Vermilion
Composition and Properties of Vermilion
Vermilion (cinnabar) is mercuric sulfide with the formula HgS. The oldest form of vermilion is finely ground mineral cinnabar. Mercuric sulfide can also be produced artificially.The pigment is not affected even by strong concentrated acids and alkalis and is considered fairly lightfast but it can darken considerably. The darkening of vermilion has been studied extensively and is due to the transformation to the black form of HgS (1,2,3). It is compatible with other pigments.
Names of Vermilion
CinnabarPR 106, CI 77766Vermilion Late Latin vermiculus “a little worm,” specifically, the cochineal insect from which crimson dyes were obtained, in classical Latin, “larva of an insect, grub, maggot,” diminutive of vermis “worm”. From WordFinderCinnabar “The word most likely comes from the ancient Greek κιννάβαρι kinnabari, later romanized to cinnabaris. In Persian, it is known as شنگرف shangarf; in the Arabic world it appears as زنجفرة zinjifrah.” From: Ellen Spindler, The Story of Cinnabar and Vermilion (HgS) at The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 28 Feb 2018CinnabarPR 106, CI 77766Vermilion Late Latin vermiculus “a little worm,” specifically, the cochineal insect from which crimson dyes were obtained, in classical Latin, “larva of an insect, grub, maggot,” diminutive of vermis “worm”. From WordFinderCinnabar “The word most likely comes from the ancient Greek κιννάβαρι kinnabari, later romanized to cinnabaris. In Persian, it is known as شنگرف shangarf; in the Arabic world it appears as زنجفرة zinjifrah.” From: Ellen Spindler, The Story of Cinnabar and Vermilion (HgS) at The Met, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 28 Feb 2018
Preparation of Vermilion
The mineral has to be broken, ground and purified until the color is right.Dry processMercury reacts readily with molten sulfur under the formation of the black form of mercury (II)-sulfide. This form can be transformed into the red form by sublimation.Wet processThe German chemist Gottfried Schulz discovered that the black form can be transformed into the red form by heating it in a solution of ammonium or potassium sulfide (2). This being a much simpler and cheaper method than the sublimation in the dry process.
History of Use
The pigment has been in use since antiquity until modern times. The following graph gives the frequency of its use from the 14th till the 19th century in the paintings of the Schack Collection in the Bavarian State Art Collections in Munich (1).Examples of use
Quote
Paul Sérusier's story was exciting. From his summer vacation in Brittany [Summer 1888], where he had briefly encountered Paul Gauguin, he had brought back a small landscape painted under Gauguin's direction. Gauguin had asked him, (as Sérusier told his friends later in Paris): 'How do you see these trees? They are yellow. Well then, put down yellow. And that shadow is rather blue? So render it with pure-ultramarine. Those red leaves? Use vermilion.' Quote by Paul Sérusier / John Rewald; from Pierre Bonnard, John Rewald; MoMA - distribution, Simon & Schuster, New York, 1918, p. 13
Source: Les Nabis
The Incas labored long in the [[[Peru]]vian mercury mines without knowing what quicksilver was, seeking only cinnabar, or vermilion to use as war paint. Father Jose De Costa in "Natural and Moral History of the Indies”, quoted in p. 49
Source: Mercury (element)
Within the vermilion gate, meats and wines go to wasteWhile on the roadside lie the frozen bodies of the poor. As quoted in Lin Yutang's The Vermilion Gate (1914)
Source: Du Fu
[I wouldn't mind turning into] a vermilion goldfish. At age 80, as quoted in Matisse (1984) by Pierre Schneider
Source: Henri Matisse
A French paysagiste [landscape-painter] once came from Paris to request him to show him his method of painting. Constable said he should have been most happy to meet his wishes, but that unfortunately he had no method, and got his pictures up he did not know how. This I had from Mr. Field, who was present. Yet certainly a method he had, and very unlike other people, which was to dead colour in white and black, or vermilion and Prussian blue. He used the spatula freely, and the vehicle [medium] he employed enabled him to plaster [on the surface]. p. 82
Source: John Constable
The possibilities of the art of combination are not infinite, but they tend to be frightful. The Greeks engendered the chimera, a monster with heads of the lion, the dragon and the goat; the theologians of the second century, the Trinity, in which the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are inextricably tied; the Chinese zoologists, the ti-yiang, a vermilion supernatural bird, endowed with six feet and four wings, but without a face or eyes; the geometers of the nineteenth century, the hypercube, a figure with four dimensions, which encloses an infinite number of cubes and has as its faces eight cubes and twenty-four squares. Hollywood has just enriched this vain museum of horrors: by means of an artistic malignity called dubbing, it proposes monsters that combine the illustrious features of Greta Garbo with the voice of Aldonza Lorenzo. "On Dubbing" ["Sobre el doblaje"]
Source: Jorge Luis Borges
At present I have a portrait of a woman [Madame Roulin].. .Which I've called 'la berceuse', . .It's a woman dressed in green (bust olive green and the skirt pale Veronese green). Her hair is entirely orange and in plaits. The complexion worked up in chrome yellow, with a few broken tones, of course, in order to model. The hands that hold the cradle cord ditto ditto. The background is vermilion at the bottom (simply representing a tiled floor or brick floor). The wall is covered with wallpaper, obviously calculated by me in connection with the rest of the colours. This wallpaper is blue-green with pink dahlias and dotted with orange and with ultramarine.. .Whether I've actually sung a lullaby with colour I leave to the critics.. Quote of Vincent in his letter from Arles, on or about Tuesday, 22 January 1889, to his Dutch friend Arnold Koning; from text of letter 740, van goghletters – Van Gogh museum
Source: Vincent van Gogh
Don't you think your Corot [to Guilemet the painter] is a little short on temperament? I'm painting a portrait of Vallabreque; the highlight on the nose is pure vermilion [remark of Cezanne ca. 1860] Quote in: Cézanne, by Ambroise Vollard, Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 28
Source: Paul Cézanne
Già l'aura messaggiera erasi destaA nunziar che se ne vien l'aurora:intanto s'adorna, e l'aurea testaDi rose, colte in Paradiso, infiora. The purple morning left her crimson bed,And donned her robes of pure vermilion hue,Her amber locks she crowned with roses red,In Eden's flowery gardens gathered new. Canto III, stanza 1 (tr. Fairfax)
Source: Torquato Tasso
Don't you think your Corot is a little short on temperament? I'm painting a portrait of Vallabreque; the highlight on the nose is pure vermilion. Paul Cezanne's quote to the painter Guilemet, ca. 1860, as quoted in Cézanne, by Ambroise Vollard, Dover publications Inc. New York, 1984, p. 28
Source: Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
