Color & Pigment

Pigment chemistry and history, and how color vision works. Screen hex values are approximations, origin stories need a primary source, toxic pigments stay history.

3 entries so far

Oil painting of the Virgin Mary in prayer by Sassoferrato, 1640 to 1650

Ultramarine Blue: Its Color Comes Mostly From Caged Sulfur

Color & Pigment

Ultramarine's blue comes mainly from three sulfur atoms trapped in a mineral cage. How lapis lazuli fits in, and what 1828 reports say of the synthetic.

Image credit

"The Virgin in Prayer" by Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sassoferrato_-_Jungfrun_i_b%C3%B6n.jpg — Public domain (Giovanni Battista Salvi da Sassoferrato died 1685; public domain in the US (published before 1931) and in the EU (author died more than 70 years ago); PD-Art faithful reproduction (photograph from the Web Gallery of Art; National Gallery, London, NG200, as recorded on the Commons file page))

Prussian Blue: The Accident Story Rests on a 1731 Account

Color & Pigment

Prussian blue was announced in Berlin in 1710 and a recipe printed in 1724. The tale of a red that turned blue comes from Stahl's 1731 book, as Kraft traces it.

Image credit

"Pigment Berliner Blau" by Saalebaer — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pigment_Berliner_Blau.JPG — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)

Two painted wooden boxes and three standing shabti figures made for Yuya, Dynasty 18, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Egyptian Blue: Under Red Light, It Glows in Infrared

Color & Pigment

Egyptian blue, a copper silicate with an earliest known use of 3300–3200 BCE, emits near-infrared light reported near 910 nm, past the CIE curve's 830 nm end.

Image credit

"Shabti of Yuya" by The Metropolitan Museum of Art — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shabti_of_Yuya_MET_DT541.jpg — CC0 1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)