Ultramarine blue

Ingredients

lapis lazuli, lazurite, hauynite, calcite, pyrite

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Prepared by grinding lapis lazuli. The ancient recipe involves mixing the finely ground mineral with melted wax, resins, and oils, which is then wrapped in a cloth and kneaded. The resulting material is immersed in a dilute solution of lye. The process is repeated at least three times to collect the blue particles at the bottom of the container (p. 96).

Evidence

"In this project in all Shāhnāma manuscripts, ultramarine was identified as blue and light blue (combined with white lead) and has been used for many motifs and figures like robes, clothing, sky, background, and etc."

Remarks

Named lāzhvard in Persian. It is a mixture of lazurite (25-40%) and hauynite, also containing calcite and pyrite. Recognizable in FORS by an apparent absorbance maximum at 600 nm and a maximum reflectance zone at 470-490 nm (p. 97).