How did Early Italian painters combine gold and paint to imitate luxury textiles?

What are the components of the paint used by Early Italian painters, how did they use it, and how has it changed over the centuries?

How were the gold backgrounds of Early Italian paintings created, and how have they changed over time?

Episode 6 - How did painters turn natural materials from animal and mineral sources into the perfect preparation for their panel paintings? A look at Early Italian gesso grounds.

How does a tree become a support for a painting, and how does the memory of its life in the forest affect that support? A look at Early Italian panels.

How did European painters and patrons before about 1400  understand what paintings were and how did that affect how they were made? A look at Early Italian images of the Madonna and Child.

How have modern painters explored what a painting can be?  A look at the work of Frank Stella.

What clues about a painting's materials and history can you find just by looking? A look at Botticelli's Birth of Venus in the Uffizi Galleries, Florence.

What is the physical structure of a painting, and how does that relate to how a painting looks in person? A look at Rembrandt's Aristotle Looking at a Bust of Homer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.