Frescoes from the Baroque period - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1968 - 2 Shilling

This series of special stamps depicting Baroque frescoes is dedicated to the two masters of Austrian mural painting who succeeded in their work in developing themselves beyond the formative influence of Italian models. The master of the monumental fresco, Paul Troger, and his pupil Franz Anton Maulpertsch, who was the only one who was even more inventive in its creative power, corresponded to the artistic medium of mural painting, which required swift and sure work. The luminosity of the colors, which is achieved with pure fresco technique, seemed to the Austrian masters the necessary prerequisite for the design of their artistic idea. Troger and Maulpertsch proved the mastery of this technique, which they varied according to their expressiveness. The basis of the painting developed in Italy in wet lime plaster: The plaster is applied in two layers, the lower rough plaster is covered by the bright fine plaster, the fine sand and lime in equal parts covered. On this still wet layer is worked, with lime water serves as a binder. The paint layer therefore immediately enters into an insoluble bond with the ground and dries up with it. The third stamp shows Paul Troger's fresco by Melk Abbey.