A Purple Barium Copper Silicate Pigment from Early China

1992/08/01 by Elisabeth West FitzHugh, Lynda A. Zycherman · 1 voice · 2 citations
Arts and Humanities · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Cultural Heritage Materials Analysis #Mineralogy and Gemology Studies

paper · doi:10.2307/1506342

openalex publication_date 1992/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

A purple barium copper silicate, BaCuSi206, an artificial inorganic pigment, has been identified, sometimes mixed with the known blue barium copper silicate, BaCuSi4O10. It occurs on- painted objects and in octagonal sticks from China attributed to the Han dynasty (208 Be-AD 220). This man-made pigment, for which the name Han purple is proposed, has not been previously characterized.

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• Influence of Taoism on the invention of the purple pigment used on the Qin terracotta warriors
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Discussions

• A Purple Barium Copper Silicate Pigment from Early China (1992) [hn, 3 points, 0 comments]

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