Ever since their founding, the Harvard Art Museums—the Fogg Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, and Arthur M. Sackler Museum—have been dedicated to advancing and supporting learning at Harvard University, in the local community, and around the world.
The museums have played a leading role in the development of art history, conservation, and conservation science, and in the evolution of the art museum as an institution.Through research, teaching, professional training, and public education, the museums strive to advance the understanding and appreciation of art. Programs encourage close looking at original works of art, collaboration with campus and community partners, and the production of new scholarship.
The most unusual colors from Harvard's storied pigment library include beetle extracts, poisonous metals, and human mummies.
The materials collection, including the Forbes collection of pigments and the Gettens collection of media and varnishes, at the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, Harvard Art Museums
Narayan Khandekar, senior conservation scientist and director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums, with the cabinets containing the materials collection
Vials of pigments in the Straus Center’s materials collection
The pigments in the Forbes collection come from all over the world, and some are stored in their original delicate glass containers.
The Straus Center’s materials collection includes an impressive array of pigments to aid research and conservation work.
Today, every color imaginable is at your fingertips. You can peruse paint swatches at hardware stores, flip through Pantone books, and fuss with the color finder that comes with most computer programs, until achieving the hue of your heart's desire. But rewind to a few centuries ago and finding that one specific color might have meant trekking to a single mineral deposit in remote Afghanistan—as was the case with lapis lazuli, a rock prized for its brilliant blue hue, which made it more valuable than gold in medieval times.
Portrait of Edward Waldo Forbes, undated. Photograph by Bachrach. Fogg History Photographs, Fogg Benefactors, file 1.Harvard Art Museums Archives
The history of pigments goes back to prehistoric times, but much of what we know about how they relate to the art world comes from Edward Forbes, a historian and director of the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University from 1909 to 1944. Considered the father of art conservation in the United States, Forbes traveled around the world amassing pigments in order to authenticate classical Italian paintings. Over the years, theForbes Pigment Collection—as his collection came to be known—grew to more than 2,500 different specimens, each with its own layered backstory on its origin, production, and use.
Today, the collection is used mostly for scientific analysis, providing standard pigments to compare to unknowns. Narayan Khandekar is the director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies at the Harvard Art Museums and the collection's custodian. For the last 10 years, Khandekar has rebuilt the collection to include modern pigments to better analyze 20th century and contemporary art."People would harvest mummies from Egypt and then extract the brown resin material that was on the wrappings . . . and turn that into a pigment."
A lot has changed in the art world since painters worked with "colormen"—as tradesmen in dyes and pigments were known—to obtain their medium. The commercialization of paints has transformed that process. "Artists today will use anything to get the idea that's in their head into a physical form," Khandekar says. "It could be pieces of plastic. It could be cans of food. It could be anything. We need to be able to identify lots of different materials that are industrially produced as well as things that are produced specifically for artists' use."
The pigments in the Forbes collection come from all over the world, and some are stored in their original delicate glass containers.Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College
The way he describes his work researching and cataloging pigments is akin to detective work. "We use our instruments in the same way that forensic scientists do," Khandekar says. "We examine and find out what we can about the key compounds that will tell us the material's origin." But instead of tools such as DNA analysis, he and his team of conservation scientists use techniques such asRaman spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, gas chromatography, and electron microscopy to map out the precise chemical composition of a pigment.
The Straus Center’s materials collection includes an impressive array of pigments to aid research and conservation work.Peter Vanderwarker
For example, their work was instrumental in proving that a Jackson Pollock painting "rediscovered" in 2007 was actually a fake, after pigment analysis revealed that a specific red color was manufactured 20 years after the artist's death. The color, Red 254, was a by-product of a chemical reaction first documented in 1974; it's also nicknamed
"Ferrari red."
"Every pigment has its own story," Khandekar says. With that in mind, we asked him to share the stories of 10 of the rarest and most interesting pigments in the Forbes collection.
Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Synthetic Ultramarine
"This was discovered in 1826 as the result of a contest. In a way it is like discovering how to make gold as artists no longer had to buy natural ultramarine at great cost."
Mummy Brown
"People would harvest mummies from Egypt and then extract the brown resin material that was on the wrappings around the bodies and turn that into a pigment. It's a very bizarre kind of pigment, I've got to say, but it was very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries."
Brazilwood
"Brazilwood is any of several tropical trees of the senna genus. Its hard, red-color wood has had limited use for violins, bows, veneer, and high-quality furniture. The wood contains the colorant brasilin, which gives a deep-red to brownish color. Brazilwood dye has been used for textile and leather dyes, inks, paints, varnish tints, and wood stains."
Quercitron
"A yellow vegetable dye, quercitron is extracted from the black or dark brown bark of the black oak, Quercus velutina, that is native to the Eastern and Midwestern parts of the United States."
Annatto
"The lipstick plant—a small tree, Bixa orellana, native to Central and South America—produces annatto, a natural orange dye. Seeds from the plant are contained in a pod surrounded with a bright red pulp. Currently, annatto is used to color butter, cheese, and cosmetics."
Lapis Lazuli
"People would mine it in Afghanistan, ship it across Europe, and it was more expensive that gold so it would have its own budget line on a commission."
Dragon's Blood
"It has a great name, but it's not from dragons. [The bright red pigment] is from the rattan palm."
Cochineal
"This red dye comes from squashed beetles, and it's used in cosmetics and food."
Harvard Art Museums, © President and Fellows of Harvard College
Cadmium Yellow
"Cadmium yellow was introduced in the mid 19th century. It's a bright yellow that many impressionists used. Cadmium is a heavy metal, very toxic. In the early 20th century, cadmium red was introduced. You find these pigments used in industrial processes. Up until the 1970s, Lego bricks had cadmium pigment in them."
Emerald Green
"This is made from copper acetoarsenite. We had a Van Gogh with a bright green background that was identified as emerald green. Pigments used for artists' purposes can find their way into use in other areas as well. Emerald green was used as an insecticide, and you often see it on older wood that would be put into the ground, like railroad ties."
Fonte: @edisonmariotti #edisonmariotti
Cultura e conhecimento são ingredientes essenciais para a sociedade.
A cultura é o único antídoto que existe contra a ausência de amor.
Vamos compartilhar.
Slideshow Credits: 01 / Zak Jensen, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 02 / Antoinette Hocbo, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 03 / Antoinette Hocbo, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 04 / Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 05 /Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 06 / Jenny Stenger, © President and Fellows of Harvard College; 07 / © Peter Vanderwarker; 08 / © Peter Vanderwarker;
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Museu de Harvard protege as cores mais raras do mundoPor Liris Weinhardt
Atualmente, todas as cores que podemos imaginar estão ao nosso alcance. Basta consultar a paleta da Pantone, por exemplo. Mas se voltarmos alguns séculos, podemos descobrir a história surpreendente que há por trás de muitos dos pigmentos que conhecemos hoje. A origem deles remonta a tempos pré-históricos, mas muito do que se sabe está relacionado com o mundo da arte e explicado pelo historiador e diretor do Museu de Arte Forbes, na Universidade de Harvard, Edward Waldo Forbes.
Edward Waldo Forbes.
Considerado o pai da conservação da arte nos Estados Unidos, Forbes viajou ao redor do mundo acumulando pigmentos para autenticar pinturas italianas clássicas. Ao longo dos anos, sua coleção “Forbes Pigment Collection” veio a ser conhecida e cresceu para mais de 2.500 amostras diferentes, cada uma com sua própria história – origem, produção e uso. Hoje este material é utilizado principalmente para análises científicas.
Narayan Khandekar é o atual diretor do Centro Straus de Estudos Técnicos e de Conservação do Museu de Arte de Harvard e também guardião da coleção iniciada por Forbes. Durante os últimos dez anos, ele reconstruiu a coleção para incluir pigmentos modernos, com o objetivo de melhor analisar a arte contemporânea.
Seu trabalho, por exemplo, foi fundamental para provar que uma pintura do mestre norte-americano Jackson Pollock, descoberta em 2007, era na verdade uma falsificação. Após ter feito a análise de pigmentos, Khandekar revelou que uma cor vermelha usada na tela havia sido fabricada 20 anos após a morte do pintor.
“Todo pigmento tem a sua história”, costuma dizer o diretor. Em entrevista ao site Fast Company, Khandekar revelou um pouco do que sabe sobre os dez pigmentos mais raros e interessantes da coleção Forbes.
Confira:
Synthetic Ultramarine
Esta cor foi descoberta em 1826 como resultado de um concurso.
Mummy Brown
Mummy Brown.
Pessoas costumavam ir atrás de múmias, no Egito, para extrair um material marrom que se desprendia dos corpos dos mortos e ficavam nos tecidos nos quais eram enfaixados. Esta espécie de resina era então transformada em pigmento. É um tipo muito estranho de pigmento, mas era muito popular nos séculos 18 e 19.
Pau-Brasil
Essa cor é bem conhecida pelos brasileiros. Proveniente da árvore de mesmo nome, descoberta pelos portugueses que colonizaram nossas terras, o pigmento era uma espécie de resina vermelha que foi muito utilizada pela indústria têxtil europeia.
Quercitron
Uma tintura vegetal amarela extraída da casca do carvalho escuro, nativo de algumas regiões dos Estados Unidos.
Annatto
A Annatto é na verdade a planta que conhecemos aqui como Urucum. O pigmento proveniente dela é um corante natural de tom alaranjado, utilizado tradicionalmente pelos povos indígenas da América do Sul.
Lapis Lazuli
A sua beleza intensa sempre foi apreciada ao longo de séculos, por diversas culturas. Foi usado para obras de arte de elevado valor como a máscara de Tutankhamon e na decoração do Taj Mahal. Artistas do Renascimento escolheram o pigmento para embelezar as vestes de Jesus Cristo e da Virgem Maria. O mineral que deu origem à cor chegou a ser mais valioso que ouro. Acredita-se que seja o pigmento mais caro já criado na história.
Dragon’s Blood
O pigmento conhecido como Sangue de Dragão era feito da seiva de uma árvore do sudeste asiático e apresentava uma cor vermelho brilhante.
Cochineal
Outro corante vermelho retirado de besouros esmagados.
Cadmium Yellow
Cadmium Yellow.
Um tom de amarelo introduzido em meados do século 19. É proveniente do cádmio, um metal pesado e muito tóxico. No início do século 20 o cádmio vermelho também começou a ser utilizado, e até os anos 1970 os blocos de LEGO eram coloridos com este pigmento, até serem proibidos no mercado.
Emerald Green
O verde esmeralda, também conhecido como verde-paris, é o nome de um composto descoberto em 1808, o acetoarsenito de cobre. A substância foi muito utilizada por artistas da época, incluindo Van Gogh, mas foi banida das tintas depois do envenenamento de diversos pintores. Em 1867 começou a ser usado como pesticida, mas logo foi proibido por conta de sua alta toxidade.
Fotos: Divulgação/Acervo de Harvard
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