Notebook

Notebook, 1993- MATERIALS & METHODS - Pigments

Natural Inorganic Pigments

The simplest pigments were already known during the Ice Age. Prehistoric man found them near his cave or brought the colorful lumps of earth back from his hunting expeditions. Such chance finds were usually natural red and yellow earths, containing iron oxides. They are still called earth colors or mineral pigments. White occurred in many regions as chalk and clay, while green earth was found in Cyprus and the southern Alps. Earth colors, which by their very nature are always inorganic, are still of great importance to artists as well as to the painting trade. Closely related are other naturally occurring mineral colors, which had to be laboriously crushed and in many cases refined before use. Typical examples are azurite, the very hard, deep blue lapis lazuli, and green malachite. Cinnabar, or mercuric sulfide, was found in the form of small rust-coloured crystals, which when ground yielded brilliant red vermilion. It was found chiefly in Spain. In other places, cinnabar was found in the form of bright red deposits in certain rocks. Its preparation was most difficult. the Native sulfides of arsenic were yellow or reddish, and in the vicinity of copper mines blue-green chrysocolla was found. [p. 52]

[Wehlte, Kurt. The Materials and Techniques of Painting. Translated by Ursus Dix. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company. 1975.]

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