White pigments used in ancient art, spirituality and beauty include bone, limestone variations like chalk and other natural sources. Some carving stones are especially valued for pigmentation. The first three colors of the Paleolithic palette are black, red and white.
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White pigments date back to cave paintings c. 200,000 years ago. White limestone, chalk or calcite walls make perfect backgrounds for colors. On darker paintings, white highlights the figures and catches the light.
READ: Cult of the Fire God - Bronze Age Adventure
Whites come from ground limestone (lime white), toxic lead oxide or soft rocks like kaolinite, talc and chalk. Talc is the predominant constituent of soapstone and has a Mohs hardness of 1, very soft and easy to grind to powder. Soapstone for countertops is harder.
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Although talc as an individual product doesn't materialize until the 19th century BCE, it's known to ancient carvers and artisans in the form of soapstone or steatite. Besides white, the mineral occurs naturally in many other colors.
A whitish organic pigment can be made by crushing and grinding bones. Bones may be found in some areas bleached by the sun, or set out in sunshine for 21 days or more, then ground down. Bone white is sold as a standardized color in art shops.
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Archaeological finds of artisan tools used by early people include an abalone shell used to contain pigment, and a quartzite grinding stone. Pigments like charcoal and red ocher are also found.
Early humans use crushed limestone varieties such as calcite, gypsum and chalk. Chalk white most famously comes from White Cliffs of Dover, England. The chalk cliffs at Dover are layers of soft, white, finely grained limestone accumulated over millions of years.
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Artists use sticks, bones, fingers and brushes of horse hair to apply the color to the surface. Horses are originally hunted for food and eventually domesticated by c. 3800 BCE. Even today some painters' brushes are made with horsehair.
A prehistoric cave habitation yields a wolf's leg-bone used as a drawing stick, with one end dipped in ocher. From minerals used in one painting or sculpture anthropologists can deduce the paths and directions taken by early people.
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Paleolithic artists test and experiment with color. Red is used, especially ocher, but also hematite or heated goethite. A heating process indicates the interest early people have in expression and communication through color, and the chemistry of creation.
The paint color lead white is originally made with lead. It's a popular artists' color and house paint until the 19th century. Early methods of making lead white include placing lead shavings above vinegar in specially designed clay pots. The product is known as ceruse.
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For hundreds of years lead-based white pigment such as ceruse is used to lighten the skin in ritual, fashion or cosmetic application. In Elizabethan times and later, lead white is applied to the face by elite men and women.
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Both geisha and maiko (geisha trainees) wear traditional white foundation, oshiroi. In the past, the white makeup is made with lead. The women wear oshiroi due to the porcelain-like glow it gives the skin when applied in layers.
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In the past, Kabuki actors also wear thick lead-based oshiroi. Makeup using lead is banned in Japan in 1934. Today's oshiroi makeup is a blend of ingredients crystal cellulose, talc and silk.
Lead white can also be toasted to create minium red, a popular paint pigment in medieval times and Middle Ages. It's often used in illuminated manuscripts.
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Ivory is also used in art and imported from Africa c. 1500 BCE. A favorite of sculptors and artisans because of its soft gleam, it's better known as a black pigment than a white one. Ivory black comes from ivory elephant tusks charred in a closed room.
The ivory fractures into splinters, which are then finely ground into a chalky black pigment. The pigments are synthetically made today. Besides extinct mammoths, ivory comes from the elephant, walrus, narwhal, sperm whale, hippopotamus and warthog.
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Kaolin, kaolinite and china white are the same pigment, named for the region of the Gaoling or Kao-ling village, where the clay is found. This particular clay is coveted for porcelain and fine artwork. Kaolin is also abundant in Europe and the United States.
Like white ivory, alabaster is preferred as a sculpting medium because of its rich inner glow. Its natural beauty is referenced in the term 'alabaster skin' to describe a delicate, pale complexion.
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Alabaster comes from England, Belgium, India, Turkey, Cyprus, United States, Italy, Spain and Iran. Quarried in open pits, veins of alabaster run 12 - 20 ft (3.6 - 6 m) below surface. The rocks are about 16 - 20 in (40 - 50 cm) high and 2 - 3 ft (0.6 - 0.9 m) in diameter.
A soft stone, alabaster appears in two forms - gypsum and calcite. The calcite, also called travertine, is best for carving. The gypsum type is ground to powder for plaster. Alabaster succumbs quickly to natural weathering, making it a precious find for craftspeople.
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As a porous stone, alabaster takes glazes and dyes well. Gypsum alabaster is used primarily during the Middle Ages as plaster of Paris. Another source of white pigment is ground ostrich eggshells, due to their composition of 97% crystalline calcite.
Marble, another white stone beloved by sculptors, comes into use c. 1st century CE in Rome. Marble is created by superheated limestone and occurs in an amazing array of colors. Marble waste is used to make white paint even today.
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Sculptors especially prize Carrara marble for its bright white color with greyish marbling, used since the time of Ancient Rome. At the time it's called "Luna marble" or moon marble.
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