[split] VM color palette

[-JKP-]

The VMS has a very limited palette. The pigments are:

• green (this has been mixed with varying amounts of amber or blue to create different shades of green, it's the one VMS color that is frequently mixed)
  
• brown (this appears to be the same mix as the gall ink but in some places looks like it might have been watered slightly to create a paler color)
  
• blue (one that appears difficult to work with and in places looks like it wasn't ground long enough to make it smooth).
  
• amber (this is a pale, washed-out color that was sometimes mixed with green)
  
• true red (this is used sparingly and was generally a more expensive and difficult pigment to obtain)
  
• white (a few places look like there might be white, perhaps white lead, and a few places where it might have been mixed with other colors, but it is very sparse and hard to see)
  

There are numerous places with brick red (not quite a true red), and some true red. It's difficult to tell if the true red has been mixed with brown or if there is another more brownish-red (a less expensive pigment) that has been mixed with brown to create the brick-red. It would be difficult to determine this without pigment analysis. Red lead could be treated with nitric acid to produce a brick red, but you can't really tell this from digital scans. It needs to be studied directly from the manuscript.

So...

The predominant pigments are 1) brown (probably the same as the gall ink), 2) green, 3) either brick-red or brown mixed with true red, and 4) blue.
The secondary pigments are 1) amber, 2) true red, and 3) white (very rare).

This is not a broad palette. Many manuscripts have more colors available (and thus also more opportunities to mix colors).




Colors that are conspicuously absent

I haven't noticed any significant mixing of red with blue to create purple, or red with white to create pink. Natural pigments sometimes had unpleasant chemical reactions that resulted in muddy mixes. Sometimes they resisted mixing altogether. Modern paints are designed to mix readily and include a huge variety of pre-mixed colors, so it's hard to appreciate how difficult it was to work with medieval pigments (or how to combine them).


True red was expensive, a bit of a luxury, just as true saffron for cooking was a luxury.

Red lead was also used to create an orange shade that was very popular in the early medieval period (along with green), but I don't see it in the VMS.