Oil Painting: Before Paint Came Into Tubes
Oil Painting- Before Paint Came Into Tubes
“The Arnolfini Portrait" by Jan van Eyck 1434
Bamiyan oil painting, 650AD, Western Buddha, East Ceiling Niche, Afghanistan
A section of the earliest discovered oil paintings 650 AD, Afghanistan
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" Johannes Vermeer, 1665
"The Art of Painting" Johannes Vermeer, 1662–1668
"A Lady Seated at a Virginal", Johannes Vermeer, 1670-1672
"The Milkmaid" Johannes Vermeer, 1657-1658
Examples of paint cracking. The painting is a version of "Danaë", Titan- The Wellington Collection version before restoration, 1542-1543
I was having a conversation with a friend about oil painting and I briefly mentioned how the colors in a painting can reveal the wealth of the patron, not just the skills of the artist.
The materials themselves are shaped by trade, power, and patronage which each carrys their own stories. Once you notice how paints were made in the past, you can see the story of craftsmanship and journey. (Cohen)
Movement: Northern Renaissance
I'm just gonna talk briefly about the history's of oil painting for a moment for context:
Oil painting is often talked about as one of the most difficult mediums, but that difficulty isn’t only about skill. Oil painting is slow as well as labour-heavy and the materials themselves carried stories long before they ever touched the canvas.
The convo I had about oil painting was "time intensive and the materials could be extremely expensive". Lapis lazuli is the example that instantly comes to my mind as it was the pigment for of ultramarine blue and was mined almost exclusively in what is now Afghanistan. It had to travel huge distances along trade routes before it ever reached a European studio. (Mars) So the shades of deep blue in a Renaissance painting, you’re not just seeing colour. You’re seeing a route of trade, power, and money.
"Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Dominic, and a Donor", Titian About 1513
Movement: Italian Renaissance
Oil painting origins
The oldest known oil paintings are actually murals in the Bamiyan caves in Afghanistan, dated to around 800 AD. (Volpe) Scientific analysis has confirmed that oil was used as a binding medium centuries before its claimed its rise as a major technique in Europe. It battles that idea that oil painting suddenly appeared fully formed in Europe, but it didn’t. It travelled and evolved. (Orsi)
A haloed figure from one of the oil painted-murals in Bamiyan, 650 AD, Afghanistan.
Photos from: https://streamlinepublishing.com/inside-art/the-oldest-oil-painting-in-the-world/#
At its most basic, oil paint is simply just two things: pigment and oil. Most commonly this is linseed oil, walnut oil and poppyseed oil. The magic comes from how slow these oils dry, as that slowness gave artists time to blend, rework and push realism further than any faster drying media allowed as it can keep being reworked into and blended. (Illustrators)
Making paint became a job
Before the 1800s, artists couldn't just buy paint. It had to be made:
Pigments were ground by hand which was done daily, because these kinda of mixed paints didn’t last very long. An apprentice would spend hours grinding minerals into a powder and then mixing them with oils. Mixing paints was a chemical process. Which in these times was a very demanding job and could be dangerous.
That’s something we don’t really notice when we look at Renaissance or Baroque paintings: how toxic some of these materials were. Lead whites. Scheele's Green and Emerald Green, were often made with arsenic (Hinton), as well as some shades of yellow pigments were also poisonous. (Hatch) Long term exposure caused serious health problems for painters and mixes but this part of the process.
Paint recipes were closely guarded and workshops had their own mixtures and preferences.
Color Olivi (Invention of Oil Painting), Hand coloured print, 1591
Credit: https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/color-olivi-invention-of-oil-painting/247169df-2c5b-4a4d-bb9b-fa8dbb4fe252
Apprentices often spent years without even painting at all. They learned how to grind pigments, prepare panels, cleaning tools and learning colour. This meant learning weight, texture, and patience was key as colours were known to be unreliable but was used anyway. This was accepting that paintings might change. Many green pigments were made by combining dangerous materials or letting metals corrode. (Staniforth et al.)
Colour as wealth
Ultramarine blue for example, as it was expensive it was often reserved for the most important figures in a painting. The Virgin Mary’s robe, saints and royalty. In some cases, ultramarine could cost more than gold. (Mars) What often happend is a Renaissance painter might have been completely broke, while applying a pigment worth a fortune because the commissioner paid for it. The colour wasn’t the artist’s choice. It was a display of wealth. Before synthetic pigments, colour choices were often dictated by money and geography. Where you lived mattered and who funded you mattered. Paintings are visual records of power structures as much as they are expressions of creativity.
"The Virgin in Prayer" Sassoferrato, 1640-50
Movement: Classical Baroque
Vermeer's Palette: Lapis Ultramarine
An example of a painter that uses Lapis in his paints is Vermeer.
A quick summary of Vermeer! He was a 17th century Dutch painter, his work focuses on ordinary moments focusing on light and colour. (Janson)
Here is examples of his work:
Vermeer is a well known artist that make use of natrual oils. Vermeer uses a limited colour palette and makes use of that vivid ultramarine pigment that shows up again and again all through his paintings. (Janson) It’s found as striking blues within in dresses and clothing, but you can also notice it within shadows and walls and into colours that don’t look blue, which is unusual, considering how expensive the pigment was.
Ultramarine came from lapis lazuli. Most artists used it vert sparingly for this reason and it was often saved for important details or glazed over cheap blues. Vermeer didn’t seem to treat it that way, he used it generously and like I said even underneath other colours letting it coolen surfaces letting it work underneath quietly.
In his work the rooms are small, and the moments are ordinary. The pigments make the light settle. Knowing what that blue cost as well as where it came from, adds another laye towards his paintings. Contrast to this Vermeer didn’t have much money, but he filled his paintings with ultramarine. But the blues shape the scenenry. (Janson)
Paint Changes Over Time
It's noticeable that of cause pigments change over time by fading or darkening. These historical paintings don’t look the way they did when they were first made. I think that feels important to remember. Paint isn’t static. It ages and it changes. It carries time.
With that being said linseed oil the most commonly used slowly yellows as it ages. But this changes how a painting feels as it adds warmth which can deepen shadows, but it can also dullen paler colours. Walnut oil was found to yellow less so it became more common for lighter pigments but it dried more slowly so it forms a slightly weaker paints and poppyseed oil stayed paler for longer but more brittle paint film if overused and it dries very slowly leading to cracking. (O’Hanlon) A complicated process for artists to know what to blend with what to make it last the best.
Movement: Italian Renaissance
The nineteenth century: pre-mixed oil paint in collapsible metal tubes and the rise of synthetic pigments
This transformed how artists worked and opened up many pathways for new artists as it became more assessable and afordable. By the 1870s, paint could be bought, stored, and carried around even outdoors, so artists were no longer tied to the studio in the same way like before. Artists could study outside for example the changing light leading to new artistic movements such as impressionism. (Washington National Art Gallery, P87)
Later, acrylic paint in the twentieth century pushed this even further fast drying and convenient. Paint became easier and safer.
"Poplars on the Epte" Claude Monet, 1891
Movement: Impressionism
Thinking About Paint Differently
Thinking about how paint was once made mined, traded, ground, mixed, historical paintings feel different. Colour stops just being a decorative choice and you can start to think about everything behind it. Today sometimes you can take for granted about paint and the materials we have access to so easily today.
This has been really interesting to look into! Honestly its something I will be continuing to look at as now it's just an added to my way of thinking when looking at a painting and it's such a big topic to continue to research.
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As usual!! Here is the quick sketch that I've done:
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References:
ABC. “Afghan Caves Hold World’s First Oil Paintings: Expert.” ABC News, 25 Jan. 2008, www.abc.net.au/news/2008-01-26/afghan-caves-hold-worlds-first-oil-paintings-expert/1024106. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
ahumbleplace. “Artists from the 1400s for Picture Study · a Humble Place.” A Humble Place, 12 June 2023, ahumbleplace.com/artists-from-the-1400s-to-include-in-your-picture-study-time/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
ARTSY. “Titian | Madonna and Child with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and Dominic, and a Donor (about 1513) | Artsy.” Artsy.net, 2016, www.artsy.net/artwork/titian-madonna-and-child-with-saints-catherine-of-alexandria-and-dominic-and-a-donor. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Cohen, Alina. “In the Italian Renaissance, Wealthy Patrons Used Art for Power.” Artsy, 20 Aug. 2018, www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-italian-renaissance-wealthy-patrons-art-power. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Fuseli, Henry. “The Nightmare.” Obelisk Art History, 10 Jan. 2026, www.arthistoryproject.com/artists/henry-fuseli/the-nightmare/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Hatch, Evie. “Cadmium Yellow: The First Modern Yellow Pigment - Jackson’s Art Blog.” Jackson’s Art Blog, 8 July 2024, www.jacksonsart.com/blog/2024/07/08/cadmium-yellow-the-first-modern-yellow-pigment/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Hinton, Bobbi. “It’s Not Easy Being Green | Guardians of Memory.” The Library of Congress, 21 Mar. 2024, blogs.loc.gov/preservation/2024/03/being-green/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Illustrators, Artists . “How to Make Oil Paint.” Artists & Illustrators, 23 Jan. 2014, www.artistsandillustrators.co.uk/how-to/oil-painting/how-to-make-oil-paint/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Jan, et al. “Color Olivi (Invention of Oil Painting).” Museodelprado.es, Museo del Prado, 2022, www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/color-olivi-invention-of-oil-painting/247169df-2c5b-4a4d-bb9b-fa8dbb4fe252. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Janson, Jonathan. “Complete Catalogue of the Painting of Johannes Vermeer.” Essentialvermeer.com, 2024, www.essentialvermeer.com/vermeer_painting_part_one.html. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Liedtke, Walter A. “Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) - the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Metmuseum.org, Oct. 2003, www.metmuseum.org/essays/johannes-vermeer-1632-1675. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Mars, Ashley Grove. “Chrysler Museum of Art |.” Chrysler Museum of Art, 16 July 2020, chrysler.org/the-history-of-art-in-color-blue/. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
O’Hanlon, George . “Drying Oils in Oil Painting: Linseed, Walnut, and Poppy Seed Compared.” Naturalpigments.com, 2025, www.naturalpigments.com/artist-materials/drying-oils-linseed-walnut-poppy-seed-compared. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Orsi, Marco. “A Brief History of Oil Paintings.” Bird and Davis, 31 Aug. 2022, birdanddavis.com/blogs/news/a-brief-history-of-oil-paintings?srsltid=AfmBOoq0CjZkdwoRHIPF_TInX2lJijMIVGqd4TpyqIIVuhC38vU-lfsA. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Staniforth, Sarah, et al. “Historical Painting Techniques, Materials, and Studio Practice.” Studies in Conservation, vol. 44, no. 2, 1999, p. 142, d2aohiyo3d3idm.cloudfront.net/publications/virtuallibrary/0892363223.pdf, https://doi.org/10.2307/1506726. Accessed 24 Jan. 2026.
Volpe, Christopher, and Christopher Volpe. “The Oldest Oil Painting in the World - Streamline Publishing.” Streamline Publishing, 13 May 2022,
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