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| Pacino di Bonaguida St Proculus on a journey stops a doe in the wilderness ca. 1315-20 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Pacino di Bonaguida St Proculus induces the doe to give milk to his thirsty companions ca. 1315-20 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| workshop of Bernardo Daddi Madonna and Child 1345-49 tempera on panel Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
"The wooden support for such a painting required many hours of labor even before the painter could lay his hand to the work. Designed to last, the panel had to undergo a series of procedures to make it stable and durable. Wood, unless it is properly treated, tends to crack or to split as it becomes drier over time: it can also warp, causing the painted surface to flake or detach. . . . Since wood is too absorbent to be painted on directly, the first task faced by [the painter's] assistants when the panel arrived from the woodworker was to apply a smooth ground in several layers. They would have coated the panel with animal glue, covered it with linen to mask the joins in the wood, then applied at least two layers of liquid ground on top of this, in the form a white powder known as gesso (sometimes called gypsum in English) combined with animal glue. Each coating required several days to dry, and the painter's assistants would have worked the final layer with pumice to render it as smooth as possible. At this point [the artist] would have applied his design. Most painters preferred charcoal for underdrawing. . . . With the underdrawing in place, [the assistants] would have then treated the areas of the panel that were to be gilded with a red, water-based glue known as bole, and then applied very thin squares of gold leaf. Haloes and other details required additional treatment with metal punches; the resulting effect was that of elaborately chased goldsmith's work. . . . The paint medium [was] tempera: mineral or organic pigments, ground by assistants to a fine powder, mixed with egg yolk. The painter would lay in colors with small, precise strokes, proceeding slowly across the surface. Within a dimly lit church interior the intense tones of the tempera would have glowed like jewels."
– excerpted from A New History of Italian Renaissance Art by Stephen J. Campbell and Michael W. Cole (Thames & Hudson, 2012)
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| Bartolomeo Bulgarini Adoration of the Shepherds ca. 1350 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Roberto d'Oderisio Man of Sorrows ca. 1354 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Guariento di Arpo Armed Angel (Principatis) ca. 1360-70 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Niccolò di Pietro Gerini Christ in the Tomb with the Virgin ca. 1377 tempera on panel Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Mariotto di Nardo Martyrdom of St Lawrence 1389 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Gherardo Starnina Assumption of the Virgin ca. 1404-1408 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Lorenzo di Niccolò St Paul before 1412 tempera on panel Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco |
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| Taddeo di Bartolo Virgin and Child with Angels 1418 tempera on panel Harvard Art Museums |
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| Giovanni dal Ponte Annunciate Angel ca. 1425 tempera on panel (fragment of triptych) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Giovanni dal Ponte Virgin Annunciate ca. 1425 tempera on panel (fragment of triptych) Philadelphia Museum of Art |
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| Giovanni di Paolo Raising of Lazarus 1426 tempera on panel Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |