The history of the development and use of oil painting is a fascinating and complicated one. As no two authorities agree about its inception, use or manufacture, we have to accept that it came into prominence about the middle of the fifteenth century and that it was a development from tempera painting.
At first it was used in combination with tempera, possibly beginning the picture with tempera and completing it with oil. Later it was used by itself without any tempera underpainting. Various suggestions have been put forward as to why it came to be used. One suggestion is that it was due to the effect of the climate; that in Venice and Flanders, where oil painting flourished, the atmosphere was more suitable to oil. Another is that the flexibility and tonal range of oil allowed for more truthful expression of natural vision.
Whatever the reasons for the discovery of oil as a binder for pigments, the fact remains that it gives greater scope for working than tempera.
It is more flexible, more expressive and, finally, richer in color. Oil paint is certainly more exact in rendering the subtle tones of nature, but whether that was the initial reason for its use remains still to be proved. However, in the beginning, the paint was used thinly in glazes over a tempera underpainting.
Later, it was used throughout the picture, but the tempera origins still remained. The brush strokes were flattened out, so that the final effect, though richer than tempera, was smooth and glossy.
Flemish paintings by such people as Van Eyck, Memlinc, and Roger van der Weyden, all have more or less a tempera-oil look about them. And in Holland the subject painters of interiors and flowers: Vermeer, Terboch, de Hooch, etc., though using the paint more opaquely and without any apparent tempera beginnings, all tended to keep the paint smooth and unobtrusive.
It wasn't until Rembrandt and Hals that the quality of impasto and brush strokes revealed itself more, and from then on oil painting came fully into its own.
In the past, the paint had to be ground by hand and kept in bladders. Even then it did not keep very long and had to be freshly made each time. With the invention of metal tubes to keep the paint fresh for a longer period of time (and freeing the artist from making his own paint) painting began to concern itself more and more with ideas. The new freedom of the artist gave him more time to find out what he was looking at. Consequently the vision of the artist changed and so did the handling of the paint.
The methods employed by the old masters resembled the working of a factory. The apprentices were occupied in grinding colors and preparing grounds, or working on the paintings that were to be finished by the master. They paid the master for his instruction and helped to keep his studio running smoothly by doing nearly everything but sell the finished paintings. They worked in his style until ready to start out on their own. They accepted everything the master told them. They learnt their craft thoroughly and it sometimes took many years to complete a training this way.
From all accounts it was a tough and exacting life, holding craftsmanship high and individuality low, and anybody overstepping the bounds was liable to be severely reprimanded or put out of business entirely. Rembrandt and Hals, in pursuing a slightly different course from that accepted, suffered in no small way by getting fewer and fewer commissions to do. The story of Rembrandt's painting 'The Night Watch' is a famous example of what happened when you took your inspiration into your own hands and flaunted the conventions of the time. He was made bankrupt and put out of business.
But the seeds of destruction were already sown and by the seventeenth century the factory studio had all but died out. With the introduction, in the nineteenth century, of ready-made paints and brushes, oil painting took a new turn. For better or for worse the look of oil paintings took on a more personal note and the medium was exploited to the full, until today there is no right or wrong way to use it. Only the best way, the way that suits each individual to express himself or his ideas to his own satisfaction, counts.
Manufactured colors and brushes give great advantages to the artist. It is very noble to make your own paints and it is quite possible that material made this way will last many centuries longer than the bought material, but it is a conceit to wish that your paintings will be preserved by posterity. It should not concern the painter what the future will think of his work. His job is to get on and do it. It shouldn't matter very much what happens to them after he is dead. To worry about them will only give him ulcers, and painting should be a pleasure not a complaint.
Making your own material for economy, or because you like to experiment, or because home-made equipment suits your needs better, are the best reasons for not buying the ready-made stuff. Nevertheless there is at the artists' colour-man such a vast variety of material it is better to find out what they have to offer before making your own.
http://artdesignweb.com/learn_art/oils/oils_history.htm