CANVASES, CARATS AND CURIOSITIES

In the modern world, we rarely stop to think about the pigments behind the art we see— commercialized, pre-mixed paints copiously line store shelves, ready to be applied with ease. It is easy to glance upon the countless swatches of Pantone colors and take for granted the massive variety of hues and tones awaiting use. But until two centuries ago, the journey from raw material to finished paint wasn’t so straightforward.

Historically, pigments were painstakingly sourced and prepared from natural minerals, plants and even insects to create the vibrant colors we take for granted today. Moreover, artists relied on hand-mixing, often using guarded recipes. Each hue had its own story, whether tied to trade routes or the latest scientific discovery, and these colors shaped not just the evolution of artistic techniques but the history of visual culture itself.

Art & Pigment: Definition and Significance

For an artist, pigment refers to a dry, natural substance most often found in a fine powdered form. Pigments come in a variety of colors depending on the natural source they were made from. In its powdered form, pigment is added to a liquid binder to produce a liquidy colored material.

Depending on the type of binder, pigments can make a variety of colored liquids. For example, ink is made by mixing powdered pigment with a liquid carrier. An average oil-based litho ink used to create lithographs contains 12-15% pigment particles. On the other hand, paint is made by suspending pigment in a resin, latex, or other base to create a thicker colorant substance. An average paint today contains less than 1-2% of powdered pigment. A dye can also be made from pigment powder, and the main difference here is that the pigment is suspended in a liquid that allows the pigment to soak into a textile.

Before chemical binders were used, the secret to creating primitive paint revolved around what could be found in the natural world.

The Evolution of Pigments in Art

Ancient and Medieval Pigments

Tens of thousands of years ago, in the earliest eras of human creativity, pigments were sourced directly from the earth, plants and animals. This created a deeply symbolic connection between art and nature that may reflect why most ancient art tends to mirror the observable natural world, such as the Lascaux cave paintings from at least 17,000 years ago.

The Paleolithic art that decorates the walls of the Lascaux caves represents three categories: human forms, animals and some abstract forms. The depicted animals comprise both hunted species, such as deer and bison, as well as predators (bears and wolves). Pictured mainly in profile or in a twisted perspective, with the heads in profile but the antlers front-facing, the paintings illustrate ancient humans’ attempts to bring meaning to their surroundings.

The pigments used at Lascaux were derived from locally sourced materials, such as the iron oxides ochre, hematite and goethite. Ochre, found across the world, is a natural clay earth pigment that ranges in color from bright yellow to burnt orange or brown. Hematite, another common iron oxide, produces black, brown or deep red pigment colors. Mixing hematite and ochre together produces red ochre, a reddish brown color. Naturally sourced minerals like these would produce earthy pigments, reflecting the caves’ red, yellow and black colors. Animal fat or clay was used as binders in ancient times, which led to quicker deterioration due to decomposition depending on the chemical makeup of the natural binder.

In ancient Egypt, artists expanded their palettes by incorporating minerals like malachite, a bright green copper carbonate pigment. The oldest known green pigment, malachite frequently appeared in Egyptian tomb paintings and maintained its importance throughout the Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries.

Azurite, a deep blue, was used occasionally by ancient Egyptians and artists from the Middle Ages but was overall less popular than Egyptian blue. Considered the first synthetic pigment and used by Egyptians and Romans for thousands of years, Egyptian blue, or cerulean, was made by grinding and heating a mixture of lime-rich sand, copper and natron together.

The finest blue known to any ancient civilization, though, came from the precious stone lapis lazuli (lazurite). Mined from the mountain valley of modern-day Kokcha, Afghanistan, the rock became a prized treasure for natural pigments from the 6th century CE to present. Its pigment was reserved for sacred depictions of gods, royalty and celestial symbols, such as as the cloak for the Virgin Mary. Ultramarine (lapis lazuli) was most extensively used for 14th and 15th century illuminated manuscripts.

By the medieval period, artists continued to rely on natural pigments but expanded their palette to include more colors, often using plant-based dyes and even insects as essential sources. When Spain conquered the Aztec empire, they imported the knowledge of creating carmine lake, a scarlet red pigment made from the crushed bodies of cochineal insects.

Artists in the medieval period increasingly relied on egg as a pigment binder to make them easier to apply. Known as tempera, the fast-drying but lengthy curing medium was typically applied to more rigid support due to the paint’s thickness once dry. Due to its thickness, tempera becomes more brittle over time.

Renaissance to Baroque: The Expansion of Pigment Use

In the fifteenth century, oils replaced egg as the most common binding agent, giving artists greater flexibility in blending and layering pigments. This shift not only changed the texture and durability of paint but also allowed for the development of richer and more varied color palettes. During the Renaissance, the increased availability of pigments like ultramarine (derived from lapis lazuli) and vermilion, a red pigment made from mercury sulfide, enabled painters to create even more vivid representations of reality. By combining red and blue pigments, artists produced intricate purple-toned paint that featured prominently in religious paintings.

Vermillion specifically became a cornerstone of Renaissance palettes, due to its vibrancy. It was especially useful for adding depth of color to drapery and for modeling pinker flesh tones. As these new pigments skyrocketed in use, so did the rise of techniques like chiaroscuro.

Chiaroscuro: Meaning & Application

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt. Circa 1632. Oil on canvas. Mauritshuis, The Netherlands.

Chiaroscuro originated in the Renaissance as a drawing technique using white gouache and dark ink. As naturalism grew in ideological popularity among artists, the technique became wholly adopted during the Baroque by Old Master artists, especially Dutchmen. Frans Hals used color with a level of realism and precision that allowed him to naturalistically capture ones likeness, such as in Portrait of a Gentleman (circa 1630).

Pigments were essential in shaping the interplay between light and shadow. The Renaissance to Baroque marked a turning point in the history of art for its absolute reverence for faithfully representing reality. Artists wielded the increased availability of pigments and technical innovations in oil painting to push the boundaries of narrative and emotional expression.

The Industrial Revolution and Modern Paints & Ink

The advent of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-18th to early-19th century transformed countless industries, including the production of pigments. Suddenly, synthetic pigments burst onto the market and artists could buy more stable and less expensive pigments. New advances in chemistry also regulated the toxicity of certain pigments, particularly cadmium red, a fiery red that replaced mercury-based vermilion. Henri Matisse, one of modern art’s most revolutionary figures, wasn’t alone in his use of cadmium red, one of his favored hues, for striking contrasts.

The first and most well-known synthetic pigment is Prussian blue, a dark blue accidentally made by colormaker Diesbach of Berlin around 1704. When he accidentally over-oxidized iron in an attempt to make red, Diesbach created a novel alternative to ultramarine. Darker and more long-lasting, Prussian blue has become a staple in art, used by painters like Hokusai in Japan and Van Gogh.

In 1841, art pigments saw a different kind of revolution when American painter John Rand invented the collapsible tin paint tube. The ability to pre-mix colors in a convenient, portable medium led directly to the development of plein-air oil painting and an ever-expanding color palette. With this technology, there was no need for artists to hand-grind pigments for preparing paints and most artists turned to pre-mixed paints.

The 20th century brought the invention of titanium white, the new standard for white due to its opacity and brightness. It was also better for its non-toxicity, replacing lead white that had been used for centuries. With its ability to mix cleanly with other colors, titanium white has remained a cornerstone to any artists’ palettes ever since.

In 1934, acrylic paint broke onto the scene as an alternative to oil paint. Made by suspending pigment in an acrylic polymer emulsion, acrylic paint is faster-drying and cheaper than oil. Based on using plastic as the binder, water-based acrylic paints were subsequently sold as latex house paint, while petroleum-derived paint, known as mineral spirit, became the go-to for fine artists. By the 1960s, acrylic paint was widely in use among high-profile and amateur artists alike.

Along with pre-mix tubes of oil and acrylic paints, novel synthetic pigments expanded the possibilities of color exploration in art and democratized access. Paired with globalization, artists of all backgrounds from anywhere in the world could create with a far wider array of hues than ever before. The Industrial Revolution fundamentally altered the approach to color, ushering in the experimentation and abstraction of modern and contemporary art.

Without pigments, painted art would simply cease to exist. From the cave paintings in Lascaux created using naturally occurring minerals to the synthetic oil paints found in any craft store, humans have consistently relied on color pigments and advancements in science to lead the way in creating art.