How lethal toxic pigments used in books for millennia created images to die for
An exhibit at a US museum looks at how mercury, arsenic, lead and ‘orpiment’ created visuals both incredibly seductive and highly dangerous
A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But who knew that books could kill?
The exhibit, open since December, ends on August 3.
These metals and minerals produced jewel-like, dazzling colours – a brilliant green, a reddish-orange, a bright golden yellow. Lead is the basis for a colour known as “lead white”, an opaque, silky pigment that retains its bright hue for centuries.
Some of these tints were so seductive and beguiling that death could be seen as almost worth the risk. They remained in circulation for hundreds of years after their dangerousness was documented.
“It was completely different from all the other green pigments, and people went crazy for it,” said Annette Ortiz Miranda, a conservation scientist for the museum who co-curated the exhibit with Walters staff Lynley Anne Herbert and Abigail Quandt.