Alphabe Thursday … A is for Azure

A is for Azure blue. As a child I remember my first paint box with little blocks of colour and their mysterious names like burnt sienna, lamp black, cadmium red or umber. Never getting the complete answers to my questions; often a shrug or ‘ask your teacher’.

I also wondered about the sky was not always blue? I have learned since that the sky is not a colour; but chemicals moving about reflecting light and ‘being’ colour.  

However, my brain can absorb no more and I have wandered away from my paint box and painting the sky.  Not with sky blue but  with Ultramarine or Azurite.  

But then I learn that ultramarine, with the sound of the sea  also is not a colour but a term used to describe all goods but mostly exotic from ‘beyond the sea’ in landlocked Afghanistan.  It comes from lapis lazuli, a stone of bright blue unlike azurite that is less bright and often used as a cheaper alternative.  From what I understand Azurite is not a stone but a mineral produced by weathering of copper ore deposits

The Lapis Lazuli is pounded to a powder very carefully so the dust doesn’t ‘go off; I imagine to where dust goes! Once it has been pounded, sieved and pounded again it is mixed with pine rosin, gum mastic and wax  all carefully measured; the procedure according to  Cennino d’Andrea Cennini in the Craftsman’s handbook  is long and complicated.  

While on the subject of azure I have often wondered why the Virgin Mary in paintings and frescos is often wearing a blue gown or dress? I have since discovered that this is not entirely true; she is inclined to wear red at times.  In Russian icons she wore red, also in Holland scarlet cloth was the most expensive and befitting the virgin mother.  In the 7th seventh century the Byzantine artists favoured purple because it was the most expensive dye.  Sometimes we are told she wore white and black .

It is suggested by Victoria Finlay, when considering colour symbolism, red is for birth, purple perhaps mystery, blue maybe the colour of heaven, white shows her innocence and black for her coming grief.   

It seems likely though that when in the thirteenth century; ultramarine arrived in Italy as the most expensive colour available, it should be used for the most precious symbol of faith.  

I cannot tell what colour was used for my little early 20th century medicine bottles but I would like to think they are azure blue.

Further reading

Colour by Victoria Finlay

The Craftsman’s Handbook by Cennino d’Andrea Cennini