How colour made in modern time
Answers
ee below for an A-Z List of the best-known artist-colours, lakes and glazes. It includes traditional pigments used by prehistoric cave painters and artists from Ancient Antiquity, as well as colours which appeared in palettes of the Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo and Impressionist periods. Since the late-19th century, the majority of pigments employed by most painters are improved synthetic variants of older colours. Nowadays, most natural colourants are obsolete, an exception being the costly Ultramarine, made from the precious Lapis Lazuli. Modern artificial colours tend to be more lightfast, more permanent, more intense and considerably cheaper and safer to use. It's amazing how many of the older pigments (both natural and early synthetic variants) were highly toxic compounds containing lead, mercury, chrome, arsenic - even cyanide. Given the workaholic nature of many Old Masters and modern-era painters, one wonders how many of them were adversely affected by constant contact with such unhealthy chemical colourants.