ePaper
Subscribe
Newsletters
Search
Profile
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Adventures with Van Gogh
Subscribe
ePaper
Newsletters
Art market
Museums & heritage
Exhibitions
Books
Podcasts
Columns
Adventures with Van Gogh
News

Surprise use for Egyptian blue pigment

Emily Sharpe
30 September 2015
Share

Researchers have discovered traces of the pigment Egyptian blue on the underdrawings of 15 Roman-era portrait mummies from the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley. The collaboration with the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, also showed it was used for modulating colour. Marc Walton, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern, says the discovery “defies our expectations of how Egyptian blue would be used”. Scholars had previously assumed that the pigment was too expensive to be used for preparatory purposes. The study was published in the journal Applied Physics.

NewsResearchAncient EgyptConservation
Share
Subscribe to The Art Newspaper’s digital newsletter for your daily digest of essential news, views and analysis from the international art world delivered directly to your inbox.
Newsletter sign-up
Information
About
Contact
Cookie policy
Data protection
Privacy policy
Subscription T&Cs
Terms and conditions
Advertise
Sister Papers
Sponsorship policy
Collect Tour Terms and Conditions
Follow us
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
YouTube
LinkedIn
© The Art Newspaper