Verdigris enjoyed a perplexing popularity, despite it being incredibly destructive to cellulose-based parchments and papers and incompatible with orpiment, white lead, and other medias/surfaces. Green earth was used in underpaintings where it would be laid under flesh tones or as a component of bole, the adhesive used to apply gold leaf. One of the oldest pigments, green earth or prason is dug from the earth, and more specifically is derived from the minerals glauconite and celadonite. Because this dye was easier and cheaper to obtain large quantities of than other red dyes, it was fairly popular despite being of lesser quality. For more opaque colors, the mixture was precipitated onto a base of travertine, marble dust, chalk white lead or powdered eggshells. For more transparent colors, powdered alum was added. The product was then soaked in hot lye or hot egg white. Brazil/VerzinoĪnother “budget color” produced by boiling the wood shavings of the brazilwood tree in hot lye or urine, which resulted in a pink-red dye. “Lake” in the Middle Ages referred exclusively to red dyes produced by organic material: Laccifer lacca beetles were harvested by the thousands (the word “lake” comes from “lac” or “lakh” meaning “a hundred thousand” and referred to the resin excretions of the beetle) to produce a red dye used in religious iconography. The word “crimson” in English comes from the word “kermes,” a red dye produced from the bodies of female Kermes vermilio beetles. The pigment has an unfortunate tendency to darken under light exposure, especially if egg tempura is used as the binding medium. It was often mixed with red lead or yellow. Vermillion (not green!) is the pigment derived from either cinnabar, a mercury ore, or from heating mercury and sulfur together in a vase sealed with clay until blue vapor was given off/the sound of the two reacting was heard. Red lead is produced by heating white lead until it expels water and carbon dioxide, The resulting pigment, “minium,” was used to decorate the small independent illustrations in manuscripts (miniatures) and, when watered down, to write the headings of medieval pages. The pigment which gave “miniature” paintings their name. The real source of the pigment appears to be the sap of the shrub Pterocarpus draco, disappointingly. Medieval encyclopedias described dragon’s blood pigment as resulting from the mingling of dragon and elephant blood after the creatures have slain each other in battle. Indigo was also mixed with orpiment to produce a green color this method was employed both in Islamic art and by Venetians. It is believed that ancient Britons dyed their skin blue with woad. Woad plants are indigenous to Europe and were widely cultivated in the 17th century. A synthetic variant would be produced in 1870. Indigo, referred to as “bagadel indigo” to distinguish it from the woad plant, was used to produce an organic blue dye. It is known to turn green and revert to malachite. AzuriteĪzurite, the cheaper substitute for ultramarine, was frequently used from the 14th to 17th centuries. ![]() Ultramarine was also an expensive treatment for melancholy, and itself could suffer from “ultramarine sickness” – turning gray or yellow-gray under certain circumstances believed to be related to atmospheric sulfur dioxide and moisture. It would remain expensive until the invention of a commercially viable synthetic ultramarine in 1828 by the French chemist Jean Baptiste Guimet. Because of its high price, ultramarine was reserved mostly for the cloak of the Virgin Mary, the child Christ, and Saint Peter, although in later centuries it would suffer the indignity of being used to color mundane subjects like chairs. It’s probably impossible to talk about art and pigments in Europe without at least mentioning ultramarine, sourced from Afghanistan and thus understandably expensive -more so than gold- in medieval Europe, where it was imported through Venice. The most commonly used colors in illuminated manuscripts are red and blue. ![]() Technically not an illuminated manuscript in the strictest sense. The strictest definition of an illuminated manuscript indicates that the manuscript must be decorated with gold or silver, but the common (modern) use definition is a little more lax in what is considered an illuminated manuscript.Ĭase in point: First letter for the Gospel of John in the Book of Kells. Consider this a brief introduction to dyes used in illuminated manuscripts, otherwise known as the real reason I decided to do this particular independent study project.
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