The Modernity of Ancient Pigments: A Historical Approach

Abstract

Naturally occurring and synthetic ancient pigments have a history of use spanning thousands of years. Curiously, some of their newly discovered properties make them excellent candidates for semiconductors, anticounterfeiting agents and so much more. In this paper, we will review their ancient roots in art and modern emergence as 21st century workhorses. You can never judge a pigment by its color alone!

Exploring the Role of Transition Metal Complexes in Artistic Coloration through a Bottom-Up Scientific Approach

“…Delving deeper into the theory behind the coloring of transition metal complexes acts as a basis of knowledge that can be used to understand their color variability through various stages of production. Although earlier review articles [1,8] have explored the origin of color attributed to transition metal complexes, this review offers a distinct perspective by focusing on the role of transitional metal d orbitals, selection rules, and ligand field effects. Within this context, two primary mechanisms -d-orbital splitting and charge transfer -which encompass the energetics of the complex's orbital systems, are examined in detail.…”

“…For millennia, transition metal complexes have served as captivating agents of color in humanmade art, their vibrancy enchanting viewers long before the sources of these colors were fully understood [1,2]. From the brilliant blues of Ancient Roman glass mosaics [3] to the striking turquoises of Ancient Egyptian faience [4], transition metal complexes have found themselves at the center of artistic expression across civilizations.…”

Inside the Scriptorium: Non-Invasive In Situ Identification of Dyes in Illuminated Manuscripts by Microspectrofluorimetry and Multivariate Analysis: The Crescenzago Choir Books (End 15th Century) as a Case Study

“…In particular, most of them were precipitated on alum and applied on parchment with a suitable binder. Exceptions are represented by folium and orcein [5,22]. Folium, in particular, was commonly extracted from a cloth soaked in Chrozophora tinctoria seed juice and was used to paint as is, dissolved in water or mixed with egg white.…”

Clusters in light nuclei: history and recent developments

“…A change of perspective occurred in 1937, the golden year of α-clustering in nuclei. It was in this year, in fact, that Wilfried Wefelmeier, a German physicist, 1 clearly noted the extra-stability, in terms of binding energy, of N = Z even-even nuclei, as 12 C, 16 O, 20 Ne, and proposed that they could be considered as formed by α particles arranged, in a molecular-like fashion, to form peculiar and regular geometries [17]. Wefelmeier attached, even on an epistemological basis, the considerations of Bethe and Bacher, and underlined that the α-like particles at the basis of his model were transient units, with a short-lived identity, but nevertheless dynamically influencing the whole structure of the nucleus.…”

“…3 Despite the solicitations of von Weizsacker, Otto Hahn refused three times to meet Wefelmeier to discuss with him on possible theoretical explanation of fission (based on the "kernwurst" model introduced by Wefelmeier). No citation to Wefelmeier's works is reported in the subsequent articles by Hahn and Meitner, even if Otto Frisch found some concepts of the Wefelmeier's model very useful to understand the parameters of fissile nuclei [20]. For a detailed historical perspective of physics in Berlin at the end of 30s and on the discovery of fission, see also [21,22].…”