Hey dear Hive community, first of all I would like to wish you all a pleasant day and hope you are all well and you had a day full of positive experiences! In this post I would like to write something about minerals and art and hope you can learn something new.
Today I would like to discuss how color pigments have been made from minerals in the past and how far it has shaped art history. Since the 19th century, more and more synthetic materials are used for the production of paints and before that, mainly minerals or plants were used for the production of colors. Natural colors are still very popular today and the special thing is that this is also better for the environment than synthetic ones and the variety of colors is really extremely far-reaching and almost all colors can be mixed together with minerals. The production process is always similar, minerals are crushed and processed into powder and with the help of a sieve, the coarse pieces are sifted out and then mixed with liquids such as water, oil, alcohol or even blood. Often minerals also contain traces of other rocks which often influence the colors and this problem could be controlled by sifting.
Mortar mills were already used for the crushing, which are known as the predecessors of today's mills and made the work easier and before that the minerals were roughly crushed under stones. These manufacturing processes were already extremely popular with the ancient Egyptians which mainly used lapis lazuli, which was particularly known for the deep blue shades. The painting of ceramics was also of great importance and temples, walls or other buildings were also painted with it and it was also of great use for the production of cosmetic products, but here the toxicity was often not so well researched at that time. A whole range of different minerals are suitable for production and you can see in my pictures lapis lazuli, azurite and malachite which were the best known for these purposes, but there are also hundreds more which are suitable for it. A large market was created around pigments and many traders recognized this niche and began to meet the growing demand and in Europe at that time Italy was the main center for trade in color pigments and the center of trade was then Venice.
The ancient Greeks and Romans also used the natural colors for their works of art and the most famous wall paintings were also created with them. Over time, more and more research was started and the colors were improved more and more and in the Middle Ages there were many scholars who spread this knowledge more and more. It was also a great advantage for the book painting of the late Middle Ages and at that time many high-quality metals such as gold or silver were also used as color pigments. With the years, demand also increased more and more and pretty much all important art epochs were shaped by natural colors to this day and in ancient times it were especially noble families who were responsible for this that art has more and more spreaded. Over time, demand in the bourgeoisie also became higher and higher and the color industry grew at a rapid pace and in the 19th century, the industry recognized the high demand and so the whole market was changed by chemists and nowadays synthetic colors are mostly used, but natural colors still enjoy great popularity in many art circles.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you could learn something new about art history! I captured these pictures with my Camera Sony Alpha 6000 plus 55-210 mm lens!
