Burnt Sienna
Composition and Properties of Burnt Sienna
The main color giving component of burnt sienna is iron oxide. The pigment contains around 50% iron oxide and varying amounts of clay and quartz. It is chemically not distinguishable from yellow ochres, the only significant difference being the color. Burnt sienna shows usually darker and warmer tint than the yellow ochres.It is stable at high temperatures but not resistant against acids and is compatible with all other pigments and is thus often used in mixture with several other pigments.
Names
PBr 7 or PR 101CI 77491From the name of the city in central Italy, probably from Senones, the name of a Gaulish people who settled there in ancient times.From Online Etymology Dictionary
Preparation of Burnt Sienna
The traditional source of siennas has been the quarries near Siena in Italy. Burnt sienna is produced from the raw material by calcinating (heating) in order to dehydrate the iron oxide.
History of Use
Raw and burnt sienna became known as pigments approximately in the middle of the 18th century when the quarrying of the raw material in the area of Siena in Italy started.Examples of use
Quote
I work like a gang of slaves; the day seems five months long. My wish to make a winter landscape has become a fixed idea. I want to do a sheep picture and have all sorts of projects in my head. If you could see how beautiful the forest is! I rush there at the end of the day, after my work, and I come back every time crushed. It is so calm, such a terrible grandeur, that I find myself really frightened. I don't know what those fellows, the trees, are saying to each other.. ..we don't know their language, that is all; but I am quite sure of this - they do not make puns!.. ..Send [me] 3 burnt sienna, 2 raw ditto, 3 Naples's yellow, 1 burnt Italian earth, 2 yellow ocher, 2 burnt umber, 1 bottle of raw oil. Quote of Millet, in his letter from Barbizon, c. 1850 to fr:Alfred_Sensier in Paris; as cited by Arthur Hoeber in The Barbizon Painters – being the story of the Men of thirty – associate of the National Academy of Design; publishers, Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York 1915, p. 38 In 1850 Millet entered into an arrangement with Alfred Sensier, who provided him with materials and money in return for drawings and paintings (source: Murphy, Alexandra R. Jean-François Millet. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1984, p. xix), see: Wikipedia, Millet
Source: Jean-François Millet
Kaze: The flaming, hot fang, Cardinal Red. Deep blood of a hurricane, Dark Crimson. And finally, the strength of steel, Burnt Sienna. Scorch! I summon you, Ifrit!
Source: Final Fantasy Unlimited
Gainsborough's Palette. - This I had from Mr. Briggs, but have lost it; still, as I have copied several Gainsborough's, I think I can furnish you with it. Yellows: yellow ochre, Naples }nllow, yellow lake, and for his high lights (but very seldom) some brighter yellow, probably some preparation of orpiment, raw sienna. Reds: vermilion, light red Venetian, and the lakes. Browns: burnt sienna, cologne earth (this he used very freely, and brown pink the same). He used a great deal of terra verte, which he mixed with his blues, generally with ultramarine. His skies are ultramarine. In his early pictures I could never trace other colours. pp. 63-64
Source: Thomas Gainsborough
