Pigments Through The Ages DECLARATION DECLARATION I, Jasmine Madhok from FYS-J hereby declare that all digital and written work appearing in this book as part of my Imaging course 15th week submission under the academic guidance of my course faculty is my own and all sources of knowledge used have been duly acknowledged. I will be solely responsible for any irregularity found with respect to non-adherence of academic integrity as per ISDI School of Design and Innovation’s standards and requirements. 3 DECLARATION 3 IV. TYRIAN PURPLE 27-45 V. MALACHITRE 46-55 CONTENT 4-5 CONTENT I.OCHRE 6-15 BILBOGRAPHY 56-57 II.ULTRAMARINE 16-25 CONTENT III.VERMILION 26-35 4 5 I OCHRE / \'oh.ker\/ noun an earthy pigment containing ferric oide/ typically with clay/ varying from light yellow to brown or red. 6 7 WHAT IS IT Ochre ,rarely spelled ocher and often referred to as yellow ochre is one of a variety of forms of iron oxide which are described as earth-based pigments. Ochre is the earliest known pigment used by humans to paint our world perhaps as long ago as 300,000 years. Other documented or implied uses are as medicines, as a preservative agent for animal hide preparation, and as a loading agent for adhesives. Ochre is thought generally to OCHRE be red, but in fact is a naturally occurring yellow mineral pigment, consisting of clay, siliceous materials and the hydrated form of iron oxide known as limonite. ? COMPONETS Natural earth pigments like ochres consist of three parts: the principle color-producing component (hydrous or anhydrous iron oxide), the secondary or modifying color component (manganese oxides within umbers or carbonaceous material within brown or black pigments) and the base or carrier of the color (almost always clay, the weathered product of silicate rocks). 8 9 Fig 1. Ochre Swatch PEOLICTHIC AGE Upper Paleolithic cave art in Europe and Australia contain the generous use of the mineral: but ochre use is much older. The earliest possible use of ochre discovered so far is from a Homo erectus site about 285,000 years old. At the site called GnJh-03 in the Kapthurin formation of Kenya, a total of five kilograms of ochre in more than 70 pieces was discovered. By 250,000-200,000 years ago Neanderthals were using ochre, at the Maastricht Belvédère site in The Netherlands (Roebroeks) and the Benzu rock shelter in Spain. Ochre was part of the first art of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) phase in Africa called Howiesons Poort. The early modern human assemblages of 100,000-year-old MSA sites including Blombos Cave and Klein Kliphuis in South Africa have been found to include examples of engraved ochre, slabs of ochre with carved patterns deliberately cut into the surface. TRACES IN CIVILIZATION The yellow-red-brown ochre pigments used in paintings and dyes are often a mixture of mineral elements, both in their natural state and as a result of deliberate mixing by the artist. Much of recent research on ochre and its natural earth relatives has been focused on identifying the specific elements of a pigment used in a particular paint or dye. Determining what a pigment is Fig 2. The painted Cliffs , Austrialia made up of allows the archaeologist to find out the source where the paint was mined or collected, which could provide information about long-distance trade CORE SOURCES 10 11 PLAYING WITH OCHRE PLAYING WITH OCHRE Ochre contains a minimum of 12% iron oxyhydroxide, but the amount can range up to 30% or more, giving rise to the wide range of colors from light yellow to red and brown. The intensity of color depends on the degree of oxidation and hydration of the iron oxides, and the color becomes browner depending on the percentage of manganese dioxide, and redder based on the percentage of hematite. Since ochre is sensitive to oxidation and hydration, the yellow can be turned red by heating goethite (FeOOH) bearing pigments in yellow earth and converting some of it to hematite. Exposing yellow goethite to temperatures above 300 degrees Celcius will gradually dehydrate the mineral, converting it first to orange-yellow and then red as hematite is produced. Evidence of heat-treatment of ochre dates at least as early as the Middle Stone Age deposits in Blombos cave, South Africa. HUMAN EVOLUTION Ochre was part of the first art of the Middle Stone Age (MSA) phase in Africa called Howiesons Poort. The early modern human assemblages of 100,000-year-old MSA sites including Blombos Cave and Klein Kliphuis in South Africa have been found to include examples of engraved ochre, slabs of ochre with carved patterns deliberately cut into the surface. Spanish paleontologist Carlos Duarte (2014) has even suggested that using red ochre as a pigment in tattoos (and otherwise ingested) may have had a role in human PURE AND NATURAL evolution, as it would have been a source of iron directly to the human brain, perhaps making us smarter. The presence of ochre mixed with milk proteins on an artifact from a 49,000yearold MSA level at Sibudu cave in South Africa is suggested to have been used to make the ochre liquid, probably by killing a lactating bovid. 12 13 Fig 3. Ochre Pigment Use 14 Fig 5. Ochre Caves SWATCHES Fig 4. Extracting Ochre Fig 7. Different kinds of Ochre Pigments Pigments Ochre of kinds Different 7. Fig SWATCHES Fig 6. Ochre Balls Ochre 6. Fig 15 II ULTRAMARINE/ \'uhl.truh.muh.reen\/ noun Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder 16 17 WHAT IS IT The name comes from the Latin ultramarinus, literally “beyond the sea , because the pigment was imported into Europe from mines in Afghanistan by Italian traders during the 14th and 15th centuries. Ultramarine was the finest and most expensive blue used by Renaissance painters. It was often used for the robes of the Virgin Mary, and symbolized holiness and humility. It remained an extremely expensive pigment until a synthetic ultramarine was invented in 1826. ? / ULTRAMARINE COMPONETS . The pigment consists primarily of a zeolite-based mineral containing small amounts of polysulfides. It occurs in nature as a proximate component of lapis lazuli containing a blue cubic mineral called lazurite. The raw materials used in the manufacture of synthetic ultramarine are white kaolin, anhydrous sodium sulfate (Na2SO4) anhydrous sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) powdered sulfur, powdered charcoal or relatively ash-free coal, or colophony in lumps 18 19 Fig 8. Pigment of Ultamarine MIDDLE AGE . The first noted use of lapis lazuli as a pigment (Ultramarine) can be seen in the 6th and 7th-century AD cave paintings in Afghanistani Zoroastrian and Buddhist temples, near the most famous source of the mineral. Lapis lazuli (Ultramarine) has also been identified in Chinese paintings from the 10th and 11th centuries, in Indian mural paintings from the 11th, 12th, and 17th centuries, and on Anglo- Saxon and Norman illuminated manuscripts from c.1100. During the Renaissance, ultramarine was the finest and most expensive blue that could be used by painters. The 15th century artist Cennino Cennini wrote in his painters’ handbook: “Ultramarine blue is a glorious, lovely and absolutely perfect pigment beyond all the pigments. It would not be possible to say anything about or do anything to it which would not make it more so.” The pigment was most extensively used during the 14th through 15th centuries, as its brilliance complemented the vermilion and gold of illuminated manuscripts and Italian panel paintings. It was valued chiefly on account of its brilliancy of tone and its inertness in opposition TRACES IN CIVILIZATION It can be divided into two parts, “Ultramarine poor in silica”,which is obtained by fusing a mixture of soft clay, sodium sulfate, charcoal, sodium carbonate and sulfur. The product is at first white, but soon turns green “green ultramarine” when Fig 9. Different kinds of Ultramarine Pantings it is mixed with sulfur and heated. The sulfur burns, and a fine blue pigment is obtained. “Ultramarine rich in silica”,which is generally obtained by heating a mixture of pure clay, very fine white sand, sulfur and charcoal in a muffle furnace CORE SOURCES 20 21 PLAYING WITH ULTRAMARINE . Natural ultramarine is the most difficult pigment to grind by hand, and for all except the highest quality of mineral, sheer grinding and washing produces only a pale grayish blue powder.At the beginning of the 13th century, an improved method came into use, described by Cennino Cennini in the 15th century. This process consisted of mixing the ground material with melted wax, resins, and oils, wrapping the resulting mass in a cloth, and then kneading it in a dilute lye solution. The blue particles collect at the bottom of the pot, while the impurities and colorless crystals remain. This process was performed at least three times, with each successive extraction generating a lower quality material. The final extraction, consisting largely of colorless material as well as a few blue particles, brings . The discovery of a rare, expensive blue pigment in the dental plaque of a medieval HUMAN EVOLUTION woman’s skeleton The researchers were studying a skeleton of a woman who was estimated to be between 45 and 60 years old when she died sometime between 997 and 1162. The skeleton itself was unremarkable, with no visible signs of trauma or infection. But blue flecks were embedded in her teeth. Multiple spectrographic analyses revealed the blue pigment to be ultramarine, a rare pigment made from crushed lapis lazuli stones. It was as expensive as gold at the time, mined from a single region in Afghanistan and the ultimate luxury trade good then.