Knowra Gesso Gesso Gesso is an absorbent ground made from chalk or gypsum and a binder, applied to a surface before painting. It creates a smooth, often white layer that helps paint adhere.
Calcium carbonate : A chemical compound, CaCO₃, found in chalk and limestone and used as a white pigment and filler. Chalk-based gesso uses this mineral as its principal solid ingredient.
Cennino Cennini : A late medieval Italian painter and author of Il libro dell’arte, a handbook of artistic materials and techniques. His account records workshop methods for preparing panels with gesso.
Canvas : A strong woven fabric, usually linen or cotton, used as a support for painting. Gesso can prepare canvas for paint, though flexible supports require compatible grounds.
Primer : A preparatory coating applied to a surface to improve the performance of a later coating. Gesso is one specialized kind of preparatory ground, while primers include many other formulations.
Gypsum : A soft sulfate mineral, CaSO₄·2H₂O, used in plaster and as a source of ground material. Gypsum-based grounds rely on this mineral instead of chalk.
Il libro dell’arte : A late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century Italian handbook on painting materials and workshop practice by Cennino Cennini. It describes the layered preparation of wooden supports for painting.
Wood panel : A flat wooden board used as a support for painting. Traditional gesso is especially suited to rigid wooden panels.
Oil ground : A painting ground whose binder is oil, often producing a less absorbent surface than traditional gesso. It offers a different surface response from chalk- or gypsum-based gesso.
Animal glue : An adhesive made by extracting collagen from animal tissues, commonly used in traditional painting materials. Traditional gesso uses it to bind mineral particles and attach the ground to its support.
Tempera : A painting medium in which pigment is bound with an emulsion, commonly egg yolk and water. Gesso grounds were standard under tempera in medieval and Renaissance panel painting.
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