The oldest synthetic pigment, Egyptian Blue

Egyptian Blue is the first man-made, or synthetic, pigment we have. Although it was almost lost… Because of the scarcity of azurite and even more, lapis lazuli, the ancient Egyptians managed to manufacture the pigment we now know as Egyptian blue, for the first time almost 5000 years ago. It was made by heating a combination of one part calcium oxide, one part copper oxide and four parts quartz (or the raw materials; limestone, malachite and sand) and heated to approximately 830 degrees Celsius (between 800 and 900). The result of this process gave a glass like substance which then could be ground into the pigment you see here. Used for murals, the coating of sculptures and sarcophagi. Known as Caeruleum by the Romans, (where the word cerulean comes from) meaning blue, and used by them in frescos, the means of making this pigment got lost as the Roman Empire came to an end. We regained the chemical composition again in the 1880’s, long after multiple new synthetic blues had been created. One of them being cerulean blue (meaning.. blue blue?) as we know it now, created by Albrecht Höpfner in 1805. Although being this old, the ancient works that have been found using Egyptian Blue, are still very vibrant.. one would almost say almost glowingly blue. This is because the pigment reflects a lot of IR and NIR (infrared and near infrare) wavelengths. Giving it a luminosity one can only decipher using modern technology. ‪@KremerPigments‬ ‪@NixSensorLtd‬ ‪@pigmentsrevealedinternatio9529‬ ‪@davincidefet‬ #handmadewatercolors #pigment #handmadepaint #makingcolors #blue #granulatingwatercolor #artisan #egyptianblue #ancientegypt #arthistory

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