ultramarine, indigo, cochineal, white lead, cinnabar, orpiment, copper green, gold, silver, red lead, red ocher, Indian yellow

Ingredients

ultramarine, indigo, cochineal, white lead, cinnabar, orpiment, copper green, gold, silver, red lead, red ocher, Indian yellow, yellow dye, turmeric

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

The document details numerous pigment mixtures: blue is created via ultramarine or indigo (p. 192); pink and violet tonalities are primarily achieved through cochineal, often mixed with white lead (p. 193). A peach/orange-pink colour for a horse in folio 25 is a mixture of cinnabar and white lead, while for wall bricks in folio 43, it is a combination of cochineal, orpiment, and white lead (p. 193). Green tones are produced via copper green or a combination of indigo and orpiment (p. 195). Gold pigments vary by style: Timurid gold is high purity, Safavid gold is mixed with silver powder to reduce cost, and Inju gold is mixed with orpiment (p. 197). Light grey for a 'bogey' is made from indigo and white lead (p. 197).

Evidence

"From the point of view of material science the variety colour materials used in the Timurid paintings are more than Safavid and Inju paintings... indeed 188 single measurements contain; 80 FORS analysis and 80 XRF analysis, 18 FOMF analysis, and five SERS-Raman and HPLC-MS were performed on this manuscript."

Remarks

Analysis shows that Timurid painters used a more diverse palette compared to Safavid and Inju painters in the same manuscript. Inju painters specifically used only copper green for green tones and ultramarine for blue tones, while Timurid painters used mixtures like indigo + orpiment (p. 199). Statistical analysis revealed that 67% of Timurid blue is ultramarine and 33% is indigo, whereas Safavid and Inju styles used 100% ultramarine (p. 199).