Indian yellow
Composition and Properties of Indian Yellow
The principal components of Indian yellow are calcium and magnesium salts of euxanthic acid. It is moderately stable and fairly lightfast. Structure of euxanthic acid
Names
Euxanthine, snowshoe yellow, peori, purree, gogili, gaugoliNY 20, CI 75320Named after India
Preparation
The pigment was prepared in India from the urine of cows fed exclusively on mango leaves. The urine was evaporated and the resulting raw product was sold in the form of balls.
History of Use
The first occurrences in paintings date from around the 15th century. It was used mainly in India. Due to its solubility in water the pigment was used in watercolor and only seldom for glazing.References(1) Yonghui Zhao, Roy S. Berns, Lawrence A. Taplin, James Coddington, An Investigation of Multispectral Imaging for the Mapping of Pigments in Paintings, in Proc. SPIE 6810, Computer Image Analysis in the Study of Art, 681007 (29 February 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.765711. Available as pdf.(2) Kühn, H., Die Pigmente in den Gemälden der Schack-Galerie, in: Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen (Ed.) Schack-Galerie (Gemäldekataloge Bd. II), München 1969.Examples of useAugust Wolf, Enthroned Madonna with Angels and Saints, 1870-71 at the Pinakotheken, Munich (1).
Quote
I disagree with those who assert that Titian and El Greco painted on a tempera underpainting. ...In contrast to Titian, El Greco very frequently employed glazings ...In El Greco we find a curious combination of tempera school ideas associated with a freedom of the brush stroke surpassing that of his master, Titian. Like the tempera painters, El Greco often underpainted in grisaille and glazed upon such a monotone underpainting the fiery hues of madder lake, verdigris, azurite blue and yellow (probably Indian yellow). This... largely accounts for the brilliance and extraordinary luminosity... But El Greco's grisaille... was brushed on roughly and the texture of the superimposed color often does not correspond with that of the grisaille. This... is an entirely unorthodox method. Entirely unconventional also was his use of the madder, which, at times, he applied with an extreme impasto defying the nature of this glazing color. Frederic Taubes, Studio Secrets (1943) pp. 10-11.
Source: El Greco
