What Is a Painting?
What do you see when you look at a painting? You see the subject and the style of the work but also the materials and technologies used to create it and the traces of everything that has happened to it. Professional paintings conservator Jean Dommermuth considers how all of those factors contribute to what a painting is. You don’t need to know anything about art history to enjoy this podcast, but no matter what, you’ll never look at a painting the same way again. You can find images and related materials at jeandommermuth.com/podcast
- Update frequency
- every 41 days
- Average duration
- 30 minutes
- Episodes
- 26
- Years Active
- 2022 - 2025
Episode 6 - Sinew and Stone
Episode 6 - How did painters turn natural materials from animal and mineral sources into the perfect preparation for their panel paintings? A look at Early Italian gesso grounds.
Episode 5 - Memories of the Forest
How does a tree become a support for a painting, and how does the memory of its life in the forest affect that support? A look at Early Italian panels.
Episode 4 - A Vision of Eternity
How did European painters and patrons before about 1400 understand what paintings were and how did that affect how they were made? A look at Early Italian images of the Madonna and Child.
Episode 3 - A Surface with Paint on It
How have modern painters explored what a painting can be? A look at the work of Frank Stella.
Episode 2 - A Mystery Novel
What clues about a painting's materials and history can you find just by looking? A look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Galleries, Florence.
Episode 1 - A Three Dimensional Object
What is the physical structure of a painting, and how does that relate to how a painting looks in person? A look at Rembrandt's Aristotle Looking at a Bust of Homer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art,…