Grinding the pigment (probably lapis lazuli, given the intensity of the blue) and its application.

Expertise and materiality. Chemistry or Magic? The recipe of the master illuminators. 📜⚗️

To make a text "technical", you need to understand the material:

1️⃣  The pigment: here, it is pure crushed mineral. Unlike synthetic colors, it captures light and sparkles.

2️⃣  The binder: for the powder to hold on the skin (vellum), a "glair" or natural glues are used.

3️⃣  The gesture: the brush must deposit the material without scratching it. A fragile alchemy that spans centuries.

In the Middle Ages, painting was not just an art, it was a sacrifice. This intense blue, Ultramarine, was obtained by grinding a semi-precious stone from Afghanistan: lapis lazuli. Here, no ready-made tube. You have to reduce the stone to powder, bind it with egg white or gum, and paint with infinite patience on the vellum. Every brushstroke is a luxury.

Back to ancestral gestures. There's something magical about transforming a raw mineral into liquid light. Feeling the grain under the pestle, mixing the pigment with the binder, seeing the blue emerge on the parchment. Artisans of old used to say "Laborare est Orare" (To work is to pray). Seeing this slow and meticulous process, one understands why. It's a meditation in motion.

Question: And you, would you have the patience to make your own colors? 👇

The video perfectly illustrates the grinding of the pigment (probably lapis lazuli given the intensity of the blue) and its application.