How Many Artists Were Poisoned by their Paints?
A brush with death
One of my favorite memories from childhood was opening a new box of crayons. I marveled at the beautiful hues. When I was older and took painting classes, I never lost that feeling of awe at the brilliant, saturated colors that came right out of the paint tube. But five hundred years ago, painters didn’t have the luxury of buying their paints from the art supply store.
They (or their assistants) had to mix their own colors. This was often difficult, expensive, or dangerous. Sometimes it was difficult, expensive and dangerous. Which makes it ever more impressive that medieval- and Renaissance-era painters still managed to produce such intense, gorgeous colors.
The perils of paints have been known for centuries. In 1713, Bernardino Ramazzini published a book about the hazards. “Of the many painters I have known,” he wrote, “almost all I found unhealthy.”
First, to get the terms straight: the pigment is the coloring agent in paints. It usually came in powdered form and, pre 19th century, was almost always found in nature (animal-based, plant-based, or from naturally occurring minerals)…