Bars showing approximate periods of use for five yellows: orpiment and Naples yellow from antiquity into the 1800s, lead-tin yellow about 1300 to 1750, and chrome yellow and cadmium yellow from the 1800s to today.

Concept · The Painter's Colors

Yellows and Oranges

Many of the brightest early yellows were poisons: orpiment is an arsenic mineral, and lead-tin yellow and Naples yellow are lead compounds.

The bars show yellows coming and going. Lead-tin yellow was a favorite for centuries, then seems to have dropped out of use and was forgotten until analysts rediscovered it in 1941. Chrome and cadmium yellows added vivid new yellows and oranges.

  • Cennini calls orpiment "like gold in colour" and warns painters to keep it away from the mouth.
  • Adding selenium to cadmium yellow shifts it to orange and red.

See

Image: Made for this site · Original work

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