Ultramarine

This article is about the pigment and the color. For other uses, see Ultramarine (disambiguation).
"Ultramarine blue" redirects here. For the RAL color, see Ultramarine blue (RAL).
Ultramarine
 
Ultramarine pigment
About these coordinates     Color coordinates
Hex triplet#120A8F
sRGBB (r, g, b)(18, 10, 143)
HSV (h, s, v)(244°, 93%, 56%)
CIELChuv (L, C, h)(17, 65, 266°)
SourceColorHexa[1]
ISCC–NBS descriptorDeep blue
B: Normalized to [0–255] (byte)

Ultramarine is a deep blue color pigment which was originally made by grinding lapis lazuli into a powder.[2] Its lengthy grinding and washing process makes the natural pigment quite valuable—roughly ten times more expensive than the stone it comes from and as expensive as gold.[3][4]

The name ultramarine comes from the Latin ultramarinus. The word means 'beyond the sea', as the pigment was imported by Italian traders during the 14th and 15th centuries from mines in Afghanistan.[5][6] Much of the expansion of ultramarine can be attributed to Venice which historically was the port of entry for lapis lazuli in Europe.

Ultramarine was the finest and most expensive blue used by Renaissance painters. It was often used for the robes of the Virgin Mary and symbolized holiness and humility. It remained an extremely expensive pigment until a synthetic ultramarine was invented in 1826.[7]

Ultramarine is a permanent pigment when under ideal preservation conditions. Otherwise, it is susceptible to discoloration and fading.[8]

  1. ^ "Ultramarine / #120a8f hex color". ColorHexa. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
  2. ^ Webster's New World Dictionary of American English, Third College Edition 1988.
  3. ^ Roy, Ashok. "Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics" (PDF). National Gallery of Art. 2: 39.
  4. ^ Plesters, Joy (1966). "Ultramarine Blue, Natural and Artificial" (PDF). International Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works. 11 (2): 64. doi:10.2307/1505446. JSTOR 1505446.
  5. ^ "ultramarine". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2011-06-30.
  6. ^ "History of Ultramarine". www.york.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  7. ^ "Pigments through the Ages – History – Ultramarine". www.webexhibits.org. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  8. ^ Roy, Ashok. "Artists' Pigments: A Handbook of Their History and Characteristics" (PDF). National Gallery of Art. 2: 44–45.