Raw materials and art – 24. Lapis lazuli and the Scrovegni chapel in Padua

2023-05-08 06:10:25

Switzerland is a hub for commodity trading. Did you know that this activity represents 4% of Swiss GDP, and even 22% of tax revenue for the canton of Geneva. This week, focus on lapis lazuli. We will evoke two quotes on lapis lazuli, then we will see its etymology, then we will examine lapis lazuli in history and finally in art.

It gives us the opportunity to admire the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua with the starry blue sky of Giotto (1267-1337) recognized as World Heritage by Unesco.

Description of lapis lazuli in letters

Era XIV^th siècle, Marco Polo written in his book currency of the world “There is still in this same region a mountain where the finest azure in the world is found. It is found in veins like silver…”

Au 1^is century of our era, the Roman historian Pliny the Elder describes lapis lazuli as “a fragment of the starry vault of the sky”. It is with these words that they describe lapis lazuli.

etymology

The name of this stone comes from the Latin lapis, stone, and lazulum, blue or celestial, which probably derives from the Persian “lazhuward”. Throughout antiquity, the main mines of lapis-lazuli are located in Afghanistan.

Lapis lazuli in history

The history of lapis lazuli is very oldsince it begins more than 7,000 years ago in the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of the Sumerians, as evidenced by quotations from the epic poem Gilgamesh, as well as discoveries of royal tombs in the ancient city of Ur, containing statuettes and tableware in lapis lazuli.

The Egyptians also loved this gemstone and even considered it to carry divine power. Indeed, it was used in jewelry found in the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs and for the decoration of funerary masks, such as that of Tutankhamun himself.

Lapis lazuli in art

It is interesting to see the use that art history has made of lapis lazuli in paintings and frescoes since the Middle Ages.

In medieval times, it was used to produce blue. By grinding the stones, a very brilliant color was obtained, called “outremer” and defined in the painting treatises of the XV^th century as the most perfect of colours.

The blue color is very stable compared to other types of blue which lose their shine or change color.

Michelangelo used it for the Sistine Chapel, Leonardo da Vinci for the Last Supper, Giotto for the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua.

In the same series, “Raw materials and art”: