Ultramarine (natural)
Natural · Medieval period to 19th century (before synthetic ultramarine)
Synthetic ultramarine reproduces the colour of natural ultramarine (historically ground from lapis lazuli) without the extreme cost of the original mineral.
This photograph's plain white background dominates an automated whole-frame colour scan, so the palette above was hand-picked from the pigment powder itself. Ultramarine's real colour also varies by grind and by the light it's viewed in."Ultramarine pigment" by Palladian, public domain, via Wikimedia CommonsLicence details
- Source:
- Wikimedia Commons
- Creator:
- Palladian
- Licence:
- Released into the public domain by the copyright holder — free to use for any purpose, no attribution legally required.
- Reviewed:
- 2026-07-25
- Source material
- Lapis lazuli (a semi-precious stone)
- Geography
- Sourced primarily from mines in present-day Afghanistan; used across Asia and Europe
- Earliest documented use
- 6th–7th century (Afghan mines), widespread European use from the medieval period
- Cost & availability
- Extremely expensive — for centuries one of the costliest pigments available, often priced comparably to gold.
- Production (historical summary)
- Ground from lapis lazuli stone, historically refined through a laborious purification process.
- Stability & lightfastness
- Very stable once purified; historically prone to degrading if impure. (excellent)
- Replacement / obsolescence
- Largely replaced by synthetic French ultramarine, first produced in the 1820s, which is chemically similar but far cheaper.
Notable uses
- Renaissance religious painting, especially robes of the Virgin Mary
- Illuminated manuscripts
Sources
- The National Gallery, London (conservation and pigment research) — The National Gallery
- Wikipedia (colour, pigment and dye history articles) — Wikimedia Foundation
- Encyclopaedia Britannica — Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.