History of the fresco

History does not specify when exactly lime was introduced as a binder in wall painting. Analyses have shown that the technique of painting on fresh plaster was already known in ancient Greece.
The plaster for frescoes was specially smoothed until it was glossy, and extremely durable (several layers).
The Romans took over this technique from the Greeks, as evidenced by the paintings at Herculaneum and Pompeii.
With the Romans are also known two ways of painting:
on fresh and on dried plaster.
The lower layers of plaster consisted of lime and sand, while the higher layers consisted of lime and crushed marble (up to seven layers).
To protect the plaster from cracking, a small amount of water was added to the lime and sand dough and each layer was firmly rammed.
By heavily layering the plaster, slow drying was achieved, allowing the painting to be prolonged. Therefore, it is difficult to observe the so-called "seams" on Pompeian frescoes, so characteristic of later Renaissance frescoes.
To strengthen the plaster, the Romans added milk and grated brick - more often pumice. It was also not uncommon for them to use pumice as a white.
The palette of pigments used was as follows:

• whites - lime, chalk, paretanium;
• yellows - ochre, aurypigment;
• reds - rubric, synopia, saudarak, minia, burnt ochre;
• blues - armenian azurite, ceruleum;
• greens - copper and green chalk.

In addition to those mentioned, organic dyes were also used, but only on dried plaster.
After the fall of the Roman empire, the fresco technique enjoyed a resurgence in Byzantium. However, it differs significantly from the Roman technique. The layers of plaster were reduced to two, with the lower layer using straw as a filler for the lime dough and the upper layer using bundles or linen fiber.
The lime dough was kept in the air for some time before use so that it would turn partially into calcium carbonate. In this way, it became less prone to cracking.
Such fillers as straw, pitch or flax - used instead of sand and crushed marble - retained moisture for a longer period of time, allowing the entire surface to be plastered at once for painting. Hence, there are no so-called "fresco seams" on Byzantine frescoes.
The thickness of both layers of Byzantine plaster did not exceed 1.5 cm.
The earliest Byzantine plasters (500 - 850) have a rather faint sheen, indicating that they preserved Roman traditions.
Later frescoes have no luster at all.
During the Renaissance, the plasters were still given a sheen. Cennino Cennini reports a mixed method of painting - fresco retouched with tempera - which greatly weakened the luster.
Technological studies of wall painting began relatively recently. They brought, among other things, sensational discoveries concerning precisely the luster given to plaster in antiquity.
Until the end of the 19th century, there was a widespread belief that frescoes had and should have a matte surface.