Painting—Tardigrade (Tondo) timelapse
Watch my process as I paint a scene of tardigrades using traditional egg tempera techniques.
Process of painting a scene of tardigrades on a round, pine panel prepared with absorbent acrylic ground. Materials: Handmade egg tempera binder with pigments Sap Green, Zinc White, Cadmium Yellow Light, Indian Yellow, Chromium Oxide Green, Red Ochre, and Cobalt Blue. © Katie Toepp 2021
Traditions of circular artworks
Across the world and across the millennia, many cultures have used the circular form in artistic traditions. For just a few examples, look to the ceremonial masks from Ghana that are sculpted into perfect circles or the circular paintings in some Chinese traditions.
In Europe, the tradition of painting (or sculpting) artwork in a circular form can be traced back to Greek antiquity. A tondo (plural tondi) is a circular painting from the Renaissance, usually depicting mythological or religious imagery. In the Renaissance, tondi decorated large trays and were given as gifts to commemorate childbirth or marriage. A tondo given to celebrate a birth was called a desco da parto.
Sandro Botticelli, Madonna and Child with Eight Angels, c. 1478, tempera on panel, diameter 53 in (135 cm), Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
Botticelli, one of my inspirations for egg tempera painting, painted many tondi for patrons.
The circle in my painting
In my painting, the circular shape of the image carries a double meaning: (1) it refers to the tradition of the Renaissance tondo, and (2) it alludes to the compound microscope's field of view.
In the same way that the traditional tondo celebrates a new life, my small tondo celebrates the mysteries of life in the microscopic universe. Tardigrades, which are known to survive incredibly harsh conditions, fascinate biologists and the average "tardigrade enthusiast" like me. Instead of religious or mythological imagery, my tondo pays reverence to the extraordinary tardigrade.
Algae under a microscope by Gulnazakh (Creative Commons).
From a more scientific perspective, the round shape of the painting mimics the field of view of a compound microscope. As a hobbyist, I have begun to "hunt" for tardigrades and other microorganisms with a small compound microscope I found at a thrift store. However, the scene I painted differs from what you might expect to see on a microscopic slide. A sample is prepared by wetting it on a glass slide and keeping it in place with a coverslip. The coverslip keeps many of the larger bits of the sample immobile while viewing, but it also diminishes the depth of the sample. In my painting, you can see many tardigrades that appear close or far away in space; this view is not physically possible with the way I prepare slides, so I created this imaginary landscape of tardigrades and algae to add to the mystery and ethereal quality of the painting.
Tardigrade (Tondo), egg tempera on panel. 8.5 in diameter. 2020. © Katie Toepp