Explore every episode of the podcast What Is a Painting?

Where is the Just Judges panel of the Ghent Altarpiece?

What happened to the Ghent Altarpiece between 1566 and 1934?

How do modern and contemporary paintings reflect some of the physical aspects of Early Italian paintings? Some thoughts about engaged frames and the use of gold leaf.

How did Early Italian painters combine gold and paint to imitate luxury textiles?

What are the components of the paint used by Early Italian painters, how did they use it, and how has it changed over the centuries?

How were the gold backgrounds of Early Italian paintings created, and how have they changed over time?

Episode 6 - How did painters turn natural materials from animal and mineral sources into the perfect preparation for their panel paintings? A look at Early Italian gesso grounds.

How does a tree become a support for a painting, and how does the memory of its life in the forest affect that support? A look at Early Italian panels.

How did European painters and patrons before about 1400  understand what paintings were and how did that affect how they were made? A look at Early Italian images of the Madonna and Child.

How have modern painters explored what a painting can be?  A look at the work of Frank Stella.

What clues about a painting's materials and history can you find just by looking? A look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Galleries, Florence.

What is the physical structure of a painting, and how does that relate to how a painting looks in person? A look at Rembrandt's Aristotle Looking at a Bust of Homer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

What is the Ghent Altarpiece, how was it created, and what changes did it undergo in the first 125 years of its existence? 

How did Early Netherlandish painters use different materials to create different kinds of landscapes, and how have those paintings changed over time?

How does the use of different media affect the look of paint?

How were the underdrawings of Early Netherlandish paintings made and how can we see them?

Why are the oak panels of Early Netherlandish paintings good supports, and what can they tell us? 

How do Early Netherlandish paintings differ from Early Italian paintings - in how they look, what they mean, and what they are?

What's the story of the Cimabue Crucifix at Santa Croce, Florence?  From 1966 until now.

What's the story of the Cimabue Crucifix at Santa Croce, Florence?  From the thirteenth century until 1966.

What's the story of the painting of the Just Judges panel now on display in Ghent?

What is the canvas of a canvas painting, and why and how was it used?

How does paint made from animal glue and different blue pigments work, look, and age?

How have natural aqueous media been used over the centuries, including by one of the most famous artists of the 20th century?

What can be done to reinforce a degraded canvas support of a painting, and how can that change that painting's look?

How did Venetian painters of the 16th century use canvas supports and oil medium to create a new kind of painting?

How did 16th century Venetian painters vary their ground layers to create different effects?