Verdaccio is a greenish underpainting used to create lifelike flesh tones. Learn how Renaissance painters from Giotto to Michelangelo used green earth beneath warm skin colors.
Walk through the National Gallery in London and look at Michelangelo's The Manchester Madonna (c. 1497). The painting is unfinished, and the figures on the left side are bare greenish underpainting. There is no pink flesh, no warm color, no life. Just a cool, gray-green rendering of the human form. This is verdaccio, the green underpainting that Renaissance painters used as the foundation for flesh tones. It looks wrong until you understand the principle: to paint warm skin, you start with cool green. The green beneath the reds and yellows of the surface creates a optical tension that makes flesh look alive rather than flat and pink.
Verdaccio is a greenish or gray-green underpainting used to establish tonal values and create a foundation for flesh tones in painting. The term derives from the Italian "verde," meaning green. The underpainting is typically made with green earth pigment (terre verte), lead white, and sometimes ochres or black. It is applied as a monochromatic layer that defines the light and shadow structure of the figure before warmer colors are layered on top. The technique was a standard practice in fresco and panel painting from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance.
This entry covers how verdaccio works, its history, which painters used it, and why some Renaissance saints now look green.
The principle behind verdaccio is complementary color interaction. Green is the complementary color of red. When a thin, translucent layer of warm pink or red paint is applied over a green underpainting, the green shows through and modifies the warm color. The result is a flesh tone that has cool shadows and warm highlights, mimicking the way real skin has warm surface color over cooler subsurface tissue and veins. The green underpainting provides the cool halftones that temper the warm tones of red and yellow ochre applied on top.
The technique depends on the transparency of the paint medium. In egg tempera, the traditional medium for panel painting before oil, each layer is semi-transparent. The green underpainting does not get buried. It shows through the warm glazes applied on top, and the eye mixes the cool green beneath with the warm red and yellow above. This optical mixing produces a flesh tone that has depth and life. An opaque medium would simply cover the green and the effect would vanish.
The Material Memory Studio in Seoul, which researches historical painting techniques, explains that "verdaccio depends entirely on the semi-transparency of egg tempera. An opaque medium, casein, distemper, opaque acrylic, would simply cover the green and the effect would vanish. The technique is not decorative. It is a direct exploitation of the binder's inherent translucence." Read more at Material Memory Studio.
Verdaccio was also used in fresco painting. In fresco, the green earth underpainting defines tonal values that form a complete monochromatic underpainting. The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is a notable example, where the verdaccio layer is left visible on architectural details in the composition, without any additional color layers. In some frescoes, architectural details are deliberately left in verdaccio as a decorative choice.
Verdaccio has roots in Byzantine painting, which preserved Roman traditions of underpainting throughout the medieval period. Byzantine painters used green earth in flesh underpaintings, and Italian painters of the early Renaissance adopted the practice from them. Cimabue, Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, and Correggio all used green earth underpainting as a base for flesh tones.
The Italian painter Cennino Cennini described green earth (terre verte) in his treatise Il Libro dell'Arte (c. 1400), recommending it for numerous applications including flesh underpainting, draperies, landscapes, and fresco painting. Cennini's treatise is the primary written source for the verdaccio technique, and it confirms that the practice was well established by the late 14th century.
The pigment most commonly used for verdaccio is green earth, also known as terre verte. Green earth is a clay mineral, specifically celadonite and glauconite, found in abundance near Verona in Italy and on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. The Verona source was mined until 1940, giving rise to the pigment's secondary name, "Verona green." Green earth is a muted, transparent, and relatively weak pigment, which makes it ideal for underpainting because it does not overpower the colors applied on top.
Natural Pigments, a manufacturer of historical painting materials, notes that "green earth pigments have historically been used not as dominant colors but as structural colors within a painting. Artists employed them to stabilize flesh tones, create atmospheric landscape passages, and establish subtle underpaintings before applying warmer colors." Technical analysis of historical paintings has repeatedly identified green earth pigments in flesh shadows, underpaintings, and tonal mixtures. Read more at Natural Pigments.
Michelangelo's The Virgin and Child with Saint John and Angels, known as The Manchester Madonna (c. 1497, National Gallery, London), is the most famous visible example of verdaccio. The unfinished figures on the left side show the green earth underpainting that Michelangelo used as the foundation for flesh tones. The Sistine Chapel ceiling (1508-1512) also uses verdaccio, visible on the architectural details where no additional color was applied.
Giotto used green earth underpainting in his frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua (c. 1305). The flesh tones in these frescoes are built on a verdaccio foundation, with warm pinks and reds applied over the green base. The technique gives his figures a naturalism that was revolutionary in the early 14th century.
Fra Angelico used verdaccio in his frescoes at the Convent of San Marco in Florence (c. 1440s). The flesh tones of his angels and saints are built on green earth underpainting, visible in areas where the upper layers have thinned or been damaged.
Leonardo used verdaccio principles in his early work, though he moved toward a more sophisticated system of sfumato as his technique developed. The greenish underpainting in some of his early Florentine works shows the influence of the verdaccio tradition.
Vermeer used green earth in flesh shadows and underpaintings in his oil paintings. Technical analysis of Girl with a Pearl Earring (c. 1665, Mauritshuis) and Young Woman with a Water Pitcher (c. 1662-1665, Metropolitan Museum of Art) has identified green earth beneath translucent layers of lead white, vermilion, and ochres. The green earth does not appear strongly green in the finished painting. Instead, it stabilizes shadows and contributes to the delicate tonal transitions characteristic of Vermeer's work.
Many Renaissance paintings that used verdaccio now show greenish faces that the painters never intended. The reason is pigment fading. The warm flesh layers applied over the verdaccio relied on organic pigments like madder and saffron, which are UV-sensitive and fade over centuries. The green earth, a stable mineral pigment, does not fade. So the cool underpainting that was meant to whisper beneath the skin now shows through far more visibly than the painter ever intended.
The Material Memory Studio describes this phenomenon: "Many old paintings now look almost zombie-like. The reason is pigment fading. The warm flesh layers relied on organic pigments which are UV-sensitive and fade over centuries. The green earth, a stable mineral pigment, does not. So the cool underpaint that was meant to whisper beneath the skin now shouts, far more visible than the painter ever intended. Those greenish, hollow faces are not how the works looked when fresh. They are a record of which pigments survived."
This is why Duccio's green earth underpainting has become clearly visible as the red has faded from his figures' flesh tones. The saints and Madonnas in many early Italian paintings now look greenish or sickly, not because the painter wanted them to look that way, but because the organic reds and yellows that were applied over the verdaccio have faded while the mineral green earth has not.
A similar technique was used by Flemish oil painters, referred to as the "dead layer." The dead layer is applied over a traditional bone color priming (one part raw umber to one part yellow ochre) to refine the values and remove the warm tone of the primer. The resulting "white to olive green to black" underpainting is described as "like being illuminated by moonlight." It does not affect the tonality of the final painting but provides a cool, neutral foundation for the warm flesh colors applied on top.
The Belgian dead layer and the Italian verdaccio share the same principle: cool underpainting, warm overpainting, optical mixing through translucent layers. The difference is in the materials. Italian verdaccio typically uses green earth, while the Flemish dead layer uses a mixture of black, white, and yellow ochre that produces a grayish-green tone.
Contemporary artist Cuong Nguyen has adapted the verdaccio technique for pastel painting. He applies a green foundation for skin tones, then layers warm colors on top. Nguyen explains: "Green is the complementary color of red. If you put these two colors side by side, they support each other and make both stand out. Green can also diminish some shades of orange or pink tones." His work demonstrates that the optical principle behind verdaccio is not limited to egg tempera or oil but works in any medium with sufficient transparency. Read more at Realism Today.
In finished paintings, verdaccio is not directly visible. It works beneath the surface, contributing to the cool shadows and naturalistic flesh tones of the figures. But you can identify its presence by looking at the shadow areas of flesh. If the shadows have a greenish or cool quality that contrasts with the warm highlights, the painter likely used a verdaccio underpainting.
The technique is most visible in unfinished paintings. Michelangelo's The Manchester Madonna at the National Gallery in London is the best example, showing the bare verdaccio layer on the unfinished figures. In the Sistine Chapel, the architectural details in the ceiling show verdaccio that was left visible without additional color.
In paintings where the organic reds and yellows have faded, the verdaccio becomes visible as a greenish tint in the flesh. This is common in early Italian panel paintings from the 13th and 14th centuries, where the madder and saffron lakes used for flesh tones have degraded while the green earth beneath has remained stable.
Verdaccio is a form of underpainting, the broader category of foundational layers applied beneath the visible painting. It relates to chiaroscuro in its use of tonal values to define form, though verdaccio is monochromatic and specifically focused on flesh. It connects to sfumato through the principle of optical mixing in translucent layers. The technique also relates to glazing, since the warm flesh colors are typically applied as thin glazes over the dried verdaccio layer. The Flemish "dead layer" is a related tradition using different materials.
For more context, read our blog post on Leonardo as painter and scientist, or explore our entry on underpainting to understand the broader category of which verdaccio is a part.
The best place to see verdaccio is the National Gallery in London, where Michelangelo's The Manchester Madonna shows the technique in its raw, unfinished state. The greenish underpainting on the left-hand figures is exactly what the painter applied before the warm flesh colors were to go on top. It is a rare opportunity to see the skeleton of a Renaissance painting.
For verdaccio in fresco, visit the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, where the architectural details on the ceiling show the greenish underpainting left visible without additional color. In Florence, the frescoes of Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua and Fra Angelico in San Marco show verdaccio beneath the finished flesh tones. For the effect of pigment fading on verdaccio, look at early Italian panel paintings in the Uffizi in Florence or the National Gallery in London, where the greenish tint in the saints' faces is the ghost of the original flesh colors. For more on Renaissance painting techniques, read our entries on underpainting and sfumato, or explore our post on how to read a painting.
Discover other art terms you might be interested in
Action painting is the gestural, physical application of paint pioneered by Pollock and de Kooning. Learn its history, key artists, and how to spot it.
Anamorphosis is a projection technique where a distorted image resolves into a coherent picture from a specific viewpoint. From Holbein to Niceron, learn how it works.
A bozzetto is a small, rapidly modeled terracotta sketch used by sculptors to develop ideas in three dimensions. Learn how Bernini, Algardi, and Baroque sculptors used clay bozzetti.
Read more about this topic on our blog
The art school vs. self-taught debate generates more heat than light. This guide cuts through the rhetoric to explain what art school actually gives you, what it doesn't, and how self-taught artists can build what school would have provided.
Discover why acrylic paint is the best medium for beginner artists. Learn essential techniques, materials, and tips from artists like David Hockney and Mark Rothko who built careers on this versatile medium.
Learn how paint colors actually mix, why subtractive color differs from light, and how to avoid muddy mixtures. Practical color mixing guidance using a limited palette, with insights from Titian, Rembrandt, and the Impressionists.