GUAZZO. – Guazzo painting is painting that uses a gum as the binder, or vehicle, for the pigment, instead of the animal glues, wax, and egg white employed in tempera.
The process is extremely ancient: it was widely used in Hellenistic painting, at Pompeii, and in the catacombs. Transparent and rapid, the guazzo brushstroke permits easy and evocative effects; moreover, since it is very thin in body, almost like a glaze, it makes it possible to realize the pictorial idea immediately. Today it is used chiefly in scenography, which makes effective use of the rapidity of its technique and its synthetic pictorial vision.