Blue pigments

[2] Developed in Mesoamerica in the first millennium AD, it saw wide use in the region, most prominently in the art of the Maya civilisation.

It is known on media from pottery to murals to codices, and also played an important role in ritual sacrifices of both objects and people: silt at the bottom of the Sacred Cenote at Chichén Itzá is heavily stained with Maya blue, washed off the hundreds of sacrificial offerings cast into the cenote during the city's occupation.

It is highly valued for its superior properties such as light fastness, tinting strength, covering power and resistance to the effects of alkalis and acids.

It had an immediate impact on the pigment market, because its intense deep blue color approached the quality of ultramarine at a much lower price and superior longevity.

PB was widely adapted by major European artists, notably Thomas Gainsborough and Canaletto, who used it to paint the Venetian sky.

It was produced from lapis lazuli, a mineral whose major source was the mines of Sar-e-Sang in what is now northeastern Afghanistan.

Pietro Perugino, in his depiction of the Madonna and Child on the Certosa de Pavio Altarpiece, painted only the top level of the Virgin's robes in ultramarine, with azurite beneath.

Han blue (also called Chinese blue) is a synthetic barium copper silicate pigment used in ancient and imperial China from the Western Zhou period (1045–771 BC) until the end of the Han dynasty (circa 220 AD).

It was mentioned in Pliny the Elder's Natural History under the Greek name kuanos (κυανός: "deep blue," root of English cyan) and the Latin name caeruleum.

The modern English name of the mineral reflects this association, since both azurite and azure are derived via Arabic from the Persian lazhward (لاژورد), an area known for its deposits of another deep-blue stone, lapis.

It was made by the process of sintering, that is by compacting and forming a solid mass of material by heat or pressure without melting it to the point of liquefaction.

Smalt was popular because of its low cost; it was widely used by Dutch and Flemish painters, including Hans Holbein the Younger.