How did the painted furniture of the Saxons become a tradition?

When referring to painted furniture as part of the intangible heritage of the Transylvanian Saxons, the following aspect must be taken into account: Raw materials used (wood, paints, pigments and binders)

Since the ancient times, people have used the natural resources of the local environment, which were abundant and economically accessible. As Romania is a Carpathian country, forests occupied large areas, favouring the development of a wood culture, a tradition of wood processing. This tradition of woodworking is due to the fact that generations of woodworkers have accumulated knowledge about the properties of wood, empirical know-how and skills that have helped them to specialize their craft activities.

In the Carpathian area, wood was and still is the only material used in the production of furniture. The Saxons used both hardwoods and softwoods in the production of painted furniture, the most processed woods being oak, walnut, beech, poplar, cherry, fir, spruce and pine. The process of selecting the wood species also belongs to the category of empirical knowledge, as each type of wood requires a specific treatment depending on the processing technique, the destination and the type of furniture to be made. Being a manufacturing process, wood was considered a more important factor than the decoration technique. A study by art historian Torsten Gebhard has highlighted the importance of the raw material in the realisation of an artistic craft.

In order to increase the quality of products made from knotty softwood and to protect it against rapid degradation, the Saxons used the method of painting and decorating objects by painting (Olaru, 2014). Painting does not only have the role of protecting an object and hiding wood imperfections, it also has a decorative, aesthetic role (Liu, Q.; Gao, D.; Xu, W., 2021; Hoadley, R.B, 1994). The variability of wooden support properties, such as swelling and shrinking, superficial properties depending on the species, sectioning mode and other factors (Cismaru, 2003).

Photo 1: Paints

Pigments used in wood decoration are not to be neglected. These have the role of protecting the wood against light. Regarding the nature of the pigments, a series of chemical analyses carried out on the collection of painted slabs from Bradeni (15th century) showed that they were obtained from organic and mineral materials available to the craftsman: ox blood, coloured earths, conifer soot, charcoal in mixtures with organic binders (Gerdi Maierbacher, 2012).

The Bradeni chests had been the subject of extensive research in 2008-2009, which showed that diatomite was used in the priming of the chests. The colour repertoire of almost all the Brădeni chests is limited to red, orange/yellow, white and black. Gypsum and diatomite were used for the white in the painting, the black pigment consisted of charcoal, the yellow was identified as gold-pigment (arsen-trisulphite) mixed with yellow ochre. The red can be a mixture of red ochre, and mixed with yellow ochre obtained from hematite and quartz. The protective layer of the painting is a varnish - resin oil (Gerdi Maierbacher, 2012).

The older varnishes used in wood painting were produced by the craftsman in his workshop. Lime, kaolin, chalk and alabaster were used in various combinations in the painting process. These minerals defined the colour. Thus, they were obtained by various processes of burning powders from light ochre to English red. Green colour was obtained by quenching stones containing copper, while limestone, chalk and kaolin in combination with shell sand gave a brilliant white colour (Zelgy, T, 1980). By the 17th century we find mostly matt tones, because the necessary paints were easier to obtain. Ochre, white, brown, reddish-brown and olive-green compositions are not only specific to Transylvanian furniture painting of this century, but appear everywhere at the beginning of this artistic craft. Some very popular colours in ceramic decoration such as cobalt blue were introduced by the Sasi in furniture painting especially in the colouring of the background (Capesius, R., 1974).

However, little is known about how the paints used by the Saxons in the past were prepared, and the range of colours was not very rich. According to information gathered from a Saxon folk craftsman, Johann Risch of Beia, five types of primer were used - lime primer, glued primer, casein primer, egg primer with oil and oil primer. The analysis of the Bradeni lacquers in Sibiu county showed that the ornaments drawn and painted on white primer initially required pre-gluing to prevent the paint from penetrating too deeply into the texture of the soft wood. Sour or mare's milk was used as a binder in the composition of the casein primer. An old recipe from Beia, Brasov county, also contains a mixture of sour milk, oil and oxides with a little vinegar in the composition of paints. Cold lime was obtained until the 19th century from a mixture of sour milk and slaked lime as a binder to make paints. Wooden pieces painted with cold glue were noted for their great durability, the paint had a thick layer and was applied with the finger (Kós, K.,1972) Bone glue produced from fur, hides and hooves was also used but the manufacturing process was more difficult and labour intensive (Kós, K, 1976 ).

Binders were used in the production of paints, they are viscous and colourless liquids with adhesive properties when drying and hardening. The first binders used were fats, blood, resins or plant juices.

Once the painting is done, the main concern is to keep it for a longer period of time and make it durable. For this purpose the painted surface was covered or impregnated with different substances, called firnis (Kós, K, 1972 ). Károly Kós mentions that a firnis was made of linseed oil and lead sugar, to which a firnis of resin and turpentine was later added. Beeswax was sometimes added to this mixture, and since the 18th century gum arabic, a valuable resin that improved the quality of the firnis, was used (Kós, K., 1972).

References

Cismaru M (2003) Fizica lemnului şi a materialelor pe bază de lemn. Editura Universităţii Transilvania, Braşov. García Ramos R, Ruiz de Arcaute Martínez E (2001) La escultura policromada. Criterios de intervención y técnicas de estudio. Arbor: ciencia, pensamiento y cultura 169:645-676.

Hoadley, R.B. Wood as a Physical Surface for Paint Application. In Painted Wood: History and Conservation, Proceedings of the Symposium Organized by the Wooden Artifacts Group of the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works and the Foundation of the AIC, Williamsburg, VA, USA, 11–14 November 1994; Dorge, V., Howlett, F.C., Eds.; The Getty Conservation Institute: Los Angeles, CA, USA, 1994; pp. 2–16.

Kós, Károly, A vargyasi festétt bútor. Kolozsvár 1972

Liu et all, Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Braşov Series II: Forestry • Wood Industry • Agricultural Food Engineering • Vol. 12 (61) No. 1 – 2019 https://doi.org/10.31926/but.fwiafe.2019.12.61.1.6

Liu, Q.; Gao, D.; Xu, W. Effect of Paint Process on the Performance of Modified Poplar Wood Antique. Coatings 2021, 11, 1174. [CrossRef]