A precious pigment reserved for the Queen alone. Fascinating facts!
We are pleased to present a second guest post by Leanne Ogasawara, who writes from Japan, where she is a freelance translator and writer.
When the German explorer Albert von Le Coq was at Kizil as part of his grand travels to “borrow” ancient artifacts in Central Asia (carving frescos right off the walls in some cases!), he was stunned to come upon cave temples in what was by that time the middle of nowhere with murals of such beauty that he described them to be “the finest in all of Turkestan.”
These murals were of astounding beauty. And most surprising of all was the blue pigment used in the paintings decorating the cave walls. He would write, “…the extravagant use of a brilliant blue – the well-known ultramarine which, in the time of Benvenuto Cellini was frequently employed by the Italian painters, and was bought at double its weight…
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