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Grande e general estoria (códice del Escorial)

Minium, also known as

red lead Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

, is a bright orange red

pigment A pigment is a colored material that is completely or nearly insoluble in water. In contrast, dyes are typically soluble, at least at some stage in their use. Generally dyes are often organic compounds whereas pigments are often inorganic compo ...

that was widely used in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

for the decoration of manuscripts and for painting. It was made by roasting

white lead White lead is the basic lead carbonate 2PbCO3·Pb(OH)2. It is a complex salt, containing both carbonate and hydroxide ions. White lead occurs naturally as a mineral, in which context it is known as hydrocerussite, a hydrate of cerussite. It was ...

pigment in the air; the white lead would gradually turn yellow, then into an orange

lead tetroxide Lead(II,IV) oxide, also called red lead or minium, is the inorganic compound with the formula Pb3O4. A bright red or orange solid, it is used as pigment, in the manufacture of batteries, and rustproof primer paints. It is an example of a mixed ...

. The color varied depending upon how long the mineral was roasted. During the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

, the term minium could refer either to the pigment made from ground

cinnabar Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of Mercury sulfide, mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining mercury (element), elemental mercury and ...

or to the less expensive red lead. The name came from the river Minius in

Iberia The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...

(now forming part of the Spanish-Portuguese border and known as Miño or Minho), located near the main Roman cinnabar mines.

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...

referred to it as ''flammeus'', or flame color. The minium of red lead was easy to make and less expensive than the pigment made from the mineral

, and it was bright and cheerful, so it became the most commonly used bright red in Medieval painting despite being poisonous, and sometimes turning black in impure air. The use of red lead phased out with the introduction of

vermilion Vermilion (sometimes vermillion) is a color, color family, and pigment most often made, since ancient history, antiquity until the 19th century, from the powdered mineral cinnabar (a form of mercury sulfide, which is toxic) and its correspondi ...

from the 11th century. The color was used in particular for the paragraph signs, versals, capitals, and headings which were colored red in medieval manuscripts. The Latin verb for this kind of work was ''miniare'', to apply minium, and a person who did this was known as a ''miniator''. These medieval artists also made small illustrations and decorative drawings in the manuscripts, which became known as ''miniatures'', the source of the English word for small works of art. There was (and is) considerable confusion among the names of ancient and medieval pigments. As noted above, the term minium was used for cinnabar,

, and for red lead. Minium of red lead was sometimes called ''stupium'' in classical Latin, adding to the confusion. Minium may have been manufactured in China as early as 300 B.C. It was known in the

Han Dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

(200 BC-200 AD) under the name "cinnabar of lead" (''ch'ien tan''), The process of manufacturing it was described in a Chinese manuscript of the 5th century. Minium was widely used for

Persian miniature painting A Persian miniature ( Persian: نگارگری ایرانی ''negârgari Irâni'') is a small Persian painting on paper, whether a book illustration or a separate work of art intended to be kept in an album of such works called a ''muraqqa''. Th ...

and

Indian miniature painting Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art, though because of the climatic conditions very few early examples survive.Blurton, 193 The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, such as th ...

.Philip Ball (2001), ''Bright Earth - Art and the Invention of Colour'', Hazan (French edition). Minium is commonly used in Russia, where it called Surik, Norway, India and China. Oil based red lead paints are used to protect ships, railroad cars and all sorts of steel constructions from corrosion. Minium bonds with iron creating a protective oxide layer that resists corrosion even in salt water.

Gallery

File:Red lead.jpg, A sample of minium pigment, made by roasting

pigment File:Minium-Lead-168740.jpg, Solid minium

References

Notes and citations

Bibliography

*{{cite book , last=Thomson , first=Daniel , title=The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting , year=1956 , publisher=Dover Publications , isbn=0-486-20327-1 , url-access=registration , url=https://archive.org/details/materialstechniq00thom Inorganic pigments Shades of orange Shades of red

Gallery

See also

References

Notes and citations

Bibliography