Storied Colors – a catalogue of named colors
5 hours ago
- #pigment history
- #art conservation
- #color provenance
- The Color Index is an ongoing project, established in 2026, that documents one color per day, focusing on its provenance, chemistry, and the people affected by its poisonous properties.
- Each pigment in the catalog has a detailed paper trail, including its origin, workshop, use on canvases, bans, and replacements, without inventing or omitting unflattering details.
- New entries are added weekly on Sundays at 06:00 GMT, with older entries regularly updated based on corrections from conservation laboratories.
- The catalog includes 252 entries and features a section for the curator's notes, recent acquisitions, and occasional newsletters about new entries and contested attributions.
- Users can subscribe to receive notifications about the first issue, with the publication being occasional, ad-free, and allowing unsubscription at any time.