Colorant Histories Series
The palette of ancient Egypt
Color in ancient Egypt was rarely purely decorative. Each hue carried symbolic weight, served ritual functions, and was produced from a specific set of mineral and organic materials that Egyptian craftsmen spent millennia refining. This article covers the symbolism of each color, the pigments used to produce it, and how those pigments appear across wall painting, faience, papyrus, and canvas.
Ancient Egypt · Predynastic through Late Period · Wall painting, faience, papyrus, canvas
The Egyptians were one of the first civilization to establish a systematic color vocabulary with consistent symbolic associations. Their palette was limited by what nature and early chemistry could provide, but within those limits they achieved extraordinary range and consistency. The pigments they chose were not neutral technical choices: color was meaning, and the selection of a pigment was an act of communication as much as craft.
Red
Solar power, blood, fire, protection, and ambivalence
Red was among the most charged and ambivalent colors in the Egyptian system. When associated with the sun, the eye of Ra, or used as an amulet, red carried favorable implications of power, protection, fire, and command. The face of the Sphinx retains traces of red paint, connecting the solar guardian to this color directly. Red amulets were common from the early dynastic period, worn by soldiers to prevent wounds and stop blood flow.
The flesh of Egyptian men was conventionally painted terracotta red while women were depicted in yellowish white, a distinction maintained across thousands of years of figurative painting with such consistency that it reads as a codified convention rather than a naturalistic observation.
East Wall, North Side of Nakht's Offering Chapel. The terracotta red of male flesh and yellowish white of female flesh is a convention maintained across millennia.
Red amulets in ancient Egypt carried protective associations, worn to prevent wounds and stop blood flow.
Red also had dark associations. As the color of Seth, murderer of Osiris, it represented evil and chaos. This ambivalence was characteristic: red simultaneously expressed supreme power and deadly hostility depending on context. Red-colored text in the Book of the Dead (rubrics, from the Latin rubrica, meaning red ochre) marked the beginnings and endings of spells, transitions between sacred passages, and designations of dangerous forces or threats to the dead.
Red pigments
Look at: male flesh in wall paintings; the face of the Sphinx; Book of the Dead rubrics; jewelry imitation of carnelian
Anhydrous iron oxide (Fe₂O₃). The principal red pigment used throughout Egyptian history from predynastic times (5000-3300 BC) through the Late Period. Stable, widely available, and consistent. Used for male flesh tones, solar associations, and to imitate carnelian in painted jewelry passages.
Look at: the Book of the Dead double band at edges; the sun disc of the Papyrus of Ani
Arsenic tetrasulfide. A brighter orange-red than red ochre, used during the New Kingdom. The double band of orange-red and yellow along the top and bottom edges of papyrus rolls often uses realgar alongside orpiment. Where the pigment has been protected from light exposure, as in papyri never put on display, it retains a hue close to its original intensity.
Papyrus showing the double band of orange-red realgar and yellow orpiment along the edges. The realgar retains near-original hue here as this sheet was never displayed. The sun disc at centre top is also realgar.
White
Purity, cleanliness, spirituality, sacred office
White was connected with purity, cleanliness, and spirituality throughout Egyptian history. The white Hedjet crown of Upper Egypt and the white costumes of Osiris were rendered in white specifically to convey these associations. White faience objects were deposited in temple precincts from the Early Dynastic Period, and the controlled representation of desert animals in white faience may have carried associations of eternal safety and symbolic purity.
White faience jerboa, Middle Kingdom, ca. 1850-1640 BC. White faience figurines of wild animals were deposited in temple precincts from the Early Dynastic Period.
White pigments
Look at: the Hedjet crown of Osiris; white costumes throughout wall painting; white faience glaze base
Calcium carbonate (CaCO₃). One of the two primary white pigments in Egyptian practice. Naturally occurring chalk used from the earliest periods. In white faience, no opacifier was used in the glaze; instead, finely ground quartz core was covered with a thick glassy transparent skin. In some instances calcium antimonate and tin oxide are reported in the production of white opaque glass.
Lead white (calcium sulphate / lead carbonate)
Look at: white passages in later Egyptian painting; Book of the Dead white robes
Calcium sulphate (gypsum) was a later addition to the white pigment repertoire, alongside lead carbonate. In the Book of the Dead papyri, lead white has been identified in similar works to those examined here. White robes on funerary figures, altars, and the costumes of Osiris used these whites in various combinations depending on period and workshop.
Black
Death, evil, darkness, and the protection of the underworld
Black carried primarily negative connotations: evil, death, and the negation of positive life. Anubis, the jackal-headed funerary deity, was painted black specifically to evoke death and the underworld. Protective spells invoked black in the context of driving back hostile powers. Yet black also had counterbalancing positive associations: protection, good luck, and warmth. Black scarabs placed on the heart of the deceased during the New Kingdom were inscribed with protective spells, and the black mask of Anubis served a protective rather than purely morbid function.
Anubis, from a chest in the form of a shrine, tomb of Tutankhamun, 18th Dynasty. Black painted wood, the color chosen to evoke death and divine protection simultaneously.
Bust of Nefertiti. Analysis confirmed carbon black (soot) in the colouring of the eyelashes.
Eye paint, typically made from galena (lead sulfide, PbS) or pyrolusite (manganese dioxide, MnO₂), was attributed a prophylactic effect: guarding the eyes from disease and protecting them from bright sunlight. The deep purple-black of pyrolusite gives a distinctly different tone from carbon black, and its glazed form produces characteristically purple-tinged blacks in faience objects.
Nephthys Amulet, Late Period, Dynasty 26-30, 664-332 BC. Pyrolusite black glaze has a very purple tone, distinguishing it from carbon black.
Black pigments
Carbon black (lamp black / soot)
Look at: the black mask of Anubis in wall paintings; hair in hieroglyphs; eyelashes on the Nefertiti bust; Osiris's false beard
Carbon black in the form of soot or lamp black, confirmed by numerous analyses by Lucas and later by Bayer and Wiedemann in the Nefertiti bust. Used across all media from the earliest periods. In the Book of the Dead papyri, most text is written in lamp black, with red ochre marking the beginnings and endings of spells.
Pyrolusite (manganese dioxide)
Look at: black faience glazes; the Nephthys amulet; black glass decorations
Pyrolusite (MnO₂). Used for black faience glazes, producing a characteristic purple-black tone. Black glazes were prepared by adding copious amounts of pyrolusite to the glaze mixture. During the Saite period (663-525 BC), controlled reduction of iron oxide became an alternative method. In its mineral form as an eye paint, pyrolusite was used alongside galena.
Look at: eye paint in portraiture and funerary contexts
Natural lead sulfide (PbS). Used primarily as an eye paint (kohl), to which a prophylactic effect was attributed: guarding eyes from disease and protecting them from bright sunlight. Not sold separately; lead white is the closest available lead-based pigment in this range.
Yellow
The sun, happiness, prosperity, and the flesh of the gods
Yellow was the color of the sun, happiness, and prosperity. More significantly, it was used to depict the skin of the gods, whose flesh was said to be made of shimmering gold. Hathor is depicted beside Queen Nefertari with shimmering gold skin. In the Valley of the Queens tomb, the backgrounds are rendered in yellow ochre and gold is depicted in Nefertari's headdress and jewelry using the same pigment.
Queen Nefertari Playing Senet. Yellow ochre used for the background and to depict gold in the headdress and jewelry.
Hathor with gold skin beside Queen Nefertari. The skin of gods was depicted in yellow ochre to represent shimmering gold.
Prior to the 18th Dynasty, yellow ochre was the only available yellow pigment, and its pale hue was not fully satisfactory. It was during the 18th Dynasty that orpiment and lead antimonate were introduced, providing bright, intense yellows previously unavailable. Yellow faience was produced using lead antimonate embedded in a glassy matrix.
Yellow pigments
Look at: backgrounds in tomb paintings; the skin of gods; gold jewelry and headdresses
Hydrated iron oxide (Fe₂O₃·H₂O). The primary yellow from predynastic times through the entire dynastic period. Limited in its saturation but stable and universally available. Used as a base for flesh tones, backgrounds, and gold imitation across all media.
Look at: the yellow band alongside realgar in Book of the Dead papyri; the crown of Isis in the Papyrus of Ani
Arsenic trisulfide (As₂S₃). Introduced during the New Kingdom as a brighter, more intense yellow. Frequently found alongside realgar, the two arsenic sulfides occurring together in nature. In the Papyrus of Ani, the crown of Isis and the skin of gods are rendered in orpiment yellow.
Blue
Divine truth, justice, protection, and the color of the gods
Blue was regarded as a specially important color in ancient Egypt, associated with Divine Truth and Justice. Worn on the breast plates of priests as a reminder of Holy Justice, used in the Blue or war crown of the New Kingdom as a color protective of its wearer from hostile forces, and embodied in amulets in the form of the Eye of Horus, the Ankh, and the Djed, blue promised prosperity, life, and endurance to its bearer.
Faience ankh featuring the cartouche of King Thutmose IV, New Kingdom, ca. 1400-1390 BC. The ankh written the words "live," "alive," or "life."
Wadj sceptre amulet, Late Period, ca. 712-332 BC. Blue amulets promised prosperity, life, and divine protection.
The Egyptians knew lapis lazuli as the basis for ultramarine but its rarity prevented extensive use. They knew azurite but were aware of its poor chemical resistance and relatively pale colour. This compelled them to develop Egyptian Blue, the synthetic cuprorivaite pigment that gave them the vivid, stable blue their iconographic system demanded. Until the 18th Dynasty, blue faience was produced exclusively with copper. Cobalt in the form of cobalt oxide appeared regularly from the 18th Dynasty onward, producing a deeper blue reminiscent of lapis lazuli.
Blue faience sphinx of Amenhotep III. The even tone of the fine blue glaze and almost flawless condition make it unique among ancient Egyptian faience statuettes. The copper-based blue imitates turquoise.
Cobalt blue faience, 18th Dynasty. Concentrations of cobalt oxide as low as 0.05% gave an intense blue reminiscent of lapis lazuli, darker and deeper than copper-based blue.
Blue pigments
Look at: blue passages in wall painting throughout; faience objects; the nemes headdresses of Anubis and Horus in the Horemheb tomb
Calcium copper silicate (CaCuSi₄O₁₀). The first synthetic pigment, manufactured by firing silica, copper, and lime. The dominant blue in Egyptian painting from the Old Kingdom onward. Used to imitate turquoise and lapis lazuli. In the Horemheb tomb, Egyptian Blue and Egyptian Blue Deep are used in the nemes headdresses of Anubis and Horus and in their costumes.
Look at: the pedestal of Osiris in the Papyrus of Ani; the deeper blue passages in nemes headdresses; cobalt-rich faience
A deeper grind of cuprorivaite, or cobalt-enriched blue, used where a more saturated, lapis-like depth was needed. In the Papyrus of Ani, Osiris stands on a pedestal of Egyptian Blue Deep and Isis holds an ankh of the same color. Two distinct Egyptian Blue tones appear in the costumes of Anubis and Horus in the Horemheb tomb.
Lapis lazuli (natural ultramarine)
Look at: high-prestige passages in royal contexts; a single particle identified in the canvas painting study
Lazurite-bearing metamorphic rock from Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Known to the Egyptians and used where available, but scarcity prevented extensive use. In the technical examination of the ancient Egyptian canvas painting, only a single particle was found in three of six slides, and the authors believe it may have been introduced by contamination rather than being original to the work.
Look at: some faience blue passages; mixed with yellow ochre to produce green
Basic copper carbonate. Known and used but regarded as having poor chemical resistance and relatively pale color compared to Egyptian Blue. Used in faience production where copper oxide derived from azurite or malachite produced blue glazes at standard temperatures, shifting to green at higher temperatures.
Look at: deep blue faience from the 18th Dynasty onward
Cobalt oxide (CoO) as a faience colorant appeared regularly from the 18th Dynasty. Concentrations as low as 0.05% gave intense blue that changed to violet or indigo at 0.2%. Cobalt-colored faience is a deep blue reminiscent of lapis lazuli, contrasting with the lighter turquoise hue of copper-based blue faience.
Look at: the canvas painting; identified alongside Egyptian Blue in paint samples
Organic blue dye pigment. Identified in the ancient Egyptian canvas painting alongside Egyptian Blue, charcoal black, and orpiment. Used in paint layers where a softer, organic blue was needed. Fine dark blue particles of extremely small size, 0.2 micrometers or less, identified by microchemical test and microscopy.
Green
Eternal life, vegetation, fertility, and regeneration
The Egyptians called time "The everlasting green one." Green was the color of Osiris, god of death and fertility, and of the Nilotic landscape whose annual flood cycle represented renewal and regeneration. Osiris is characteristically rendered in green malachite pigment across tomb paintings and papyri, his green skin connecting him directly to the life-giving earth.
Wall painting from the tomb of Horemheb (r. 1320-1292 BCE). From left: Osiris (green malachite), Anubis (carbon black), Horus. Valley of the Kings, 18th Dynasty.
Green was obtained from powdered malachite, from an artificial green frit analogous to Egyptian Blue, or by mixing Egyptian Blue with yellow ochre. This mixing technique appeared sporadically during the 12th Dynasty (1991-1786 BC) and became much more widespread during the Amarna period (1370-1352 BC). In faience, both copper oxide and iron oxide were used as principal colorants for green glazes. The discovery of lead antimonate as a yellow colorant also enabled a wide range of green glazes by combining it with copper in varying proportions, giving Amarna objects their distinctive range of green shades.
Amarna period faience. The wide range of green shades results from combining copper and lead antimonate in varying proportions.
Bust of Nefertiti. Analysis identified verdigris as the principal pigment of the green headband, likely prepared by soaking metallic copper in the dregs of wine and scraping off the green surface layer.
Green pigments
Look at: the green skin of Osiris in all tomb paintings and papyri; green passages in wall painting
Basic copper carbonate. The primary green pigment from predynastic times. Osiris's skin is consistently rendered in malachite green across tomb paintings, papyri, and faience from every period. In the Papyrus of Ani, Osiris is rendered in green malachite pigment. Also used as the copper source for Egyptian Blue manufacture and as a faience colorant.
Look at: the green headband of the Nefertiti bust; green passages in later works
Basic copper acetate. Identified as the principal pigment of the green headband of the Nefertiti bust. The Egyptians appear to have prepared it by soaking metallic copper in the dregs of wine and scraping off the green surface layer, a method also documented in later European sources.
Look at: occasional green passages in wall painting
Copper silicate. A blue-green mineral used occasionally as a green pigment. Scarce in Egypt and consequently not used extensively. Distinguished from malachite by its slightly bluer, more aqueous green tone.
Look at: green passages identified in analysis of funerary objects; the deep green of Sokar-Osiris in the Book of the Dead
Basic copper chloride. Identified as a possible component in the deep copper green of Sokar-Osiris in Book of the Dead papyri, where the funerary god's mummiform body is rendered in a deep copper green that may be verdigris, malachite, or atacamite. Also forms as a natural byproduct of verdigris manufacture.
Pigments by medium
The same core pigments appear across all media, but each medium imposed different technical constraints on how they were applied, which combinations were viable, and which pigments excelled or failed.
Wall painting
Wall painting was the dominant medium for Egyptian pictorial art from the predynastic period through the Ptolemaic era. Pigments were applied in fresco secco (onto dry plaster) rather than true fresco. The palette was consistent across millennia: red ochre and yellow ochre for flesh and backgrounds, malachite and Egyptian Blue for green and blue passages, carbon black for outlines and hair, chalk white for highlights and sacred costumes.
Tomb KV57, Horemheb, 18th Dynasty, Valley of the Kings. Red ochre for the skin of Anubis and Horus; chalk white for Osiris's costume; possible realgar in the red sun above Osiris; yellow ochre for gold jewelry; Egyptian Blue and Egyptian Blue Deep in the nemes headdresses; carbon black for Anubis's mask and hieroglyphic hair.
Geese of Meidum, Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty, reign of Sneferu, ca. 2600 BC. Painted plaster, Egyptian Museum, Cairo. An early example of naturalistic color use in Egyptian painting, the harmony of matching colors in agreement with the positioning of the geese in the landscape.
Faience
Egyptian Faience used the same colorant system as pigment production but in a glaze chemistry rather than a paint binder. The core colorants were copper (blue and green), manganese (black and purple), lead antimonate (yellow), iron (red), and no colorant (white). The relationship between color and temperature was critical: copper at standard temperatures produced blue, copper at higher temperatures shifted to green. Cobalt blue faience appeared in the 18th Dynasty and produced a deeper, more saturated blue than copper alone.
Broad collar of Senebtisi, 1850-1775 BC. Faience, gold, carnelian, and turquoise. The faience elements imitate the color of turquoise and carnelian.
Faience broad collar, Dynasty 18, reign of Akhenaten, ca. 1353-1336 BC. The full range of faience colorants in a single object.
Papyrus and manuscript painting
The Book of the Dead papyri represent the most technically studied corpus of Egyptian manuscript painting. Pigment analysis has confirmed the consistent use of Egyptian Blue, malachite, red ochre, yellow ochre, orpiment, carbon black, and chalk white across multiple papyri from different periods. The text was written primarily in carbon black (lamp black), with rubrics (beginnings and ends of spells, dangerous forces, explanatory glosses) in red ochre. The brilliant colors of the vignettes used the full Egyptian palette.
Papyrus of Ani, Frame 30: Spell 125, the Judgment of the Dead. Osiris rendered in green malachite; white robes in chalk white decorated with Egyptian Blue; crown and skin of Isis in orpiment yellow; Osiris's pedestal in Egyptian Blue Deep; Isis holds an ankh of the same color; Isis wears a realgar orange kalasiris.
Papyrus of Ani, Frame 34: Spell 151 and Spell 110 (Field of Reeds). Ani rendered in yellow ochre with brown and red ochre; the soot-black Anubis as embalmer; Nephthys as protective goddess.
Papyrus of Ani, Frame 37: Spell 185. Sokar-Osiris rendered in deep copper green (verdigris, malachite, or atacamite). The hippopotamus goddess Opet beside lead or chalk white altars. The pyramidion of Ani's tomb chapel in soot-dark colour.
Canvas and panel painting
Among the rarest surviving Egyptian painted objects are true easel paintings on canvas. The example examined here depicts a female figure, likely a goddess, shown frontally with a solar disc behind her head, holding an object across her chest, surrounded by dense dark foliage. The painting is badly damaged but enough survives to reconstruct the pigment use across the composition.
Ancient Egyptian canvas painting. Female figure with solar disc, surrounded by dense foliage. Sample locations marked. From: Sack, Tahk and Peters.
Technical examination identified thirteen paint samples across the composition. Reading through the painting by area:
The figure's flesh and face (samples 2, 5, 13) are based on white lead as the primary pigment, with red iron oxides and yellow ochres modifying the tone toward the warm terracotta conventionally used for female figures in Egyptian painting. Madder lake was found in samples 5 and 10-11, contributing a translucent pinkish-red that would have warmed and deepened the flesh passages in a way that opaque iron oxides alone could not achieve.
The halo or solar disc behind the figure's head shows the characteristic warm underlayer structure: samples 2 and 3 from this area contain orpiment, ochres, and charcoal black. The warm orange-yellow of the disc would have been built from orpiment over an ochre base, a pairing consistent with the depiction of solar and divine attributes across Egyptian painting.
The blue passages (samples 2-4, 10-11, 13) contain Egyptian Blue throughout, appearing as clear, birefringent, pleochroic particles up to 30 micrometers in diameter. Accompanying the Egyptian Blue particles are paler, glassy, isotropic particles representing a copper glass that formed during the manufacture of the Egyptian Blue itself, present in the same paint layers. Indigo appears in samples 2 and 10-13, its extremely fine dark blue particles (0.2 micrometers or less) found staining the matrix in areas likely corresponding to dark blue clothing or drapery passages where a softer, more organic blue was layered with or beneath the Egyptian Blue.
The dense dark foliage filling the upper half and sides of the composition (samples 2-4, 10-13) was built primarily from charcoal black with ochres and Egyptian Blue in varying proportions. The consistently warm undertone of the underlayers, brown through orange-red to yellow, comes from the ochre and orpiment base over which the darker foliage colors were applied.
The lower passages (samples 4, 5, 10, 11) contain madder lake and iron oxides, with red lead (minium) identified in samples 2 and 11, likely in decorative elements or border passages where a bright orange-red was needed. Calcite appears in samples 2, 4, and 5 as a ground or filler component. Sample 1 along the left edge is dominated by white lead with calcite, consistent with a pale border or ground preparation.
The only pigment found outside the expected period range was natural ultramarine, a single particle in three of six slides from sample 2. The authors conclude this was introduced by contamination during slide preparation rather than being original to the work.
Complete pigment reference
Every pigment identified across the sources used in this article, which color category it serves, and its Egyptian applications.
Anhydrous iron oxide. Male flesh, solar associations, rubrics, carnelian imitation.
Arsenic tetrasulfide. Brighter orange-red. Papyrus edge bands, sun discs. Accompanies orpiment.
Lead tetroxide. Identified in the canvas painting, samples 2 and 11. Bright orange-red decorative passages.
Calcium carbonate. Primary white throughout. Sacred costumes, Hedjet crowns, white faience base.
Calcium sulphate and lead carbonate. Used in papyri alongside chalk.
Lamp black and soot. Outlines, hair, hieroglyphic text, Anubis's mask, eyelash painting.
Manganese dioxide. Black and purple-black faience glazes. Also used as eye paint.
Lead sulfide. Eye paint (kohl) with prophylactic properties. Not carried separately.
Hydrated iron oxide. Backgrounds, skin of gods, gold imitation. Only yellow before the 18th Dynasty.
Arsenic trisulfide. Intense yellow, 18th Dynasty onward. Edge bands, crowns of gods, accompanies realgar.
Lead antimonate. Primary yellow in Egyptian faience glazes. Also used to produce olive-green when combined with copper.
Calcium copper silicate. First synthetic pigment. Dominant blue from Old Kingdom onward. Imitates turquoise.
Deeper cuprorivaite grind. Used where lapis-like depth was needed.
Basic copper carbonate. Primary green. Skin of Osiris across all periods.
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