| Abstract: | SUMMARIES. In the wall paintings of the church of San Saba (Rome), dating to the first half of the eighth century AD, Egyptian blue and lapis lazuli have been detected mixed together within the same pictorial layer. These are the oldest western paintings where lapis lazuli has been used as a blue pigment. This paper cites other instances of the use of lapis lazuli in ninth-century paintings and of Egyptian blue in late mediaeval paintings. Thus the dates for the commencement of the use of lapis lazuli and the discontinuation of Egyptian blue are significantly modified. Furthermore, the occurrence of both of these blue pigments in the San Saba wall paintings proves that the change from one to the other did not occur suddenly and that these two pigments were used concurrently in the same geographical context.
CONCLUSION. Although precise dates cannot be given for the period during which artistic materials changed and new technologies evolved, nevertheless, it is clear that the discontinuation of Egyptian blue and its replacement by lapis lazuli was a gradual process, such that both pigments would have coexisted over a relatively long time. The results of the analyses of the San Saba wall paintings are very important, because they represent the first occurrence of lapis lazuli as a pigment in European painting. The context and the cultural-historical background in which the San Saba wall paintings were created also point to a close connection with the orient, and further validate the hypothesis that the origin of the use of lapis lazuli as a pigment lay in the east. The fact that Egyptian blue and lapis lazuli were found together in the same paint layer is also highly important, because it shows that both pigments were at artists' disposal in eighth-century Rome. This may also testify to a contamination of the occidental painting technique, inherited from the classical Roman tradition, by an oriental influence, imported through the monks of San Saba. The date of execution of these paintings, in the first half of the eighth century, is also close to the start of contemporary use of lapis lazuli as a pigment in the Near East. The unique and rich deposits of lapis lazuli at Badakshan favoured its early use as a pigment in the Near East, and its popularity gained ground through the expansion of Islam in this area, which between the middle of the seventh and the middle of the eighth century encompassed all of the main central Asian countries as far as Afghanistan. |
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