Expulsion from Paradise 1550

Francesco Salviati painted this scene of the Expulsion from Paradise in fresco, a technique which involves painting directly onto wet plaster. Fresco is a demanding medium. The artist must work quickly, applying pigment before the plaster dries, a process known as 'buon fresco.' Areas intended to be painted in a single day are prepared as 'giornata,' sections that reveal a great deal about the artist's working process, and the labor involved in producing such a large-scale piece. Salviati had to consider the fresco’s environment, mixing the color pigments, mostly earth tones, with water, and consider their chemical reaction to lime as the plaster dried. The result is a deeply integrated image with great permanence. The figures appear particularly lifelike, and this is due to the physical demands and expertise required of Salviati. Understanding fresco shows how the hand of the artist is literally embedded within the architecture. In works like this, the traditional divide between the fine and applied arts simply melts away.