Below is a list in progress of traditional pigments and inks commonly used in medieval Europe by illuminators and scribes. (By the Renaissance or so, more colours were being imported.) I've listed items by their most prominent name – many have more than one – and tried to include their chemical name where possible.
There's a short bibliography at the bottom of the page and some useful links for more info, suppliers etc.
First, three definitions:
Many pigments can be turned into 'inks' (in the loose sense of 'writing medium') by diluting them to a thin-cream consistency and using with a dip-nib.
A dye might also be used as
an ink, especially if the dye is designed to bond chemically to the
substance that the writing surface is made of. So, in theory, light-fast fabric dye
should work as ink on cotton-rag watercolour paper. But I
have not tried this; and some dyes require heat to activate them.
Made by reacting crushed oak galls, a source of tannin, with iron sulphate in pure water. The resulting ink is pale brown on first application to the page, but exposure to oxygen causes it to darken and it continues to darken with time.
NB oak gall ink is not a pigment but a true ink where (as above) ‘ink’ derives from ‘encaustic’ from the Greek ‘caust-’ meaning ‘burn’ (as in caustic soda) because it ‘bites’ into the writing surface, reacting chemically with the fibres, rather than sitting on top.
Used to be used for public records.
Easy to make at home. They say to use rainwater. Distilled water would work. Possibly plain, boiled water would do. Iron sulphate is readily available; it's a moss-killer for lawns and is useful for acidifying soil for plants like raspberries, blueberries, camellias. If you can't get oak galls, I see absolutely no reason why other sources of tannin shouldn't be used such as powdered oak bark (use a spice grinder? – or soak it in small pieces and risk using a high-powered kitchen blender?) or even tea-leaves. But I haven't tried it.
aka lampblack, India ink, Chinese ink
Made of very, very fine soot mixed with water and a little gum arabic. Usually quite a thick liquid. Eventually, it can settle out so stir/shake before use.
Carbon ink is a pigment-based medium, not a true ink (which 'bites' into and chemically bonds with the fibres of the writing surface), so it sits on top of the surface it's written onto and, in theory, can be scraped off. However, since the carbon particles used are so minute, in practice they soak into loose fibres, especially if the ink is used quite dilute. If the ink is made too thick and gummy, it flakes off when dry, but still leaves a stain on paper.
Scraping carbon ink off parchment or vellum can work quite well because the animal skins are denser and sturdier than paper.
Not sure about scraping it off papyrus. On the one hand, papyrus is highly fibrous, so carbon ink might soak in deeply; on the other, papyrus sheet is bonded using its own gel-like sap, which could 'gelatinise' the writing surface and make it harder for carbon particles to soak in deeply.
NB 'atramentum' is the old Roman name for carbon black in general.
Chinese stick-ink is carbon mixed with wet gum and dried in a block. To make ink, the block must be rubbed down with water on slate so that some is worn off into the water. More rubbing = thicker, blacker ink. Counting water-drops and rubbing-strokes helps reproduce the desired consistency.
India ink generally is carbon ink sold in liquid form.
A very thin, runny ink, made from walnut juice (which darkens on exposure to air) suitably diluted and preserved. Readily available commercially.
NB real walnut ink is corrosive to metal nibs. Clean carefully after use.
Picking green walnuts stains your hands dark brown.
A type of bug pink. Only listed here to distinguish it from kermes, New World cochineal, and lac.
(There are a lot of pink bug pigments.)
(Hydrated copper carbonate)
Cheaper than lapis lazuli, paler, slightly greenish, rich mid-blue. Alternative to lapis lazuli/ultramarine.
I have a feeling azurite is one that you shouldn't grind too fine or it goes a bleached greyish colour.
Closely related to malachite (ultramarine) green.
aka Armenian earth
(Red iron oxide, iron oxide clay)
Not used in painting. When mixed with rabbit-skin glue etc, bole provides a smooth dense ground for water-gilding. Not a bright red. A purplish-brownish-maroon colour which lends warmth to the gold laid on top of it.
I recall from gilding classes that bole is said still to be used for painting metal on eg iron railway bridges to help prevent rust. Must check this. Might also be used to tint traditional pink houses in Italy?
(mostly carbon, some unburnt material)
Bone black is a warmish black (ie it has a brownish cast). It is formed by burning bones etc. Can be gritty.
Ivory black is similar but, obviously, isn't available these days unless you can find any spare childhood teeth to burn.
Neither of the above is suitable for use by vegans, I guess.
NB vine black is a colder, more blueish black.
(Iron oxides)
Various browns. Non-toxic, stable. Old, old pigments and still great.
Raw sienna is a plain, natural-looking brown.
Burnt sienna is a clear, reddish brown.
Raw umber is a yellowish, heavy brown.
Burnt umber is a warmer, darker, translucent brown. (Good for painting shadows, I guess; hence the name, as in 'umbrella'.)
aka whiting
(Calcium carbonate)
Occasionally used as white pigment.
More commonly used mixed with rabbit-skin glue as a base for panel-painting (egg tempera) or (often with the addition of lead carbonate) for making gesso sottile for fine gilding.
NB eggshell, also occasionally finely ground and used as white, is also calcium carbonate.
NB of course do not mix with anything acidic or apply anything acidic to it, or poof there it goes.
The natural form of vermilion or mercury sulphide. Inferior in terms of colour to synthetic vermilion but then everything is. Pity both are so unspeakably poisonous. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
See Vermilion.
Woad grows in northern Europe and famously dyed the Picts, but its colour for painting isn’t as good as indigo, which grows in India and was imported as a dye.
During the medieval period, indigo was often mixed with orpiment for vergaut green.
NB these aren't dyes in the proper sense. Indigo coats fibres rather than biting into them. (This is why denim fades in wear-patterns the way it does; the indigo rubs off.) In solution, indigo is a disgusting dishwater greenish yellowish colour into which you dunk your fibres. On exposure to air, it transforms within a minute or so, becoming angel-wing-heavenly blue (think Wilton Triptych). Not sure how indigo and woad are made into painting pigments. Must look it up.
aka Old World cochineal
Made of crushed bugs. Bright clear pink. Originally harvested in north-east Europe. From the sixteenth century, it was ousted by New World cochineal which is even pinker and also made of bugs: white, woolly, slightly disgusting bugs that live on cactus plants. I think they are a type of scale insect.
(By bugs I do mean bugs in the proper scientific sense, ie insects with a piercing mouthpart used to drink sap from plants. Just so you know.)
Use alizarin crimson if feeling squeamish; it's cheaper, too.
Lac, like kermes, derives from bugs, but the bugs in question come from Asia. It is a resin, not a pigment: not very permanent. Probably used mostly as a glaze.
aka carbon black, vegetable black, atramentum
Dense, fluffy black formed of extremely fine soot deposited by flames on a hard surface. You can make it yourself by running a candle flame onto a piece of china for hours but it's hard to get off and hard to make it mix smoothly into liquid and it will probably remain somewhat waxy or oily even if you do.
Can also be used to make ink.
The oldest pigment known to man, apparently.
aka ultramarine blue, lazurite
Rich glowing mid-blue, sometimes with a touch of grey or violet. Expensive (more expensive than gold a lot of the time). Traditionally used in Western paintings for the Virgin Mary’s robes. Note that the extraction of the blue from the blue/grey rock is difficult. Early lapis lazuli pigment in Europe is greyish. After the thirteenth century, the Muslim Arab method of extraction became known in Europe and the quality of the blue improved markedly.
Called ‘ultramarine’ because imported from ‘beyond the sea’ (ultra mare, ie beyond the Mediterranean). Afghanistan was the source during the medieval period. Now usually sourced from South America. Note that batches vary. To my eye, my Chilean lapis lazuli pigment has a more violet tinge than my Old Holland tube, which I believe is ground from lapis lazuli from Afghanistan. The Old Holland in any case is a more sober and attractive blue in my opinion.
Getting a decent watercolour is not so easy. And not cheap. Put it on birthday/Christmas lists. The pure powder pigment can be gritty. Best to re-mull it yourself.
NB acid-sensitive. Vinegar, for example, will bleach it.
French ultramarine is the usual substitute. It's a heavy, dark, somewhat purplish colour by comparison. Meh.
aka white lead, biacca, ceruse
(Lead carbonate)
Fine-textured, responsive, soft bright white. Commonest traditional white used. Tends to blacken near sulphides eg true vermilion, orpiment but mixes great with other colours. Basis for flesh tones.
In terms of substitutes, modern titanium white is more brilliant and colder, with much more coverage. Zinc white is a bit feeble. A mixture might work to approximate lead white colour/coverage but the difficulty is getting its amazing flow which seems to inform much of the decoration on coloured initials. (Also cf Nick Hilliard's later, 'dribbled' lace collars.) Ox gall?
In oil, called flake white and other names, and goes translucent over time.
NB supply, storage and disposal of lead pigments strictly controlled in EU. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
Pale, opaque, attractively lemony sort of yellow. Thirteenth century on.
NB supply, storage and disposal of lead pigments strictly controlled in EU. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
(Lead monoxide)
Yellowish powder. Sometimes found in red lead where it contributes to a more orange shade.
Really only included here because, well, what a name.
NB massicot (another great name!) is another yellowish lead oxide which Meyer says is deeper or more pinkish in hue.
NB supply, storage and disposal of lead pigments strictly controlled in EU. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
aka natural madder, rose madder
Made by causing madder dye (made from the roots of the plant) to deposit onto alum or similar to create a lake (a pigment made of a dye). Rich pinkish red.
Madder is the traditional red of Turkic, Middle Eastern, Iranian and Caucasian etc kilims and rugs, and was used in Europe for dyeing clothing.
aka ultramarine green
(copper ore)
Fifteenth century on. Bright bluish green.
Called ultramarine green for the same reason as lapis-lazuli blue: it came from overseas.
Azurite occasionally turns into malachite. They are closely related.
NB it's a copper compound, so probably pretty poisonous.
(naturally occuring lead oxides)
Usually used to mean a natural form of red lead, named after the Minho river in Spain, where it is said originally to have been mined (but note that cinnabar is more commonly found than red lead in nature).
See Red lead.
See Yellow ochre; Brown ochre.
aka auripigmentum
(Arsenic sulphide: As2S3)
Commonly used, extremely toxic. Goldenish, warm bright yellow. Gives distinct ‘glowing’ or lustrous appearance on early Insular mss, perhaps by contrast with darkened brownish vellum. It tarnishes silver leaf and blackens lead compounds. Don’t mix or juxtapose with lead or copper pigments (causes degradation). Mixed with indigo for vergaut (classic medieval green).
'King’s Yellow' is the related synthetic arsenic trisulphide.
As a substitute, I guess use warm chrome yellow, and adjust if necessary with a little cadmium orange substitute or warm red. Break with a tad of brown/grey – the mined pigment is not totally pure.
NB it’s an arsenic compound: handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
Compare realgar, which is also a form of arsenic sulphide.
(Arsenic sulphide: usually written As4S4)
Reddish-golden orange. Toxic! Naturally occurring mineral. Often it is used in manuscripts together with orpiment. Derives from the Arabic 'rahj al-gar' meaning 'mine-dust'. Apparently.
Pararealgar is more orangey again, as far as I can see, and is the result of exposing realgar to light.
NB it's an arsenic compound and it's very poisonous. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
(Lead oxides: lead tetroxide with lead monoxide)
Very old pigment, relatively easy to make by oxidising (burning) lead carbonate. Often a distinctly orangey red: I seem to recall that this is because of the presence of yellowish lead monoxides, which form before proper oxidisation has been achieved. Consequently, the more time and care is taken during production, the better the quality of the product, and the less orange it is. Dense. Toxic. Darkens on exposure (to oxygen?), reacts with orpiment and (I think) other sulphides.
Cheaper than true vermilion (which is a much clearer, colder red), and often used as a substitute for same, or to cover larger areas. Also might be passed off as vermilion by unscrupulous colourmen – hence, I suspect, the sense of 'vermilion' today as orange-red.
Red lead is the synthetic form of naturally-occurring minium red (so named because the naturally-occurring red was originally mined near the Minho river in Spain). However, Meyer says the word ‘minium’ was used by the Romans to refer to cinnabar. Maybe this was because red lead is rare in its natural form?
This colour and the confusions around its name deserve their own page.
Use cadmium red substitute with some orange or warm yellow mixed in.
NB supply, storage and disposal of lead pigments is strictly controlled in EU. Handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish, do not put wash water down drain.
(Squid or cuttlefish ink)
Densely inky liquid traditionally extracted from squids, who squirt it at predators as a defence when threatened.
Deep translucent brown. Not totally light-fast. Slightly fishy. Non-toxic, obvs. Squid ink is the dye used to make black pasta.
aka Venetian red
(Red ferric oxide)
Another of the many many iron-based earth colours. Various shades of rich, warm red; non-toxic; permanent. Described as good for skin tones mixed with white.
Named after the port of Sinop (Turkey), where the best variety came from. It's a Renaissance colour by name but perhaps known earlier?
NB presumably the 'ferric' distinguishes it from various other shades of iron oxide red, including straight-up rust (a heavy, reddish-orangey-brown shade).
Must brush up on chemistry.
Glass or frit heated with cobalt to turn it deep blue, then broken and powdered. Gives a mid-range blue. As it's glass, it's probably one of those pigments where the finer the grind, the paler the resulting colour.
Do not breathe glass powder. Silocosis. Not nice.
Do not get it anywhere near food. As if I needed to say so.
aka green earth
Natural aluminium and magnesium clay coloured by iron silicates.
Dull, greenish earth colour, often used in Renaissance (and earlier) under flesh tones to show shadow. But not to be confused with verdacchio.
Still very popular.
aka murex
Obtained by squeezing a variety of whelk to extract a tiny drop of liquid which on exposure to air produces a rich purple.
(Who first discovered this? Who then positioned it as a great commercial proposition? I want to see that marketing strategy.)
Only the Emperor could wear the Tyrian purple toga, etc.
Use quinacridone red with blue and break with sepia or similar?
‘Bad green’ or dirty green, made by mixing yellow ochre, carbon black and red earth in varying proportions. Traditionally used for underpainting to establish light and shade values before laying translucent colour over the top.
aka copper salts
Various copper compounds often mixed. Formed by reacting copper with acid and air. Attractive, pale, clear, cool, often chalky greens, perhaps because mixed with whites to help them remain less reactive?
Notoriously unstable, tends to eat through manuscript pages – literally – leaving holes or tears.
Viridian mixed with white forms a base for a substitute colour.
(Mercury sulphide)
This is the synthetic version of cinnabar. Made by collecting the horribly poisonous vapours in a heated, sealed glass vessel and then scraping them out. Synthesis well established by 14th C (Ricciardi & Beers, 27).
Fine, fluffy texture. Brilliant, powerful, glowing red in the mid-range. Nothing else looks like it. No perfect substitute though cadmium red is usually used instead. (And even cadmium red is poisonous enough to have been substituted for.)
Highly toxic. In earlier periods, expensive and usually used sparingly.
NB handle very carefully, do not inhale any, do not ingest any. Do not throw away in regular rubbish. Do not put wash water down drain.
(Calcite; calcium carbonate; CaCO3)
Calcium carbonate from chalk or marble, powdered and used as a filler or sometimes a pigment in its own right.
See Chalk.
aka Chamois, apparently
(Iron oxide)
Ranges from golden to brownish. Non-toxic. Stable.
NB fine-quality yellow ochre watercolour is luminously golden when applied thinly as a transparent glaze or wash, becomes clayish khaki if applied opaquely.
(Often mixes nice, clear, and natural-looking greens if used with a greenish blue eg manganese. Produces duller greens with cerulean and greyish greens with cobalt and ultramarine.)
Many traditional pigments and dyes are toxic substances. These are generally difficult to obtain in Europe, where they are more highly regulated than in many other parts of the world.
Non-toxic or less-toxic substitutes have been commercially developed for such colours, are available worldwide, and are generally used
instead. However, as many artists have pointed out, because such substitutes are different chemicals from the traditional colour, they are:
Artists who wish to use chemicals that are dangerous to others should of course be absolutely scrupulous in doing so. But, factually, artists screw up too, or get casual about safety for whatever reason. Regulations therefore are useful, to help save lives and minimise misery.
Largely, I rejoice in having non-toxic colours to use, and regard them as opportunities not replacements. It's nice to have the luxury of sighing over the vividness of traditional vermilion without waking at 3.00 am freaking out about whether I'm slowly killing myself with it.
Toxic pigments can seriously and permanently harm the health and
well-being of people, unborn babies, pets, wildlife, plants, aquatic
life and ecosystems in a number of different ways. One large dose might
kill you or hospitalise you (or a child, pet or animal) but low doses
over time can also be deadly. Lead drives you mad and even tiny
quantities lower IQ permanently. Mercury messes your emotions
up, and damages nerves: ongoing skin-crawling sensations, not good.
Cadmium: soft bones and kidney failure, anyone? Arsenic causes cancer:
fumes of arsenic green in wallpaper may have been what eventually killed
Napoleon.
In particular, lead, mercury, and arsenic remain toxic (they do not break down) and they accumulate in living tissues, which means that their adverse effects build up over time.
JUST SAYING.
typically bone, metal, possibly hardwood?
Any point tough enough to indent vellum or parchment (or, later, paper) when dragged along it. In Europe, generally used until around the thirteenth century for ruling layout lines on manuscript pages, after which lead began to become more popular, if I recall my palaeography classes correctly.
An advantage of using hardpoint for layout is that the line it leaves requires no erasure and is not obvious unless the light catches it. Another is that, using sufficient pressure, more than one sheet can be ruled at a time. A disadvantage is that the line it leaves is physically etched in, and therefore permanent.
A hardpoint stylus is of course ideal for use with wax (or plasticine) tablets for sketching, testing ideas, etc. It is handy for impressing small dots into vellum or paper as non-coloured guide-marks in laying out illuminated initials or Celtic knotwork, for example.
Also used at various times to emboss or impress patterns into raised and flat gilding.
The three techniques below all require a point of soft metal, often mounted in a handle to make a stylus, and a mildly abrasive drawing surface which has enough 'tooth' to draw some of the metal off as a line when it's rubbed across the surface, exactly as paper takes graphite off a pencil.
It's often hard to tell what metal was used, hence
common use of 'metalpoint' as a generic term. Lead, silver, gold,
copper, and various alloys all work.
To make metalpoint work, paper or animal skin would be treated with a substance such as white lead, whiting or gesso to achieve a smooth, very finely abrasive ground which would take a clean line. Vellum and parchment were often in any case degreased with chalk or pounce (powdered pumice stone) before use, which would make it more likely that a soft metal would leave a line for ruling or laying out ornament.
Some fantastic Renaissance drawings employ metalpoint. Silverpoint particularly enjoyed a revival during the nineteenth century as a result of a new fascination with the quattrocento aesthetic.
Elemental lead (Pb)
Became popular for ruling manuscripts in Western Europe from, I think, the thirteenth century onwards. Also used for drawing and sketching through the Renaissance.
Not recommended for use today. Graphite performs much better in much the same style and is not nastily toxic as lead is.
Elemental silver (Ag)
Silverpoint is what is usually meant by 'metalpoint' in a contemporary art setting. If you don't have whiting or gesso to treat your paper with, you could probably make it work on a thin coating of titanium or zinc white, even.
Silver gives a fine, faint, cool-grey line. A little like working with a 6H pencil except that the density of the silver can be built up a bit more.
Elemental gold (Au)
Fancy, eh? Not many drawings are identified as goldpoint. I think, possibly, many artists may have concluded (as I do) that since gold gives results just as understated as other metals, and as metalpoint could indeed be mistaken for many of them, you might just as well use silver or copper or brass for the drawings and save any little lumps of gold you had lying around for gilding, or banking, or chasing romance.
Still, some drawings are known to have been executed in gold. Quite the humblebrag flex.
Short video below with a little more on metalpoint from Professor Catherine Whistler, Keeper of Western Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Color of Art Pigment Database (accessed 11 March 2021): fantastically detailed website, home of all things pigment.
Geology.com: Geoscience News and Information (accessed 11 March 2021): useful articles under 'minerals' on cinnabar, graphite, haematite (iron oxides), malachite, orpiment, realgar. See the 'gemstones' page for azurite and lapis lazuli.
Jackson Art on Roberson metalpoint (includes supplies) (accessed 17 March 2021): useful short article including a brief history of use and Renaissance examples of metalpoint art along with an explanation of how different metalpoints work and links to supplies.
I shan't recommend specific suppliers for inks, as there are so many, and they change frequently.
India ink is available very widely. Higgins is a go-to standard for much basic calligraphic work but everyone has their favourite (in my case, a cheapo bumper bottle of Daler-Rowney Kandahar that I picked up probably fifteen years ago and still haven't quite got through).
Chinese stick-ink has all its own mystique. "Is it pine-soot? – was it dried the right way? – what precise quality of grey does the black dilute to?" – etc. Basically, assuming you're dealing with an honest retailer, you will get the quality you pay for; and if you want opaque black results, your needs will be a little different than if you want to use it heavily diluted.
Walnut ink is all over the place in both liquid and crystal form. Writing forums and blogs often review and list good brands including Daniel Smith and Tom Norton (a high-quality imitation walnut ink that does not corrode nibs). Note that 'walnut ink' may be used to describe inks that are the colour of walnut ink but which are not made from walnut or equivalent natural material.
Oak-gall ink is not as common as walnut, but can be found: Rohrer & Klingner, Zecchi. Making one's own is one of those medievalist-rite-of-passage things that I have never quite got round to. There are innumerable recipes online.
Many of the traditional pigments listed above – and other supremely exciting substances for painting and writing, such as powdered graphite or crushed rubies – are available from:
Ricciardi, P., and K. R. Beers, 'The Illuminators’ Palette', in Panayotova, Colour, pp. 27-57
Bucklow, S., 'The Trade in Colours', in Panayotova, Colour, pp. 59-74
King, Hobart M., 'Realgar and Orpiment', Geology.com: Geoscience News and Information (accessed 11 March 2021)
Meyer, R., 'Pigments', in The Artist’s Handbook of Materials and Techniques, fifth ed. rev. and expanded by S. Sheehan (Faber & Faber, 1991), pp. 29-166
Panayotova, S., ed., Colour: The Art and Science of Illuminated Manuscripts (Harvey Miller, 2016)
Vine, Betty, 'When Color Kills: Toxic Pigments Through the Ages', ARTpublika Magazine: Art Culture for The People, July 15, 2019 (accessed 11 March 2021)
Go to site map
Go to home page