Dutch Blue

[nagaeyari]

An individual named Charles posted a few very helpful comments to my Ancient Japan blog. He has this short but interesting article on his blog.

Dutch Blue

A few years ago I took a seminar in ukiyo-e history at my art school. One of the other students, a Chinese woman, was the star of the class, she had an MA in Art History from Beijing University and was working on a PhD. She always knew how to read all the obscure kanji seals, which was a delight to everyone, especially the professor. She spent an entire semester investigating one strange question, I tried to help her research it, but we never could find an answer. But oddly enough, this morning I turned on the TV and NHK had a 30 minute documentary about this very subject: Dutch Blue.

In Japan, a particularly intense color known as Dutch Blue or Delft Blue, is well known for its common use in ukiyo-e printmaking. But the question was posed, what is Dutch Blue, what is its chemical composition and where did it come from? Did it come from the Netherlands? We never could find out the answer.
But today's art history lecture on NHK was about Dutch and Flemish painting. Apparently the famous Vermeer painting "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is on display in Tokyo, and it has caused the same sensation that accompanies it everywhere it is displayed. Could the blue scarf the girl is wearing be the same Dutch Blue?

Indeed it is, but not for the reasons you might think. The NHK crew visits a traditional Dutch paint maker, and we see his ancient methods. He even lives in a windmill, using the wind-driven millstones to grind mineral pigments. But Dutch Blue is too precious to mass produce, so we see his hand-grinding apparatus, a tall copper pestle with a long shafted mortar. The paintmaker retrieves a chunk of bright blue mineral from his shelf, and at last we see what Dutch Blue is composed of: Lapis Lazuli.

Lapis is a semiprecious stone, almost the entire world's supply comes from Afghanistan and Iraq. Dutch traders brought the mineral to Europe and it was used in oil painting during the Renaissance, but due to its expense, was too precious for everyday use. But thinly applied and mixed with white, bright, luminous blue skies became a hallmark of Flemish landscape painting.

But in European painting, this color is known as ultramarine, and if the color really had come to Japan through European traders, it would probably be known by another name. That is the most interesting part of this story.

Dutch Blue is a misnomer. According to the documentary, Dutch Blue first came into widespread knowledge in Japan on imported Chinese porcelain. Most people are familiar with Ming era ceramics and their bright blue painted markings. The color really should be known as Ming Blue. But Ming Blue is not made from Lapis Lazuli, it is cobalt oxide, even though the color is extremely close to Dutch Blue.

By a historical coincidence, Ming ceramics were first imported to Japan at the same time Dutch traders came to Japan. Dutch trade goods were wildly popular, and the Ming Blue color became associated with the Dutch goods. Real Delft pottery with the distinctive cobalt blue color would not be made in Europe for nearly a hundred years after the glaze was discovered by Chinese ceramicists.

The question still remains, how did the Lapis Lazuli come to Japan? Perhaps it was brought by Dutch traders, I didn't hear anything about that in this documentary. Most water-based pigments used in nihon-ga and ukiyo-e are mineral pigments, and we now know that finely powdered Lapis Lazuli was used in these Japanese artworks. But at least now we know how Dutch Blue got its name.
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Fukuzawa Yukichi - "Mo' money mo' problems

[lordameth]

Wow. Fascinating stuff. Thank you very much.

I know that lapis lazuli was among the goods which China and Japan obtained from Ryukyu. But then the question becomes, where did Ryukyu get it from? I wish I still had my book on such things, but I'd wager that if its not a native mineral on the Ryukyus, then it's likely coming from SE Asia somewhere.

I do wonder about the blues, however. I've seen a number of works, both European paintings and Japanese woodblocks, on which the blue has faded or discolored far faster than the rest of the work, turning a beige or tan. My Japanese art history professor said that Japan (and Europe too?) did not have access to a good blue color that wouldn't fade until the advent of Prussian blue at the beginning of the 18th century. I wonder what pigments were used up until then. And why would the Ming cobalt blue not be known or available in Japan until so late?

Very interesting stuff. thanks again.
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紫水晶殿 - The Amethyst Lord

[nagaeyari]

[Charles]

Now that my old remarks on Dutch Blue have become something more than useless art historical trivia, you guys have got me curious so I've done a little more research. Alas, Chinese art history and ceramics particularly, are just not my area. My professors always said that to understand Japanese art history, you need to know Chinese history, I guess this is one of those examples.

A little poking around the web indicates that Ming Blue ceramics were produced in the early Ming Dynasty, circa 1388, but it seems that export of these ceramics to Japan started only in the late Ming era, around 1566. That is right around the time the Dutch landed at Deshima, in 1543. Further muddying the waters, that website describes how the Dutch captured a Portuguese ship carrying Ming ceramics from China, so it appears that the Europeans were trading in Chinese wares. Perhaps that is how Dutch Blue got its name, the Dutch might have been selling Ming Blue pottery alongside their own European products.

As to pigments, the reason lapis is so prized is that it is an extremely intense, vivid blue, no other pigment of that time came close. There are famous European works such as the "Arena Chapel," painted by Giotto in 1305, that make extensive use of lapis as pigment. These frescoes were comissioned by a rich patron who wanted the most expensive materials to display his wealth. And today, those pigments are as bright and vivid as the day they were applied. But I am sure the painters did not choose lapis for its longevity, this notion of longevity was unknown during that period.

Pigments generally fall into two categories, mineral and chemical. Mineral pigments (such as lapis) are just powdered minerals, unaltered chemically from their natural state. Lapis has a very stable crystalline structure and will not deteriorate over time. Chemical pigments are generally produced by some chemical process, many are stable, but most will deteriorate through oxidization, oxygen in the air will bind with the pigment molecules, causing them to discolor over time. These unstable chemical pigments are called "fugitive pigments" and are a major cause of grief for artists and curators even today. I've spent years researching stable red pigments to use in my own work, which is why I have some modest knowledge in this area. But I digress..

If you look at the history of ukiyo-e prints, the earliest examples are done in only one color, red (presumably cinnabar) and then later, red and green (copper oxide I think). A fuller range of colors only occurred later, alas I have a whole timeline of this in my art history class notes but they're packed away, I'm sure this would not be hard to date independently (I'm too lazy to look it up right now). If you're in Tokyo, the Toppan Printing Museum has a fascinating display of the evolution of ukiyo-e printing, with many amazing examples of the evolution of pigments and printing technologies, I highly recommend it.

But none of this really solves the issue of Dutch Blue. It is possible that Dutch traders brought Prussian Blue to Japan, it's a very cheap pigment to manufacture, and would have been very economical compared to expensive lapis. But I've seen no authoritative research to indicate Prussian Blue was actually used in ukiyo-e, and from my own experiences painting, it's just not the same color of blue that I see in ukiyo-e. Then on the other hand, the Dutch were using lapis pigments long before they landed Japan, and very compact, expensive minerals would have been the perfect trade goods for transport over long sea routes. I just haven't seen any authoritative research to indicate Prussian Blue was actually used in ukiyo-e. The only thing we do know (if we can trust the NHK documentary) is that the name Dutch Blue is a historical coincidence, due to the import of Ming Blue cobalt oxide pottery that began at about the time the Dutch started trade in Japan.

[Charles]

[Ashigaru]

Thanks for the info, Charles, it's good to have you aboard!
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Meditate upon exile, torture, wars, diseases, shipwreck, so that you may not be a novice to any misfortune.
- Seneca

[heron]

Yes, very interesting and thanks for the great links. I went to a seminar on the introduction of Prussian Blue into ukiyo-e at the Art Gallery of South Australia several years ago. The date given then was the 1820s. (Just tried unsuccessfully to find the notes I took at the time )

I've got a print of Harunobu's heron girl (sagimusume) which has the umbrella and water done in blue - it's really beautiful, but so different from illustrations I've seen of the same print in books in which these seem always to be in yellow. Do you have any ideas on this, when it would have been printed and why the colours were changed?

I'm definitely going to that museum in October

[Ashigaru]

[Charles]

[heron]

@ashigaru: sounds logical, thanks. The blue definitely puts it at well after Harunobu's death (1770): in fact he may never have seen that particular colour

@Charles - the colour swatches and their names sounds fascinating. I subscribe to KIE and in the latest issue there's an article on traditional dyes: safflower, purple gromwell, yuzen and indigo - the colours of the textiles are so beautiful, and the shades achieved at each stage fascinating. Sorry, digressing a bit from pigments used in painting...but I guess the same plants would have been used.

[Charles]

[heron]

It's the English language edition of kateigaho　(家庭画報)　and here is its website

http://int.kateigaho.com

It's a print journal which comes out quarterly.

[nagaeyari]

On the issue of Afghanistan goods:

I've recently learned in my "history of Japanese art I" course that Persian goods made their way along the Silk Road to Japan around the 7th century AD. It therefore seems possible that Middle Eastern lapus lazuli made its way to Japan rather early. However, I realize that's not the case in Japan -- just correcting my previous idea that it was ridiculously out of the question.

Silk Road.
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Fukuzawa Yukichi - "Mo' money mo' problems

[nagaeyari]

I'm getting some mixed signals, guys.

One the one hand, I'm learning that 8th century statues used the ground mineral pigment lapis lazuli for vibrant blues, but on the other hand, the aforementioned article on the blue pigment used in the Takamatsuzuka Kofun said that there was no lapis lazuli used that early in Japan.

Being that Indians traveled to Japan in the 8th century, the Silk Road ended there, Persian art can be found in the Shousouin, etc...I can understand why lapis lazuli MIGHT be found in Japan this early, but what about the naysayers?
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Fukuzawa Yukichi - "Mo' money mo' problems