Old Masters Painting Techniques at Tadeusz Piotrowski’s School

Old masters painting techniques are rarely taught today in a way that connects theory with actual practice. In Olsztyn, I had the chance to learn them directly—from someone who lived by them.

In 1981, Tadeusz Piotrowski (pictured) founded a private school focused on traditional techniques. He graduated from the Faculty of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. His school, symbolically named after Cennino Cennini, was dedicated to rediscovering the craft of the old masters.

During the day, I worked in an Art Conservation Studio → my very first job in the field. After hours, I went to Piotrowski’s school, where I deepened my understanding of old masters painting techniques. What I learned in the evening, I would see applied in real artworks the very next morning.

Preparing the Canvas the Old Way

Tadeusz kept a traditional school register — a simple notebook with handwritten names. In it, he designed technical challenges for each of us. One of the first tasks was preparing raw linen canvas before priming. But why?

Straight from the store, linen canvas looks flawless — flat, ironed, and almost glossy in light. But this smooth surface is coated with factory sizing, which prevents the primer from bonding properly to the fibers. To prepare the canvas for painting, this layer must be removed — like peeling off a protective film.

The process is surprisingly simple: the canvas is boiled in water, drained, and rinsed. This is repeated a few times. The first rinse is a shock — the water turns dark, almost like black coffee. With each boil, the water clears, and the canvas changes. Under magnification, its flat surface becomes rougher and more absorbent, allowing the primer to hold.

Sculptures, Incision Marks, and Layers of Time

The old masters used similar logic when preparing wooden sculptures for polychromy. After carving, the surface was too smooth to hold primer. To improve grip, they would lightly score a crosshatch pattern with a blade over every area to be primed.

I applied this same principle when restoring damaged elements — a missing hand of Christ, a chipped angel’s wing. First, I looked for the original incision marks. Then I continued the rhythm of the cuts. When a form was too delicate, I added several thin coats of primer to build it up — millimeter by millimeter — until it regained the correct volume.

Painting and gilding were the final layers — the crowning moment of the process.

A School Where I Learned Old Masters Painting Techniques

This kind of training — half studio, half workshop — made old masters painting techniques real to me. In the conservation studio, terms like ground, underpainting, glazing, or varnish were no longer just textbook words. They were visible, tactile.

Each sculpture or painting brought to the bench became a conversation with the past.

Studying with Tadeusz Piotrowski was like stepping into that conversation — one foot in the present, one in the 15th century.

Final Thoughts

Old masters painting techniques aren’t a matter of nostalgia — they’re still useful today, especially in conservation work. The more I worked with aged surfaces, the more I realized how relevant these old methods are. What I learned at Piotrowski’s school became part of my daily practice — not theory, but a living toolset I still rely on.

The older the artwork, the more clearly I saw the traces of these ancient methods. Cracks in the gesso, brush marks in the imprimatura — everything connected back to what we practiced at the school. These techniques are still alive, if you know how to look.

It was at Tadeusz Piotrowski’s school that I learned →how I made sun-thickened linseed oil using a 15th-century method.