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Reading THE SECRET LIVES OF COLOR and the author immediately says "during the middle ages mixing colors at all was a taboo, believed to be against the natural order".
Wtf? Ignoring that it's wildly Eurocentric, this sounds true bc it's repeated a lot but is very wrong.
THREAD:
Wtf? Ignoring that it's wildly Eurocentric, this sounds true bc it's repeated a lot but is very wrong.
THREAD:
Even in Europe artists and craftspeople mixed colors/pigments together. But Carrie, you might be thinking, if you look at art from the time there's a lot of simple-looking, bright, solid colors. That's because while it wasn't evil to mix colors it could be really hard to do.
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A great example is the color purple. Since the Minoans, the most well-known natural dye was probably Tyrian purple (hex #66023C) made from Murex predatory sea snails. But by medieval times it was nearly impossible to get in Europe so purple was made by mixing red and blue...
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For fabric this meant first dying the cloth blue with woad, then overdying it with a red like madder or kermes (an insect pigment from the Middle East). Each dye required different techniques and the cooperation of often-competing guilds. Kermes red worked better but was -
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Hugely expensive! Madder cost less but the end result was usually muddy. Only royalty and the very rich could afford the good stuff, and most dyers warned against even trying to make it. The complexity of the process was the problem, not morality.
But wait, there's more!
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But wait, there's more!
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Manuscripts + miniatures that survived to this day used colors inspired by what artists saw, not just what occurred naturally. Pink, for example, was usually made by mixing a red (kermes, cinnabar, red lead) with lead white. Kermes was added to lapis or indigo blues to get -
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Very dark blue or black. Lead white lightened reds or ochre yellow to paint skin tones. Verdigris mixed with lead tin yellow and orpiment with indigo to get different greens.
But you couldn't simply mix any colors you wanted! Again, not because of the devil but science...
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But you couldn't simply mix any colors you wanted! Again, not because of the devil but science...
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Cinnabar is a toxic compound of mercury sulfide. Vermilion is mercury and sulfur. Orpiment yellow is sulfide and arsenic. It also outgasses when near lead and copper (common pigments at the time), changing the colors and decaying binding ingredients.
It was carefully used.
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It was carefully used.
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For example, the 12th century text Mappae Clavicula talks about orpiment's effects on white and red lead BECAUSE these pigments were used to create different colors.
Medieval art is complex and interesting. Explore it with an open mind. You never know what might surprise you.
Medieval art is complex and interesting. Explore it with an open mind. You never know what might surprise you.
