What dye did ancient people get from plants. Making paints of different colors in antiquity

01.03.2019

At painting lessons, we often draw with watercolors and gouache, and one day the question arose before us, what did we draw with before, when there were no such wonderful bright colors? I wanted to try to make paints and create a drawing with my own hands, but, first of all, I had to find out how paintings were created, preserved and restored in the past.

In the Krasnoyarsk Museum of Local Lore, we were told about how Russian icon painters themselves created not only icons, but also the paints with which they are drawn. More than 600 years have passed, and some icons (for example, "Trinity" by Andrei Rublev, which is kept in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow) continue to shine in all colors. People cherish and preserve their past, their culture in museums. And without knowing how our ancestors lived before, there will be no future. People did not have the opportunity to use the library and the Internet, but what they created still interests and excites people's hearts. We decided to try to create paints according to old recipes in order to understand how the great masters did it.

The material for the manufacture of paints, a person initially took from what surrounded him - these were natural pigments and other coloring substances of natural origin. Paints have been around for so long that it is impossible to say when and by whom they were invented. Since ancient times, people have rubbed soot, burnt clay, kneaded it with animal glue and created for their own pleasure. Caves are painted with ocher, clay-based paints, and soot - the first witnesses of the work of painters who have come down to our times.

Over time, people began to turn minerals, stones, clays and chemical mixtures (oxides, oxides, and so on) into paints. If you want to see today how artists worked thousands of years ago, you will have to look into the workshop of tempera painting, to the icon painters. We decided to get advice from icon painters, but the Yenisei diocese told us that there were no icon painting workshops in Krasnoyarsk. Therefore, all subsequent material was studied using the Internet and reference literature.

We decided to find out which of the icon painters represented the Middle Ages in Russia. It turned out that at the turn of the XIV-XV centuries. in Moscow, the greatest of the masters of Ancient Russia, Andrei Rublev, the founder of the Moscow art school, worked. It was his reproduction that struck us. Andrei Rublev's colors are intense, but light and light. The master was widely known for his work in the Trinity - St. Sergius Lavra. It was here, presumably in 1412-1427. Andrey Rublev painted the Trinity icon.

For his masterpiece, Rublev used lapis lazuli, a paint that was valued more than gold. Natural ultramarine was used only in the most delicate work due to its high cost. The paint was made in a complex way, extracting a small amount of the purest blue pigment from the mineral. This color can be seen on the cloak of the central angel in the icon.

2. Tempera painting

We learned from books that medieval icon painters used tempera paints. Thanks to icon painting, tempera painting developed and spread.

Egg tempera became especially widespread in the Middle Ages in Russia, as evidenced by the murals of the 15th-16th centuries in many Russian churches. There are several types of egg tempera: from a whole egg, albumen, but the yolk tempera is the most widely used.

We wondered why this type of technology has such a name? Since oil paints were not known until the beginning of the 18th century, artists tried to find a substance that would evenly dissolve pigments and allow them to stick to various surfaces and retain their true colors. And they found such a substance - the yolk of a raw egg. Egg tempera remained the main material of artists for almost 800 years.

2. 1. The basis for the preparation of paints is an emulsion.

It turned out that to obtain this paint, the egg is broken from the blunt end (from the side of the air bag). The hole in the shell is leveled and a bag of yolk is rolled out of it onto the hand, and the shell is washed with water from the protein remaining on it. The bag with the yolk is rolled from palm to palm and this cleans it of protein residues. Then they pierce the bag and pour the yolk into the washed shell, into which a two percent solution of acetic acid is poured to the edge - so that its amount is equal to the volume of the yolk.

To prepare the emulsion, ancient painters used bread kvass in the same proportions instead of a solution of vinegar. They believed that the paints prepared on bread kvass lay down "softer" and become more "sonorous" after drying.

After adding a solution of acetic acid to the yolk, the composition was stirred with a wooden spatula. Pigment was added to the prepared emulsion and it was triturated with the pigment. Now the emulsion is mixed with the pigment in saucers or plastic cups.

This emulsion was only the basis for the preparation of various tempera paints. To obtain different colors, artists used pigments. After grinding the mineral, the resulting powder was diluted in diluted egg yolk and the paint, called "egg tempera", was ready. It should have been used immediately after preparation, since in liquid form it could not be stored for a long time and could quickly deteriorate, as well as with inept use (when added to paint in pure form or in large numbers) contributed to the formation of cracks.

In the practical part, we will conduct an experiment on emulsifying egg tempera.

2. 2. Tempera pigments.

Pigments - coloring matter - can be of mineral, organic origin or prepared chemically from natural materials, mainly clays containing metal oxides or salts. Also used in painting were dyes of plant origin obtained from the leaves, bark and roots of plants (saffron, indigo, etc.), as well as pigments obtained by roasting grape, peach seeds and animal bones.

In iconography were widely used:

Natural earth colors (various shades of ocher, umber, earth green),

Paints prepared from natural minerals (malachite, azurite, lapis lazuli),

Pigments of animal origin (from cochineal),

Inorganic pigments obtained artificially or extracted from natural deposits (cinnabar, red lead, white lead, verdigris, etc.).

Medieval icon painters were practicing chemists and often used poisonous ingredients to create vibrant colors. For example, arsenic for yellow, lapis lazuli for blue, mercury sulfide for red. These components were dangerous and hard to find and were secretly collected and stored. According to medieval authors, the most ancient paint was lead white, which was obtained artificially by oxidizing lead shavings with vinegar. There was a particular need for green pigments. A common paint in those days was verdigris, the color of which could have shades from green to blue.

When studying the paint layer of ancient Russian icons, it was found that the palette of colors of that time was extremely small. . Despite the small number of basic colors, ancient Russian artists, through skillful mixing, as well as the virtuoso imposition of one paint on another, achieved an unusually rich colors. (ill. 6) A mandatory component of complex mixtures was white or charcoal. To achieve an imperceptible transition from one color to another, icon painters applied layers thinly, sometimes in the form of small strokes, working with a small squirrel brush. Sometimes artists used large pigment crystals - this combined the color system of the lower and upper layers, creating a sense of harmony. Most of the successful color mixing recipes were heavily guarded. Therefore, the works of that time were distinguished by the originality of each author. It is also important to note that all the colors of that time carried a special semantic load.

Most of the pigments used by medieval artists are strong, durable and applicable in modern paintings. Egg tempera is used in our time by icon painters.

In the next chapter, we will find out what kind of base the ancient Russian masters needed to apply tempera.

2. 3. The basis for applying tempera. Soils.

Tempera paints are applied to different types of substrates: wood, fabric, metal, parchment and paper.

Egg tempera was intended mainly for painting on solid substrates, as it was fragile, prone to cracking, which can even occur from the vibration of the canvas.

Therefore, work in egg tempera was almost always performed on boards (icons). Old Russian icon painters used mainly linden, less often beech, as well as other hardwoods. Contemporary painters those who work with egg tempera use boards made of seasoned and dry wood.

Another important material used as a basis for painting was paper (appeared in Europe in 1154). It is also known that some artists used paper as a basis for painting, after sticking it on the board.

In ancient Russian painting, fabric was also used - it was glued to a board and covered with a multilayer ground of chalk or plaster. This glued fabric was called a veil. This method of preparing the base, common in icon painting, increased the safety of the board. Linen canvas or canvas woven from hemp served as a fabric for gluing. It should be noted that the ancient Russian masters sometimes used simply glued canvas, covered on both sides with primer. For painting on canvas, a special primer was used, which was a mixture of flour and walnut oil, into which lead white was introduced. This method cannot be used, since white lead is a toxic component.

2. 4. Lacquering

In chapter 2. 2. we wrote that works made with tempera paints tend to crack. Therefore, varnishing paintings painted with tempera paints is extremely important:

The tones of colors in a painting covered with varnish acquire intensity, which is especially characteristic of tempera paints, but at the same time, the varnish somewhat darkens the tempera paints.

The paint layer, covered with varnish, acquires a pleasant sheen, at the same time the picture is perceived more clearly, small pictorial details, often invisible in matte painting, are highlighted and emphasized.

The lacquer film plays not only a purely optical role, but also protects the paint layer from the action of aggressive components in the air.

Cover the picture with varnish not earlier than one year from the date of completion of the work. During all this time, painting must be protected from dust, pollution, etc.

From the study of painting from different eras, it is known that until the 16th century, varnishes were prepared on the basis of amber resins, gums, etc. Russian painters used mainly linseed oil, in which amber was dissolved. Sometimes paintings were covered with egg white (in the 18th century).

Conclusions on the theoretical chapter

We now know that medieval painters, icon painters, and book illustrators were practicing chemists and often used poisonous ingredients to create vibrant colors. We cannot use such paints in our work, so we will look for a replacement for them of plant origin.

Most of the colorful pigments used by medieval artists are, of course, durable, resistant to external influences and are quite applicable in modern paintings. Egg tempera is used in our time by icon painters. We will use this technique in our work.

In our work at the first stage, we will use paper as a basis. Therefore, there is no need for coating with primer and varnish. We will perform the work with squirrel brushes, because we learned that in the Middle Ages, artists used this particular tool.

II chapter. Practical part.

To create paints we needed:

Tray for mixing watercolors;

Several raw eggs;

Mortar and pestle;

Several plastic bags;

Wooden plank;

A hammer;

File;

Strainer;

Small jar with a lid;

Several sheets of paper;

Tea spoon;

Wooden round spatula;

Knife for cutting paper;

Cup and saucer;

Squirrel brushes.

For pigments: copper strip, 2% vinegar solution, charcoal, white chalk, blue aquarium gravel, dry red pepper, dry mustard, tea bag, iron filings, steel wool.

2. 1. Making pigments:

1. Green (verdigris): we rubbed the copper strip with a steel wool until it sparkled. They put the strip on a saucer and moistened both sides with a solution of vinegar. Allow the vinegar to dry and moisten the strip again with vinegar. When the strip is dry, moisten it with a little water. After 24 hours, the strip became covered with a greenish crust. When the crust hardened, we took a paper knife and scraped off the resulting layer of verdigris onto a sheet of paper.

2. Yellow (safflower ocher): Wrap 1 teaspoon of dry mustard in paper and save.

3. Blue (lapis lazuli): put 1 teaspoon of blue aquarium gravel into two plastic bags. On a wooden board, the packages were beaten with a hammer until the gravel turned into fine sand. The resulting sand was ground with a hammer to make it even finer. Rubbed through a strainer, it turned out to be a powder blue color(lapis lazuli).

4. Red (litmus): 1 teaspoon of dry red pepper wrapped in paper and saved.

5. Black (soot): To get black pigment, we took a piece of charcoal, put it in two bags and broke it into small pieces with a hammer on a hard surface. The resulting sand was ground with a hammer to make it even finer. With the help of a strainer, larger particles were discarded. The resulting black powder was poured into a paper bag.

6. White (aluminous white): grind a piece of white chalk with a file until a fine powder is obtained. The powder was wrapped in paper and stored.

7. Brown ink (sepia): put a tea bag in a jar and pour boiling water over it so that the water completely covers the bag. Added half a teaspoon of iron filings and 3 drops of vinegar solution. The mixture was allowed to infuse for 6-7 days. The resulting brown powder was crushed.

2. 2. Mixing and application of different substances:

1. We ground the resulting pigments in a mortar so that they looked like a powder.

2. Prepared egg emulsion. The egg was broken from the blunt end. They rolled out a bag with the yolk on their hand, and washed the shell with water from the protein remaining on it. The bag with the yolk was rolled from palm to palm, thereby clearing it of protein residues. Then they pierced the bag and poured the yolk into the washed shell, into which a 2% solution of vinegar was poured to the brim. Everything was gently mixed together.

3. Put about half a teaspoon of egg yolk into each bowl of the mixing tray. One of the remaining bowls of the tray was filled with sepia.

4. Then carefully pour a little dry pigment into each bowl, mixing the pigment into the egg emulsion with a wooden spatula. The result was photographed.

5. There are several secrets to applying such paint. If you need to get a more saturated color, then you need to pour more pigment. To obtain halftones, white pigment must be added to the color pigment. And medieval artists applied paint in this way: they started with a layer light paint, let it harden, then applied the next layer. So we decided to do it.

6. After the drawing was dry, we finished our drawings by applying shadows and outlines in sepia.

Work on these works took us about two weeks. It took several hours to create such drawings using watercolors and gouache. It didn't work out all at once, but it was exciting. As a result of diligent and patient work, we have painted paintings similar in hue to those created by medieval artists.

1. To obtain paints, medieval artists used natural materials and minerals.

2. Using modern safe materials, you can create the paints of a medieval artist and make a drawing with their help.

3. The technologies for creating paints in the Middle Ages were associated with toxic substances, and plant-based paints had a muted hue.

Color Minerals Origin Symbol, semantic load in Illustrations.

icon painting

Red Natural or artificial Mineral sulfide-based artificial paint Royal color, symbol of power and cinnabar; red ocher; minium; mercury. Translated from Arabic means "dragon power, in other cases - symbolIl. 1. Red cinnabar - velum in the icon "Annunciation" (beginning of XV

red organic blood. Poisonous. redemptive blood, martyrdom. c.) from the Festive row of the iconostasis of the Cathedral of the Annunciation

Moscow Kremlin. Natural cinnabar. Photography through a binocular microscope, magnified 10 times.

Yellow Light ocher; sienna; Mineral natural paint. Not poisonous. Yellow Yellow symbolized the radiance of lead-tin yellow; ocher is a natural earthen pigment, consisting of divine glory, the color of the highest orpiment mainly from clay. Light shades acquire the power of angels. Il. 2. Yellow and brown ocher - slides in the icon "Christmas red tone when heated. The golden color symbolized the radiance of Christ ”(beginning of the 15th century) from the Festive row of the iconostasis

Relates to the cheapest paints. Divine Glory, in which the Annunciation Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. The ocher is bright and the saints abide. Golden icon background, brown, white lead. Photography through binocular halos of saints, golden glow around the microscope, magnified 6 times.

figures of Christ, golden robes

Savior and Mother of God - all this serves as an expression of holiness and eternal values ​​belonging to the world.

Blue Natural ultramarine, Mineral natural dye or organic Blue - the color of the Virgin, meant derived from lapis lazuli; (indigo). also purity and righteousness. Blue ultramarine - water in the brand " global flood» icons natural or artificial Not poisonous. Blue - the color of greatness, symbolized the "Archangel Michael with the deeds of angels" (90s of the XIV century) from azurite; indigo divine, heavenly, Archangel Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin. Natural ultramarine incomprehensibility of mystery and depth from the mineral lapis lazuli. Photography through a binocular microscope, revelations. magnified 40 times.

Green Glauconite; malachite natural Mineral natural (crushed malachite) or symbolized eternal life, eternal or artificial; verdigris verdigris artificial paint (verdigris verdigris). Used with flowering, the color of the Holy Spirit. Green - litter on the icon "Annunciation" (beginning of the 15th century) from ancient times. It is obtained by oxidizing copper with the pairs of the Festive Row of the iconostasis of the Annunciation Cathedral of Moscow vinegar or wine or kvass, which was then the Kremlin. Natural malachite, charcoal, white lead. The photography was scraped off, dried, ground. Russian painters, through a binocular microscope, magnified 25 times.

not having good and cheap vinegar, they replaced it with sour milk.

Yar - verdigris is not poisonous.

Brown Iron - and manganese-containing ochers; umber; hematite Il. 5. Brown ocher - pink wall stamped "David and Uriah or

Denunciation of Nebuchadnezzar" of the icon "Archangel Michael with the deeds of angels" (90s of the XIV century) from the Archangel Cathedral of Moscow

Kremlin. A mixture of natural cinnabar, brown ocher, white and charcoal.

Photography through a binocular microscope, magnified 40 times.

Black Charcoal Black - the color in some cases symbolized hell, the maximum remoteness Image of charcoal.

from God, in others - a sign of sadness and humility.

White Lead white Mineral artificial paint. Poisonous. White - the color symbolizes purity

Lead strips were placed in a pot of vinegar for 4 and purity. Basic lead carbonate (lead white).

weeks and exposed to acetic fumes, after the divine world.

which was washed and dried.

Ecology of consumption. Life hack: Dyeing has been known to mankind since time immemorial, according to archeology - at least 30 thousand years. There were no chemical plants then, as you understand, but our ancestors...

Dyeing has been known to mankind since time immemorial, according to archeology - at least 30 thousand years. As you understand, there were no chemical factories at that time, but our ancestors were very inventive in choosing the means to diversify the color palette of fabrics and yarn.

Arab merchants, for example, brought a dye from India, which, by its very name, betrays its origin - indigo. It was made from the stems and leaves of plants of the genus Indigo. Just imagine: to obtain 3 kg of products, it was necessary to process a whole centner of vegetable raw materials! By the way, basma is still made from the leaves of indigo today.

Alizarin was very common, which was extracted from the roots of madder in ancient Egypt, Persia and India. Purple was another ancient dye. Tyrian purple was obtained from purple snails, ground them with water. The fabric was impregnated with the resulting mixture and dried on the street, in the sense - not indoors. Only after that the material acquired a purple color.

It was a colossal work, because just one gram of dye had to be crushed no less than 10 thousand fragile creatures. But in Venice, some dried bugs were the raw material for local purple (although Venetian purple was less valued).


The review of the world history of textile dyes could be continued, but since "this is a saying, and a fairy tale ... a fairy tale will come," then let's better stop there and move on to the question of what did the Russians use to dye. It turns out that they were very well aware of the possibilities provided for this. vegetable world, and taking into account these possibilities, different colors were obtained.

yellow and brown

Having conceived to get a sunny color, our ancestors could use more than two dozen plants. Some of them were used in their entirety: immortelle, heather, cuff, navel, string. And in the genus of gorse, shrubs and semi-shrubs of the legume family, there is a species at all that is directly called that - dyeing.

For the same purpose, flowers and leaves of goldenrod (also called the golden rod), jumper (also having a second name - touchy), and sickle grass were used. Only flowers were taken if it was an umbrella hawk and, oddly enough, a meadow cornflower, and also a horned loon. By the way, the leaves of birch and blackwood (or verbose) were used.

The zealous owners also did not forget about the root system of plants: sorrel, iris turned out to be useful here (he received a very affectionate nickname - killer whale). And from the hazel and wild apple trees, they took the bark for dyeing purposes. Sometimes certain plant parts were chosen based on the material to be painted. So, the leaves and stems of the club moss (aka lamb), as well as the flowers of the colza, were taken into account when working with wool, and the bathing suit was used only for canvas.

Both yellow and brown tone can be obtained on the basis of the bark, leaves and berries of the alder buckthorn. According to experts, the dye from this plant is very resistant to fading.

orange and red

To make the canvas “reddened”, folk ways was significantly less. This could be provided by black alder bark. And in order to achieve the desired result with the help of celandine, alum was added to it.

In the red range, there were more possibilities and, mainly, the roots of plants were used as dyes, in particular, cinquefoil (also called cinquefoil and silver), buckwheat (i.e. crayfish necks), soft bedstraw (this is a mistletoe, kosma-grass) real bedstraw ( we are talking about rennet - yellow porridge). If the material was woolen, then they used the roots of St. John's wort tetrahedral. But there was also a ground part of the grass, thanks to which the fabrics “blushed”: this is white gauze, or, more simply, quinoa.

Cyan, blue and green

The blueness of the canvas was given with the help of ash bark, and if it was necessary to dye the wool, cornflower or buckwheat flowers. Poultry buckwheat (popularly called weed-ant) is able to color the material in Blue colour, while the plant is used as a whole, like the woad, which has several more expressive names: bruise, chenille, chenille, and in addition also a twist. This same woad-krutik was used as a dye for woolen materials and was highly valued in the handicraft production of carpets. Blueberries were used to dye linen blue and wool blue.

By the way, the just mentioned woad-krutik was also used to obtain green. However, along with other plants. So, in particular, the stems and leaves of the well-known stinging nettle and watch, i.e. trefoil, leaves of the club-shaped club, roots of tansy (wild mountain ash).

Black

In order to achieve the black tone of the material, several plants were used. Among them are the berries and roots of the crow (funnel), the bark of the meadowsweet, the leaves and stems of the podbel, the leaves of the bearberry (in other words, bear ears) and the juice of the grass with the funny name zyuzik brilliant. It has a number of popular names: water shandra, wolf's leg (or paw), wild mother liquor, forest hemp, marsh nettle, speck, heart grass, chistets).

"Colorful abilities" of plants

In the course of the story, it was already mentioned in passing that some representatives of the terrestrial flora are capable of obtaining different tones with different technologies. And the first thing that comes to mind is the well-known onion peel and beets. But they are by no means the only ones in this group.

So, using the flowers and leaves of an apple tree, or its bark with the addition of alum, you can achieve both red and green paint. From the flowers and leaves of St. John's wort, the fabric, and with appropriate processing, can become either red or yellow. A double-edged club moss (otherwise: brilliant green, doggy) is able to “bloom” the canvas with greens, yellowness and redness.

Blackberries are able to give fabrics a crimson and purple color, and oak bark with the addition of rusty iron - from dark blue to black. If wild galangal is supplemented with the same rusty iron or alum, the same effect will be obtained. White alder can completely color the material in colors from yellow to black, if you add to it - again - rusted iron, then ... spruce cones.

Concluding this brief review, I would like to express two thoughts. Firstly, rejoice at how our ancestors used plant gifts wisely, what a huge amount of work they did, collecting, preparing them and producing dyes, and how extensive and deep was the knowledge of the properties of plants heated over the centuries. Secondly, how great are the possibilities of the vegetable kingdom, and how grateful we must be to it! Of course, hand and artisan dyeing is now rarely used, but that's not the point ...Want to try? published

The cave dwellers painted on the stones what surrounded them: running animals and hunters with spears. For rock painting in the cave of Lascaux (France), a natural mixture of minerals was used as paints - ocher (from the Greek. ochros - "yellow"). Oxides and hydrates of iron oxides gave the paint a reddish or yellow. dark shades paints were obtained by adding black charcoal to ocher. Primitive artists kneaded their paints with animal fat to better adhere to the stone. The bodies of the dead were covered with red ocher, similar in color to blood, before burial. Now about this ancient tradition we are reminded of the modern name of red iron ore - hematite (from the Greek haima - "blood").

Medieval artists also prepared their own paints by mixing pigment powders and fats. Such paints could not be stored for more than one day, as they oxidized and hardened when exposed to air. It was difficult to work with these paints: darker paints with a high charcoal content dried much more slowly than shades with a high ocher content.

In the Renaissance, each master had his own recipe for diluting paints: some kneaded the pigment on egg white - this was done by the Italians F. Angelico1 and Piero Della Francesca.2 Others preferred casein (milk protein, already used for frescoes in Roman temples). And the Fleming Jan van Eyck3 introduced oil paints. He learned to apply them in thin layers. This technique best conveyed space, volume and color depth.

At first, with oil paints, not everything went smoothly. Thus, painting the wall of the refectory of the Milanese monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Leonardo da Vinci4 tried to mix oil paint with tempera (paint based on egg yolk diluted in water). As a result of his The Last Supper"began to crumble already during the lifetime of the master.

Paints are divided into covering or body (creating a non-translucent layer), and glazing, giving a transparent or translucent layer.

Compound

Binders in painting (except for the fresco technique and silicate painting) are proteins or carbohydrates dissolved, emulsified or suspended in water - glues of animal or vegetable origin, resins, hydrocarbons soluble in water and oils, hardening oils). For the preparation of paints of all types - oil, tempera, watercolor - the same pigments and various binders are used.

The color of paints is determined by the pigments included in their composition (from the Latin “pigmentum” - “paints”). It is known that pigments are natural and synthetic, organic and inorganic, chromatic (from the Greek "chroma" - "color") and achromatic.

Chromatic pigments needed to make up the colors of the rainbow:

  • red - minium lead (Pb3O4) or commercial red iron oxide pigment;
  • orange - a mixture of red pigment with yellow;
  • yellow - lead crown (РbСrО4), commercial ocher or yellow iron oxide pigment;
  • green - verdigris (Cu (CH3COO) 2 Cu (OH) 2 -H2O), green crown (Cr2O3) or a mixture of yellow and blue pigments;
  • blue - malachite ((CuOH) 2CO3) or commercial ultramarine ((Na2O -A12O3 mSiO2) x Na2Sn);
  • blue - Prussian blue (Fe43 KxFe(CN)6 nH2O);
  • violet - cobalt violet light (CoNH4PO4.H2O) and cobalt violet dark (Co3 (PO4) 2).

Achromatic pigments determine white (zinc oxide ZnO or titanium dioxide TiO2) and black (soot) colors, as well as all gray colors lying between them.

Among the pigments artistic paints oxides and salts are often found.

Chromium oxide is just one of the brightly colored compounds of element No. 24. Several excellent artistic paints are prepared on its basis, including chrome green, the most durable and light-resistant paint that does not succumb to atmospheric gases. Rubbed in oil, chrome green has great hiding power and is capable of drying quickly, which is why it has been widely used in painting since the 19th century.

Titanium dioxide is by far the leading pigment today. He has a high degree whiteness, finely dispersed, easily crushed and dispersed (from the Latin "dispersio" - "scattering") both in organic and in aquatic environments Moreover, it is very chemically resistant. However, it is not cheap, since the technology for its production from natural raw materials is rather complicated.

Zinc white is quite possible to obtain in the laboratory.

Iron scale is one of the mixed oxide forms of iron - Fe3O4, or FeO -Fe2O3. This substance has a black color and is rather inert in relation to aggressive environments. However, it has not been widely used as a pigment. Scale has a large specific gravity and because of this, a pronounced tendency to sedimentation (from the Latin “sedimentum” - “settlement”) - intensive sedimentation of solid particles suspended in a liquid under the influence of gravity. Such paint will quickly exfoliate. This inconvenience can be combated by thoroughly and frequently mixing the paint. But this paint has poor coverage

Lead oxide PbO - lead litharge - also has a yellow color, and was previously used as a pigment, but in terms of color intensity it is inferior to lead crown. Therefore, lead litharge is not currently used as a yellow pigment; it is interesting as a raw material for the production of minium lead - another oxide form of lead, which has an intense red color. The legend says that in ancient times Athenian painter Nicias was impatiently waiting for lead white to be brought to him from the island of Rhodes. However, the long-awaited cargo was destroyed by a fire in the port of Piraeus, and Nicias found a beautiful red pigment in charred barrels - red lead: Pb3O4

Long-term calcination, alternating with grinding of the moistened powder, can convert a significant part of the lead litharge (PbO) into red lead (Pb3O4).

Many metal salts, as well as oxides, are pigments for artistic paints.

The Berlin scientist A. S. Marggraf (1709-1782) developed a stable method for obtaining "alkali ignited with bull's blood", which later became known as "yellow blood salt" (potassium hexacyanoferrate (P)), and in Russia in the 18th-19th centuries. because of the main purpose it was called sincali.

Prussian blue is not the only blue pigment. Some cobalt compounds are used as very high quality but very expensive art pigments. For example, cobalt aluminate CoO.A12O3 is called cobalt blue. Unfortunately, it is difficult to get cobalt blue on your own, but you can make purple cobalt pigments.

Malachite has always been expensive and not very accessible to artists. In addition, it has a hue peculiar only to it and cannot satisfy all the needs of painters in green tones. Since the choice of natural green minerals is small, in the old days plants were widely used to make paints. Vegetable dyes are less durable: the chlorophyll, which is their chromophore, is gradually destroyed, and bright green tones turn into brown-olive.

Bright, beautiful organic dyes, due to their good solubility in water and organic solvents, are able to dye the material through its entire thickness, so their main area of ​​application is the production of fabrics and threads. However, some of these dyes have long been used by artists. To do this, they were certainly applied to an insoluble mineral base - kaolin, chalk, and now - mainly to aluminum hydroxide. Nowadays, this paint is obtained from coal tar.

Artists have always paid a lot of attention to the quality of paints. And when such attention waned, the paintings became less durable.

The encaustic technique, which was difficult to perform, was later replaced by other, simpler ones - tempera and then oil painting. The secret of making encaustics was gradually lost. Many scientists and artists, including Leonardo da Vinci, sought to restore the secret of the forgotten technique. However, the time for its revival came later: in 1935, the secrets of the ancients were unraveled by the hereditary Russian painter Vasily Veniaminovich Khvostenko. Success came as a result of performing many experiments, including chemical ones.

Application

Paints may be intended for coloring or for coloring objects to create paintings, paintings, for decorative coatings. After drying or polymerization, the paints form a colored uniform film, usually opaque or translucent.

MUNICIPAL AUTONOMOUS EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTION

SECONDARY EDUCATIONAL SCHOOL №88, TYUMEN

safe painting

Russia, Tyumen region, Tyumen,

MAOU secondary school №88, grade 9

Scientific adviser:

Isakova Ludmila Georgievna,

chemistry teacher

MAOU secondary school №88, Tyumen

Tyumen, 2016


Introduction. ..3

History of paints………………………………………………….4

Making paints of different colors in antiquity. four

Modern paints. 6

Chemical composition and its effect on the human body. 6

Composition of paints without chemically hazardous elements. 9

Product creation. 11

Conclusion. 12

Bibliography.. 14

Applications. 14


Introduction

AT modern world we come across painting every day, and for many children and teenagers, painting is the main hobby. Often using paints, I wondered whether they are harmless, what substances modern paints are made of, whether the ancient methods of making paints are relevant, and whether it is possible to save money on buying paints and make them yourself. This is the reason for the choice of the theme of the project - "Safe painting"

Based on the relevance and practical significance topics, we can formulate the purpose of this work: to study the chemical composition of modern paints. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to solve the following tasks:

To study the history of the creation of paints and their chemical composition in antiquity

To study the composition of modern paints

Summarize the collected material and determine the harmlessness of modern paints

Gather information on how to make chemical-safe paints

Make a product

The process of creating a project can be divided into several stages:

The study chemical composition different types modern paints, determination of their influence on the human body

Practical stage, including the preparation of materials and the actual manufacture of paints


1. History of paints

Making paints of different colors in antiquity

Since ancient times, vegetable paints have been used by man to decorate weapons, clothing and homes. At first it was the juices of bright petals, leaves, fruits of plants. Then people learned to make special paints from plants. During excavations Egyptian pyramids blue fabrics dyed with indigo (dye from the leaves of the indigo plant) were found. In Ancient Russia, blue dye was extracted from the root of the mountaineer dye, yellow - from the roots of horse sorrel, cherry - from the lichen of the steppe goldfish, and with the help of blackberries and blueberries they dyed fabrics in purple tones. From the cuff they learned to get yellow, green and black paints, from St. John's wort - red, yellow and orange. Madder tinting gave a particularly wide color palette. Famous for the brightness of colors and multicolored Dagestan carpets, they were woven from wool dyed with a substance that was obtained from this plant.

yellow paint

The most ancient pigment known to prehistoric "painters" - the authors of cave paintings, was the yellow natural earth, called by the Greeks ocher. Yellow ochers are natural earth colors, which are a product of the weathering of iron ore and feldspar. Ocher deposits are found everywhere. AT classical era ocher was mined in different places.

red paint

Since prehistoric times, like ochres, red lands have been known in painting. Red earths, or red ochers, are natural red earths, which are mainly clays or minerals, colored with anhydrous iron oxide, a weathering product of red iron ore, various in color: from light warm red (English red) to cold purple (kaput-mortum) and yellowish-pink (pink potsuolskaya earth).

Red lands in painting have been known for a long time. They were used in wall paintings in many caves of the Paleolithic era.

The red pigment miltos, which most likely belongs to the group of red iron-containing and clay pigments, was called by Theophrastus, distinguishing three of its varieties: very red, light and medium between them.

white paint

Lime, a generalized name for the products of firing - limestone, chalk, marble, oyster shells, etc. Lime, as a material for painting, was known for 25-15 thousand years BC. Lime white was the main white paint in Egyptian frescoes of the Ancient kingdoms for 3-2 thousand years BC. They were used in ancient wall painting of ancient Etruscan tombs.

Lead white, white lead paint, one of the most ancient. They were first mentioned by the ancient Greek naturalist Theophrastus (372-287 BC). For your long haul This paint used in painting had many names: among the ancient Greeks - psimithium, psimigion, psimitium, psimitium. Romans: Ceruse, cerosium, cerussa.

blue paint

Lapis lazuli, lapis lazuli or natural ultramarine. Lapis lazuli or natural ultramarine belongs to the oldest paints used in painting. The pigment was obtained by finely grinding the mineral lapis lazuli for paint. Lapis lazuli can be bright blue to purple in color and contain pyrite, which looks like gold. In ancient Egypt, lapis lazuli was valued on a par with gold: as it was a rare stone. Resembling in its appearance the firmament strewn with stars, it was considered the sacred stone of priests and pharaohs. The priest-judges wore a lapis lazuli amulet with the inscription "truth" around their necks. The blue color of lapis lazuli, as it were, indicates its heavenly origin(blue color, as well as gold, was considered divine, symbolizing, first of all, the god Amon).

Modern paints


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RESEARCH WORK

FINE ARTS

What were paints made from in ancient times?

Content

Introduction.

I. Main part.

1.2. Composition of paints.

II. Experimental part.

2.1. Description of experiments.

2.2. Experimental results.

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction.

I chose the theme of the study of colors because I really like to draw. One day I thought about the questions: when did paint appear? What were they like? What colors were used for painting?

After all, it wasn't there before modern technologies everything had to be done by yourself.

I defined the purpose of the work: find out what paints were made of in ancient times.

To achieve my goal, I need to highlighttasks:

1. Find material on the topic of my project in books, the Internet and other sources.

2. Learn the components of ancient paints.

3. Study what substances paints consist of.

4. Conduct an experiment:

    make your own paints at home;

    draw pictures with different colors and compare pictures drawn with paints different ways manufacturing: at home and in industry.

At the beginning of the project, I had the followinghypotheses:

    suppose that in ancient times people obtained dyes from various parts of plants.

    Perhaps they mined certain stones in the mountains of different shades.

    Let's say paints were brewed and sold as medicines in a pharmacy.

The following methods were used in the project:

    Work with books and encyclopedias;

    Search for information on the Internet;

    Experiment;

I. Main part.

1.1. The history of the origin of colors.

On lessons visual arts we got to know the culture ancient civilization. I was interested in the illustrations in the textbook. I asked my mother: “How did people draw in ancient times? What did they draw? Why did these drawings survive to this day? My mother and I began to look for answers to all my questions. From the book of Alekseev V.V. "What is art?" I learned that colors appeared when our distant ancestors still lived in caves.

What and where did ancient people draw?

Images were engraved on the walls of the cave with a stone with pointed edges, then painted. Paints were applied with fingers, in some places they were shaded with pieces of skin.

His favorite plot is wild animals and hunting scenes, because survival depended on hunting in the first place, it was it that was the main occupation for which the ancient man spent a fair amount of time.

1.2. Composition of paints.

On the site I learned that paints were made from the simplest animal organisms.

It turns out that dyes of animal origin have long been used in the dyeing practice contained in the snail Capillus brandaris and served to dye purple.
The famous purple dye was extracted from a special marine mollusk (purple snail).

Cuttlefish - The Secret of the Ink Sac. After drying and treatment with caustic potash, it is a sepia ink.

Cochineal worm was used to make red dye - carmine.

Plant paints.

Of our native plants, the following trees and herbs have been most commonly used as dyes:

BIRCH . Mostly birch leaves are painted yellow or green. Birch bark contains dark dye, mostly brown.

ALDER. Alder bark is used to dye wool and linen - mostly brown and black.

FOREST KUPYR. Mostly kupyr flowers are used, but you can paint with both stems and leaves. Usually kupyr paints green.

HEATHER . You can get many shades of different colors: light brown, black-brown, green, yellow.

The technology of making paints in ancient times.

Paints that were available ancient man:

black color - coal, red - ocher (iron oxide).

Plants were also used - for blue, yellow.

To make the paint liquid, the natural dye rubbed into powder was mixed with animal fat and water.

But already in ancient Egypt they knew how to make artificial pigments: by heating ocher, umber, sienna, etc.

ocher
umber
sienna

Mineral paints.

A very, very long time ago, artists used only coloring substances found in nature in the form of various minerals:

malachite azurite

Lapis lazuli orpiment

Varieties of paints for drawing and painting in modern time

I found that different binders give different paints with different names.

II. Experimental part.

So, having studied various literature, I found out that paints consist of a pigment and a binder. I decided to try to get paints at home, compare them with industrial ones and try to draw a picture with them. First you need to find raw materials.

For the experiment I needed:

    Charcoal;

    Egg yolk.

    Coffee.

    Turmeric powder.

Experiment 1. Obtaining black paint.

I took charcoal as a pigment, and egg yolk became a binder.

The charcoal was ground into a powder, sifted and mixed with the egg yolk. I got black paint.

Experiment 2. Getting brown paint.

I took coffee as a pigment, and egg yolk as a binder.

Coffee ground in a coffee grinder, sifted and mixed with egg yolk. Got brown paint.

Experiment 3. Obtaining orange paint.

I took turmeric powder as a pigment, and egg yolk as a binder.

I mixed the pigment (turmeric) with the binder (egg yolk). I got orange paint.

Experiment 4 home cooking.

Having received the paints, I decided to try to draw a drawing with them and compare the paints and the resulting drawing with the drawings made in gouache.

Home paints have the smell of the pigment used in the preparation of the paint, they are thick and viscous, they are not taken very easily on a brush, they lie unevenly on the paper, they take a long time to dry and deform the paper when dried.

Experimental results.

I compared drawings made with homemade paints with drawings made with gouache and came to the conclusion that it is easier to draw with modern paints, the work turns out brighter, you can use more different color shades.

Conclusion.

The resulting research helped me learn the history of ancient paints, as well as:

Learn the components of ancient paints;

Find material on the topic of research in books, the Internet and other sources;

What substances are paints made of?

As a result of my experiment, I learned:

    make your own paints at home;

    draw pictures with different colors;

    conducted a comparison of drawings drawn with paints of different manufacturing methods: at home and industrially.

As a result of the research, I checked all myhypotheses and proved them in the project.

The methods I used helped me achieve my goal.

In the future, I would like to continue the experiment and create paints of other colors and shades using other binders and pigments (from plants).

Bibliography.

    Alekseeva V.V. What is art? – M.: Soviet artist, 1973

    Orlova N.G. Iconography - M .: White City, 2004

    Encyclopedia for children: Art. Part 2. - M .: Avanta +, 2005

    Petrov V. World of Art. Art Association XX. –M.: Aurora 2009



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