Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c9.s1.7

c9.s1.7

It is a well known fact that white lead was used extensively in medieval European paintings, though it has two drawbacks—firstly, it is poisonous and, therefore, the source of potential danger to workmen, and, secondly, as a water-colour pigment, it may be blackened by sulphur gases in the air. It is remarkable, however, as noticed by Prof. D. V. Thompson ⁶, that this darkening of colour is uncommon in medieval manuscripts, and, in medieval panel-paintings, this phenomenon is quite unknown. From the medieval painter's point of view, it was a further fault of white lead that it was incompatible with verdigris and orpiment in mixtures. As orpiment was frequently used in Western Indian miniatures with white, it is apparent that it is not white lead but, perhaps, burnt conch-shell, kaolin or chalk.