who is credited with the reinvention and popularization of oil paints
Oil paint As public preference for naturalism increased, the quick-drying tempera paints became insufficient to achieve the very detailed and precise effects that oil could achieve. The Early Netherlandish painting of the 15th century saw the rise of the panel painting purely in oils, or oil painting, or works combining tempera and oil painting, and by the 16th century easel painting in pure oils had become the norm, using much the same techniques and materials found today. The claim by Vasari that Jan van Eyck "invented" oil painting is not correct but has cast a long shadow, but van Eyck's use of oil paint achieved novel results in terms of precise detail and mixing colours wet-on-wet with a skill hardly equalled since. Van Eyck’s mixture may have consisted of piled glass, calcined bones, and mineral pigments boiled in linseed oil until they reached a viscous state—or he may have simply used sun-thickened oils (slightly oxidized by Sun exposure). He left no written documentation.