Pigments

As far back as the Vth Dynasty seven colours were in use; yellow, red, blue, brown, black, white and green; and in the XVIIIth Dynasty, three yellows, three browns, two blues, two reds, and two greens; making about fourteen or sixteen different tints. The composition of the chief colours was as follows: White—sulphate of lime, or gypsum; Yellow—ochre, or sulphide of arsenic, our modern orpiment; Red—ochre, or cinnabar; Dark Red—oxide of iron with a small admixture lapis lazuli, or a cheaper kind from gla coloured by silicate of copper and powdered; Pink—sulphate of lime coloured by some organic substance, probably madder; Black—from calcined animal bones. The colours were so well prepared, that to this day much of the work of Egyptian artists retains almost all its original brilliancy. The pigments were mixed as required with water and a little gum tragacanth. Varnish was not used until about the time of the XIXth Dynasty. It was probably made from the gum of some kind of acacia. This method, however, was found to be unsuitable, as it both cracked and darkened the paintings, and so was discontinued about the close of the same Dynasty. (See Cobalt .)