In painting, the term fresco (pl. frescoes) comes from the Italianphrasebuon fresco, ("really fresh") a technical term in opposition to in secco ("on dry surface"). True, or buon fresco, technique consists of painting in pigment in a water medium on wet or fresh lime mortar or plaster. In secco painting is done on dry plaster and with the pigments in a binding medium, like egg (biology). The difference between the two techniques is that the wet plaster as it dries absorbs the pigment and the painting becomes part of the wall surface rather than resting on top of it. This makes a very durable work of art; if the wall is destroyed the painting can often be reassembled because of the size of the plaster parts.
Because of the need to work on freshly laid plaster, careful study of the wall surface can reveal the area worked on in one day. In Renaissance Italy this was commonly called a giornata or a "daily amount." These divisions are perceptible with mild magnification (or even the naked eye if the plastering technique was not good). Andrea Palladio, the famous Italian architect of the 16th century, built many mansions with plain exteriors and stunning interiors filled with frescoes.
Painters in fresco will often add details later in secco.
Egyptian wall paintings in tombs are usually in secco, while the Roman wall paintings at Pompeii and Herculaneum are in fresco.
Fresco from Ajanta, c 200 BCE - 600 CE fresco (plural frescoes) is a term for several related painting types.
In painting a fresco, the surface of a plastered wall is divided into areas roughly corresponding to the contours of the figures or the landscape, generally drawn on a rough underlayer of plaster, called the arriccio.
Boyana Church, on the outskirts of Sofia, frescoes from 1259.
Frescopainting reached its peak in the 16th century, with the supreme achievements of Raphael in the Vatican Palace and with The Last Judgement and Genesis frescoes by Michelangelo in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.
Frescopainting was widely practised in Europe in the 18th century, with nobility of style replaced by elegance and illusionistic effects.
Painting on plaster walls was also an ancient art in China; examples dating from the 5th century onwards, and depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha, survive in the Cave of the Thousand Buddhas, at Tun-huang in north-western Kansu.
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