[HN Gopher] 'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries...
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'Maya blue': The mystery dye recreated two centuries after it was
lost
Author : Qem
Score : 48 points
Date : 2024-12-01 15:26 UTC (5 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.aljazeera.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.aljazeera.com)
| Qem wrote:
| Wikipedia article: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_blue
| dylan604 wrote:
| man, the photographer really was intrigued by his blue painted
| hand. surely, there could have been other examples of the
| pigment's use
| oakwhiz wrote:
| Maybe this is partly because of Islamic aniconism.
| dylan604 wrote:
| You're implying the only other use of the pigment is to make
| idols?
| altairprime wrote:
| Hands are typically an excellent gray reference for
| photography, ensuring that the captured photos represent the
| color accurately given the photographer's platform constraints.
| Hands also help the human brain correct for variations in
| lighting, color profiles, monitor calibration, and so on.
| Showing the dye color on skin ensures the highest fidelity
| conveyance of the hue to the reader possible without control
| over how it's viewed. Other examples of the pigment's use would
| be abstract and "just another blue"; by showing in this way,
| it's possible to see that it's an uncommon and high-key blue.
|
| It's also extremely unusual to see a skin-safe saturated dye in
| this shade; most powdered sources of blue and white, which
| would necessarily be blended to reach these shade, would be
| highly toxic. So, for pigment historians and aficionados, these
| photographs are eerie and compelling. This is what working with
| pigment used to be like, before we understood how much of it
| was toxic and deadly to the people working with and wearing it.
| You could just dip your hands in the forbidden color and admire
| them. It's very cool to see and I'm glad they used hands as the
| focus.
|
| (There may also be cultural reasons why the dye is shown here
| on skin; I haven't yet studied mesoamerican cultures and body
| painting, but others who are more familiar should chime in.)
| fourteenrhinos wrote:
| Thank you for sharing this--I was also confused by the hand
| photos but viewing them again with this reference point gave
| me a new appreciation for the entire work!
| myth_drannon wrote:
| Interesting that some ancient cultures in different parts of the
| world made blue part of their rituals and also lost the ability
| to produce the dyes. Egyptians, Jews
| (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tekhelet). Is it because
| blue->sky->God?
| corinroyal wrote:
| Blue pigments were just rare. There are very few natural ones
| and historically the synthetics have been costly and hard to
| produce, Han blue, Egyptian blue, Fra Angelico blue from
| lapiz... The later was so expensive it was mainly reserved for
| Mary's robes, so perhaps the spiritual association was due to
| expense. Fra Angelico blue is still expensive. 23,000 Euros a
| kilo from Kremer. Even new synthetic blues are expensive. YInMn
| blue is 208 Euro for 50g.
|
| The real revolution in color was the invention of cheap
| synthetic blues starting with Prussian blue in the 19th century
| and led today by the ultramarines and phthalocyanine blues,
| which include our standard cyan used in every inkjet. When
| Prussian blue came out there were a few decades of artistic
| celebration at the dawn of a cheap, intense, and gorgeous blue.
| Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji is a particularly exuberant
| example of this new blue's early use.
| Jun8 wrote:
| Which triggers the next level question: Why are blue pigments
| in plants and animals rare? Quick answer: Unknown.
|
| https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/56476/why-are-
| so...
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40797070#
| WorkerBee28474 wrote:
| > Hokusai's 36 Views of Mount Fuji is a particularly
| exuberant example of this new blue's early use.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty-
| six_Views_of_Mount_Fuji...
| GnarfGnarf wrote:
| For a high-profile outfit like Al Jazeera, I'm surprised at the
| infestation of tacky ads.
| clcaev wrote:
| The chemistry of Maya blue is fascinating since Indigo degrades
| quickly. To keep the color vibrant, now over centuries, it was
| encased in palygorskite clay. If you are interested in this
| topic, see also:
|
| Veiled Brightness: A History of Ancient Maya Color with Stephen
| Houston and colleagues, University of Texas Press, 2009
|
| https://utpress.utexas.edu/9780292719002/
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(page generated 2024-12-06 23:00 UTC)