page_title: Fresco
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Fresco / History
caption_attribution_description: English: The Investiture of Zimri-Lim, from the Amorite palace at Mari. Français&#160;: L'investiture de Zimri-Lim provenant du palais royal (époque amorrite) de Mari.
context_page_description: Fresco is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting becomes an integral part of the wall. The word fresco is derived from the Italian adjective fresco meaning "fresh", and may thus be contrasted with fresco-secco or secco mural painting techniques, which are applied to dried plaster, to supplement painting in fresco. The fresco technique has been employed since antiquity and is closely associated with Italian Renaissance painting.
caption: Investiture of Zimri-Lim, Syria, fresco painted c. 1770 BCE
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D300S", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "DxO Optics Pro 8.0.1 build 56", "Image DateTime": "2012:11:18 18:12:28", "Image Artist": "Marie-Lan Nguyen", "Image Copyright": "Creative Commons Attribution", "Image ExifOffset": "372", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "9086", "Image DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:18 18:12:28", "Image Tag 0x9216": "[1, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "9218", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8892", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/20", "EXIF FNumber": "4", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Manual", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1600", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:11:18 18:12:28", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:11:18 18:12:28", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "540241/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF SubjectDistance": "141/100", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Spot", "EXIF LightSource": "Tungsten (incandescent light)", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "17", "EXIF SubSecTime": "33", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "33", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "33", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "3807", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2538", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Manual Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "25", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}