Scribes of Meridies
Period Pigments
Prehistory
(Before 8th century BC)
Antiquity
(8th c. BC - 6th Century AD)
Medieval
(5th - 15th Century)
Renaissance
(14th - 17th Century)
*Started in Egypt and Ended with the fall of Rome. Then started use again in the 19th Century
Carbon Blank
(Vine Black, Lamp Black)
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Bone Black
(Ivory Black, Bone Charcoal)
Raw Umber
Burnt Umber
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Red Ochre
(Red Bole, Cinabrese, Mars Red)
Yellow Ochre
(Mars Yellow)
Lime White
(Chalk, Bianco San Giovanni)
Madder Lake
(Garanza Lake, Alizarin)
Carmine Lake
(Cochineal Lake, Kermes Lake)
Realgar (Toxic)
Orpiment (Toxic)
(Kings Yellow)
Malachite (Toxic)
(Bremen Green/Iris Green)
Azurite
(Lapis Armenius, Mountain Blue, Azurium Citramarinium, Blue Verditer, Blue Bice)
Egyptian Blue
(Frit, Pompeian Blue)
Indigo
Minium (Toxic)
(Red Lead)
Vermilion (Toxic)
(Cinnabar)
​Green Earth
(Terra Verte, Verona Green)
Verdigris (Toxic)
Lead White (Toxic)
((Flake White, Cremnitz White)
Ultramarine
(Lazurite, French Ultramarine)
(12th Century)
Lead Tin Yellow (Toxic)
(Giallorino)
(13th to 18th Century)
Smalt (Blue Cobalt Glass) - Toxic
(Starch Blue)
(15th - 18th Century)
Indian Yellow
(Snowshoe Yellow)
(15th to 19th Century)
Copper Resinate
(Glaze used on top of Verdigris)
(15th to 17th Century)
Naples Yellow (Toxic)
(Lead Antimonate Yellow)
undocumented how long its been in use as a pigment
Out of Period but still in Renaissance
Van Dyke Brown
(Cassel Earth/Cologne Earth)
1600
Prussian Blue
(Milori Blue, Berlin Blue, Iron Blue) 1724
Cobalt Green
(Rinmans Green, Zinc Green
1780)
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Cobalt Blue
(Thénards Blue/Dresden Blue)
1802