Indian lac + white lead

Ingredients

Indian lac, white lead

Preparation Steps

Original Recipe Text

Indian lac mixed with white lead to produce various tones including a 'reddish light pink' used for clothing and a 'pale pink' used for horses (p. 220).

Evidence

"To create a variety of pink and purple tones, two colour combinations of red lead + white lead and Indian lac + white lead has been used (Tab. 5-56). Some of these colours are very special and have not been seen in other paintings of this manuscript... for example, using a kind of reddish light pink for clothing and using pale pink for colouring horses (Fig. 5-117)."

Remarks

This combination is noted as being 'very special' and unique to the Mughal additions, differing significantly from the palettes used by previous Timurid painters in the same manuscript (p. 220).