Have a great question that came in response to an article on Dark Yellowing we put out:
“I realize that this is outside the scope of your study, but I am curious to know if the egg tempera medium undergoes yellowing when it is placed in a dark invironment.”
Any knowledge of dark yellowing being an issue in egg tempera? Curious minds want to know.
Sarah Sands
Senior Technical Specialist
Golden Artist Colors
Sarah there has not been a study focusing on the yellowing of egg tempera paints induced by dark aging to my knowledge. Here is hoping that some conservation scientist or graduate student will prove me wrong and comment. There was a study some years back using lead white bound in egg tempera as dosimeters for paintings in certain environments but that is about as close as I think it comes when we are specifically talking about dark aging: “Dosimetry of paintings: determination of the degree of chemical change in museum exposed test paintings (lead white tempera) by thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopy” by Neil S. Cohen et al.
You might check in with Michael Skalka at the NGA as I believe they might have many, many paint draw downs filed away in dark storage. Perhaps some are egg tempera?
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