After reviewing the birth and transformation of paints, we will now highlight pigments from their origin to existing types.
by Julián A. Restrepo R.
In the first part of this article, the author highlighted historical aspects of the paintings, from rock art to the Renaissance, and also delved into the first materials and other curiosities.
After the great revolution that was generated due to the development of pigments, some of the most used types of pigments in the world of paints will now be highlighted:
White pigments: The oldest, of natural origin, are clay and gypsum (calcium sulfate, natural rock was used, CaSO4· 2H2O). Among the oldest white synthetic pigments was the so-called white lead (also known as albayalde, white from Spain or lead carbonate, (PbCO3)2Pb(OH)2). The Egyptians knew of a process for obtaining it more than 2,500 years ago.C., by which they reacted lead leaves with vinegar.
It is also reported in antiquity, the use of pigments such as zinc white (white from China, snow white, or zinc oxide, ZnO), white from San Juan (or Sangiovanni, mixture of CaCO3 + Ca(OH)2). More familiar white pigments developed only from the eighteenth century, such as zinc sulfate (ZnSO4, in 1783), lithoton or white lithotron (BaSO4 + ZnS, in 1847), white lead sulfate (PbSO4, in 1855) and titanium dioxide (TiO2, in 1924) [12].
- Black pigments: Our primitive ancestors had to illuminate their caverns with torches, but the lighting of those spaces caused the generation of soot and therefore their cave figures gradually looked darkened, but this allowed them to discover another pigment to color: smoke black.
Among other black pigments are charcoal or carbon black, ivory black, animal charcoal, ashes, natural graphite, pyrolusite (manganese oxide, MnO2), vine black, bone black (bone animal charcoal or intense black; Ca3(PO4)2 + C), which is one of the most intense blacks.
- Brown pigments: In ancient times, carbon black (burnt wood), manganese oxides and iron, were mixed in different proportions to create various types of browns. Burnt shade (burnt shade earth, charred natural earth, α-FeO3+(OH)), burnt sienna (burnt sienna soil, α-FeO3+(OH)), natural shade (shade earth, α-FeO3+(OH)), Cassel brown (Cassel land, Cologne brown; FeO.OH-MnO2) [18]. In the seventeenth century the Belgian painter Anton Van Dyck invented the pigment Brun Van Dyck (manganese brown, Sennelier).
During the Renaissance, it became very popular to use a pigment called "mummy brown" (dark brown and deep), being the mixture of bone meal and embalming bitumen, which was obtained from the spraying (without the slightest archaeological scruple), of Egyptian mummies (both humans and cats), which were trafficked clandestinely.
In the sixteenth century the "mummy powder" became, along with the triaca, the bezoar stone and the horn of the unicorn, one of the four most valuable and requested medicines. With it, ointments, syrups, potions, ointments and infusions of medicinal effect were invented to cure diseases of all kinds. The demand became so great that mummies became scarce and European mummies began to be used [19]. The product was used for several centuries and was a favorite of painters, in the late nineteenth century [20].
In 1964, Time magazine published a curious news related to the subject: In an interview, Geoffrey Roberson-Park, director of the C. Robertson company, dedicated to the production of colors, announced that they would stop producing the mummy brown color: "Maybe there are some mummified members left there, but they are not enough to make paint. We sold the last complete mummy a few years ago for about three free sterlings. I don't think we'll get more." This surprising note reflects, on the one hand, how devalued the mummies had fallen and, on the other hand, their scarcity, derived largely from the determined policies of the Egyptian government for the protection of its archaeological heritage, the object of great looting for centuries [20].
- Yellow pigments: Ru ochre (FeO(OH)-nH2O; obtained from streams near iron mines), natural sienna ochre (sienna land; α-FeO3+(OH)), oropimente (royal yellow, Chinese yellow or "oropimente yellow"; arsenic sulfate, As2S3), gold powder, lithargyrium (masicote), Naples yellow (antimony yellow; lead(II) antimony, Pb2Sb2O7), Indian yellow (Indian yellow).
Oropimente was used in the preparation of poisonous potions. Because of its striking color, it became a favorite of alchemists both in China and in the West in their quest for gold.
In Europe, towards the middle of the nineteenth century, Indian yellow was imported from India and China, from where it arrived in the form of pears or buns composed of a yellowish-brown pressed matter of which it was not known with certainty how it was made. It is presumed that it was originally produced by evaporating the urine of domestic ungulates (cows, camels, elephants, buffaloes, etc.), which were fed only mango leaves, or that the buns were gallstones of these animals.
European importers refined it by washing the buns and separating the diluted matter into two phases: a green one, which was discarded, and a yellow one, which was dried again and used as a pigment [21]. The Dutch and Flemish painters of the time appreciated it for its luminosity. Modern Indian yellow dye is a mixture of synthetic pigments and is marketed under the name azo yellow [22].
- Red pigments: The ancient Romans introduced lead red (minio or red lead), Venetian red (Venice red or Venice red, product of the grinding of minerals containing iron oxide), cinnabar (vermilion red; mercury sulfide, HgS), hematite or hematite (from the Greek meaning "blood stone", natural earth; iron oxide, Fe2O3), natural carmine or intense red (of quermes or cochineal).
Quermes carmine is one of the oldest organic pigments. The first evidence of its use is attributed to the Sumerians (southern part of ancient Mesopotamia), and it was used as a lacquer pigment in ancient times in Egypt, Greece and the Near East. It was obtained from the females of an insect called cochineal, especially those of the species Kermes vermilio, which inhabits Europe and the Middle East.
The coloring substance in mealybugs, kermesic acid, is inside their eggs. That is why only these were collected, at the time of the year when they were loaded with eggs, after which they were dried and sprayed, obtaining a pigment in the form of red powder, which from the Middle Ages replaced the scarce and very expensive "Purple of Tyre" used in classical antiquity to dye fabrics [23].
Cochineal carmine, or simply carmine, is obtained from the carminic acid produced by American mealybugs. It has been suggested that the cultivation of mealybugs in Mesoamerica dates back to the Toltec period (X century). The natives of Peru had produced textile dyes from cochineal since at least 700 AD.C.[14] but Europeans had never seen the color.
In Mexico, the Aztecs bred these insects to make dyes and paints, and also as currency with which to pay taxes and tributes. The way of preparation of the dye was similar to that used to prepare the carmine of quermes: the female insects were collected, baked and then dried in the sun. In the sixteenth century the Spaniards began to export these mealybugs to Europe, giving rise to a fruitful trade between Mexico and Spain that would last 450 years.
With the arrival of the cochineal carmine to the Old Continent it was found that this dye was more beautiful, permanent and yielding than that of quermes, which was no longer used [23]. Carmine became the region's second most valuable export after silver. The pigments produced from cochineal gave the cardinals of the Catholic Church their characteristic vestments of intense color and the English red jackets their distinctive uniforms. The true source of the pigment, an insect, was kept secret until the eighteenth century, when biologists discovered it [16].
In the third edition of this special we will continue to highlight other types of pigments and present the final conclusions of this special on the history of paintings.
References
[12] http://www.alimentacion-sana.com.ar/portal%20nuevo/actualizaciones/huevo.htm
[14] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigmento
[16] a) Garfield, S., "Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color That Changed the World". Faber and Faber, 2000; b) Butler Greenfield, A., "A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire". HarperCollins, 2005.
[20] http://co.fotolog.com/under_____world/13551965/
[22] Gallego, R.; Sanz, J.C., "Diccionario Akal del color", Akal, 2001.
[23] http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carm%C3%ADn#Carm.C3.ADn_natural
* M.Sc. Ph.D. Julián A. Restrepo R. PMC Technical Manager of PPG Industries Colombia, [email protected]
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