SINOPIE

Sinopia, a dark reddish-brown pigment, was widely used in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages for painting and for drawing on walls when producing frescoes. The term is used both for the pigment and for the preparatory drawings themselves, sinopie, which we sometimes see when frescoes are stripped from walls for transfer onto canvas. See Learn More for Cennino Cennini’s description of the technique.