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An ancient history Unknowable beginnings
Just when people started using color is impossible to ever know as the
earliest use is likely to have been in a form that would not survive
more than a few hours. I refer to the universal practice among
pre-civilization peoples around the world to dip their finger into wet
clay and make marks on the face. For all we know this practice could be
400,000 years old or only 4000, but it seems reasonable to assume an
ancient origin. The oldest reliable evidence is the burial of the dead
with red ochre applied to the body. Some examples of this are almost
100,000 years ago amongst the Neanderthal. There are unproved claims of
cave drawings in ochre and charcoal being as much as 60,000 years in
some places including Australia. Clearly people have been making art
for a long time.
The colors were simple then, burnt wood from the fire, and yellowish
and reddish clays. At first the color was simply applied wet and
allowed to dry, but eventually a basic kind of paint developed as it
was discovered that the addition of animal fats, or honey or egg would
make the colors more durable. Again the origin of this is lost in time
but by the time of the late Stone Age there is evidence of the
transportation of particular pigments from their place of origin across
vast distances. Perhaps they had become a form of currency and were
traded as valuable commodities. The colors remained the basic earth
colors with the addition of of charcoal and chalk.
RELATED PAGES:
Traditional and
historic palettes
Ackermann's
watercolor list from 1801
Limited palettes
Historic pigments and colors
Egypt and beyond Civilization
brings new colors
Wealth, power, monuments, and corps of state or temple employed artists
meant a growing demand for industrial scale production of pigments.
Malachite a natural green copper ore was mined along with its blue
variant called Azurite. Orpiment a poisonous and impermanent yellow was
discovered. It's shortcomings were known but it was the only bright
yellow known. The beautiful dark blue we know so well from Egyptian
tombs was Blue Frit, also called Egyptian Blue. It was basically blue
glass ground up as a pigment. In subsequent millennia a green variety
was also made. Gypsum was mined for white. Chalk was also used. The
common black was an early form of Lamp Black. The only reds were
natural
earth minerals such as Red Earth and Cinnabar. Madder and Indigo were
known at this time as dyes for textiles.
It is not so certain whether they were used as artists pigments as
well, but given the limited colors available it would not be surprising
if they were.
Greek and Roman
By the Roman period Verdigris (an artificial copper green) and green
earth were added as greens, Ivory Black had been developed, White Lead
(Flake White) was being made, The yellows Massicot and Naples Yellow
were known, Tyrian purple was made into a glazing pigment at times, and
the burnt and raw forms of umber and sienna were on the palette. A
yellow red was used in the form of Realgar, an arsenic compound that
occurs naturally. Bright red was supplied by 'Dragons Blood'. Said by
Roman historians to be the blood collected after the fighting of
dragons and elephants this very impermanent color was common until the
19th century by which time it had been discovered to really be the gum
from a tree in South East Asia. The villagers who collected it surely
had one of the most successful marketing campaigns in history.
It is likely that dyes and plant extracts intended for textiles
supplemented artists color ranges in many instances.
With the exception of the blacks and earths virtually all of these
colors exhibited problems, most were impermanent (or weak and coarse
like Blue Frit), and those that weren't tended to be highly toxic.
The Medieval period
The Dark Ages and Medieval times brought 2 important colors from Asia.
In the 8th century artificial Vermilion came from China. Although
poisonous, it
was the first of the modern powerful, bright, and yet permanent colors.
The second equally bright and permanent color was a blue. At first no
one in Europe knew what it was or where it came from, only that it
arrived on Arab ships from 'over seas', so it came to be called 'Ultra
Marine' Pure ground Lapis Lazuli stone had been used for millennia but
it was weak and not as useful as Egyptian Blue. Many found it difficult
to believe that the older Lazuline Blue and the new Ultramarine were
from the same source but gradually the knowledge of how to refine the
blue from Lapis spread through Europe. The new rich, deep, and strong
blue would revolutionize art. That was in the 12th century. Eventually
it would be discovered
that it came from Persia and Afghanistan.
The Renaissance Color
miracles
We can thank the need to illustrate Bibles and decorate Churches for
the survival of Roman methods of color production. So much else from
the Roman industrial world was lost during the Dark Ages. Despite this
good fortune there were still significant gaps in the color ranges of
artists 500 years ago in terms of permanent colors and it is a
testament to their skill that they
could produce such brilliantly colored works with so few choices at
hand. So many colors were either too expensive, too impermanent, or too
poisonous.
Considering the huge artistic flowering of this period there were only
2 major pigment developments. Naples Yellow was produced artificially
for the first time and Red Lake was developed into a large range of
beautiful colors. While the name seems to
have often been loosely applied to various reds the name originated
with just one color. These days we know this
color as Carmine in the studio and as Cochineal in the kitchen. It is
derived from certain scale insects in Central America and India. These
insects are called in the America's Cochineal, but in India where other
scale insects produce a similar dye (in addition to Shellac - the
varnish) the insects are called 'Lac'. It seems this is the origin of
the term 'lake' used for organic dyes precipitated on an inert base to
turn the dye into a pigment. 'Red Lake', or just 'Lake' was the name
given to this first lake type pigment.
Late in this period came Gamboge, a bright and transparent
yellow that was common until the 20th century. Like Dragon's Blood it
was a gum from a South East Asian tree and was also impermanent. It's
name derives from Cambodia, the principle source. Later it would become
an important item of trade for the East India Company.
1700 - 1899 A colorful
industrial revolution
The year 1704 is when Prussian Blue was developed. It was to start the
revolution in artists colors that we know today. Some of these 18th
century discoveries proved short lived. Bremen Blue hailed as the
perfect blue when invented and immediately popular was superseded with
a few years by Cobalt Blue. Turner's Yellow was likewise to be
supplanted by Cadmium Yellow. Prussian Blue itself has been almost
entirely replaced by Pthalo Blue in our own age.
The 19th century was the big century of change for artists. New colors
seemed to come along every 4 or 5 years, so many that only the most
important can be mentioned. Cobalt Blue arrived in 1802, Cerulean in
1805, Chromium Green Oxide in 1809. Indian Yellow also arrived about
this time. It came from India and eventually people would find out that
it was made by cruelty to cattle (force feeding on Mango leaves and
collecting the urine to concentrate to make the pigment) and would be
banned by centuries end. Cadmium Yellow was announced in 1817, to be
followed by artificial (and affordable) Ultramarine, Zinc White, Rose
Madder, Aureolin, Viridian, and Cobalt Violet. Some mistakes were made.
Emerald Green, the favorite green of Vincent Van Gogh, was found to be
so poisonous it became a popular insecticide sold in hardware stores as
'Paris Green'!
The 19th century saw 2 developments that were extraordinary, although
it was not realized at the time. Firstly at the beginning of the
century the artificial preparation of iron oxides provided pure
versions of the natural earths. At first marketed separately as 'Mars
Colors' these days a tube of Yellow Ochre is much more likely to
contain the artificial version than the natural. Same for the other so
called earth colors. Meanwhile the Mars name has been quietly dropped
except for the Black commonly used in acrylics.
The other change to have far reaching effects was the invention of the
coal tar dyes. The first to be made into a pigment was called 'Mauve'.
Several of these colors followed and artists couldn't resist them.
Sadly these early Lakes would prove to be very impermanent which gave
them a bad reputation which survives today despite the excellent
qualities of many modern vat dyes.
The 20th century A full and
permanent color range
The 20th century started with new high performance organic pigments
(the Hansa colors) a replacement for the poisonous Vermilion (Cadmium
Red) and the long awaited non toxic opaque White (Titanium). The
Pthalocyanines were discovered in 1935 and soon to follow were the
Quinacridones, the Perylenes and all the other laboratory products that
would finally give the artist a wide range of beautiful permanent
colors. Now the problem is not not enough choice, it is too much choice
with many artists buying colors not because they need them, but just
because they are a beautiful color. Those artists across the thousands
of years would look and marvel at such an opportunity.
More info on
traditional and historic palettes
References
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