panel - Often
refers to a wood, copper,
Masonite, or other hard
surfaces on which to paint. Sometimes it is referred
to as a board. Artists of the Gothic
and Renaissance periods often
painted on panels, at first with tempera,
and later with oils, prepared
beforehand with a layer of gesso.
More recent artists
have painted on panels too. Today, the material
most commonly used as a panel is a manufactured
product with the trade name Masonite, available from hardware
stores, as well as from other sellers of artists' supplies. Works
of graffiti on the sides
of trains, buildings, etc. are referred to as painted on panels
too.
Examples:
Simone Martini (Italian, c. 1284-1344), Madonna from the Annunciation, 1340-1344, tempera on panel, 12 x 8 1/2 inches (30.5 x 21.5 cm), State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. See Gothic and Middle Ages.
Italy, Florence, The Flagellation, mid-14th century, needlework panel with silk and metal thread on linen, 10 1/2 x 16 inches (26.7 x 40.6 cm), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. See textile and trecento.
Sebastiano Mainardi (Italian, 1450- 1513), Madonna and Child with Saint John and Three Angels, c. 1500, tempera on wood panel, 33 3/4 x 33 3/4 inches, Birmingham Museum of Art.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Albrecht Dürer, three self-portrait paintings, the first in tempera on vellum, the latter two in oil on wood panels.
Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606-1669), The Raising of Lazarus, c. 1630, oil on wood panel, 37 7/8 x 32 inches (96.2 x 81.3 cm), Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
Also see easel, incrustation, plaque, screen, and triptych.
