Color Measurement - Metal Effect Pigments

Gerhard Pfaff, Gerhard Pfaff

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9783110586947
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Ciencias físicas
• Subtopic: Química industrial y técnica

Volume 2

From Color Measurement to Metal Effect Pigments

With contributions on various industrially important dyes, inorganic pigments and organic pigments, on color measurement and historical pigments, dyes and binders

• A comprehensive overview on all important dyes, inorganic and organic pigments supplemented by information on all relevant applications and color fundamentals
• The chapters are clearly structured and arranged in alphabetical order in the 3-volumes.

37 Historical pigments, dyes and binders

Magdalene Gärtner

Maltechnik, Institut für Maltechnik, Schwaebisch Gmuend, Germany

This article has previously been published in the journal Physical Sciences Reviews. Please cite as M.Gärtner Historical Pigments and Binders Physical Sciences Reviews [Online] 2021, 6. DOI: 10.1515/psr-2020-0176

Abstract

Artistic creation has accompanied the development of mankind since the beginning. Color as the appearance of things perceptible with the eye is fundamental for the creative process. For the longest time in the past, the use of color was characterized by often very complex manufacturing processes that required the greatest inventiveness and complex knowledge of comprehensive interrelationships from the user. Existing knowledge was passed on and used again and again, but the basic color materials were always further developed and sensitively adapted to the differentiated areas of application and needs. Today, paint coats and, in some cases, extensive collections of recipes provide us with evidence and ideas about these processes in previous times. In this context, it is important to understand that paint recipes were treated like valuables and secrets in the past. The present overview offers insights into the world of historical pigments, dyes and binders. However, a complete overview is not possible at this point due to the diversity of sources, the individual work processes and the different application requirements.

Keywords: historical pigments, historical dyes, historical binders, earth colors, mineral pigments, imprimatur, colored grounds, paintings, gold plating, metal plating, panel painting, natural organic binder, plant rubber, drying oils, resin, wax,

37.1 Fundamentals

Color as a means of expression is one of the oldest cultural achievements of mankind. The preparation of colors, the collection and production of pigments, dyes and binders are among the earliest verifiable creative processes. It is a basic prerequisite for people to come to terms with what they have experienced and to capture it in a picture. This cultural asset can be traced as early as the Upper Paleolithic and appears in the cave paintings, for example, of Lascaux (France) or Altamira (Spain). The following remarks refer mainly to the occidental cultural area.

When dealing with historical pigments, dyes and formulations, the reconstruction from our present perspective is often ambiguous. The former manufacturing processes reflect the view of the practicing artist or craftsman in past time. A scientific approach as we know it today is an achievement of modern times.

Different sources are used for the reconstruction of historical painting materials today. In addition to original coatings of paint on various picture carriers, which can be traced far back in different cultural circles, we have today particularly technical writings, recipe notes or painters’ manuals that reflect the everyday situation of the former craftsmen. Early directly transmitted written sources date back to the Middle Ages. The Lucca Manuscript from the ninth century or the Mappae Clavicula from the twelfth century is among the oldest monastic manuscripts that have, however, more the character of unsystematic collections [1]. Since ancient times, there have been indications how painters worked and what technical tools they had. The interest in these sources arose with the beginning of classical studies in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries [2].

Surviving works of art are also complex testimonies for the materials used in the respective times and regions or in the corresponding cultural spheres. Modern nondestructive scientific examination methods such as neutron diffraction, X-ray diffraction or infrared spectroscopy help to identify historical painting materials. The multilayered structure of a work of art can also be traced using these methods.

It is possible to investigate how the artists selected, procured and processed the materials, but it is almost impossible to translate the recipes into the language of today’s chemistry. The chemically complex raw materials that were used are of low purity in the modern chemical sense and are not always comparable due to the natural locations where they were found.

In addition to the knowledge about the processing of these raw materials by the former craftsmen, extensive experience of botany is required, for example, for the plants that were used for art purposes. Different properties of a plant raw material are attributable to the time of harvesting or to the place of growth. In the same way, the knowledge of zoology for the animal raw materials, mineralogy for the mineral pigments and also metallurgy is required.

The old master recipes often require extensive interpretation, since the terminologies and the manufacturing processes described do not correspond to today’s materials and production processes. Natural raw materials of mineral, animal or vegetable origin provide the basis for the painting materials produced in more or less complex processes.

Particular attention will be paid here to the extraction and process...