Green pigments and mixtures
Artists' Materials
Green hues were obtained in a variety of ways: copper sulphates, copper carbonates as well as mixtures of azurite with lead-tin yellow and an organic yellow were identified. The individual artists seemed to favour one or more of these greens, which helps define their ‘signature’ palette.
Areas painted with copper sulphates were often found to contain high amounts of silicon. This may be due to the presence of quartz and other silicates, which would be naturally mixed with mineral copper sulphates.
Saints Philip and James the Less (suffrage to saints Philip and James the Less)
St Philip is shown with a cross-staff and St James with a staff and a book. The Master of James IV of Scotland painted the saints’ images, using his characteristic palette of lead-tin yellow, azurite, clay-rich ochre mixed with a copper pigment, a copper carbonate or sulphate mixed with lead-tin yellow in green areas, and indigo used to obtain grey hues.
The Painter of Additional 15677 supplied the architectural border, where he used the purple dye which characterises his palette as well as mosaic gold, which was only identified in two other pages within this manuscript.