Home › Glossary › Art and print terms › Gesso
Gesso
Gesso is a white paint mixture used to coat rigid surfaces such as wooden panels as a base for painting.
Gesso, schematic. Shapes are drawn for illustration.
What the sources say
| Point | Detail | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional recipe | Animal glue binder with chalk and white pigment | Wikipedia |
| Getty definition | Powdered gypsum or chalk combined with a glue binder | Getty |
| Glue gesso | Brittle and prone to cracking, so it suits rigid supports only | Wikipedia |
| Acrylic gesso | White pigment and a filler with acrylic polymer; a soft, flexible, non-absorbent surface | Wikipedia |
| Uses | A ground for tempera, some oil painting and gilding; also used to model decoration on furniture and picture frames | Getty |
For wall art
Gesso is the base layer under the paint on a panel or primed canvas; the two sources describe different recipes, so read what is in a product before assuming it behaves like the traditional kind.
Where the sources stop
The two sources describe different recipes: Wikipedia lists chalk and white pigment with glue, Getty lists gypsum or chalk with glue. Modern products vary, so we state nothing about a particular brand. The Tate and Britannica pages could not be fetched.
Sources
- Wikipedia: Gesso (fetched 2026-11-12)
- Getty Art and Architecture Thesaurus glossary: gesso (fetched 2026-11-12)
Figures from these pages are paraphrased; each page was fetched and read on 2026-11-12. Where two sources differ, both are shown.