Ultramarine blue was once more expensive than gold

For centuries, the most brilliant blue in European painting came from a stone dug out of the mountains of what is now Afghanistan. Ground, washed, and kneaded into a paste, lapis lazuli yielded a pigment so costly that it rivaled gold by weight. Painters reserved it for the passages that mattered most. ^[1][2]

From Badakhshan to the easel

The mines of Badakhshan, in the Sar-e-Sang valley of Afghanistan, were the principal source of the finest lapis lazuli for centuries. The stone traveled by caravan and ship to Venice, the great European clearinghouse for pigments, where it was processed into ultramarine. The name itself means "beyond the sea." ^[1][3]

1. 6th–7th century

   Lapis lazuli from Badakhshan is already being used as a blue pigment in Central Asian and Chinese Buddhist cave paintings.

2. 13th–14th century

   Ultramarine becomes widely available in Europe through Venetian trade networks.

3. Renaissance

   Contracts and guild regulations explicitly require ultramarine for the most important figures, especially the Virgin Mary.

4. 1826

   A synthetic ultramarine is produced, ending the natural pigment's monopoly.

Why it cost more than gold

Lapis lazuli contains the blue mineral lazurite mixed with calcite and pyrite. Separating pure lazurite from the stone was a slow, laborious process, and the finest grades demanded many repetitions. Because the raw material had to be hauled from a single remote region, supply was limited and prices were high. In some periods and places, the best ultramarine cost more per ounce than gold. ^[1][2][3]

Blue for the Virgin

The pigment's expense made it a statement of devotion and wealth. In contracts for altarpieces, patrons often specified ultramarine for the Virgin Mary's robe, while lesser areas could be painted with cheaper azurite. The Virgin's blue thus became a visual sign of her purity and of the patron's willingness to spend. ^[2][4]

• In many Renaissance contracts, ultramarine was required for the Virgin's mantle and could not be substituted. ^[4]
• Cheaper azurite, a copper carbonate mineral, was used for less prominent blue passages. ^[2]
• Some artists, like Michelangelo, were known to leave paintings unfinished rather than pay for ultramarine. ^[1]

The pigment's dominance ended in 1826, when French chemist Jean-Baptiste Guimet and, independently, the German chemist Christian Gmelin developed a synthetic ultramarine. The synthetic version was chemically identical and cheap to make, and it quickly replaced natural ultramarine in most artists' palettes. ^[3]