This painting is made with egg tempera paint and gold leaf on panel. Tempera is a fast-drying painting medium that consists of pigments mixed with egg yolk and water. Since tempera dries quickly, it is applied in thin semi-opaque layers. This medium was popular across Europe and can also be seen in the The Adoration of the Kings. While the pigments in this painting have not been tested, one of the pigments often used for the intense blue color behind Christ in this painting is lapis lazuli. Lapis lazuli is a semiprecious blue stone most commonly found in Afghanistan. It was carried across the silk roads to Italy in the Middle Ages.  This painting and its frame also shine with gold leaf, which consists of very thin sheets of hammered gold adhering to the panel surface. In works of art, gold often communicated extravagance and a connection to divinity. Individual artists tended to use different thicknesses of gold leaf; however, each artist remained constant in the thickness they used. This means that the thickness of gold leaf can serve as a calling card for the artist and help identify who painted certain paintings. The gold used to make gold leaf often came from the Ghanaian region of Africa, reminding us that Venetian traders were commercially connected to the Gold Coast region via the trade routes of the Sahara.

Tommy Leimkuhler, College of the Holy Cross, Class of 2025