A five pound of the world’s oldest known synthesized pigment was found in the Nero palace

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The Hunk weighs no less than five pounds and measures more than six centimeters long.
Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological Park

In the ruins of Rome’s lush Domus Aurea Palace, archaeologists have a range of old pigments used by craftsmen, discovered to paint the walls of the stately marble house of the emperor Nero with beautiful fresco About 2,000 years ago.

In the remains of workshops, the archaeologists have found an amphora with yellow ocher and small pots filled with reddish pigments such as Realgar And red ocher. They also came across basins where craftsmen would have mixed pigments with water.

But the highlight of the Trek is a solid piece of Egyptian blue, a rare pigment that is appreciated for thousands of years because of its shimmering and essential qualities.

Yellow

Yellow ocher discovered in a Roman amphora

Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological Park

“The fascination transmitted by the depth of the blue of this pigment is incredible,” says Alfonsina Russothe director of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which manages the Domus Aurea, in one rackaccording to a translation by Gizmodo‘s Margherita Bassi. “The Domus Aurea moves again [us] And restores the sparkle of the colors used by the painters who skillfully decorated the rooms of this precious and refined imperial palace. “

Unlike ocher and realgar, which naturally occur, Egyptian blue is a synthetic pigment produced By firing a mixture of silica, limestone and minerals that contain copper and sodium carbonate at high temperatures. It is considered the world oldest Well -known synthetic pigment.

As the name suggests, the blue pigment was created in ancient Egypt. Dating to the least the third millennium BC, it became an “essential element” in decoration and design, according to La Brújula Verde‘s Guillermo Carvajal. It provided the subtle shade About ancient Egyptian portraits and the lively coloring of Faience Funerary statuettes.

The Roman architect Vitruvius recorded the recipe in his treatise The Architectura In the first century BC. Bicht again how the color spread through the Mediterranean world and found a flourishing house in the Roman Empire, where researchers have since identified Egyptian blue in the Baden from Titus And the walls of Pompeii.

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Egyptian blue is the world’s oldest known synthetic pigment.

Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological Park

Archaeologists often discover traces of Egyptian blue that are anything but imperceptible To the human eye. With the help of microscopes and luminous imaging, for example, researchers from the British Museum discovered that Egyptian blue once decorated the Parthenon marbles. In other cases, the pigment was found according to the statement in fine powders or small bulbs.

But what makes this discovery with the Domus Aurea all the more remarkable is the loving size of the Egyptian blue ingot in question, which weighs more than five pounds and measures six centimeters long.

Tanks

Bassins where the pigments were hydrated and mixed with water

Simona Murrone / Colosseum Archaeological Park

The large size of this sample suggests widespread use in the frescoes of the palace, as well as the “specialized skills of the masters working on the imperial project”, as ArtnetMin Chen writes.

Archaeologists investigate whether this sample of Egyptian blue was produced in their own country – in a place such as such as CumaIlluminator or PozzuoliThat Vitruvius noticed as a production hub or exported from an Egyptian city such as Alexandria, according to the statement.

Researchers once thought that the recipe for the pigment was lost after the fall of the Roman Empire, but were re -discovered in the 19th century by the British chemist Humphry Davy. But Egyptian Blue has been in recent years found In Renaissance Artworks, including Giovanni Battista Benvenuto’s 1524 painting St. Margaret and Raphael’s 1512 fresco Galatea triumph.

Galatea

Raphael’s 1512 Fresco Galatea triumph Uses the Egyptian blue pigment.

Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Artists such as Raphael and Domenico Ghirlandaio was known to sneak in the ruins of Nero’s house to admire and take artistically inspiration of the frescoes completed in the first century CE, according to Artnet.

The presence of Egyptian blue in the Domus Aurea suggests a colorful past that inspired another generation of Italian painters to recreate the lively blue in their own work. As the statement notes, the discovery offers a different connection between the art of antiquity and the art of the Renaissance.

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