Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 10

Fred Wessel
"Giana (Fibonacci Revisited)" (2019) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting

2019

$9,000
£6,911.61
€7,920.62
CA$12,669.78
A$14,192.95
CHF 7,382.10
MX$173,124.70
NOK 93,983.92
SEK 88,620.14
DKK 59,117.36

About the Item

Fred Wessel's "Giana (Fibonacci Revisted)" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2019, this piece depicts a young woman, looking inquisitively over her shoulder. The gold leaf background contains many intricate designs, relating to sacred geometry and the visual representation of the Fibonacci sequence. A 'stone' band is painted across the bottom of the piece, containing intricate carvings as well. This piece is encased in a beautiful decorative dark wood frame. About the artist: A two week trip that I took to Italy in 1984, had a profound and prolonged influence on my work. At that time I was involved in making a series of aquarium images. I went to Italy to view the art of the Renaissance, for it is my belief that all visual artists, especially realists, should experience and study this work firsthand. I could not have predicted the dramatic impact, both direct and indirect, that this journey of discovery would have on my ensuing work. I believe that in our search for novelty in post-modernist art making, we often lose touch with certain basics: beauty, grace, harmony and visual poetry are nowadays rarely considered important criteria in evaluating contemporary works of art. Since the Bauhaus, the term ‘precious’ has had a negative connotation in art schools. It was a term used derisively in the 1960’s to describe work that did not adhere to the fashionably pared down kernels of conceptualism or minimalism. But after seeing the beauty, sensitivity, harmony—the ‘preciousness’—of Italian Renaissance painting—especially the early Renaissance work of artists such as Fra Angelico, Duccio and Simone Martini—I realize that, as artists, we may have abandoned too much. The ever–changing inner light that radiates from gold leaf used judiciously on the surface of a painting, and the use of pockets of rich, intense colors that illuminate the picture’s surface impressed me deeply. It was ‘preciousness’ elevated to grand heights: semi–precious gems such as lapis lazuli, malachite, azurite, etc., were ground up, mixed with egg yolk and applied as paint pigments, producing dazzling, breathtaking colors! The surface of these colors forms a texture that sparkles and reflects light much like gold does, but in ways that are much more subtle than gold. I look to the early Renaissance as a source of inspiration that I can use along with contemporary content and image making. I look to the Renaissance as the artists of that time looked back to early Greek and Roman art—not as a reactionary but as one who rediscovers and reapplies important but forgotten visual stimuli.

More From This Seller

View All
"Modesty" (2016) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "Modesty" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2016, this piece depicts a young woman in a simple patterned gown, looking down and embracing hers...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"Iris (Revisited)" (2014) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting on Gold Leaf
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "Iris (Revisted)" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2014, this piece depicts a young woman, looking inquisitively over her shoulder. The gold ...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"The Constellation Delphinus" (2020) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Delphinus" is an egg tempera painting with gold and silver leaf created in 2019 depicting a female with a gold leaf background. About the artist: ...
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Silver, Gold Leaf

"The Constellation Cancer" (2015) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera/Gold Leaf Painting
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Cancer" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2015, this piece depicts a young woman looking forward at the viewer mysteriously...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"The Constellation Crater" (2019) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera/Gold Leaf Painting
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "The Constellation Crater" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2015, this piece depicts a young woman, holding a crystal chalice and sitting upr...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"Sagittarius Study (Jeanne D'Arc)" (2016) By Fred Wessel, Egg Tempera Painting
By Fred Wessel
Located in Denver, CO
Fred Wessel's "Sagittarius Study (Jeanne D'Arc)" is a stunning egg tempera painting on gold leaf. Created in 2018, this piece depicts a young woman, Joan of Arc, looking forward with...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

You May Also Like

Spring- 21st Century Contemporary
By Pam Hawkes
Located in Nuenen, Noord Brabant
This painting is made by Pam Hawkes. On the painting you see the portrait of a woman This British artist is new to the Netherlands, her work is now a household name in the rest of ...
Category

2010s Contemporary Portrait Paintings

Materials

Gold Leaf

"Liusana" Figurative Portrait Oil Painting 59" x 47" inch by Dmitriy Krestniy
By Dmitriy Krestniy
Located in Culver City, CA
"Liusana" Figurative Portrait Oil Painting 59" x 47" inch by Dmitriy Krestniy ATTENTION: Painting ships rolled in a tube. A look through Dmitriy’s d...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Tempest, Oil, ARC Salon Finalist, Portrait Society of America, Florence, Italy
By Matthew James Collins
Located in Houston, TX
Tempest was painted over several days in the artist studio in Florence, Italy. The painting measures 25 x 21 with a handmade frame from Italy. This is oil on a linen panel which mo...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

"Luster" (2024) Oil Painting by Karen Offutt, Female Portrait
By Karen Offutt
Located in Denver, CO
Karen Offutt's (US based) "Luster" is an original, handmade oil painting that depicts a portrait of a woman on an abstracted background. The painting is framed, with overall dimensio...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil, Panel

Twilight, Oil Painting
By Beth Sistrunk
Located in Denver, CO
Beth Sistrunk's "Twilight" is an oil on panel featuring a model at twilight. About the artist: Beth's interests in painting the figure, women’s fashion, flowers, landscape photogra...
Category

2010s Realist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Yearning, oil painting, Classical Realism, Norweigan Artist, Florence Academy
Located in Houston, TX
Yearning is painted in the style of Classical Realism in Florence Italy. Yearning was mastered in the Realist style while studying at The Florence A...
Category

2010s Realist Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil