Two Paints
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Harvesters
1565
Oil on oak, 119 × 162 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The same oil binder carries paint thin enough to see through and thick enough to cover, side by side. Thin see-through layers like these are glazes, covered in Color Theory.
- Where the paint is thinnest, the drawing underneath is not fully covered.
- Thicker, opaque strokes on top describe the details.
- The Met's essay on oil in the Low Countries calls this a quicker, more economical way of painting than earlier work.
Concepts
Image: The Met Open Access · Public domain (Met Open Access)