tempera
Americannoun
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a technique of painting in which an emulsion consisting of water and pure egg yolk or a mixture of egg and oil is used as a binder or medium, characterized by its lean film-forming properties and rapid drying rate.
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a painting executed in this technique.
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a water paint used in this technique in which the egg-water or egg-oil emulsion is used as a binder.
noun
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a painting medium for powdered pigments, consisting usually of egg yolk and water
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any emulsion used as a painting medium, with casein, glue, wax, etc, as a base
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the paint made from mixing this with pigment
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the technique of painting with tempera
Etymology
Origin of tempera
1825–35; < Italian, short for ( pingere a ) tempera (painting in) distemper, derivative of temperare to mingle, temper; see temper
Explanation
Tempera is a bright, fast-drying type of paint. Paintings done in tempera are extremely long-lasting—some as old as the first century CE have been found. Traditionally, tempera paints were mixed with egg yolk, which is why this type of paint is commonly called egg tempera. Egg is still used today, as well as other materials with similar consistencies. Serious painters almost always used tempera before oil paints became popular around 1500. While colors are vivid and long-lasting, a weakness of egg tempera is that it cracks easily and works best when it's applied to wood. The Latin root is temperare, "to mix colors."
Vocabulary lists containing tempera
Visual Arts - High School
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Art History
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Visual Arts - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Tempera, spray paint and markers are mostly employed to render layered fields of poured, soaked, sprayed and impressed color.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2023
Tempera is where pigments usually taken from natural materials such as stone, minerals and soil, were mixed with water-soluble emulsion such as egg yolk.
From BBC • Aug. 5, 2022
Christ delivered from the Jews: Quirinal: Tempera Picture 92 1861.
From Overbeck by Atkinson, J. Beavington
Member of the Society of Painters in Tempera.
From Women in the fine arts, from the Seventh Century B.C. to the Twentieth Century A.D. by Waters, Clara Erskine Clement
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
