Painting conditioned by chemistry: the case of Egyptian and ultramarine blue pigments

Abstract Painting, from its beginnings over 30,000 years ago, has been conditioned by the availability of pigments, whether mineral or synthesised by ingenious craftsmen and manufacturers. While the yellow (yellow ochre) and red (red ochre) colours from surface minerals and black from charcoal used in cave paintings (30,000–15,000 BC) were readily available, the blue of sky and water was the last colour to appear in painting. This lecture text considers the two blue pigments that dominated paint