|
Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT: This paper provides new information on the use of pigments by medieval painters in Romania. The raw materials used to prepare a green copper-based pigment are discussed along with the technological protocols to prepare them. Similar data originating from other areas of medieval Europe are also examined. In addition, commercial and cultural exchanges are highlighted.
KEY WORDS: pigments, medieval iconographers, copper acetate.
INTRODUCTION
The first use of color precedes written history, and it probably involved body painting. Early humans found pigments in the minerals that occur in soils. Beginning with Cro-Magnon man and Neanderthals, red ochre (hematite, [Fe.sub.2][O.sub.3]) appeared in burials or fertility rites, probably representing blood (Cotton et al., 1999). It was later noted in cave paintings of Lascaux and Chauvet in France, Altamira in Spain, and those in North Africa. When humans learned how to grind minerals about 30,000 years ago, they mixed these substances with water (the first pigment vehicle) and then applied them to stone surfaces. The resulting earth colors were the earliest recorded, and they lacked brightness. Greens, blues, and vivid colors, in general, were totally absent from the first palettes used by painters.
The missing colors were later introduced by painters around the Mediterranean. Greens were malachite--basic copper carbonate CuC[O.sub.3] x Cu[(OH).sub.2] (Nesse, 2000), verdigrisi--CuO x 2 Cu[(C[H.sub.3]C[O.sub.2]).sub.2] (Mayer, 1991), synthetic chrysocolla--hydrated copper silicate CuSi[O.sub.3] x 2[H.sub.2]O (Nesse, 2000), and terre verte--glauconite, a mixed silicate of potassium aluminum and iron, KMg(Fe,A1)[(Si[O.sub.3]).sub.6] x 3[H.sub.2]O (Nesse, 2000).
Greeks and Romans introduced very few new pigments; verdigris and white lead were two of them (Lambert, 1997). Theophrastus (Mayer, 1991), Vitruvius (Granger, 1931-1934) and, most of all, Pliny the Elder (Bailey, 1929) described the main sources of raw materials for these pigments and the technologies used to prepare them. Besides written records, archaeological discoveries were important, especially those at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Sealed jars and bottles containing pigments were found at these sites. Being protected from air and light since the year 79 A.D. when the eruption of Vesuvius occurred, the pigments were examined in what should...
|
