Blue-green is the color between blue and green. It belongs to the cyan family .
75-515: Cyan is the blue-green color that is between blue and green on a modern RGB color wheel . The modern RGB color wheel replaced the traditional old-fashioned RYB color wheel because it is possible to display much brighter and more saturated colors using the primary and secondary colors of the RGB color wheel. In the terminology of color theory , RGB color space has a much larger color gamut than RYB color space . The first recorded use of cyan as
150-515: A French chemist, Louis Jacques Thénard , made a synthetic cobalt blue pigment which became immensely popular with painters. In 1824 the Societé pour l'Encouragement d'Industrie in France offered a prize for the invention of an artificial ultramarine which could rival the natural colour made from lapis lazuli. The prize was won in 1826 by a chemist named Jean Baptiste Guimet, but he refused to reveal
225-453: A blue feldspathoid silicate mineral of the sodalite family, with the formula (Na,Ca) 8 (AlSiO 4 ) 6 (S,SO 4 ,Cl) 1–2 . Most lapis lazuli also contains calcite (white), and pyrite (metallic yellow). Some samples of lapis lazuli contain augite , diopside , enstatite , mica , hauynite , hornblende , nosean , and sulfur-rich löllingite geyerite . Lapis lazuli usually occurs in crystalline marble as
300-704: A bowl inlaid with lapis, amulets, beads, and inlays representing eyebrows and beards, were found in the Royal Tombs of the Sumerian city-state of Ur from the 3rd millennium BC. Lapis was also used in ancient Persia, Mesopotamia by the Akkadians , Assyrians , and Babylonians for seals and jewelry. It is mentioned several times in the Mesopotamian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh (17th–18th century BC), one of
375-527: A color name in English was in 1879. The color turquoise is that of the semi-precious stone turquoise , which is a light tone of blue-green. Its first recorded use as a color name in English is from 1573. Green-blue is a Crayola crayon color from 1958 to 1990. Bondi blue belongs to the cyan family of blues. It is very similar to the Crayola crayon color "blue-green". Apple, Inc. christened
450-462: A dark brown. From the Renaissance onward, painters used this system to create their colours (see RYB colour model ). The RYB model was used for colour printing by Jacob Christoph Le Blon as early as 1725. Later, printers discovered that more accurate colours could be created by using combinations of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink, put onto separate inked plates and then overlaid one at
525-480: A deep blue colour, was once employed in medieval years, but it is unstable pigment, losing its colour especially under dry conditions. Lapis lazuli , mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, was used for jewelry and ornaments, and later was crushed and powdered and used as a pigment. The more it was ground, the lighter the blue colour became. Natural ultramarine , made by grinding lapis lazuli into
600-705: A fine powder, was the finest available blue pigment in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance . It was extremely expensive, and in Italian Renaissance art, it was often reserved for the robes of the Virgin Mary . Intense efforts have focused on blue flowers and the possibility that natural blue colourants could be used as food dyes. Commonly, blue colours in plants are anthocyanins : "the largest group of water-soluble pigments found widespread in
675-420: A lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. Purer blues are in the middle of this range, e.g., around 470 nanometres. Isaac Newton included blue as one of the seven colours in his first description of the visible spectrum . He chose seven colours because that was the number of notes in the musical scale, which he believed was related to the optical spectrum. He included indigo ,
750-723: A major source of lapis lazuli. Important amounts are also produced from mines west of Lake Baikal in Russia, and in the Andes mountains in Chile which is the source that the Inca used to carve artifacts and jewelry. Smaller quantities are mined in Pakistan, Italy, Mongolia, the United States, and Canada. The most important mineral component of lapis lazuli is lazurite (25% to 40%),
825-463: A more complete list see the List of colours ). In nature, many blue phenomena arise from structural colouration , the result of interference between reflections from two or more surfaces of thin films , combined with refraction as light enters and exits such films. The geometry then determines that at certain angles, the light reflected from both surfaces interferes constructively, while at other angles,
SECTION 10
#1732771866677900-468: A quick-drying binding agent, such as egg yolk ( tempera painting ); or with a slow-drying oil, such as linseed oil , for oil painting . Two inorganic but synthetic blue pigments are cerulean blue (primarily cobalt(II) stanate: Co 2 SnO 4 ) and Prussian blue (milori blue: primarily Fe 7 (CN) 18 ). The chromophore in blue glass and glazes is cobalt (II). Diverse cobalt(II) salts such as cobalt carbonate or cobalt(II) aluminate are mixed with
975-418: A result of contact metamorphism . The intense blue color is due to the presence of the trisulfur radical anion ( S 3 ) in the crystal. The presence of disulfur ( S 2 ) and tetrasulfur ( S 4 ) radicals can shift the color towards yellow or red, respectively. These radical anions substitute for the chloride anions within the sodalite structure. The S 3 radical anion exhibits
1050-552: A slight mixture of other colours; azure contains some green, while ultramarine contains some violet. The clear daytime sky and the deep sea appear blue because of an optical effect known as Rayleigh scattering . An optical effect called the Tyndall effect explains blue eyes . Distant objects appear more blue because of another optical effect called aerial perspective . Blue has been an important colour in art and decoration since ancient times. The semi-precious stone lapis lazuli
1125-475: A time onto paper. This method could produce almost all the colours in the spectrum with reasonable accuracy. On the HSV colour wheel , the complement of blue is yellow ; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal mixture of red and green light. On a colour wheel based on traditional colour theory ( RYB ) where blue was considered a primary colour, its complementary colour is considered to be orange (based on
1200-548: A visible absorption band in the range 595–620 nm with high molar absorptivity, leading to its bright blue color. Lapis lazuli is found in limestone in the Kokcha River valley of Badakhshan province in north-eastern Afghanistan, where the Sar-i Sang mine deposits have been worked for more than 6,000 years. Afghanistan was the source of lapis for the ancient Persian, Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, as well as
1275-611: Is "opaque and sprinkled with specks of gold". Because the stone combines the blue of the heavens and golden glitter of the sun, it was emblematic of success in the old Jewish tradition. In the early Christian tradition lapis lazuli was regarded as the stone of Virgin Mary . In late classical times and as late as the Middle Ages, lapis lazuli was often called sapphire ( sapphirus in Latin, sappir in Hebrew), though it had little to do with
1350-712: Is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, lāžward , lapis lazuli is a rock composed primarily of the minerals lazurite , pyrite and calcite . As early as the 7th millennium BC , lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai , and in other mines in Badakhshan province in modern northeast Afghanistan . Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana , which
1425-528: Is a greenish-blue color. Its name comes from that of a bird—the Eurasian teal ( Anas crecca )—which presents a similarly colored stripe on its head. The word is often used colloquially to refer to shades of cyan in general. It can be created by mixing cyan into a green base, or deepened as needed with black or gray. It is also one of the first group of 16 HTML/CSS web colors . In the RGB model used to create colors on computer screens and televisions, teal
1500-596: Is created by reducing the brightness of cyan to about one half. Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model . It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light . The term blue generally describes colours perceived by humans observing light with a dominant wavelength that's between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres . Most blues contain
1575-481: Is no single word for blue, but rather different words for light blue ( голубой , goluboj ; Celeste ) and dark blue ( синий , sinij ; Azul ) (see Colour term ). Several languages, including Japanese and Lakota Sioux , use the same word to describe blue and green. For example, in Vietnamese , the colour of both tree leaves and the sky is xanh . In Japanese, the word for blue ( 青 , ao )
SECTION 20
#17327718666771650-399: Is now the blue of blue jeans. As the pace of organic chemistry accelerated, a succession of synthetic blue dyes were discovered including Indanthrone blue , which had even greater resistance to fading during washing or in the sun, and copper phthalocyanine . Woad and true indigo were once used but since the early 1900s, all indigo is synthetic. Produced on an industrial scale, indigo
1725-602: Is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a traffic signal meaning "go". In Lakota, the word tȟó is used for both blue and green, the two colours not being distinguished in older Lakota (for more on this subject, see Blue–green distinction in language ). Linguistic research indicates that languages do not begin by having a word for the colour blue. Colour names often developed individually in natural languages, typically beginning with black and white (or dark and light), and then adding red , and only much later – usually as
1800-568: Is the blue chromophore in stained glass windows , such as those in Gothic cathedrals and in Chinese porcelain beginning in the Tang dynasty . Copper(II) (Cu ) also produces many blue compounds, including the commercial algicide copper(II) sulfate (CuSO 4 5H 2 O). Similarly, vanadyl salts and solutions are often blue, e.g. vanadyl sulfate . When sunlight passes through the atmosphere,
1875-646: Is the blue of blue jeans. Blue dyes are organic compounds, both synthetic and natural. For food, the triarylmethane dye Brilliant blue FCF is used for candies. The search continues for stable, natural blue dyes suitable for the food industry. Various raspberry -flavoured foods are dyed blue. This was done to distinguish strawberry , watermelon and raspberry -flavoured foods. The company ICEE used Blue No. 1 for their blue raspberry ICEEs. Blue pigments were once produced from minerals, especially lapis lazuli and its close relative ultramarine . These minerals were crushed, ground into powder, and then mixed with
1950-686: Is the colour of light between violet and cyan on the visible spectrum . Hues of blue include indigo and ultramarine , closer to violet; pure blue, without any mixture of other colours; Azure, which is a lighter shade of blue, similar to the colour of the sky; Cyan, which is midway in the spectrum between blue and green , and the other blue-greens such as turquoise , teal , and aquamarine . Blue also varies in shade or tint; darker shades of blue contain black or grey, while lighter tints contain white. Darker shades of blue include ultramarine, cobalt blue , navy blue , and Prussian blue ; while lighter tints include sky blue , azure , and Egyptian blue (for
2025-586: Is the etymological source of both the English word azure (via Old French azur ) and Medieval Latin lazulum , which came to mean 'heaven' or 'sky'. To disambiguate, lapis lazulī ("stone of lazulum ") was used to refer to the stone itself, and is the term ultimately imported into Middle English . Lazulum is etymologically related to the color blue, and used as a root for the word for blue in several languages, including Spanish and Portuguese azul . Mines in northeast Afghanistan continue to be
2100-683: Is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation . Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation (3300–1900 BC). Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh , the Caucasus , and as far away as Mauritania . It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC). By the end of the Middle Ages , lapis lazuli began to be exported to Europe, where it was ground into powder and made into
2175-614: The Baltic Sea area and Northern Europe , and are also found in Eastern , Central , and Southern Europe . Blue eyes are also found in parts of Western Asia , most notably in Afghanistan , Syria , Iraq , and Iran . In Estonia , 99% of people have blue eyes. In Denmark in 1978, only 8% of the population had brown eyes, though through immigration, today that number is about 11%. In Germany , about 75% have blue eyes. In
2250-518: The Caucasus , and as far away as Mauritania . It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun (1341–1323 BC). A term for Blue was relatively rare in many forms of ancient art and decoration, and even in ancient literature. The Ancient Greek poets described the sea as green, brown or "the colour of wine". The colour is mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible as ' tekhelet '. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from
2325-470: The Munsell colour wheel ). In 1993, high-brightness blue LEDs were demonstrated by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia Corporation . In parallel, Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University were working on a new development which revolutionized LED lighting. Nakamura was awarded the 2006 Millennium Technology Prize for his invention. Nakamura, Hiroshi Amano and Isamu Akasaki were awarded
Blue-green - Misplaced Pages Continue
2400-833: The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2014 for the invention of an efficient blue LED. Lasers emitting in the blue region of the spectrum became widely available to the public in 2010 with the release of inexpensive high-powered 445–447 nm laser diode technology. Previously the blue wavelengths were accessible only through DPSS which are comparatively expensive and inefficient, but still widely used by scientists for applications including optogenetics , Raman spectroscopy , and particle image velocimetry , due to their superior beam quality. Blue gas lasers are also still commonly used for holography , DNA sequencing , optical pumping , among other scientific and medical applications. Blue
2475-635: The Renaissance , lapis was ground and processed to make the pigment ultramarine for use in frescoes and oil painting . Its usage as a pigment in oil paint largely ended during the early 19th century, when a chemically identical synthetic variety became available. Lapis lazuli is commercially synthesized or simulated by the Gillson process, which is used to make artificial ultramarine and hydrous zinc phosphates . Spinel or sodalite , or dyed jasper or howlite , can be substituted for lapis. Lapis lazuli has been mined in Afghanistan and exported to
2550-539: The Tyndall scattering of light in the stroma, an optical effect similar to what accounts for the blueness of the sky. The irises of the eyes of people with blue eyes contain less dark melanin than those of people with brown eyes, which means that they absorb less short-wavelength blue light, which is instead reflected out to the viewer. Eye colour also varies depending on the lighting conditions, especially for lighter-coloured eyes. Blue eyes are most common in Ireland,
2625-532: The imagination , cold , and sadness . The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe , from the Old French bleu , a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word blao (meaning 'shimmering, lustrous'). In heraldry , the word azure is used for blue . In Russian , Spanish, Mongolian , Irish , and some other languages, there
2700-402: The iridophore cells in some fish and frogs. Blue eyes do not actually contain any blue pigment. Eye colour is determined by two factors: the pigmentation of the eye's iris and the scattering of light by the turbid medium in the stroma of the iris . In humans, the pigmentation of the iris varies from light brown to black. The appearance of blue, green, and hazel eyes results from
2775-425: The mandarin fish and the picturesque dragonet . More commonly, blueness in animals is a structural colouration ; an optical interference effect induced by organized nanometre-sized scales or fibres. Examples include the plumage of several birds like the blue jay and indigo bunting , the scales of butterflies like the morpho butterfly , collagen fibres in the skin of some species of monkey and opossum , and
2850-585: The 18th century and probably before that. Cerulean ( / s ə ˈ r uː l i ə n / ), also spelled caerulean, is a variety of the hue of blue that may range from a light azure blue to a more intense sky blue, and may be mixed as well with the hue of green. The first recorded use of cerulean as a colour name in English was in 1590. The word is derived from the Latin word caeruleus , "dark blue, blue, or blue-green", which in turn probably derives from caerulum , diminutive of caelum , "heaven, sky". Teal
2925-690: The God of Israel, and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone..." (KJV). The words used in the Latin Vulgate Bible in this citation are "quasi opus lapidis sapphirini", the terms for lapis lazuli. Modern translations of the Bible, such as the New Living Translation Second Edition, refer to lapis lazuli in most instances instead of sapphire. Johannes Vermeer used lapis lazuli paint, in
3000-790: The Islamic world, blue was the colour worn by Christians and Jews, because only Muslims were allowed to wear white and green. In the art and life of Europe during the early Middle Ages , blue played a minor role. This changed dramatically between 1130 and 1140 in Paris, when the Abbe Suger rebuilt the Saint Denis Basilica . Suger considered that light was the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit. He installed stained glass windows coloured with cobalt , which, combined with
3075-708: The Mediterranean world and South Asia since the Neolithic age, along the ancient trade route between Afghanistan and the Indus Valley dating to the 7th millennium BC. Quantities of these beads have also been found at 4th millennium BC settlements in Northern Mesopotamia , and at the Bronze Age site of Shahr-e Sukhteh in southeast Iran (3rd millennium BC). A dagger with a lapis handle,
Blue-green - Misplaced Pages Continue
3150-655: The Romans, blue was the colour of mourning, as well as the colour of barbarians. The Celts and Germans reportedly dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies, and tinted their hair blue when they grew old. The Romans made extensive use of indigo and Egyptian blue pigment, as evidenced, in part, by frescos in Pompeii . The Romans had many words for varieties of blue, including caeruleus , caesius , glaucus , cyaneus , lividus , venetus , aerius , and ferreus , but two words, both of foreign origin, became
3225-495: The United States and Europe, blue is the colour that both men and women are most likely to choose as their favourite, with at least one recent survey showing the same across several other countries, including China, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Past surveys in the US and Europe have found that blue is the colour most commonly associated with harmony , confidence , masculinity , knowledge , intelligence , calmness , distance , infinity ,
3300-417: The United States, as of 2006, 1 out of every 6 people, or 16.6% of the total population, and 22.3% of the white population , have blue eyes, compared with about half of Americans born in 1900, and a third of Americans born in 1950. Blue eyes are becoming less common among American children . In the US, males are 3–5% more likely to have blue eyes than females. As early as the 7th millennium BC , lapis lazuli
3375-722: The Upper Paleolithic period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink, and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making blue dyes and pigments. On the other hand, the rarity of blue pigment made it even more valuable. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants – woad in Europe, indigo in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either lapis lazuli or azurite , and required more. Blue glazes posed still another challenge since
3450-418: The blue wavelengths are scattered more widely by the oxygen and nitrogen molecules, and more blue comes to our eyes. This effect is called Rayleigh scattering , after Lord Rayleigh and confirmed by Albert Einstein in 1911. The sea is seen as blue for largely the same reason: the water absorbs the longer wavelengths of red and reflects and scatters the blue, which comes to the eye of the viewer. The deeper
3525-522: The color of the back of the original iMac computer "Bondi blue" when it was introduced in 1998. It is said to be named for the color of the water at Bondi Beach , in Sydney, Australia. One definition of the color is in the Munsell color system (Munsell 5BG) although there is wide-spread acceptance and knowledge of the color from the so called blue-green algae which have been recognised and described since
3600-463: The early blue dyes and pigments were not thermally robust. In c. 2500 BC , the blue glaze Egyptian blue was introduced for ceramics, as well as many other objects. The Greeks imported indigo dye from India, calling it indikon, and they painted with Egyptian blue. Blue was not one of the four primary colours for Greek painting described by Pliny the Elder (red, yellow, black, and white). For
3675-496: The formula of his colour. In 1828, another scientist, Christian Gmelin then a professor of chemistry in Tübingen, found the process and published his formula. This was the beginning of new industry to manufacture artificial ultramarine, which eventually almost completely replaced the natural product. In 1878 German chemists synthesized indigo . This product rapidly replaced natural indigo, wiping out vast farms growing indigo. It
3750-453: The genus Nessaea , where blue is created by pterobilin . Other blue pigments of animal origin include phorcabilin, used by other butterflies in Graphium and Papilio (specifically P. phorcas and P. weiskei ), and sarpedobilin, which is used by Graphium sarpedon . Blue-pigmented organelles , known as "cyanosomes", exist in the chromatophores of at least two fish species,
3825-424: The hue between blue and violet, as one of the separate colours, though today it is usually considered a hue of blue. In painting and traditional colour theory , blue is one of the three primary colours of pigments (red, yellow, blue), which can be mixed to form a wide gamut of colours. Red and blue mixed together form violet, blue and yellow together form green. Mixing all three primary colours together produces
SECTION 50
#17327718666773900-445: The last main category of colour accepted in a language – adding the colour blue, probably when blue pigments could be manufactured reliably in the culture using that language. The term blue generally describes colours perceived by humans observing light with a dominant wavelength between approximately 450 and 495 nanometres. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with
3975-526: The later Greeks and Romans. Ancient Egyptians obtained the material through trade with Mesopotamians, as part of Egypt–Mesopotamia relations . During the height of the Indus Valley civilisation , approximately 2000 BC, the Harappan colony, now known as Shortugai , was established near the lapis mines. In addition to the Afghan deposits, lapis is also extracted in the Andes (near Ovalle , Chile ); and to
4050-632: The light from the red glass, filled the church with a bluish violet light. The church became the marvel of the Christian world , and the colour became known as the "bleu de Saint-Denis" . In the years that followed even more elegant blue stained glass windows were installed in other churches, including at Chartres Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. In the 12th century the Roman Catholic Church dictated that painters in Italy (and
4125-516: The light interferes destructively. Diverse colours therefore appear despite the absence of colourants. Egyptian blue , the first artificial pigment, was produced in the third millennium BC in Ancient Egypt. It is produced by heating pulverized sand, copper, and natron . It was used in tomb paintings and funereal objects to protect the dead in their afterlife. Prior to the 1700s, blue colourants for artwork were mainly based on lapis lazuli and
4200-456: The manufacture of wallpaper, and in the 19th century was widely used by French impressionist painters. Beginning in the 1820s, Prussian blue was imported into Japan through the port of Nagasaki . It was called bero-ai , or Berlin blue, and it became popular because it did not fade like traditional Japanese blue pigment, ai-gami , made from the dayflower . Prussian blue was used by both Hokusai , in his wave paintings, and Hiroshige . In 1799
4275-417: The more blue it often appears to the eye. For example, mountains in the distance often appear blue. This is the effect of atmospheric perspective ; the farther an object is away from the viewer, the less contrast there is between the object and its background colour, which is usually blue. In a painting where different parts of the composition are blue, green and red, the blue will appear to be more distant, and
4350-745: The most enduring; blavus , from the Germanic word blau , which eventually became bleu or blue; and azureus , from the Arabic word lazaward , which became azure. Blue was widely used in the decoration of churches in the Byzantine Empire. By contrast, in the Islamic world, blue was of secondary to green, believed to be the favourite colour of the Prophet Mohammed . At certain times in Moorish Spain and other parts of
4425-427: The observer goes, the darker the blue becomes. In the open sea, only about 1% of light penetrates to a depth of 200 metres (see underwater and euphotic depth ). The colour of the sea is also affected by the colour of the sky, reflected by particles in the water; and by algae and plant life in the water, which can make it look green; or by sediment, which can make it look brown. The farther away an object is,
4500-570: The oldest known works of literature. The Statue of Ebih-Il , a 3rd millennium BC statue found in the ancient city-state of Mari in modern-day Syria , now in the Louvre , uses lapis lazuli inlays for the irises of the eyes. In ancient Egypt, lapis lazuli was a favorite stone for amulets and ornaments such as scarabs . Lapis jewellery has been found at excavations of the Predynastic Egyptian site Naqada (3300–3100 BC). At Karnak ,
4575-539: The pigment ultramarine . Ultramarine was used by some of the most important artists of the Renaissance and Baroque , including Masaccio , Perugino , Titian and Vermeer , and was often reserved for the clothing of the central figures of their paintings, especially the Virgin Mary . Ultramarine has also been found in dental tartar of medieval nuns and scribes , perhaps as a result of licking their painting brushes while producing medieval texts and manuscripts . Excavations from Tepe Gawra show that Lapis lazuli
SECTION 60
#17327718666774650-502: The plant kingdom". In the few plants that exploit structural colouration, brilliant colours are produced by structures within cells. The most brilliant blue colouration known in any living tissue is found in the marble berries of Pollia condensata , where a spiral structure of cellulose fibrils scattering blue light. The fruit of quandong ( Santalum acuminatum ) can appear blue owing to the same effect. Blue-pigmented animals are relatively rare. Examples of which include butterflies of
4725-430: The red closer to the viewer. The cooler a colour is, the more distant it seems. Blue light is scattered more than other wavelengths by the gases in the atmosphere , hence our "blue planet". Some of the most desirable gems are blue, including sapphire and tanzanite . Compounds of copper(II) are characteristically blue and so are many copper-containing minerals. Azurite ( Cu 3 (CO 3 ) 2 (OH) 2 ) , with
4800-637: The reds and the blues so no one colour dominated the picture. Ultramarine was the most prestigious blue of the Renaissance, being more expensive than gold. Wealthy art patrons commissioned works with the most expensive blues possible. In 1616 Richard Sackville commissioned a portrait of himself by Isaac Oliver with three different blues, including ultramarine pigment for his stockings. Lapis lazuli Lapis lazuli ( UK : / ˌ l æ p ɪ s ˈ l æ z ( j ) ʊ l i , ˈ l æ ʒ ʊ -, - ˌ l i / ; US : / ˈ l æ z ( j ) ə l i , ˈ l æ ʒ ə -, - ˌ l i / ), or lapis for short,
4875-476: The related mineral ultramarine. A breakthrough occurred in 1709 when German druggist and pigment maker Johann Jacob Diesbach discovered Prussian blue . The new blue arose from experiments involving heating dried blood with iron sulphides and was initially called Berliner Blau. By 1710 it was being used by the French painter Antoine Watteau , and later his successor Nicolas Lancret . It became immensely popular for
4950-515: The relief carvings of Thutmose III (1479–1429 BC) show fragments and barrel-shaped pieces of lapis lazuli being delivered to him as tribute. Powdered lapis was used as eyeshadow by Cleopatra . Jewelry made of lapis lazuli has also been found at Mycenae attesting to relations between the Myceneans and the developed civilizations of Egypt and the East. Pliny the Elder wrote that lapis lazuli
5025-524: The rest of Europe consequently) to paint the Virgin Mary with blue, which became associated with holiness, humility and virtue. In medieval paintings, blue was used to attract the attention of the viewer to the Virgin Mary. Paintings of the mythical King Arthur began to show him dressed in blue. The coat of arms of the kings of France became an azure or light blue shield, sprinkled with golden fleur-de-lis or lilies. Blue had come from obscurity to become
5100-400: The royal colour. Blue came into wider use beginning in the Renaissance, when artists began to paint the world with perspective, depth, shadows, and light from a single source. In Renaissance paintings, artists tried to create harmonies between blue and red, lightening the blue with lead white paint and adding shadows and highlights. Raphael was a master of this technique, carefully balancing
5175-460: The silica prior to firing. The cobalt occupies sites otherwise filled with silicon. Methyl blue is the dominant blue pigment in inks used in pens. Blueprinting involves the production of Prussian blue in situ. Certain metal ions characteristically form blue solutions or blue salts. Of some practical importance, cobalt is used to make the deep blue glazes and glasses. It substitutes for silicon or aluminum ions in these materials. Cobalt
5250-635: The stone today known as the blue corundum variety sapphire. In his book on stones, the Greek scientist Theophrastus described "the sapphirus, which is speckled with gold," a description which matches lapis lazuli. There are many references to "sapphire" in the Old Testament , but most scholars agree that, since sapphire was not known before the Roman Empire, they most likely are references to lapis lazuli. For instance, Exodus 24:10: "And they saw
5325-437: The west of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia, at the Tultui lazurite deposit. It is mined in smaller amounts in Angola , Argentina, Burma , Pakistan, Canada, Italy, India, and in the United States in California and Colorado . Lapis takes an excellent polish and can be made into jewellery, carvings, boxes, mosaics , ornaments, small statues, and vases. Interior items and finishing buildings can be also made with lapis. During
5400-529: Was introduced to Mesopotamia approximately in the late Ubaid period , c. 4900–4000 BCE. A traditional understanding was that the lapis was mined some fifteen hundred miles to the east – in Badakhshan . Indeed, the Persian لاژورد lāžavard/lāževard , also written لاجورد lājevard , is commonly interpreted as having an origin in a local place name. From the Persian, the Arabic لازورد lāzaward
5475-401: Was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai , and in other mines in Badakhshan province in northeast Afghanistan . Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana , which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation . Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation (7570–1900 BC). Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh ,
5550-547: Was replaced by the finer indigo from America. In the 19th century, synthetic blue dyes and pigments gradually replaced organic dyes and mineral pigments. Dark blue became a common colour for military uniforms and later, in the late 20th century, for business suits. Because blue has commonly been associated with harmony, it was chosen as the colour of the flags of the United Nations and the European Union . In
5625-408: Was used in ancient Egypt for jewellery and ornament and later, in the Renaissance , to make the pigment ultramarine , the most expensive of all pigments. In the eighth century Chinese artists used cobalt blue to colour fine blue and white porcelain . In the Middle Ages , European artists used it in the windows of cathedrals . Europeans wore clothing coloured with the vegetable dye woad until it
#676323