23/12/2016

Yesterday I was trying to see the Sainsbury Centre's collection of Indian miniatures online, and was intrigued to read that the term 'miniature' doesn't refer to size, but to the use of minium, otherwise known as red lead. This red colour was used for capitals, headers, important words, and was mined from Roman terms in Iberia, near the wonderfully named cinnabar mines. Imagine mining cinnabar - I suppose nuggets of it were plucked from glittering grottoes by toga-wearing youths with willow baskets.
I want to check Spike Bucklow's excellent book 'The Alchemy of Paint' to see if this is something to do with the red youth, as I vaguely remember red lead as being personified. Colours were understood in terms of their symbolic meanings, and created in accordance with arcane numerical calculations, the practical science of the times.