
While his works are celebrated as some of the most vibrant paintings ever created, many casual art observers rarely give a second thought as to the type of paint he used to create these masterpieces. Vincent Van Gogh is perhaps most famous for being an artist that was tormented with serious mental illness which eventually led to him cutting off his own ear in a manic state. Through the use of oil-based paints, Michelangelo managed to produce artwork that was highly realistic and possessed a much deeper sense of perspective than almost any other painter had done before him. He later lamented his aching back after several months of work on the ceiling, even writing a poem about it. His painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is one that has lasted throughout many centuries in remarkably-well condition thanks to the quality of the paints he used.Īrt historians record that Michelangelo painted on a specialized scaffold instead of lying on his back as some might assume. Michelangelo is believed by art historians and scholars to have worked to create his own pigments from various oil-based concoctions as most of the notable artists from the Renaissance did. He and other painters from the Renaissance period discovered that one could utilize the natural luminosity and plasticity of oil colors to achieve an entirely new level of realism. A painter during the Renaissance era, Michelangelo is best known for his paintings that cover the ceilings of the Sistine Chapel and other notable religious structures of his day. Michelangelo BuonarottiĪmong the most famous artists of all time, Michelangelo Buonarotti is arguably the most talented to ever live. The oil pigments that he created were responsible for his production of such works as the Mona Lisa, Virgin of the Rocks, and many others. In most of his famous masterpieces, da Vinci used his own handmade oil-based paints on a variety of different surfaces that ranged from wet plaster to dry stone wall. Throughout his career, he worked to perfect the type of surface he would paint on, as well as the right kind of oil-based paint he needed to create his works, most of which were painted in the early 1500’s. He was known to experiment with oil painting on various surfaces and one of his most famous works, The Last Supper, was done on two layers of preparatory ground material which sadly began to disintegrate shortly after it was finished. He is the quintessential ‘Renaissance man’ as he was known to be a prolific philosopher and inventor, as well as an incredibly gifted artist.ĭa Vinci was one of the earliest known masters of oil-based painting and many of his most famous works are still considered to be among the greatest paintings in history. Leonardo da Vinci may very well be the most famous artist in human history. Here are 10 of the most famous oil painters in history. Many of the most famous artists in the world were known as masters of oil-based paint and the delicate process that comes with getting their paint to just the right consistency. This new method of producing paint allowed many artists to fuse different pigments together to create highly specific tones, as well as create crisp lines, translucent material, and a new level of realism as it related to light and darkness. The artists during the 15th century were able to create an oil-based paint that was very much like paste in consistency. Oil-based paints were usually made from mixing dried powder pigments with linseed oil.


Using oil painting methods, artists were able to produce works that were of much higher quality than before. Historians have uncovered evidence that oil-based paints were used as early as the 7th century, but they wouldn’t become prevalent throughout the known world until much later in the 1400’s. Oil-based paints were used by some of the most prominent artists in history.
