Pompeian Red with mercury?

[richsc]

I actually have no idea just what shade Pompeian red is (someone may have a pantone number for it) but I read as an aside in "Roman Sex" that the red is a result of mercury. There was no other explanation, and that's the first I have heard of that.<br>
Is there an actual definition anywhere of just what Pompeian red is? My daughter, classics student, had heard that the red was actually golden until the heat of the ash got to it, but I haven't heard that one anywhere else either. <p>Legio XX<br>
Caupona Asellinae</p><i></i>

[richsc]

Curious how easy it is to find when you just look:<br>
<br>
www.multimediaarts.com/wa...lrhist.htm<br>
<br>
RED<br>
<br>
Red is the symbol of active mind. In China, ruby is a symbol of long life. In Ireland the red hand protects the innocent from harm. In England, physicians wore red robes as a symbol of the healing profession. Red means love. In Goethe's color system, red has the highest energy. Its sound is middle C.<br>
<br>
Artists have always wanted bright permanent reds and have historically worked with hazardous, rare, and expensive materials to get them. The artists' color Vermilion was originally prepared from cinnabar, a soft bright red mineral that is the principal ore of mercury. The mural artists of Pompeii used cinnabar from mines in Almaden, Spain. Since the thirteenth century CE, Vermilion has been artificially synthesized from mercury and sulfur. This Vermilion is a dense opaque color, but it may blacken when exposed to the air or when painted next to white lead.<br>
<br>
The red earths were common in mural painting and easel painting throughout history. Red earths are completely permanent and lightfast, but they are dull when compared to the bright reds made from mercury. Other brighter reds were made from organic matter such as the madder root, dried bodies of insects or pomegranate peel. But they were not lightfast. <p>Legio XX<br>
Caupona Asellinae</p><i></i>

[Gashford]

Rich<br>
<br>
I am interested in the red/gold mention you give. Do you mean that the red used was originally golden until it aged or that it was golden in colour until it was altered to red prior to being used? <p>Graham Ashford
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[richsc]

My daughter now claims she never said anything of the kind. I think we'll have to experiment with the actual color, if we can get the stuff with the mercury compound in it, though I wonder if it can legally be sold? <p>Legio XX<br>
Caupona Asellinae</p><i></i>

[Tiberio]

Yes real Vermillion is still available, although you have to look for it a bit.
Due it being a mercury sulfid, you will find it at shops speciallized in supplying restorators. You can get it here for example: http://www.kremer-pigmente.de/englisch/homee.htm
but it is not cheap! It is also advisable not to hold your nose directly over the wet paint, as while it is moist mercury vapors will rise. You just have to be a bit more careful while working with it thats all. I have been using it for years with no problems at all.

Martin

[richsc]

I bought a new book on Pompeii and it is in one of the outlying villas that the arched vaulted ceiling, painted yellow, turned red due to the heat of the ash.

You can get true Pompeiian cinnabar/mercury red paint from [url:1chidru4]http://www.sinopia.com[/url] in San Francisco as well. They give you plenty of cautions on it, but it can be shipped across country.

[Viventius]

The only Pompeiian red I knew of before this discussion was pottery :roll: :

http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/atlas/Ware/PRW1
http://www.potsherd.uklinux.net/atlas/Ware/PRW3

[Antonius Lucretius]

[url:38akf461]http://www.archart.it/archart/italia/campania/pompei/Vettii/vettii1/vettii22.jpg[/url]

That's my idea of Pompeian red.