Caravaggio's Painting Materials and Technique 

Caravaggio, the greatest!! Muchas gracias Luis por tu trabajo e investigación

Gracias por compartir! Caravaggio es uno de mis pintores favoritos. Cuanta inspiración

Walnut oil seems to have been the main oil for Italian Renaissance painters, whereas the main oil for nothern Renaissance painters seems to have been linseed oil. Renaissance painters seem to also have used dryed walnut oil and linseed oils. Anyway, I am currently puzzled with the siccativation of walnut oil. In Doerner I learned that lead, zinc, cobalt and manganese pigments have siccative properties and for lead and cobalt I noticed it in tube paints used, although they were not made with walnut oil. It seems Luis used minium, i.e. burned lead white (cerussa usta) for siccativating the walnut oil. This minium I cannot buy from Kremer, as I am not professional artist or restaurator and I have no experiance yet with calcining or better burning my home manufactured lead white. Although I have neither a question to Luis, nor have an answer how to siccativate my walnut oil (I bought a liter bottle of refined but not siccativated walnut oil from Kremer). Oh, wait a minute, I have a question to Luis: "Luis, would it be possible to dry or partially dry walnut oil to gain siccative properties? Thanks for this informative video!

Perhaps you misunderstood my pronunciation of Walnut for Almond oil?

Did Caravaggio use only black oil as a medium?

What thinning medium did Leonardo da Vinci use? Was it laverder spike oil? What's your view on egg glare and calsitesunoil?

How would they make they’re paint brushes. Could I do it with the limited materials I have on hand?

Caravaggio did not use almond oil. Almond oil is not a siccative oil