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Alternative title(s):
Hay Wain.[1] — Panel Painting](https://media.arttypes.com/encyclopedia/panel-painting/commons-1-thumb.jpg)
Panel painting is the practice of painting on a rigid wood support rather than canvas or plaster—oak in Northern Europe, poplar or lime in Italy. Planks were glued edge to edge, braced with crossbars against warping, then built up with gesso, a ground of chalk and animal-hide glue sanded to an ivory-smooth surface. Early panels were painted in egg tempera, pigment bound in egg yolk and applied in fine, closely spaced strokes that dry almost instantly and cannot be blended once set, giving the medium its crisp, linear look. From the fifteenth century oil paint spread across panel painting, allowing slower blending and translucent glazing that deepened shadow and color. Many panels were joined as multi-part altarpieces, hinged wings folding shut over a central image for display on ordinary days and opening on feast days. Backgrounds were often gilded with gold leaf, sometimes tooled with punched patterns. The wood support resists cracking but is prone to warping, so panels were cradled or thinned and remain carefully climate-controlled today.
What defines the medium
Preparing the wood support
Planks of oak, poplar, or lime were glued edge to edge and braced on the back with crossbars to resist warping. The front was sealed with layers of gesso, a chalk-and-glue ground, then sanded to a hard, smooth working surface.
Egg tempera handling
Tempera binds pigment in egg yolk, drying within minutes and resisting blending once set. Painters built form through fine, closely spaced hatching strokes layered to model light and shadow, rather than mixing tones directly on the panel.
Gilded and tooled backgrounds
Backgrounds and haloes were often covered in gold leaf applied over a reddish clay bole, then burnished to a mirror shine. Punches and tools were pressed into the gold to add textured, light-catching patterns before painting resumed.
Multi-panel altarpieces
Many panels were joined into polyptychs or diptychs, hinged wings folding shut over a central image. Some were painted on both sides so the closed exterior showed a different, often simpler scene than the opened interior.
Underdrawing and transfer
Compositions were often planned first as a detailed underdrawing on the gessoed panel, sometimes transferred from a separate cartoon by pouncing charcoal dust through pinpricked lines before any paint was applied.
Oil glazing over tempera
As oil paint spread across panel painting, artists layered thin, transparent oil glazes over a tempera or oil underpainting to deepen shadow and enrich color, a slower process than tempera's direct, opaque strokes.
Materials decoder
The toolkit of panel painting
- gesso ground
- → a chalky white primer of gum and chalk sanded to an ivory-smooth surface, giving panel paintings their hard, glass-like base
- egg tempera hatching
- → fine, closely spaced parallel strokes used to model form, since tempera dries too fast to blend directly on the panel
- gold leaf ground
- → thin sheets of beaten gold applied over red clay bole and burnished, forming the luminous backgrounds behind medieval figures
- punched tooling
- → patterned indentations stamped into gilded haloes and borders, catching light with tiny textured facets
- cradled panel back
- → a wood lattice of battens fixed to the reverse of a panel to resist warping and splitting over centuries
- fine surface craquelure
- → a network of hairline cracks across old varnish and paint, formed as wood expands and contracts with humidity
The story
Panel painting descends from Byzantine icon painting, where wood panels coated in gesso and egg tempera carried devotional images from the early centuries CE onward. Medieval European workshops adopted the technique for altarpieces, and by the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries painters such as Duccio and Giotto produced large gold-ground panels for churches across Italy. Northern European painters, including Jan van Eyck in fifteenth-century Flanders, refined oil painting on oak panel, achieving unprecedented detail and luminous glazes. Italian panel painting reached its height in the same century with artists like Botticelli working in tempera and oil on poplar. By the sixteenth century, canvas increasingly replaced panel for large works because it was lighter, cheaper, and easier to transport, though panel painting persisted for smaller devotional works, portraits, and icon traditions that continue in Eastern Orthodox practice today.
Masterpieces of the medium
| Work | Artist | Date | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Ghent Altarpiece | Jan van Eyck | 1432 | a monumental polyptych on oak panel, its inner panels painted in richly glazed oil |
| The Arnolfini Portrait | Jan van Eyck | 1434 | an oil-on-oak double portrait famed for its convex mirror and fine detail |
| Maesta | Duccio di Buoninsegna | 1308-1311 | a large gold-ground tempera altarpiece painted on multiple joined panels |
| The Garden of Earthly Delights | Hieronymus Bosch | c. 1490-1500 | a triptych on oak panel with hinged wings that fold shut over the central scene |
| Primavera | Sandro Botticelli | c. 1480 | tempera on poplar panel depicting a crowded mythological garden scene |
AI-generatedTry the medium
Try panel painting with AI
This example was generated from a prompt like: “A devotional panel painting on gessoed oak wood, egg tempera hatching strokes, gilded gold-leaf background with tooled halo patterns, a robed figure in crisp linear detail, fine craquelure across the aged surface.”
Open the Panel Painting Style generator →The medium today
Panel painting survives today mainly through Eastern Orthodox icon painting, where egg tempera on gessoed wood panels is still produced following centuries-old workshop methods. Conservators specialize in stabilizing historic panels against warping and paint loss, using climate-controlled display cases in museums. Some contemporary painters choose wood panel over canvas for its rigid, smooth surface, especially for detailed or small-scale work, and manufacturers now sell pre-primed birch or MDF panels as a stable, affordable alternative to traditional hand-built supports.
Compose your own
Starting in panel painting means choosing a rigid support—cradled birch plywood, MDF, or a traditional gessoed hardwood panel are all available pre-primed from art suppliers. Apply several thin coats of acrylic or traditional gesso, sanding lightly between layers for a smooth surface. Beginners often start with an underdrawing in pencil or diluted paint before working in acrylic, oil, or egg tempera made by mixing dry pigment with egg yolk and water. Egg tempera demands quick, hatched strokes since it dries almost instantly and cannot be blended; oil allows slower, layered glazing. Keep panels flat and away from humidity swings while painting and drying, since wood moves more than canvas and can crack a finished surface.
Frequently asked questions
Why did painters use wood panels before switching to canvas?
Wood provided a rigid, smooth surface ideal for fine detail and gold leaf work, and it was the standard support before canvas became widely available. Canvas eventually took over for large works because it was lighter and cheaper to transport.
What is the difference between egg tempera and oil on panel?
Egg tempera dries almost instantly and is applied in fine hatched strokes that cannot be blended, giving a crisp, linear look. Oil paint dries slowly, allowing painters to blend colors directly and build translucent glazes for softer, deeper shadow.
Why do old panel paintings sometimes crack or warp?
Wood expands and contracts with humidity far more than canvas, and centuries of environmental change can cause splitting, warping, or a fine network of cracks in the paint and varnish layers, which is why panels require careful climate control.
Are panel paintings still made today?
Yes—Eastern Orthodox icon painters continue to use egg tempera on gessoed wood panels following traditional methods, and some contemporary painters choose pre-primed wood panels over canvas for detailed or small-scale work.