mineral colours... lead-based

Ingredients

lead, clay

Evidence

"I worked with Snodgrass on a variety of pigments from two imperial quality Shah Jahan period paintings, which we analysed using ultraviolet light, infrared spectrometry, a polarizing microscope, a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), and Nicolet FTIR microspectroscopy. With the exception of Indian Yellow, indigo, and red insect dye, all were mineral colours, and almost all of them were lead-based. Clay was used to mix most of the colours."

Remarks

Analysis performed on two imperial-quality Mughal paintings dating to the reign of Shah Jahan. The results indicate that the majority of mineral pigments used during this period were lead-based, with clay serving as a common bulking agent or mixing medium (p. 52, Note 1).