Scientists gain insights into Old Master artists’ use of egg in oil paintings

Detail from Sandro Botticelli’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ, one of the works found to feature the use of egg within oil paint. Photograph: Prisma Archivo/Alamy

It pays to go to work on an egg when painting with oils, researchers have found, as the addition of yolk can prevent wrinkling, yellowing and problems with humidity.

The use of egg as a binding medium for pigments, a form of paint known as egg tempera, has a long history, turning up in works including the mural paintings of the Palace of Nestor in Pylos, dating to 1200BC.