are highly different techniques actually! Like he said here in the video, grinding the pigment and then settling it with gum arabic is what they used to make watercolour. Egg tempera has a technique that uses pigment, but you use the egg yolk to bind the pigment to the paper ! With this technique, its very hard to keep the colours you mixed for a long period of time compared to the watercolours. Hope this helps ☺️

[@CeridwenHafMorys]

@@paigiboo4969 I'm an artist so I know what the difference is between egg tempera and watercolour. My post was pointing out the fact that the video doesn't make the differences between those two mediums clear enough, in usage, technique nor materials and that some people watching this video might enjoy knowing more about this. An idea for a future video maybe?

[@paigiboo4969]

@@CeridwenHafMorysYes it would be super interesting! Sorry for misunderstanding your comment!

[@theelilac113]

Using watercolor to paint is hard!

[@sumyungai1]

Whatever happened to using gloves to handle historical artifacts? I always thought gloves were needed to keep oils off the artifacts?

[@Chelsea-oe7gm]

Museums are moving away from using gloves now in certain situations as it can actually damage the work more than help it. In some situations it's much better to handle historical items with very clean and dry hands.

[@Shiranova]

@@Chelsea-oe7gm It's also easier to feel what you do without gloves so you can handle the piece more carefully.

[@sugarrrfree]

A year to dry????

[@opheliadarkthorn]

Yes!!!!

[@CeridwenHafMorys]

Oils paints are highly variable in drying rate. Some can dry within a day (such as some earth pigments) and some can take days or even weeks to become dry to the touch. Some artists used driers to hurry things along a bit, but some driers are risky to use. Some very thickly painted artworks can take 6 months - 1 year to dry all the way through the layers, but they might be dry to the touch much sooner than that.

[@ApocalypticDreams666]

Where was the explanation of materials of renaissance watercolors. Thought it was gonna explain what pigments were used. So disappointed.

[@user-uv9zr8qs2c]

They cant even pronounce the name correctly lol