Ultramarine Blue

For centuries, some painters spent more on blue than on gold. Natural ultramarine, obtained from Afghan lapis lazuli, crossed continents and empires before arriving in European workshops. Its rarity was such that contracts sometimes specified the exact quantity of pigment to use in a work. Behind certain Renaissance Virgins hides in reality one of the most expensive materials in the artistic world.

Natural ultramarine comes from lapis lazuli, a metamorphic rock extracted mainly from the mines of Badakhshan, in present-day Afghanistan. From the Middle Ages, this stone traveled thousands of kilometers via trade routes connecting Central Asia to the Mediterranean basin. Once arrived in Europe, it was ground then subjected to an extremely long purification process designed to isolate the purest blue particles.

The result was a pigment of unusual depth, very different from the duller blues available at the time. Its name moreover comes from the Latin ultramarinus, "from beyond the seas." In Italian Renaissance workshops, its price sometimes exceeded that of gold by equal weight. The wealthiest patrons often demanded its use for the most important sacred elements, notably the mantles of the Virgin.

This economic value directly influenced painting composition. Some artists reserved ultramarine for visually strategic areas and used less expensive pigments for underlying layers. Vermeer, known for his luminous palettes, nevertheless employed this blue remarkably generously, including in almost invisible details. Spectrometric analyses have revealed its presence in shadows or mixtures where the eye almost no longer distinguishes it.

In the 19th century, the creation of synthetic ultramarine radically transformed European painting. The pigment suddenly became accessible on a large scale, modifying artistic practices as much as workshop economics. This technical change discreetly participated in the chromatic explosion visible among the Impressionists and modern movements that followed.