Several historically important, visually striking pigments — lead white, vermilion/cinnabar and arsenic-based greens among the best documented — carried real health hazards that were not fully understood or acted on for a long time, offering a genuine cautionary counterpoint to any romanticised view of historical colour.
Lead white, the dominant white pigment in Western painting for over two thousand years, is made from a metal now well documented as a serious neurotoxin; historical exposure among painters and pigment workers is well documented in the medical literature.
Notable use · Western painting tradition · antiquity to the 20th century
Scheele's Green and Paris Green, 18th- and 19th-century arsenic-based green pigments, were later linked to widely documented 19th-century cases of illness and death connected to wallpaper, clothing dye and paint made with these pigments.
Notable use · 18th–19th century
Vermilion, made from the mercury-bearing mineral cinnabar, was prized in antiquity and later periods for its vivid red despite the mercury content, which was handled with far less protective care than modern safety standards require.
Notable use · Mediterranean and East Asia · antiquity onward
Historical claims above are scoped to a specific period, region or culture where relevant — none are presented as a single universal fact. See methodology.