Egyptian blue pigment found in Romanesque altarpiece in Barcelona

A team of researchers from the University of Barcelona (UB) has discovered remains of Egyptian blue in a 12th Century church altarpiece in the church of Sant Pere de Terrassa (Barcelona). The results of this research have just been published in the journal Archaeometry.

Egyptian blue or Pompeian blue was a pigment frequently used by the ancient Egyptians and Romans to decorate objects and murals. Following the fall of the Western Roman Empire (476 AD), this pigment fell out of use and was no longer made.

“The results show without any shadow of a doubt that the pigment is Egyptian blue”, said Mario Vendrell, co-author of the study and a geologist from the UB’s Grup Patrimoni research group. It could not be any other kind of blue pigment used in Romanesque murals, such as azurite, lapis lazuli or aerinite.

The geologist also mentioned there is no evidence that people in Medieval times had knowledge of how to manufacture this pigment, which is made of copper silicate and calcium.

“The most likely hypothesis is that the builders of the church happened upon a ‘ball’ of Egyptian blue from the Roman period and decided to use it in the paintings on the stone altarpiece”, Vendrell explained.

Alpha Galileo

Related posts:

1. Dramatized exhibition at Egyptian Museum in Barcelona
2. Researchers to restore Egyptian murals
3. Evidence of madder dye found on 4,000-year-old Egyptian artifact
4. San Francisco's Legion of Honor showcases ancient Egyptian masterpieces
5. Hanging Church in Egypt to reopen by year's end

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 6th, 2010 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Fun/Odd. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.