Success of the technique of encaustic painting in the eighteenth century: Vincenzo Requeño’s "Saggi sul ristabilimento dell’antica arte de’ greci e romani pittori"

Abstract

Accurate in describing the technique of encaustic painting, since their first publication (1784), I Saggi sul ristabilimento dell’antica arte de’ greci e romani pittori had an extraordinary success. In the two volumes the author, Vicente Requeño y Vives, had traced the history of the ancient technique of encaustic painting until his day. In addition, with the help of contemporary artists, Requeño proposed an improved technique of encaustic painting. All this earned him public recognition and the title of “Accademico Clementino” (Accademia di Bologna). This essay traces the ‘success’ in Italy of the Saggi, by inserting it into the category of encyclopedic volumes in the late eighteenth century in Europe.