Lake pigment

A lake pigment is a pigment manufactured by

precipitating a dye with an inert binder, or "mordant",
usually a metallic salt. Unlike vermilion, ultramarine,
and other pigments made from ground minerals, lake
pigments are organic.[1] Manufacturers and suppliers to
artists and industry frequently omit the lake designation
in the name. Many lake pigments are fugitive because
the dyes involved are unstable when exposed to light.
Red lake were particularly important in Renaissance
and Baroque paintings; they were often used as translucent glazes to portray the colors of rich fabrics and
draperies.[2]

Etymology

This sense of lake is unconnected with lake meaning body

of water; it derives from the word lac (referring to a
resinous secretion).[3] It has the same root as the word
lacquer, and comes originally from the Hindi word lakh, A typical lake pigment is Lithol Rubine BK.
through the Arabic word lakk and the Persian word lak.[4]

Lake pigments have a long history in decoration and the

arts. Some have been produced for thousands of years
and traded over long distances.

Chemistry

The red lakes were particularly important in the history of

art; because they were translucent, they were often used
in layers of glazes over a more opaque red (sometimes
the mineral-based pigment vermilion, or sometimes a red
lake mixed with lead white or verilion) to create a deep,
The metallic salt or binder used must be inert and rich red color. They were very often used by Titian and
insoluble in the vehicle, and it must be colourless or very other Venetian artists of the 15th century to depict ne
neutral.[1] The organic component of the dye determines draperies and fabrics.[5]
which wavelengths are absorbed and reected by the resulting precipitate. In ancient times chalk, white clay,
Indigo lake was originally produced from the leaves
and crushed bones were used as sources of the calcium
of woad, and was known in ancient Egypt. In the late
salts. The salts that are commonly used today include
Middle Ages, a fashion for woad as a textile dye led
barium sulfate, calcium sulfate, aluminium hydroxide,
to overplanting and soil exhaustion in many parts of
and aluminium oxide (alumina), all of which can be proEurope. After trade routes opened to the east, indigo
duced cheaply from inexpensive mineral ores.
was imported from India as a substitute for woad,
Many lake pigments are azo dyes. They characteristically
have sulfonate and sometimes carboxylate substituents,
which confer negative charge to the chromophore (colored species).

and the cultivation of woad became uneconomical in

Europe. Today, the dark blue dye known as indigo
once produced from woad and Indigofera tinctoria is
largely of synthetic origin. The dye and pigment are
both fugitive.[6]

History and Art

Titian used glazes of red lake to create the vivid
crimson of the robes in The Vendramin Family
Venerating a Relic of the True Cross, completed
1550-60 (detail).

Rose madder lake, originally from the root of the

madder plant, is also known as alizarin crimson in its
synthetic form. Since rose madder is fugitive when
1

4 NOTES
exposed to light, its use has been largely superseded,
even in synthetic form, by quinacridone pigments.
Carmine lake was originally produced from the
cochineal insect, native to Central and South America. It is also called crimson lake. When the
Spanish conquered the Aztec Empire (1518-1521),
they encountered Aztec warriors garbed in an unknown crimson color. Cochineal became their second most valuable export from the New World, after silver, and the Spanish zealously guarded the secret of its production for centuries.[7] Carminic acid,
the organic compound which gives carmine its color,
was synthesized in 1991.

Indigo and rose madder are now produced more cheaply

from synthetic sources, although some use of natural
products persists, especially among artisans. The food
and cosmetics industries have shown renewed interest in
cochineal as a source of natural red dye.

Notes

[1] K. Hunger. W. Herbst Pigments, Organic in Ullmanns

Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 2012. doi:10.1002/14356007.a20_371
[2] David Bomford and Ashok Roy, A Closer Look - Colour,
National Gallery Company, p. 41.
[3] lake, n.6. OED Online. December 2011. Oxford University Press. 25 January 2012.
[4] Websters New World Dictionary of American English,
Third College Edition, 1988.
[5] David Bomford and Ashok Roy, A Closer Look - Colour,
National Gallery Company, p. 41.
[6] Society of Dyers and Colourists (1999). A Colour
Chemists History of Western Art. Review of Progress
in Coloration 29 (Millennium Issue): 4364.
[7] Amy Butler Greeneld (2005). A Perfect Red: Empire, Espionage, and the Quest for the Color of Desire.
HarperCollins. ISBN 0-06-052275-5.

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

Lake pigment Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake%20pigment?oldid=632713198 Contributors: Bryan Derksen, Stan Shebs,

A2Kar, DrGaellon, Notthe9, Reyk, Tropylium, Katieh5584, SmackBot, Kintetsubualo, Chris the speller, Snori, Xchbla423, Smokefoot,
Mr Chuckles, Metzenberg, Plantsurfer, Maias, Andy Dingley, SiefkinDR, Mr.Atoz, Doprendek, Addbot, DOI bot, Tide rolls, Luckas-bot,
Citation bot, Consciouslee, ClueBot NG, Colapeninsula, Analogue Girl and Anonymous: 18

5.2

Images

File:LitholRubineBKcorrected.png Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/30/LitholRubineBKcorrected.png License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Own work Original artist: Smokefoot

5.3

Content license

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