Grisaille
Grisaille is an enameling technique in which white enamel is painted in layers of varying thickness over a dark enamel ground, usually black or blue, to build a monochrome image with the light and shade of relief sculpture. The name is French, meaning “grayness”.
What is grisaille enamel?
The technique employs a monochrome color scheme with varying thicknesses of superimposed layers of white, creating half-tones on a dark, opaque or transparent background. Lighter areas of the design are thickly painted, while the gray areas are obtained by painting with thinner coats to allow the dark background color to tone the white enamel pigment. This achieves a dramatic effect of light and shade and creates an effect of three-dimensional relief.
History of grisaille
The origins of grisaille lie in painting, where images were executed in shades of gray to create an illusion of sculpture, especially relief; notably, the technique was used by 15th-century Flemish painters. In French, grisaille has also come to mean any painting technique in which translucent oil colors are laid over a monotone underpainting.
Grisaille enamels were developed in the 16th century in France by the Limoges school of enamelers, and among the best-known practitioners were members of the Pénicaud family. Today it does not appear to be in widespread use.
How grisaille is made
- A dark enamel ground, usually black or blue, is fired onto the metal.
- Powdered white vitreous enamel is made into a paste with water, turpentine, oil of lavender or petroleum oil.
- The white is painted over the dark ground: thick for the highlights, thin where the dark ground should show through as gray.
- The layers are fired, and the process is repeated to build up the half-tones.
Key facts
- Name: French, “grayness”.
- Origin as an enamel technique: 16th-century France, the Limoges school; the Pénicaud family.
- Palette: monochrome; white enamel over a black or blue ground.
- Effect: half-tones and the illusion of three-dimensional relief.
- Today: not in widespread use.
Supplies for grisaille
Grisaille is painted work. See our Thompson lead-free painting enamels, Hirosawa painting enamels, W.G. Ball painting enamels and Sunshine painting enamels.