Colorful gems

Many opaque gemstones are prized for their vibrant color, and for some, the color is so prized that even dust is used. Dust and crumbs of gems such as lapis lazuli, malachite, azurite were so valuable that they were collected and sold to make paints. Of course, for the manufacture of paints such minerals as realgar, orpiment, cinnabar, antimonite, barite, hematite, limonite and others were also used, but paints from gems were valued above all. And although in our time chemical technologies have been developed that make it possible to produce dyes with the most incredible and bizarre colors and shades, mineral pigments continue to be in steady demand. It is difficult to imagine restorers and artists without them. Often, many of them work with paints made using traditional technologies. In addition to powders, colored stones can also be found in monumental works of architecture and painting in the form of separate pieces of mosaics. These traditions of color rendering are rooted in the distant past. I would especially like to highlight the mosaic technique, which was formed in Italian Florence in the 16th century. This type of selection of stones in shape, color and texture made it possible to compose paintings from them, replacing brush strokes or whole colorful spots with separate elements.