What Is a Painting?
Episodes
Episode 28 - The Tears of Trees
09 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How did painters use natural resins to varnish their paintings?
Episode 27 - Higher Ground
10 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did 16th century Venetian painters vary their ground layers to create different effects?
Episode 26 - Particular Magic
25 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did Venetian painters of the 16th century use canvas supports and oil medium to create a new kind of painting?
Episode 25 - A Big Cloth
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How have natural aqueous media been used over the centuries, including by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century?
Episode 24 - Reinforcements
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What can be done to reinforce a degraded canvas support of a painting, and how can that change that painting's look?
Episode 23 - Glue and Blues
03 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How does paint made from animal glue and different blue pigments work, look, and age?
Episode 22 - A Little Cloth
24 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is the canvas of a canvas painting, and why and how was it used?
Episode 21 - A Copy of a Copy: The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 4
20 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What's the story of the painting of the Just Judges panel now on display in Ghent?
Episode 20 - A Missing Piece: The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 3
23 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Where is the Just Judges panel of the Ghent Altarpiece?
Episode 19 - The Sum of Many Parts: The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 2
29 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What happened to the Ghent Altarpiece between 1566 and 1934?
Episode 18 - A Complex Whole: The Ghent Altarpiece, Part 1
26 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
What is the Ghent Altarpiece, how was it created, and what changes did it undergo in the first 125 years of its existence?Â
Episode 17 - A Changing Landscape
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How did Early Netherlandish painters use different materials to create different kinds of landscapes, and how have those paintings changed over time?
Episode 16 - Translucent Color
14 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How does the use of different media affect the look of paint?
Episode 15 - An Elaborated Sketch
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How were the underdrawings of Early Netherlandish paintings made and how can we see them?
Episode 14 - More Memories of the Forest
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why are the oak panels of Early Netherlandish paintings good supports, and what can they tell us?Â
Episode 13 - A Dark Mirror
03 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do Early Netherlandish paintings differ from Early Italian paintings - in how they look, what they mean, and what they are?
Episode 12 - A Survivor of the Flood, Part 2
02 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What's the story of the Cimabue Crucifix at Santa Croce, Florence? From 1966 until now.
Episode 11 - A Survivor of the Flood, Part 1
06 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What's the story of the Cimabue Crucifix at Santa Croce, Florence? From the thirteenth century until 1966.
Episode 10 - New Again
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How do modern and contemporary paintings reflect some of the physical aspects of Early Italian paintings? Some thoughts about engaged frames and the u...
Episode 9 - An Imitation of Luxury
05 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How did Early Italian painters combine gold and paint to imitate luxury textiles?
Episode 8 - Egg and Bright Earth
20 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are the components of the paint used by Early Italian painters, how did they use it, and how has it changed over the centuries?
Episode 7 - Half-Solidified Sunlight
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How were the gold backgrounds of Early Italian paintings created, and how have they changed over time?
Episode 6 - Sinew and Stone
27 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 6 - How did painters turn natural materials from animal and mineral sources into the perfect preparation for their panel paintings? A look at ...
Episode 5 - Memories of the Forest
20 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How does a tree become a support for a painting, and how does the memory of its life in the forest affect that support? A look at Early Italian panels...
Episode 4 - A Vision of Eternity
22 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How did European painters and patrons before about 1400Â understand what paintings were and how did that affect how they were made? A look at Early I...
Episode 3 - A Surface with Paint on It
30 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How have modern painters explored what a painting can be? A look at the work of Frank Stella.
Episode 2 - A Mystery Novel
29 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What clues about a painting's materials and history can you find just by looking? A look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Galler...
Episode 1 - A Three Dimensional Object
25 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What is the physical structure of a painting, and how does that relate to how a painting looks in person? A look at Rembrandt's Aristotle Looking...