Mayan blue
color code: # 73C2FB
Maya blue refers to a bright turquoise blue color and a pigment that was used by the Maya from the year 800 for ritual purposes.
Manufacture and properties
The recipe for making it was forgotten in the 18th and 19th centuries. The pigment was rediscovered in 1931 on a wall painting in the temple city of Chichén Itzá in Mexico.
Maya blue consists of palygorskite or sepiolite clay that is colored with indigo and bound with copal by heating to at least 100 ° C. The color of the pigment varies depending on the indigo concentration and the pH value in the production from cereal blue to sea green and from turquoise to pure blue. It is extremely resistant to weathering and heat, as well as acid and alkali-resistant. The structure is not yet fully understood. By embedding the indigo in the structure of the carrier material, the pigment is effectively protected against color loss and change.
use
Maya blue was used to decorate ceramics, sculptures, and jewelry in addition to paintings.
Mayan warrior painting with Mayan blue background
Mexican painting by Juan Gerson using Mayan blue
Web links
- Mayan blue mystery revealed. Stern, February 28, 2008, accessed March 16, 2019 .
- Constantino Reyes-Valerio: Pigmento Azul Maya. El color azul maya en Mesoamérica - Research of History, Archaelogy and Chemistry. 2006, accessed March 16, 2019 (Spanish, English).
swell
- ↑ Ingo Klöckl: Chemistry of Colorants . In painting. De Gruyter, Berlin, Munich, Boston 2015, ISBN 978-3-11-037453-7 , pp. 302 , doi : 10.1515 / 9783110374537 . (accessed via de Gruyter Online).
- ↑ Spectrum of Science, May 2008, pp. 14–15, Holy Blue