Word: beeswax
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Berlin-born Karl Zerbe, who dislikes oils, has painted with egg yolk, casein, fig milk, wax soap, Duco auto enamel and hot beeswax. His wax technique-a revival of the ancient encaustic method in which colors are mixed with hot wax and afterwards cooked into the canvas-brought him critical acclaim. But in 1949, things began to go wrong. Zerbe started suffering from asthma, found that he was allergic to beeswax...
...experts began with a painstaking study of the painting's twelve panels with microscope and X-ray photographs. Then they impregnated the surface with beeswax, and flattened out blisters with warmed spatulas. With mild solvents, they removed centuries of varnish (sometimes twelve layers deep) and retouchings, and they scrupulously avoided doing any retouching of their...