Pompeiian Red

Natural inorganic pigment

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Composition and Properties of Pompeiian Red

Pompeiian red is actually burnt sienna from Tuscany. The main color giving component of this pigment is iron oxide. It contains around 50% iron oxide and varying amounts of clay and quartz. It is chemically not distinguishable from yellow ochres, the only significant difference being the color. It shows usually darker and warmer tint than the yellow ochres.

Iron oxides are stable at high temperatures but not resistant against acids. The pigment is absolutely stable and is compatible with all other pigments and is often used in mixture with several other pigments.

pompeiian-red-crystals

Pigment

pompeiian-red-painted-swatch

Painted swatch

Names 

Alternative names

Light Indian red

Word origin

The name Pompeii is from Oscan pompe “five” (from Proto-Indo-European root *penkwe– “five”), in reference to its five districts
From Online Etymology Dictionary

Spain Flag

Pompejanischrot

German

Spain Flag

Rouge de Pompéi

French

Spain Flag

Rosso pompeiano

Italian

Spain Flag

Rojo de Pompeya

Spanish

Preparation of  Pompeiian Red

The source of Pompeiian red has been the quarries in Tuscany in Italy. It is produced from the raw material by calcinating (heating) it in order to dehydrate the iron oxide.

History of Use of  Pompeiian Red

The frescoes in the villas in Pompeii were painted with this pigment, hence the name. Recent research has shown that the part of the red frescoes might have been originally yellow. Their present red color might be due to the chemical changes of yellow ochre caused by hot gasses emitted before the eruption of Vesuvius (1).

References

(1) Charlotte Higgins, Pompeii shows its true colours, The Guardian online, 22. September 2011.

(2) David Hradil, Tomas Grygar, Janka Hradilova, Petr Bezdicka, Clay and iron oxide pigments in the history of painting, Applied Clay Science 22 (2003) 223–236

Examples of use

Roman Fresco in the Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii

Timeline for Red Pigments

timeline_red-pigments 

Identification of  Pompeiian Red

Raman Spectrum

(1) Froment, F., Tournié, A., & Colomban, P., Raman identification of natural red to yellow pigments: ochre and iron-containing ores. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 39 (5), (2008) 560–568. doi:10.1002/jrs.1858

References

(1) Kate Helwig, The characterisation of iron earth pigments using infrared spectroscopy, irug.org Postprints p. 83-92.

 

Further Reading

References

(1) Helwig, K. Iron Oxide Pigments, in Artists’ Pigments, Berrie, B.H., Ed., National Gallery of Art Washington, 2007, pp 38 – 109. 

(2) Cornell, R. M., & Schwertmann, U. The Iron Oxides: Structure, Properties, Reactions, Occurrences, and Uses. Wiley 2006.

(3) Earth pigments tour website. It contains a color map of many earth pigments.

(4) Hradil, David; Grygara, Tomáš; Hradilová, Janka; Bezdička, Petr. Clay and iron oxide pigments in the history of painting. Applied Clay Science 22, 2003, p. 230.

(5) Iker Marcaida, Maite Maguregui, Silvia Fdez-Ortiz de Vallejuelo, Juan Manuel Madariaga, Characterization and provenance study of Pompeian red and yellow ochre pigments, Conference paper, Technart 2017.

S. Muntwyler, J. Lipscher, HP. Schneider, Das Farbenbuch, 2nd. Ed., 2023, alataverlag Elsau, pp. 26-27.