The Specificity of the Technique and Technology of the Byzantine-Ruthenian Paintings of the Jagiellonian Foundation

Abstract

Due to the technique and technology of manufacturing, Byzantine-Ruthenian frescoes founded by the Jagiellonian dynasty differ from medieval mural paintings preserved on the territory of Poland. They constitute uniform and distinct group of monumental paintings of this period of time, among others, because of the unique painting method belonging to the so called “wet fresco technique”. The differences relate to types of materials and ways of their application but also to the painting structure itself. The lack of technical and technological similarities with medieval monumental murals is mainly attributed to the origin of Eastern artels (teams) whose members used techniques characteristic for the Orthodox Church or recipes unfamiliar for the Latin tradition. The most noticeable difference is in the kind of used mortars which are frequently purely lime, devoid of sand, with an addition of fillers in the form of fibrous plants endowing characteristic features to those plasters. Other typical features are: layered technique of mural built-up the use of undercoat layer (so called rieft) in particular in the background, where they are followed by layers painted with azurite and malachite. It is also worth mentioning, that Ruthenian painters used certain kind of sinopia, engravings and typical pigments. All aforementioned elements of the Ruthenian-Byzantine frescoes have significant impact on their preservation and restoration challenges.