Mineralogy in Art

Speaker: Doctor Chris Duffin, Scientific Associate, Natural History Museum, London

This month Dr Chris Duffin will be focusing on the geological materials used in painting. Geological pigments have been used extensively from the earliest cave paintings to the mid-eighteenth century. From ochres used to provide light earth tones, copper minerals used as the sources of green and blue pigments, the intense blue of ultramarine from lapis lazuli through to gold and silver leaf.

Chris will look at some of the historical sources of the pigments, the processing needed to make them functional and many examples of their uses. Hopefully your next visit to an art gallery will add a geological element to your view of the art.

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