History · The Painter's Colors

Gold, Lapis and the Guild Shop

Some pigments were luxury goods. The finest, ultramarine, came from lapis lazuli mined in Badakhshan, in present-day Afghanistan.

The chart compares top grades in mid-1400s Florence: ultramarine could cost as much as gold leaf, so it was usually saved for the most important figure, often the Virgin's mantle.

• Grinding alone gave a grayish powder; the blue had to be kneaded out of a dough of wax and resin.
• Painters bought colors from apothecaries, and in Florence joined their guild.
• Cennino Cennini's handbook (about 1400) calls ultramarine "perfect beyond all other colours" (Herringham translation, 1899).

Image: Made for this site · Original work