THE THREE WISE MEN ALTARPIECE

POLYCHROME DECORATION 

Rich, polychrome decoration applied in an extremely skillful fashion that has darkened considerably today. Predominance of burnished gilt, blue azurite, red glazes and decorative motifs and patterns. Matte gold used to pick out fine details on garments and architecture (arches on the niches of the predella), green and gold for the background decoration and clumps of grass painted on gold.

Decorative techniques:

• Punching using individual punches, spheres, half spheres, etc..

• Finely-painted motifs on gold, either with lustrous finish or not, with red glaze (waves) or in combinations of blues, reds and whites.

• Sgraffito on golds, reds, blues, whites and pinks with striped, vegetation, dotted patterns, etc..

• Sgraffito and the application of a finely-pointed paint brush on gold inscriptions.

• Gold continuous applied brocade decoration with a pattern of lattices or trellises with orange filler.

• Ungilt continuous applied brocade, with no lines, reliefs nor contours.