Indigo: The Story of Blue Gold
Indigo is a deep blue dye extracted from the leaves of a variety of plants. It was not only a dye, but it has also been used as a pigment since ancient times. For centuries, Indigo was a valuable commodity that was traded across the globe, earning it the name ‘Blue Gold’. This article looks at the history of Indigo and its role in art, from Mayan artefacts to 17th-century European oil painting. Indigo: The Story of Blue Gold What is Indigo? The vast majority of blue pigments throughout history have been made from minerals, like natural Ultramarine Blue and Azurite, or from metal-containing compounds like Cobalt or Prussian Blue. Indigo stands apart because it is derived from plants. There are more than three hundred different plants that produce Indigo dye, but some of the most important have been Indigofera tinctoria (native to the Indian subcontinent), Persicaria tinctoria (found predominantly in East Asia), and Indigofera suffruticosa (a species that grows in Central and South America). Chemically, the blue-producing compound we know as Indigo is called Indigotin. However, Indigo-producing plants do not actually contain indigotin. Instead, they contain a chemical precursor called indican. To extract the indican, …
The post Indigo: The Story of Blue Gold appeared first on Jackson’s Art Blog.
