Where Do Paints Come From? The Surprising Origins of Pigments
Why was ultramarine blue costlier than gold, and how did purple come out of a sea snail? Test yourself on art history's strangest paint stories in eight questions.
A painting's blue might come from a mountain, its purple from a snail, and its brown from somewhere far more unsettling. The history of pigments is one of the strangest places where chemistry meets art.
Eight questions, four options each. Every answer is settled knowledge in museum and chemistry-history sources, and guessing is allowed.
Ultramarine blue, which Renaissance painters bought at a price above gold, was ground from which stone?
The famous "Tyrian purple" of the ancient Mediterranean was obtained from which creature?
How did Prussian blue come about in the early 18th century?
Carmine, the source of the brightest red for centuries, is made from what?
Why was the pigment sold in 19th-century Europe called "mummy brown"?
What is the name of the green pigment that spread everywhere from wallpaper to dresses in the 19th century, yet contained arsenic?
Which metal was lead white, the painter's white of choice for centuries, made from?
Which is the oldest known synthetic (human-made) pigment?
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