Stil de grain yellow
Encyclopedia
Stil de grain yellow is a pigment
traditionally derived from unripe buckthorn
berries.
It is also known as sap green, although in contemporary art supplies the term sap green often indicates a mixture intending to resemble the traditional Sap Green or Stil de grain yellow. Contemporary oil colors often use coal tar lakes as a substitute. Golden Fluid Acrylics have included 'sap green' in their new line of 'historical colors'. It is a mixture consisting of: synthetic iron oxide, nickel complex azo, brominated and chlorinated copper phthalocyanine and nearly pure amorphous carbon.
Traditional Sap Green is made both from ripe and unripe buckthorn berries, and prepared in different ways. Berry harvest time, varietal, preparation method and time period of use have a lot to do with the common name used to refer to that particular hue, color, recipe or chemical composition.
The unripe buckthorn berries are also called Rhamni Immaturi. The color it produces is dark brown in its dense form, and turns to a bright yellow in a thin layer. It has a low lightfastness rating of about 4.
Sap green, ripe buckthorn berry, is made from ripe berries that are also called Rhamni Maturi, species Rhamnus, grown in the Near East, although the color can also be made from European varieties of this berry, such as those from Avignon or Persian Berry. This version is also commonly referred to as yellow madder, stil de grain, yellow lake pigment, dutch pink, brown pink and English pink. This color is not permanent and was often used for decorative painting.
This color is also known as Persian Berries Lake, yellow berries and buckthorn berries. These names refer to the entire color family, whose principal coloring agent is rhamnetin, C16H12O7. Extracting the coloring principle through boiling water, allows one to add different mordants, such as alum or soda, each resulting in a different hue of this color.
Most often in when called sap green the color is in the form of a dyestuff, either from direct berry juice of that of a lake, precipitated with alum. In lake form, this color is considered to fade rapidly.
An archaic
name for this color, used in the 17th century, is pinke.
It was enjoyed widely in the 18th century in France and England.
For use in medieval manuscripts, the color was sold in bladder sacks in a liquid form that resembled a dense syrup, instead of being dried and sold as powder.
Although its used widely by name, its rare to find a pre-made fine artist product that contains this pure pigment. Berries, ripe or unripe, as well as different versions of the lake are obtainable in powdered pigment form, although it is costly compared to its substitutes. It is fugitive and therefore not ideally suited for oil color, but has survived well in manuscript form due to the natural protections from light and moisture that a book offers.
Stil de grain yellow is a yellow
pigment
made from the yellow berries (Persian berries
) of the Italian Buckthorn
bush, species Rhamnus saxatalis.
The first recorded use of pinke as a color name in English
for this yellow pigment was in 1598. The names stil de grain yellow and yellow madder came into use as the name for this yellow pigment in the early to mid-18th century, replacing the former name pinke.
The source of this color is: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Stil de Grain Yellow (color sample #83).
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
traditionally derived from unripe buckthorn
Buckthorn
The Buckthorns are a genus of about 100 species of shrubs or small trees from 1-10 m tall , in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae...
berries.
It is also known as sap green, although in contemporary art supplies the term sap green often indicates a mixture intending to resemble the traditional Sap Green or Stil de grain yellow. Contemporary oil colors often use coal tar lakes as a substitute. Golden Fluid Acrylics have included 'sap green' in their new line of 'historical colors'. It is a mixture consisting of: synthetic iron oxide, nickel complex azo, brominated and chlorinated copper phthalocyanine and nearly pure amorphous carbon.
Traditional Sap Green is made both from ripe and unripe buckthorn berries, and prepared in different ways. Berry harvest time, varietal, preparation method and time period of use have a lot to do with the common name used to refer to that particular hue, color, recipe or chemical composition.
The unripe buckthorn berries are also called Rhamni Immaturi. The color it produces is dark brown in its dense form, and turns to a bright yellow in a thin layer. It has a low lightfastness rating of about 4.
Sap green, ripe buckthorn berry, is made from ripe berries that are also called Rhamni Maturi, species Rhamnus, grown in the Near East, although the color can also be made from European varieties of this berry, such as those from Avignon or Persian Berry. This version is also commonly referred to as yellow madder, stil de grain, yellow lake pigment, dutch pink, brown pink and English pink. This color is not permanent and was often used for decorative painting.
This color is also known as Persian Berries Lake, yellow berries and buckthorn berries. These names refer to the entire color family, whose principal coloring agent is rhamnetin, C16H12O7. Extracting the coloring principle through boiling water, allows one to add different mordants, such as alum or soda, each resulting in a different hue of this color.
Most often in when called sap green the color is in the form of a dyestuff, either from direct berry juice of that of a lake, precipitated with alum. In lake form, this color is considered to fade rapidly.
An archaic
Archaism
In language, an archaism is the use of a form of speech or writing that is no longer current. This can either be done deliberately or as part of a specific jargon or formula...
name for this color, used in the 17th century, is pinke.
It was enjoyed widely in the 18th century in France and England.
For use in medieval manuscripts, the color was sold in bladder sacks in a liquid form that resembled a dense syrup, instead of being dried and sold as powder.
Although its used widely by name, its rare to find a pre-made fine artist product that contains this pure pigment. Berries, ripe or unripe, as well as different versions of the lake are obtainable in powdered pigment form, although it is costly compared to its substitutes. It is fugitive and therefore not ideally suited for oil color, but has survived well in manuscript form due to the natural protections from light and moisture that a book offers.
Stil de grain yellow is a yellow
Yellow
Yellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
pigment
Pigment
A pigment is a material that changes the color of reflected or transmitted light as the result of wavelength-selective absorption. This physical process differs from fluorescence, phosphorescence, and other forms of luminescence, in which a material emits light.Many materials selectively absorb...
made from the yellow berries (Persian berries
Persian berry
Persian berry, also called Avignon berry or French berry, is the fruit of the Avignon Buckthorn , a species of buckthorn, used for dyeing yellow .- References :* , p.762...
) of the Italian Buckthorn
Buckthorn
The Buckthorns are a genus of about 100 species of shrubs or small trees from 1-10 m tall , in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae...
bush, species Rhamnus saxatalis.
The first recorded use of pinke as a color name in English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
for this yellow pigment was in 1598. The names stil de grain yellow and yellow madder came into use as the name for this yellow pigment in the early to mid-18th century, replacing the former name pinke.
The source of this color is: ISCC-NBS Dictionary of Color Names (1955)--Color Sample of Stil de Grain Yellow (color sample #83).
Stil de grain yellow in human culture
DyeingDyeing
Dyeing is the process of adding color to textile products like fibers, yarns, and fabrics. Dyeing is normally done in a special solution containing dyes and particular chemical material. After dyeing, dye molecules have uncut Chemical bond with fiber molecules. The temperature and time controlling...
- In the 17th century, the word pink or pinke was used to describe a yellowish pigment, which was mixed with blue colors to yield greenish colors. Thomas Jenner's A Book of Drawing, Limning, Washing (1652) categorizes "Pink & blewBlueBlue is a colour, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 440–490 nm. It is considered one of the additive primary colours. On the HSV Colour Wheel, the complement of blue is yellow; that is, a colour corresponding to an equal...
biceBiceBice, from the French bis, a word of doubtful origin, originally meaning dark-coloured, was a term applied in English to particular green or blue pigments. In French the terms vert bis and azur bis mean dark green and dark blue respectively...
" amongst the greenGreenGreen is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...
s (p. 38), and specifies several admixtures of greenish colors made with pink—e.g. "Grasse-green is made of Pink and Bice, it is shadowed with IndigoIndigoIndigo is a color named after the purple dye derived from the plant Indigofera tinctoria and related species. The color is placed on the electromagnetic spectrum between about 420 and 450 nm in wavelength, placing it between blue and violet...
and Pink ... French-green of Pink and Indico [shadowed with] Indico" (pp. 38–40). In William SalmonWilliam SalmonWilliam Salmon , advertising himself as "Professor of Physick", was a writer of medical texts that savor to the modern eye of quackery. His Medicina Practica, with the Claris Alcymiae, reveals its scope in its subtitle:...
's Polygraphice (1673), "Pink yellow" is mentioned amongst the chief yellowYellowYellow is the color evoked by light that stimulates both the L and M cone cells of the retina about equally, with no significant stimulation of the S cone cells. Light with a wavelength of 570–590 nm is yellow, as is light with a suitable mixture of red and green...
pigments (p. 96), and the reader is instructed to mix it with either SaffronSaffron (color)Saffron is a color that is a tone of golden yellow resembling the color of the tip of the saffron crocus thread, from which the spice saffron is derived.The first recorded use of saffron as a color name in English was in 1200...
or CeruseVenetian ceruseVenetian Ceruse, also known as Spirits of Saturn, was a 16th century cosmetic used as a skin whitener. It was in great demand and considered the best available at that time. The product contained a pigment composed of white lead, which was understood to cause lead poisoning that would eventually...
for "sad" or "light" shades thereof, respectively (p. 98).