Are oil paintings more valuable than other mediums?

The assumption that oil painting sits at the top of a medium hierarchy, with everything else arranged below it, is one of the older myths in collecting. The reason it's the most common medium in art history is because it was the best one available at that time, that allowed for vibrant colours, slow working time and durability. However, the mediums available today are much more diverse and robust. Treating medium as a primary value indicator leads to overlooking some of the most impressive work being made today.

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Why oil has a strong reputation

Oil paint has genuine advantages that explain its long dominance. It dries slowly, allowing reworking and blending that faster-drying mediums do not permit. It is chemically stable when used correctly, and paintings made with quality oil paint on properly prepared panels or canvas can remain in excellent condition for centuries. These are real advantages, and they have produced a chunk of the most famous artworks across five hundred years that establishes oil's cultural authority.

But those advantages are properties of the material used well, not of oil as a category. Poorly made oil paintings on cheap supports, or layered wrong will quickly deteriorate.

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What gesso and gold leaf bring to the equation

The tradition Roman works within, hand-prepared gesso on wood panels and genuine gold leaf, predates oil painting by centuries and has its own substantial history of producing work of extraordinary durability and presence. Byzantine icons made in the 6th and 7th centuries with egg tempera and gold leaf have survived in better condition than many oil paintings of later periods. The process is demanding, but the materials are stable, and the results have a physical presence that oil painting cannot produce.

The way it reflects and holds light, the warmth of genuine 24ct gold, the depth created by applying leaf over an engraved or embossed surface, this is an experience that used to be reserved for royalty and people in the highest positions of power.

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What actually determines value of a painting

Medium is one factor among many, and not the most important. The quality of the materials within the chosen medium, the seriousness of the practice, the documentation that establishes the work's identity, and the artist's trajectory over time are all more reliable determinants of value than medium hierarchy. A well-made gold leaf and gesso work on a wood panel, documented fully and from a serious practice, is as collectible a proposition as any oil painting.

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In David Roman's work, the main medium used is genuine gold leaf gilded over intricate surfaces engraved with ornamental and figurative elements. The core theme of the work is reimagining the human spirit at a critical time when human value is rapidly reduced to data extraction.