Paints for a 17th Century Warship, The Vasa

 

17th Century Swedish Warship, Vasa

My favorite stop in Stockholm was the museum that housed the restored Swedish warship, The Vasa. It sank as it sailed out of the harbor on it's maiden voyage, August 10, 1628. The crowds were there to see it off, its guns were ready to fire in celebration, and seas were fairly calm. However, the ship didn't have enough ballast and a slight wind was disastrous; it sank 350 feet from shore. The picture above (taken by my husband) shows the Vasa in its unpainted state. To read about the early attempts to raise the ship and the details of the final recovery in 1961 or to view a fabulous photo of a painted scale model, Wikipedia has an excellent article.

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Restorers used chemical analysis to determine the pigments used to paint the ship and the figure above have been painted to show the wide range of vivid colors.

Look at these pigments! Imagine a warship, built to intimidate the enemy, painted in these colors. The colors on each shelf are (L to R):

1. Mountain Blue (from the azurite stone to its left), Orpiment (a sulfide of arsenic), Mountain Green (from the malachite to its left), and Iron Oxide Red (from the hematite to its left).
2. Cinnabar (cinnabar rock to its right), Red Ochre, Light Yellow Ochre, Yellow Ochre (last three are iron oxides).
3. Ivory Black (from roasted elephant tusks), Lamp Black (yes, carbon from soot), Madder Root (a plant native to Greece), Alizarin (from Madder), Ground Brazil Wood (used by Van Gogh), and Indigo.
4. The lowest shelf is labeled "Artificial Pigments" and they are (if I'm reading these correctly) Yellow, Lead White, Red Lead, Cobalt, Senalt.

 I have two books on the history of color and they are both fascinating. 

The first is Color, The Story of Dyes and Pigments by Delamare and Guineau. 

The second is Artist's Color Manual by Simon Jennings. 

I'll never look at watercolor or acrylic paints in quite the same way again. Fortunately, we have found other ways to create Ivory Black.