TEMPERA (It., from Lat. temperare, to proportion, modify), or DISTEMPER. In HS or iginal sense tempera Signifies any fluid medium with which pigments may be mixed; but the term is usually restricted to a glutinous medi um,such as egg, size, or gums, as distinguished from oil; and especially to that in which the yolk of eggs is the chief ingredient. In Italy the egg was diluted with the milky juice of young sprouts of the fig tree; in Germany and the North with vinegar and honey. Tempera dif fers from fresco in that the pigments are not applied to the fresh plaster, hut to the dry sur face; they may be applied to any kind of surface. When tempera paintings have been coated with an oil varnish for purposes of preservation, it is difficult to distinguish them from oils. They are usually clear and brilliant in color, precise in form and outline; the rapid drying of the color preventing any blending of color or out line.
Tempera is probably the most venerable kind of painting, having been used in ancient Egypt, Babylon, and Nineveh, and by the Greeks for interior decoration. It was the favorite medium
throughout the Middle Age, even for wall decora tion. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the increased technical skill led to the more frequent use of fresco, which had to he executed with great rapidity (see FRESCO) ; but tempera was used for the finishing touches, even by such a consummate master of fresco as Michelangelo. It continued to prevail for panel paintings until the perfection of the new oil medium by the Van Eyeks (q.v.) displaced it in the North. In Italy its use lingered until about 1500. nearly all of the greatest paintings of the early Renaissance which are not frescoes being executed in this medium. Tempera painting has been lately revived, with some success, by Baron von Pereira at Stuttgart. A form of tempera in which the colors are mixed with glue is employed in scene painting and house decoration. Consult lIamerton, Graphic Arts (London, 1882) ; Pereira, Lcitfaden fur do Tem pera malerci (Stuttgart, 1803).