Original artwork description:

This is a framed miniature painting in hand-made egg tempera paint on a gold ground.

The peacock is minimally painted to allow the gold to glow through the translucent paint in places, imitating the sheen of a peacock's feathers. The blue shades into green, with black shadows and white highlights. The gold background has been embellished with punchmarks, so that the surface of the painting glints as the light changes.

The painting is on an oak panel, prepared with gesso and red bole and then water gilded with 23 karat gold leaf. It has a fixed, white-painted frame, which takes the dimensions to 12cm x 12cm and is signed and dated on the reverse, with a d-ring attached so that it is ready to hang (see photographs).

Materials used:

oak panel, gesso, red bole, gold leaf, pigments, egg yolk tempera

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