Iron Oxyde and Prehistoric Art
In order to reproduce the colors of their surrounding worlds, humans of all eras worked with the materials they had within their reach. Prehistoric works of art teach us that some of the first pigments to have been used - and to have survived over time - were iron oxide-based.
Some iron oxides can be found in soil and rock in many parts of the world. We recognize traces of iron oxide from the yellowish or burnt orange hues they give to rock. Rust is a well-known result of iron oxide.
Although there is not information available to verify how prehistoric artists obtained the brownish yellow color known as ochre, it is suggested that they used the same technique that is used today. Ochre is extracted from ochreous sands by soaking these sands with water. The sands' quartz settles to the bottom of the container, while the clay and the ochre stay suspended in the water. We need only to collect the liquid and let the water evaporate, in order to collect a fine ochre pigment.
There are different kinds of iron oxide, which allow us to produce a variety of colors ranging from yellow to brown, to a burnt orange and bloody red. The art in the caves of Lascaux in France and Altamira, Spain are magnificent examples of the use of these iron oxide-based pigments by our predecessors.
François Delamare et Bernard Guineau ; Les matériaux de la couleur ; collection Découvertes Gallimard Techniques, 1999
|
