Ultramarine Blue
In this episode, Trevor and Alice explore the history, composition, and fascinating facts of Ultramarine Blue.
They discuss its origins from natural Lapis Lazuli, through the invention of its synthetic counterpart, to its use in significant artworks. They navigate technical characteristics, pigment naming conventions, and the evolution of this vivid, deep blue colour.
Fun historical nuggets and technical insights make this episode perfect for anyone keen on art supplies or the science behind colours.
00:00 Introduction and Episode Setup
00:54 Podcast Production Insights
01:58 Welcome to the Art Supplies Experts Podcast
02:50 Exploring Ultramarine Blue
03:34 Visualizing Ultramarine Blue
04:56 Colour Wheel
05:40 Colour Wheel Close-up
05:51 Understanding Pigment Naming and Standards
07:18 Natural vs. Synthetic Ultramarine
08:20 The Colour Index and Paint Quality
09:49 Chemical Formula
12:41 Historical Use and Fun Facts
16:23 The Invention of Synthetic Ultramarine
19:16 Technical Characteristics and Ancient History
20:52 Famous Paintings and Forgeries
23:36 Girl with a Pearl Earring
25:12 The Umbrellas
25:21 Van Gogh
25:49 Conclusion and Farewell
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Email: artexpertspodcast@gmail.com
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References: References in PDF
The background music is "Sweet Release" by Dan Lebowitz.
Transcript
Okay, I'm feeling pretty good about this episode.
Speaker:Ultramarine Blue.
Speaker:Anybody in our target audience would be familiar with that colour, but I'm
Speaker:sure we've got lots of information about it that they haven't heard before.
Speaker:I think it should be interesting.
Speaker:I'm a bit worried that we might need some visuals, but anyway, it's a podcast.
Speaker:Audio, media, not a lot we can do about that I guess.
Speaker:Ah, looks like Alice might be coming in now.
Speaker:Hello, Trevor.
Speaker:I hope you can hear me okay.
Speaker:I'm looking forward Ultramarine Blue.
Speaker:Hi, Alice.
Speaker:Yes, you're coming in loud and clear.
Speaker:It should be good.
Speaker:Although I'm a little bit worried.
Speaker:You know, we decided we'd do this as a podcast, but this is one of
Speaker:those topics where it would be good to have a little bit of a break.
Speaker:Some pictures to show people.
Speaker:I was thinking the same thing, Trevor.
Speaker:And as I've mentioned before, I've been ingesting podcast production
Speaker:resource material, and I think I've come up with a solution.
Speaker:I'm all ears, Alice.
Speaker:So it turns out with podcasts, it's possible to create chapters.
Speaker:And those individual chapters can have their own images.
Speaker:So, on most podcast apps, as people are listening to our podcast, if they look at
Speaker:the app on their device, they'll be able to see an image change on the screen.
Speaker:So, We can insert various images that relate to the topic we're talking
Speaker:about at that particular time.
Speaker:Sounds good.
Speaker:Are you sure it will work?
Speaker:Trust me, Trevor.
Speaker:Tech is my forte.
Speaker:More Latin, Alice?
Speaker:Forte.
Speaker:A person's strong suit.
Speaker:Almost highly developed characteristic, talent or skill, from
Speaker:the Latin fortis, meaning strong.
Speaker:Okay, well, I'll press record and let's get going.
Speaker:This is a podcast where we talk about art supplies.
Speaker:Our aim is to educate and inform and help you.
Speaker:Become an expert on art supplies.
Speaker:If your job is to sell art supplies, then this podcast will be perfect for you.
Speaker:Or maybe you just want to know more about art supplies, in which case
Speaker:this podcast is still perfect for you.
Speaker:This is the only podcast that deep dives into obscure, scientific and historical
Speaker:fun facts relating to art supplies.
Speaker:If that sounds good to you, stick around and join us as we all attempt
Speaker:to become art supplies experts.
Speaker:I'm Trevor,
Speaker:and I'm Alice,
Speaker:and we welcome you back to the art supplies experts podcast.
Speaker:In this episode, we will be talking about ultramarine blue,
Speaker:also known as French ultramarine.
Speaker:And Trevor, let's not forget the Latin name, Lapis Lazuli.
Speaker:Actually, it turns out that there are two pigments, the natural
Speaker:version extracted from crushed rocks.
Speaker:And a synthetic version made in furnaces.
Speaker:The invention of the synthetic version was one of the most significant events
Speaker:in the history of artist's materials.
Speaker:More about that later.
Speaker:Our aim for this episode is for you to gain a new appreciation
Speaker:for ultramarine blue.
Speaker:By the time we are finished, you'll be on your way to being
Speaker:an expert on this colour.
Speaker:So, the most important thing, what does it look like?
Speaker:Ultramarine Blue is a vivid, deep blue colour.
Speaker:It is a highly saturated colour, meaning that it has a strong hue.
Speaker:And does not appear washed out.
Speaker:Ultramarine blue also has a slight violet tint to it.
Speaker:It would be great if we could look at a picture of it.
Speaker:Normally that would be a problem for a podcast, which is meant to be an audio
Speaker:only format, but my clever co host Alice assures me she has solved this problem.
Speaker:Yes, Trevor.
Speaker:Most podcast apps these days support chapters and chapter images, and I'll make
Speaker:sure that the relevant images appear on the screen as we go through this episode.
Speaker:Great.
Speaker:Well, hopefully people can now see the first image, which is
Speaker:Sassopheratos, the Virgin in Prayer.
Speaker:The Virgin's cloak, of course, is painted in ultramarine blue, and it's
Speaker:a magnificent, rich blue colour that looks like it was painted only yesterday.
Speaker:Alice, do you have a lovely ultramarine blue cloak like that at home?
Speaker:No, Trevor.
Speaker:The closest thing I have is a dust cover with a big blue IBM logo on it.
Speaker:Let's look at its position on the colour wheel.
Speaker:Is ultramarine blue cool or warm?
Speaker:While many other blue pigments are tinged with green, Ultramarine is a
Speaker:true blue, occasionally bordering on violet, so it's on the slightly warmer
Speaker:side compared to many other blues.
Speaker:Dear listener, I encourage you to check out The Artist's Colour Wheel by
Speaker:Bruce McAvoy at the website handprint.
Speaker:com and there will be a link to that in the show notes.
Speaker:At that link you will see various pigments positioned on a color wheel.
Speaker:And with a bit of luck, if you look at your screen, you should
Speaker:be able to see that color wheel.
Speaker:And hopefully you'll be able to see that ultramarine blue is slightly
Speaker:warmer than other blues such as cobalt blue, manganese blue, or cerulean blue.
Speaker:Alice, I want you to control yourself because we're about to talk definitions
Speaker:and there's going to be a lot of Latin.
Speaker:Trevor, you sure know how to sweet talk a girl.
Speaker:For centuries, the naming of pigments was confusing and unsystematic.
Speaker:Pigments were named haphazardly for a variety of reasons.
Speaker:Sometimes they were named for their resemblance to objects in nature,
Speaker:sometimes after their inventors, sometimes their places of origin, or their
Speaker:purpose, or their chemical composition.
Speaker:For a long time there was no standard definition, and people could call
Speaker:a pigment whatever they wanted.
Speaker:My God, Trevor, no definitions, imprecise language, they were dark times indeed.
Speaker:Often, an unscrupulous manufacturer would try to pass off a cheap inferior pigment
Speaker:as As being an expensive superior pigment.
Speaker:So, a single color could be known by a dozen different names, and two
Speaker:or more entirely different colors could be known by the same name.
Speaker:And today's color, Ultramarine Blue, is an example of this.
Speaker:We started off this episode by saying we will look at Ultramarine Blue,
Speaker:also known as French Ultramarine,
Speaker:and also known as Lapis Lazuli.
Speaker:So what is Lapis Lazuli and how does it differ from Ultramarine?
Speaker:Lapis Lazuli is the rock which is crushed and lazurite is extracted
Speaker:to form a pigment, and that is the natural pigment found in nature.
Speaker:Ultramarine Blue and French Ultramarine are the same thing.
Speaker:and mean the synthetic version made by mixing substances and
Speaker:heating them in a furnace.
Speaker:Just to confuse things, the colour created by using lapis lazuli
Speaker:would be called ultramarine blue.
Speaker:So, ultramarine blue means the synthetic substance or the colour
Speaker:you see if you paint with either the natural or synthetic products.
Speaker:So what are you getting if you buy a tube of paint?
Speaker:Invariably, we'd be getting the synthetic version because it's the cheapest.
Speaker:But this leads to the broader question of how do we know what we're getting
Speaker:inside a tube of paint when we buy it.
Speaker:Fortunately today we have the adoption of the Colour Index.
Speaker:Created in 1925, the Colour Index International is a
Speaker:database of pigments and dyes.
Speaker:Each pigment entry has two identifying codes, the colour
Speaker:index constitution number and the colour index generic name code.
Speaker:The code is made up of letters and numbers, the initial letters,
Speaker:such as PB stand for Pigment Blue.
Speaker:Other examples might be PW for Pigment White, PV for Pigment Violet, etc.
Speaker:For example, Ultramarine Blue has the colour index constitution
Speaker:number of CI 77007, but most artists would not be familiar with that.
Speaker:They would be more likely to be familiar with the colour index
Speaker:generic name code of PB 29.
Speaker:The number
Speaker:29 in PB 29 simply distinguishes ultramarine from other pigments
Speaker:in the pigment blue category.
Speaker:Moving on, you'll find that we nearly always refer to the generic name code
Speaker:rather than the constitution number.
Speaker:The number 29 was assigned chronologically when the pigment was added to the
Speaker:list, so it doesn't have any particular connection to number 28 or 30.
Speaker:The
Speaker:code specifies That PB 29 is sodium aluminum, sulfur, eRate, and therefore
Speaker:any manufacturer purporting to sell PB 29 in tube of paint must be providing
Speaker:that particular chemical composition.
Speaker:Alice, if you had your camera on, I'm sure I could see a big
Speaker:wide smile on your face with.
Speaker:specific, accurate terminology being mandatory.
Speaker:It gives me goosebumps, Trevor.
Speaker:Well, the bad news is it's only mandatory in the sense that if they list a pigment
Speaker:number, then it must be accurate.
Speaker:And manufacturers can choose to not list what pigments, if any, are in
Speaker:the paint that they are supplying.
Speaker:Oh, no.
Speaker:Paint manufacturers are not obliged to disclose what
Speaker:pigments are in their paints.
Speaker:Some pigment mixtures, like Winsor Newton's Cadmium Free Colours,
Speaker:are proprietary or secret and the color index codes are not given.
Speaker:However, most paint ranges, particularly professional ones, do include them
Speaker:on the label and if you do not see pigment codes listed on the label.
Speaker:on the label on a tube of paint, then you would be immediately suspicious of
Speaker:the quality of the paint and fearful that instead of using appropriate pigments, the
Speaker:manufacturer has used cheap substitutes.
Speaker:The chemical formula for PB29 is appearing on your screen right now.
Speaker:If you buy a tube of paint containing PB29, then that is what you are getting.
Speaker:We will explain light fastness and transparency in more
Speaker:detail in future episodes.
Speaker:But for the moment, just be aware that PB29, Ultramarine Blue,
Speaker:has a lightfastness rating of 1, meaning excellent lightfastness.
Speaker:It is semi transparent and is not considered particularly toxic, but
Speaker:you should always be careful to never breathe in any pigment dust.
Speaker:Trevor, can we please do some definitions?
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Alice, why don't you go ahead.
Speaker:Sure.
Speaker:Trevor Ultra is Latin four Beyond, and Marine is derived from the
Speaker:Latin word mare, meaning C.
Speaker:So ultra marine means literally.
Speaker:Beyond the Sea.
Speaker:And Beyond the Sea was relevant because to get to Western Europe, the ultramarine had
Speaker:to travel across the sea from Afghanistan.
Speaker:Now, if ultramarine wasn't enough Latin for you, you're in luck because
Speaker:we get to talk about lapis lazuli.
Speaker:This one is not so straightforward.
Speaker:The lathus part of lapis lazuli is easy, lapis is Latin for stone.
Speaker:But there are different schools of thought when it comes to lazuli.
Speaker:It seems that lazuli comes from the Persian word lazuad, and the Persian
Speaker:word lazuad means blue and or means the place where lapis lazuli was
Speaker:being mined, which kind of perhaps became synonymous with the word blue.
Speaker:In any event, When it comes to Lapis Lazuli, think of Lapis's stone, think of
Speaker:Lazuli as blue, or perhaps Lazuard, the place where the blue stone was mined.
Speaker:I'm uncomfortable with our lack of precision on that one, Trevor.
Speaker:Yes, we might come back to that at a later stage, Alice.
Speaker:Lapis lazuli is not an element or a mineral, but is a rock containing
Speaker:multiple minerals, including lazurite, diopside, calcite, pyrite, and more.
Speaker:And if you look at your screen, you'll see a picture of lapis lazuli.
Speaker:The important bit is that Lapis lazuli, the rock, contains the mineral lazurite.
Speaker:The rich blue colour is due to the sulphur inherent in the structure of lazurite.
Speaker:The trick is to extract the lazurite from the lapis lazuli.
Speaker:This was a time consuming and expensive process.
Speaker:A method for purifying the lapis lazuli to extract the lazurite was developed
Speaker:in the West in about the 12th and 13th centuries and involved mixing the powdered
Speaker:mineral in a solution of water and wood ash, And then kneading it with a paste,
Speaker:or a dough, of wax and pine rosin and linseed oil and gum mastic, so the dough
Speaker:would retain the foreign particles and impurities, but the fine particles of blue
Speaker:colour, the lazurite, would settle out.
Speaker:The lengthy process of pulverising, sifting and washing to produce ultramarine
Speaker:made the natural pigment very valuable.
Speaker:Alice, in your research of this topic, did you find any other interesting fun facts?
Speaker:relating to the refining of the leisure rite.
Speaker:As a matter of fact, I did, Trevor, as I was ingesting the work of
Speaker:the 15th century author Sennini.
Speaker:I found a quote which may interest modern day feminists.
Speaker:He wrote, quote, You must know also that it is rather the art of maidens
Speaker:than of men to make it, because they remain continually in the house.
Speaker:And are more patient and their hands are more delicate.
Speaker:But beware of old women.
Speaker:Yes, I think if there was a t shirt with beware of old women,
Speaker:many might wear it with pride and perhaps as a badge of honour.
Speaker:But that's a topic I think I should probably steer clear of.
Speaker:I agree.
Speaker:Let's move on to the invention of the synthetic version of Ultramarine.
Speaker:Yeah, I really like this story, Alice.
Speaker:In 1787, Goethe was travelling in Italy, and he noticed blue deposits on
Speaker:the walls of lime kilns near Palermo, and he remarked that these glassy blue
Speaker:masses were used locally as a substitute for lapis lazuli in decorative work.
Speaker:Yes, and a few years later, the Frenchman, Tessoya, found
Speaker:similar blue masses in soda kilns.
Speaker:of the glass factory at Saint Gobain in France.
Speaker:He took some samples and submitted the material for analysis.
Speaker:And that showed that the blue material had a similar chemical
Speaker:composition to lazurite.
Speaker:Taseya communicated his findings to the Society for the Encouragement of
Speaker:National Industry with the suggestion that it might be possible to make
Speaker:a synthetic version of ultramarine.
Speaker:And the Society decided to run a contest Offering a prize of 6, 000
Speaker:francs for anybody who could come up with a workable industrial process
Speaker:to create synthetic ultramarine.
Speaker:The prize was finally awarded on the 4th of February, 1828 to Jean Baptiste Guimet.
Speaker:Guimet's ultramarine sold for 400 francs per pound in Paris.
Speaker:At the same time, the natural pigment was being sold for between
Speaker:3, 000 and 5, 000 francs per pound.
Speaker:At the same time, and working independently of Guimert, was the
Speaker:scientist Gemüllen, who discovered a slightly different method for making the
Speaker:pigment, and his method was published About a month later, the rival claims
Speaker:of the two men were hotly debated for several years, but eventually,
Speaker:Guimet's claim to the prize succeeded.
Speaker:I haven't read confirmation of this anywhere, but I'm suspecting that
Speaker:the successful claim by the French scientist Over the German scientists,
Speaker:led to the name of the new material being called French Ultramarine
Speaker:to emphasise that the process was invented by a French scientist.
Speaker:Human beings and their desire for fame and fortune.
Speaker:Fascinating.
Speaker:Tretter, do you desire fame and fortune?
Speaker:Alice, if I desired fame and fortune, I wouldn't be sitting in this room creating
Speaker:an obscure niche podcast on art supplies.
Speaker:Let's discover a few more technical characteristics of Ultramarine and then
Speaker:move on to a bit of ancient history.
Speaker:When mixed with oil, ultramarine tends to make an erratic or unusually stringy
Speaker:paint film, so manufacturers might have to work a little bit harder to get a
Speaker:lovely consistency when using Ultramarine in oil paint, and secondly, both the
Speaker:natural and the synthetic versions are easily affected or bleached by very weak
Speaker:acids or acid vapors, and these can cause the ultramarine to lose color and to
Speaker:decompose, and this sensitivity to acids.
Speaker:may be the cause of so called ultramarine sickness, which is a
Speaker:phenomenon, but occasionally happens in old pictures, in areas where
Speaker:ultramarine has turned a grey blue.
Speaker:And the theory or the supposition is that it's been caused by
Speaker:exposure to an acidic atmosphere.
Speaker:What that means is if, for example, you're considering printing a mural and it's in
Speaker:a high traffic area with perhaps a highly acidic atmosphere, you may consider taking
Speaker:extra care with the Ultramarine to look for a version which is resistant to.
Speaker:Acid Attack, or you may choose to use a different pigment instead.
Speaker:Earlier we looked at the history of the invention of the synthetic version, but
Speaker:now we will turn to the history of the early use of lazurite and the early use of
Speaker:ultramarine in various famous paintings.
Speaker:Nuggets of stone were used for decorative purposes in ancient Egypt, but no one
Speaker:seems to have grounded up and used it as a pigment until much later, and the oldest
Speaker:examples of lapis leisurely being used as a pigment are found in a small number
Speaker:of 5th century wall printings in Chinese Turkmenistan, and some 7th century images.
Speaker:from a cave temple at Bamian.
Speaker:The
Speaker:colours rise in the West coincided with the Renaissance and the increasing
Speaker:preoccupation with the Virgin Mary.
Speaker:So from 1400 onwards.
Speaker:Artists were increasingly depicting the Madonna wearing an ultramarine blue cloak.
Speaker:The Virgin at Prayer, of course, is a fine example of that.
Speaker:As already mentioned, the synthetic and the natural versions have almost
Speaker:identical chemical composition.
Speaker:However, it is possible to tell them apart.
Speaker:The particles in the synthetic ultramarine are smaller and more uniform than
Speaker:the particles in natural ultramarine.
Speaker:This ability to tell them apart has been helpful in discovering some forgeries.
Speaker:So, remembering that the synthetic version was not invented until 1828,
Speaker:if a painting is purporting to have been painted prior to that time.
Speaker:yet has used the new synthetic ultramarine, then you would know
Speaker:that you were looking at a forgery.
Speaker:Only the most ignorant forger would attempt to pass off a painting made with
Speaker:synthetic ultramarine as being very old, but a few fakes fell at that hurdle.
Speaker:Han van Meegren was a famous forger who was far too knowledgeable and
Speaker:cunning to To be caught so easily, he used natural ultramarine, for example,
Speaker:when he sold a fake of Vermeer.
Speaker:What no one knew at the time was that his ultramarine looked genuine, but
Speaker:had been contaminated with a small amount of cobalt blue, which was first
Speaker:used as a pigment in 1806, so the forgery was discovered on that basis.
Speaker:Just a few more ultramarine historical fun facts.
Speaker:Vermeer used lapis lazuli in The Girl with the Pearl Earring.
Speaker:Renoir used the Trevor,
Speaker:if I could just interrupt before you move on from The Girl with the Pearl
Speaker:Earring, I have got an obscure fun fact that I'm sure our most knowledgeable
Speaker:listeners would not have heard before.
Speaker:Alice, if a listener has made it this far into this podcast episode, I'm sure
Speaker:they're up for a really obscure fun fact.
Speaker:Go right ahead.
Speaker:We didn't mention it before, but some recipes for purifying the lapis lazuli
Speaker:Included, heating the rock until it was red hot prior to grinding it.
Speaker:It was observed that this heat treatment of the natural lapis lazuli produced a
Speaker:darker blue hue of lazurite and made it easier to grind the rock into a powder.
Speaker:Modern analysis The painting suggests that the mere obtained his ultramarine pigment,
Speaker:at least in part from a heat treated rock.
Speaker:Well done, Alice.
Speaker:I think we should have a weekly award for the fun fact of the week, and I'm giving
Speaker:you the inaugural award for this week.
Speaker:Congratulations, although I'll be fighting hard to win it next week.
Speaker:Okay, let's get through these last little bits of information.
Speaker:Renoir used the synthetic version in The Umbrellas, which was around 1881 to 86.
Speaker:Vincent van Gogh used synthetic ultramarine not only in blue
Speaker:areas, but in some areas of green.
Speaker:And it was unusual to find ultramarine mixed to form green because It
Speaker:was so expensive, but with the new, cheaper, synthetic version,
Speaker:artists could now consider using it.
Speaker:in their green mixtures.
Speaker:And that, dear listener, brings us to the conclusion of this
Speaker:episode on ultramarine blue.
Speaker:We hope you've enjoyed it.
Speaker:We hope that you have a new appreciation for ultramarine blue.
Speaker:When you pick up a tube or you use some in a painting, we hope that you
Speaker:will have a different experience now that you've listened to this episode.
Speaker:We'll be back next week.
Speaker:Bye for now.
Speaker:Oh, that was a good fun fact, Alice.
Speaker:I'm jealous.
Speaker:An ancient recipe for refining lapis lazuli.
Speaker:And then segwaying into a discussion on Vermeer.
Speaker:Very impressive.
Speaker:Thanks, Trevor.
Speaker:As Mark Twain once said, I can live for two months on a good compliment.
Speaker:Well, we hope you enjoyed that episode.
Speaker:If you want more information about the episode or this podcast, you
Speaker:can look at the show notes and there will be information there.
Speaker:There will also be information about how to contact us, give us some
Speaker:feedback, ask us some questions, maybe correct us if we made a mistake.
Speaker:If you really like the show and you want to help us, then the best way to
Speaker:do that is to tell your friends, the people you think might be interested
Speaker:in this podcast, tell them about the podcast, get them to subscribe, ask
Speaker:the word around, that really is the best way to promote a podcast is by
Speaker:word of mouth and if you'd like to help us, that's the best way you can do it.
Speaker:Okay, until next time, bye
Speaker:for now.
