It was widely used in Classical Antiquity and the Middle Ages for painting, and during the Renaissance it was often used on the rough initial layer of plaster for the underdrawing for a fresco.

From Ancient times through the Renaissance, the pigment was mined in Cappadocia, and exported to Europe through the port of Sinop, a Greek colony on the Black Sea.

The Italian painter and writer Cennino Cennini (c. 1370- c. 1440) described sinopia in his handbook on painting, "Il libro dell'arte", this way: "A natural pigment called sinoper, cinabrese or porphyry is red.

Then he used sinopia, also without tempera, to mark out the noses, the eyes, the hair, and the accents and outlines of all the figures in their correct proportions.

When the underdrawing was finished, the artist then applied a new thin layer of wet plaster, covering just enough area as he could work in one day.

To make the faces in the final fresco, Cennini recommended that the artist first paint them with an undercoat of brownish green, called a verdaccio.