COR Por que certas cores se tornaram extintas? Por - Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan 03 jul, 2013 - 11:48 No blog Hyperallergic, Allison Meier explica a fascinante história de pigmentos extintos – seja porque eram tóxicos, seja porque precisavam de ingredientes… estranhos. A cor “marrom-múmia”, por exemplo, não é jogada de marketing: ela realmente envolvia moer múmias de verdade. É de conhecimento geral que certos pigmentos foram abandonados por serem tóxicos. Por exemplo, o verde de Scheele: composto por arsênico, ele estava presente não só em pinturas, como em velas, brinquedos infantis e roupas. No séc. XIX, houve incidentes de mulheres com vestidos verdes desmaiando aparentemente sem motivo, e crianças passando mal em cômodos verdes. Acredita-se que a morte de Napoleão foi causada por esse pigmento, já que no exílio ele vivia em um quarto com um tom forte de verde, sua cor favorita. Outro pigmento tóxico era o alvaiade, também conhecido como “chumbo branco”. Ele dava uma distinta luminosidade a pinturas a óleo clássicas da Europa do séc. XVII, e acredita-se que os pintores sabiam que ela era tóxica, mas a usavam mesmo assim. Ela foi basicamente substituída pelo titânio branco. Mas há uma abundância de cores comuns que foram extintas (ou quase) por outros motivos. Alguns destaques da lista de Meier: • Amarelo indiano: único pois continha a urina de vacas da província de Bihar, que eram alimentadas apenas com folhas de mangueira e água. O pigmento acabou sendo proibido. • Lápis-lazúli: o forte tom azul-marinho, que Yves Klein deve ter admirado, é feito triturando-se a preciosa rocha de mesmo nome. Hoje o pigmento custa US$ 360 por cada cinco gramas. • Marrom-múmia: o pigmento era feito triturando-se restos de múmias egípcias de verdade (tanto de seres humanos como de gatos). “Por volta do século XVI, apesar das restrições legais, era um grande negócio exportar múmias do Egito para a Europa, para serem moídas e usadas como ‘remédio’ “, explica o Art in Society. A tinta foi usada até o século XIX, quando o estoque de múmias secou. Também é importante ressaltar que há toda uma indústria dedicada a replicar essas cores, mesmo que seja apenas para a restauração de grandes obras que usaram os pigmentos – a NPR fez uma ótima reportagem sobre o tema no ano passado. Confira a lista completa das cores extintas aqui: [Hyperallergic] hyperallergic/74661/the-colorful-stories-of-5-obsolete-art-pigments/ Articles The Colorful Stories of 5 Obsolete Art Pigments • by Allison Meier on July 2, 2013 The colors of art change not just with trends, but availability as well. For reasons of being incredibly poisonous, expensive, or just involving way too many snails, here are five pigments that have disappeared from art. Maya Blue Mayan Mural, involving the Maya Blue pigment (via Wikispaces) On murals, pottery, even possibly painted on the hapless bodies offered as human sacrifices, a sky-blue color has been found in artifacts of the Maya and Aztec. It disappeared around colonial times in Central America, just like the pre-Columbian civilizations themselves. Known as Maya Blue, it’s long been recognized as a mix of a natural clay and a dye from the indigo plant, but how it was so durable in not being subject to fading or even the deterioration of solvents and acids has been a mystery. Earlier this year, however, some chemists announced they may have found the secret in careful variations in the preparation temperatures. Tyrian Purple Burial Shroud of Charlemagne (early 9th century), made of Byzantine silk colored with Tyrian Purple (via Wikimedia) The most prized, prestigious pigment of the ancient world was actually made from a rather slimy source: a predatory snail. Tyrian Purple got its name from the best of the marine shellfish used to make the pigment being found off the shore of Phoenicia’s Tyre, according to Pigment Compendium. Not only was it a properly royal color of rich, slightly red purple, it was said to get even more beautiful and brighter when exposed to the sun and the elements. Yet since you needed a whole pile of snails to have enough mucous secretions to make it, it was very expensive, and eventually disappeared. White Lead White Lead in Johannes Vermeer’s “The Glass of Wine” (1658), oil on canvas (via WikiPaintings) The luminosity of classical European oil paintings was due in large part to White Lead, a pigment of lead carbonate and sulfate. Artists like Vermeer used it to create a special kind of light that radiated from the canvas, the traces of which we can see in its grainy texture. Unfortunately, its striking brightness was rather poisonous. Yet as Applied Polymer Science explains about the lead paint: “Toxicity was recognized, but accepted.” It’s since been largely replaced by Titanium White, a less hazardous, although not as structurally strong, pigment, yet some artists still seek out the White Lead for its believed superior color and permanence, even if it is more difficult to find and still toxic. Lapis Lazuli Lapis Lazuli used in a detail of “The Ascension,” attributed to Jacopo di Cione (1371) (via The National Gallery, London) Widely believed to be the most expensive pigment ever created, more pricey than even its weight in gold, the Lapis Lazuli pigment was made from grinding up Lapis Lazuli precious stones. Its use goes back to the 6th century in Afghanistan, but its popularity really took off with wealthy Renaissance patrons who wanted the stunning blue on the robes of Mary and Jesus in religious paintings. The “ultra marine” color, as it was also known, largely disappeared as it was so incredibly expensive and required quarries to collect the stones. However, you can actually buy it at at the Kremer Pigmente store in Manhattan for $360 for five grams. Dragon’s Blood Mural in the Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii, said to incorporate the Dragon’s Blood pigment. (via Wikimedia) The pigment known as Dragon’s Blood had the most epic and ridiculous of origin stories, a supposed mix of actual dragon’s blood and elephant’s blood. Andrew Dalby’s Dangerous Tastes chronicles this incredible story from the 16th century navigator Richard Eden: “[Elephants] have continual warre against Dragons, which desire their blood, because it is very cold: and therefore the Dragon lying awaite as the Elephant passeth by, windeth his taile, being of exceeding length, about the hinder legs of the Elephant, and when the Elephant waxeth faint, he falleth down on the serpent, being now full of blood, and with the poise of his body breaketh him: so that his owne blood with the blood of the Elephant runneth out of him mingled together, which being colde, is congealed into that substance which the Apothecaries call Sanguis Draconis, that is Dragons blood, otherwise called Cinnabaris.” As freaking exciting as a battle between an elephant and dragon would be, the pigment was in actuality made from a Southeast Asian tree — though the story certainly helped hype it to outside buyers, and its blood red color was popular in the ancient world. It faded out of mainstream popularity around the 19th century, probably alongside the very much waning fascination with elephant vs. dragon battles. UPDATES: Mummy Brown Martin Drölling, “L’intérieur d’une cuisine” (1815), believed to have been painted with Mummy Brown (via the Louvre) A fantastic Twitter tip from Art vs Artifact informed us of another vanished pigment with an incredible story: Mummy Brown. The pigment, a favored shade of the Pre-Raphaelites, was first made with Egyptian mummies, both cat and human, that were ground up and mixed with white pitch and myrrh. It had a great fleshy color, but due to the actual fleshy components it would crack over time. Martin Drölling, who painted the work shown above, reportedly used the mummies of French kings dug up from Saint-Denis in Paris. According to a 1964 Time story, the Mummy Brown pigment didn’t last due to a shortage of its name defining ingredient. Managing director of the London based C. Roberson color maker told the magazine: “We might have a few odd limbs lying around somewhere, but not enough to make any more paint.” Indian Yellow Here’s another curious, and unsettling, pigment tip from Twitter on Indian Yellow. According to Philip Ball’s Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color, the vivid color of Indian Yellow was a source of mystery until the late 19th century. It turned out that the yellow color came from the urine of cattle in the Bihar province of India that were fed only mango leaves and water. The mistreatment of the animals led to the color being illegal and it vanished by 1908. Scheele’s Green From the comments, we got a tip on Scheele’s Green. The yellow-green pigment was a cupric hydrogen arsenite, which was very toxic, yet made it into not just paintings, but candles, wallpaper, and children’s toys. In one incident at a Christmas party, a candle dyed with the color poisoned children, and other 19th century incidents include women in green dresses passing out and those using it to print newspapers suffering from its effects. The arsenic vapors also are believed by some to have played a role in the death of Napoleon, who lived in a room paintly brightly green, his favorite color, as traces of arsenic were found in his hair.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Jul 2013 21:02:24 +0000
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