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tags: Color
rel: Prussian Blue
Egyptian blue, also known as calcium copper silicate is a pigment that was used in ancient Egypt, and considered the first synthetic pigment.
After the Roman era, it fell out of used and the manner of its creation was forgotten. In modern times, scientists have been able to analyze the chemistry and reconstruct it.
The term for it in the Egyptian language is ḫsbḏ-ỉrjt (khesbedj irtiu), which referred to artificial lapis lazuli (ḫsbḏ). It was used in antiquity as a blue pigment to color a variety of different media such as stone, wood, plaster, papyrus, and canvas, and in the production of numerous objects, including cylinder seals, beads, scarabs, inlays, pots, and statuettes.
In 2021, Early Medieval Egyptian blue (fifth/sixth century AD) was identified on a monochrome blue mural fragment from the church of St. Peter above Gratsch (South Tyrol, Northern Italy). By a new analytical approach based on Raman microspectroscopy, 28 different minerals with contents from the percent range down to 100 ppm were identified. Inclusion of knowledge from neighbouring disciplines made possible to read out the information about the type and provenance of the raw materials, synthesis and application of the pigment and ageing of the paint layer preserved in the previously not accessible trace components, and thus to reconstruct the individual “biography” of the Egyptian blue from St. Peter.