ABSTRACT
While the subject of this chapter is explicitly about patterns of use of specific pigments and binding media in Western European easel painting, it is nonetheless important to understand that what is currently known is bounded by a series of such epistemic issues. A strong sense of material history emerges from both the scientific analysis of works of art and the reading of any of the numerous treatises and other documents of the past connected with paintings. From antiquity to modern times these many and varied sources illustrate the evolution of artists’ materials and techniques, their discovery, popularity, and decline. The technical art history field is advancing and highly interdisciplinary, which unfortunately means that current key texts are widely dispersed, yet to be written, or rapidly going out of date. Pigment discovery, production, and supply have never proceeded in a vacuum and the relationship of pigments to other trades and industries must be borne in mind when considering their history.
