The Colorful

History of Paint
Humans have been painting to memorialize
their lives since the Stone Age, using techni- The Laas Geel cave paintings
ques that endure to this day. are about 5,000 years old
and include wild animals,
The earliest art supplies we’ve found—abalone shells full of ground cows, and herders. They
ochre and charcoal—were in the Blombos Cave in South Africa, and were discovered in 2002 by
are up to 100,000 years old. But we haven’t yet found paintings to a French team exploring in
go with them. northwestern Somaliland.
Credit: Abdullah Geelah (GFDL
By 40,000 years ago, tribes in Europe, Australia, and Indonesia [[Link]
painted images of hunters and herders on cave walls, and had [Link]], CC-BY-SA-3.0 [http://
expanded their palette to include many colors. [Link]/licenses/
by-sa/3.0/] or CC BY-SA 2.5-2.0-
Pigments for these paints included blood, sap, berry juices, dried 1.0 [[Link]
plants and roots, and many minerals. licenses/by-sa/2.5-2.0-1.0]), via
Wikimedia Commons
Iron oxide pigments were highly valued for their durability, and
prehistoric mining trails around the famous Lascaux Cave in France
suggest that, 25,000 years ago, painters traveled many miles for
these materials.
Early artists mixed their pigments into paint using water, saliva,
urine, or animal fats. They then applied them with fingers, brushes,
or by blowing them through hollow bones, like today’s airbrushes.
The Egyptians continued the modern advancements, mixing paints
with binding agents like egg and began painting on plaster.
Greeks and Romans expanded upon these techniques, to create a
painting style not matched till the Renaissance—when Italian artists
made paint with plant oils to create works of astonishing color and
depth that still captivate viewers today.

Fact Sheet:
[Link] Episode ED 059
Background: The Colorful History of Paint
Synopsis: Humans have expressed themselves for more than 40,000 years using mineral-based pigments.
How did ancient people find and use pigments? How did the use of pigments evolve through time into the
creation of the paints we know today?

 Primitive artists used natural materials available  Egyptian tombs made of limestone were covered
to them to mark their territory, beautify their in plaster and painted using six colors: charcoal
surroundings, and tell their stories. For thousands black, red ochre, yellow orpiment, brown ochre,
of years, paints were handmade from ground-up blue azurite, and green malachite. King Tut was
mineral-based pigments. buried with a paint box that contained powdered
 During this time, pigments—dry, insoluble color- malachite, orpiment, and red ochre.
ing material that produces paint when mixed with  Egyptian artists added pigments to binders like
a type of base—included charcoal; blood; sap; egg, resin, or beeswax so the paint would adhere
berry juice; and ochre, a pigment colored red, to the plaster.
yellow, or brown by iron oxides (rust) and iron  The Minoans developed the technique for
hydroxides. These were mixed with bases of frescoes by painting onto wet lime plaster,
water, saliva, urine, or animal fats to create paint. increasing the durability of the artwork.
 The oldest archaeological evidence of paint  Greeks developed lead white paint, which was
making was found in the Blombos Cave in South the most popular white paint in use until tita-
Africa. An ochre-based mixture was dated at nium dioxide replaced it in the nineteenth
100,000 years old, and a stone toolkit used to century. Lead-based paint has been the source
grind ochre into paint was found to be 70,000 of health issues for painters and others for
years old. centuries.
 Paleolithic cave paintings dated at up to 40,000  Greeks used beeswax-based encaustic painting
years old in Europe, Australia, and Indonesia techniques for pictures and murals that have
depict humans and animals painted with ochres, lasted for centuries.
calcite, charcoal, hematite, and manganese  Romans used Egyptian and Greek pigments and
oxide. added red vermillion mined in Spain.
 Primitive painters applied paint by brushing;  After being covered by ash flows from erupting
smearing; dabbing; and blowing it through Mount Vesuvius in 79 BC, several Roman towns
hollow bones, like an airbrush. such as Pompeii were forgotten until an acci-
 Because pigments come from minerals, trace dental discovery in the eighteenth century
minerals that remain in the ground pigment can revealed a snapshot into Roman life and its
still be viewed with a microscope, providing well-preserved art.
clues about where it was originally mined and  The towns’ beeswax-based encaustic murals and
how it made its way along trade routes to the large frescoes, which borrowed techniques from
artist—including the 25 mile trek of cave painters the Greeks and Minoans, have endured vividly to
the present.
25,000 years ago from the source of their ochres
to the Lascaux Cave in what is now France.  Dyes made from plants were also used in art-
work in the Mediterranean region. Madder made
 The adoption and evolution of artistic practices in
red dyes; saffron, turmeric, and pomegranate
various locations illustrates collaboration among
rind made yellow; and indigo made dark blue.
artists across the ancient world, from the Egyptians
Other colors could be mixed from these primary
and Minoans to the Greeks and Romans.
hues.

References: The Colorful History of Paint

Paint | [Link]
History of Paint | Wikipedia
Pigments through the Ages | [Link]
Cave Painting | Wikipedia
EarthDate is Captivating New Look at Ancient Painting Buried by Volcano | National Geographic [Link]
What Do Rocks Have to Do with Renaissance Art? | [Link]
sponsored by Fact Sheet:
Schlumberger. Contributors: Juli Hennings, Harry Lynch Episode ED 059
Background: The Colorful History of Paint
 Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Modern paint-  Natural mineral pigments were dug from the earth
ing introduced new materials, colors, and and shaped into sticks that were used as chalks
technologies. by artists including da Vinci, Michelangelo, and
 In the Middle Ages, a common method of paint- Rembrandt.
ing used egg tempera, in which pigment is mixed  Pre-mixed paint cakes for artists were first man-
with water and egg. To avoid cracking, the tech- ufactured and sold in the eighteenth century.
nique required glazing—transparent layers add-  Sherwin-Williams sold the first pre-mixed wall
ed on top of a painting—which created a highly paints in 1867. Before that, people had to mix
finished appearance. their own wall paint from powdered pigment. By
 Ultramarine was a new color in the Middle Ages, the mid-nineteenth century, watercolors were
derived from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan. also available for sale to the public.
 In the Renaissance, walnut or linseed oil re-  Since the 1940s, technological advances have
placed egg as the base for pigments used on produced synthetic pigments and chemical pro-
canvas; the richness and depth of color this cesses for paint making—leading to easier prep-
technique made possible enabled painters to aration for artists and house painters alike and
create new luminous effects in their art. vastly expanding the once mineral-based limited
color palette to all the colors of the rainbow.

References: The Colorful History of Paint

Paint | [Link]
History of Paint | Wikipedia
Pigments through the Ages | [Link]
Cave Painting | Wikipedia
EarthDate is Captivating New Look at Ancient Painting Buried by Volcano | National Geographic [Link]
What Do Rocks Have to Do with Renaissance Art? | [Link]
sponsored by Fact Sheet:
Schlumberger. Contributors: Juli Hennings, Harry Lynch Episode ED 059