
Sir Humphrey Davy, “Some Experiments and Observations on the Colours Used in Painting by the Ancients” Philosophical Transactions, London 1815
Almost 40 pigments were described by the authors of the four known treatises that have survived from the 1st centuries B.C. and A.D.. To them the 3rd century treatise by a pupil of Aristotle can also be added, making up all that is known about the pigments used by Greek and Roman classical painters.
The descriptions of the pigments by Theophrastus, Vitruvius, Pliny and Dioscorides are given in full, making this little volume a complete primary source on pigments used in fresco and panel painting.
The essays by the editor discuss the two main themes in the classical texts: the principles underlying painting that were based on the capturing of form using colours and tones between light and dark, and the classification of pigments as natural and artificial, categories determined by the processing of the natural substances.
These themes provided the foundations for European Renaissance painting from the 15th century, especially since the treatises by the four classical authors included in this little volume first appeared in print with the invention of the printing press c. 1440.
CONTENTS
Plates •1 to •6
•1 Citharist, 1st century B.C., Pompeii •2 Bacchus and Maenad, late 1st century A.D. •3 Still Life with Fruit Bowl, House of Julia Felix, 1st century A.D., Pompeii, •4 Wading Bird, Pompeii •5 Bird, House of the Venus, 1st century A.D., Pompeii •6 Centaur and Maenad, Villa of Cicero, 1st century B.C., Pompeii
Presentation
Patricia Railing
Greek and Roman Painting – Truth to Nature is to Honour Nature; Truth to Nature as Imitation. Painters’ Pigments – 1. The Basic Pigments Classified by Colour 2. Natural and Artificial Pigments 3. The Monochrome and the Four-Colour Palette 4. The Colourful Palette 5. Fresco Pigments 6. Gessoed Wood Panel and Encaustic Pigments.
Note on the Texts
Book Illustrations
Marco Vitruvius Pollio. Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Manuscript, c. 1480.
Pliny the Elder, The Historie of the World, London, 1601.
Pliny the Elder, 1st printed edition, 1469.
Theophrastus, On Stones, printed edition of 1578. Dioscorides, Miniature from manuscript of Botany, c. 500 A.D.
The Pigments by Vitruvius, Pliny, Theophrastus, Dioscorides
The White Pigments
The Yellow Pigments
The Red Pigments
The Green Pigments
The Blue Pigments
The Purple Pigments
The Black Pigments
Plates •7 to •12
•7 Melian Earth, Entrance to Quarry •8 Cinnabar •9 Allegories of Persia and Macedonia, Villa of Fannius Sinister, 1st century A.D., Boscoreale •10 Orpiment and realgar stone •11 Azurite and malachite stone •12 The Goddess Isis Receiving Io at Canopus in Egypt, Temple of Isis, 1st century A.D., Pompeii
LIST OF PIGMENTS AS GIVEN IN THE FOUR TREATISES
The White Pigments
White Earths – Natural, Mineral.
Paraetonium white
Melinum white
Eretrian earth
Lemian earth
Ring-white
White lead– Artificial, Manufactured.
Ceruse or lead acetate, ‘Psimithium’
The Yellow Pigments
Yellow Ochres Natural, Mineral.
Yellow Ochre, Imitation – Artificial, plant.
Litharge, Monoxide of lead – Artificial.
Orpiment – Natural, Mineral.
Cinnabar – Natural, Mineral.
Dragon’s blood / Cinnabaris – Natural.
Hysginum – Colour name.
Kermes, Coccus – Artificial, animal.
Minium secondarius as Red lead.
Realgar, Sandarach – Natural, Mineral.
Realgar, Sandarach as Red Lead – Artificial.
Red earths, ochres – Natural, Mineral.
Burnt Red Ochre – Artificial.
Red Lead, Sandarach, Minium Secondarius – Artificial. Manufactured.
Sandyx
Syrian, Syricum – Artificial.
The Green Pigments
Chrysocolla – Natural, Mineral.
Green earth / Terre verte – Natural, Mineral.
Malachite – Natural, Mineral.
Verdigris – Artificial.
The Blue Pigments
Armenian blue – Azurite, Natural
Cyanus, Kyanos – Blue, Natural.
Egyptian blue – Artificial, Manufactured.
Indigo – Artificial, Plant.
Woad, Isatis tinctoria, glastum. Artificial, plant.
The Purple Pigments
Purples – Artificial, Animal.
Purple dyes from shellfish of the family – Artificial, animal.
Murex and whelks, Buccinum undatum.
The Black Pigments – Artificial, Plant.
Lamp black
Vine black
Ivory blac
On Pigments Found at Classical Sites
The excavations of Pompeii and Herculaneum in the 18th century afforded not only the discovery of architecture, sculpture and painting, but also the pigments used to create the paintings, most of which were fresco wall paintings. For pots of pigments from shops were unearthed and even found in corners of houses where painting was perhaps being carried out at the time of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius on 24-25 August 79 A.D..
Eighteenth century scientists were very much the companions of the archaeologists who were carrying out the excavations. The first comprehensive article, it would seem, reporting on the pigments found at the sites was published in London in Philosophical Transactions of January 1815, written by the highly respected English chemist, Sir Humphrey Davy (1778-1829). It is printed here in full.
Davy’s article is important above all because his analysis of the pigments found in pots and in situ specimens taken from wall paintings coincide with those given by Vitruvius and Pliny in their texts. Evidence has confirmed the documents, while information on the mixing of pigments, mentioned only in passing in the 1st century texts, is contributed by Davy’s findings. His article, then, is a fitting complement to a compilation of pigments used in classical Rome and, by extension, Greece – where the same pigments have been found – especially as he, too, places his investigation in the context of the same four authors whose writings are the basis of this little book.
Davy was using the chemistry of the early 19th century, but it is likewise significant that his findings are corroborated by those that can be established using modern scientific equipment and chemistry. For in an article of 2006 by Ruth Siddall, “’Not a day without a line drawn’: Pigments and Painting Techniques of Roman Artists”,1 the author reports on analyses of pigments found at Pompeii, and the results confirm those of Humphrey Davy and, of course, of Vitruvius and Pliny. The same is the case for an earlier study by the American archeologist, Earle R. Caley, in his “Ancient Greek Pigments from the Agora” (Hesperia, Journal of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Vol 14, Issue 2, Apr-June 1945, 152-156; www.jstor.org.)
How satisfying it is when a line traced comes full circle, the picture complete.
Pigments found by Humphrey Davy are:
Reds – red lead, red ochre, cinnabar, burnt ochre, realgar.
Yellows – yellow ochres, orpiment, yellow lead.
Blues – blue frit: Alexandrian/Egyptian blue, azurite, indigo.
Greens – terre verte/green earth, malachite, verdigris.
Purples – murex or kermes, possibly, madder.
Blacks – carbon blacks.
Whites – white earths.
Sir Humphrey Davy
Some Experiments and Observations on the Colours Used in Painting by the Ancients
Philosophical Transactions, London 1815
Downloaded from Philosophical Transactions, 1 January 1815, No. 105, 97-105. London. By courtesy of Royal Society Publishing.org.
1 Ruth Siddall, “’Not a day without a line drawn’: Pigments and Painting Techniques of Roman Artists”, In Focus, Issue 2, June 2006, www.academia.edu

Bowls of pigments found at Pompeii. From left to right: probably red ochre, yellow ochre, Egyptian blue (Sophie Hay, Archeologist)
Definitions from Vitruvius, Pliny, Theophrastus, Dioscorides (see Treatises, Biblio)