{"product_id":"cypriot-burnt-umber-pigment-425138024","title":"Cypriot Burnt Umber Pigment","description":"\u003cp\u003eDescription\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCypriot Burnt Umber is a handmade single earth pigment made through a historical process of extraction, drying, grinding, and calcination. This pigment originates from Cyprus, a region known for its high-quality umbers, and is created by heating raw umber to intensify its warm brown hue. The calcination process enhances its richness, deepening the color to a warm, reddish-brown with excellent opacity and covering power.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eCypriot Burnt Umber has exceptional lightfastness, making it highly durable for both classical and contemporary artwork. It blends seamlessly with other earth pigments, offering warm and harmonious tones in painting. Its semi-opaque quality allows for beautiful layering and depth in oil, watercolor, and tempera applications. Compared to synthetic browns, it provides a softer, more natural color, ideal for landscape, portrait, and decorative painting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eHistory\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUmber pigments have been used in art since prehistoric times, with evidence of their use in ancient cave paintings. The natural abundance of umber in Cyprus made it a major supplier of high-quality earth pigments for centuries.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eDuring antiquity, both raw and burnt umber were widely used by Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artists for frescoes, ceramics, and architectural decoration. The heating process to create burnt umber was already well established, as it enhanced the pigment\u003cspan\u003e'\u003c\/span\u003es warmth and depth, making it an ideal choice for shading and contrast.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the Renaissance, burnt umber became an essential pigment for artists like Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Titian, who relied on its warm, rich tone for underpainting, glazing, and shadow work. The fast-drying properties of burnt umber made it particularly useful in oil painting, allowing for the rapid build-up of layers. In the pictured artwork 'The Night Watch' (Dutch: De Nachtwacht) by Rembrandt van Rijn, Burnt Umber is used throughout to create the rich brown tones in both the background and foreground. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eBy the 18th and 19th centuries, Cyprus remained a leading producer of umber pigments, supplying European painters with this essential color. It was widely used in academic painting techniques, where its natural warmth and stability made it indispensable in portraiture, landscape painting, and classical realism.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eToday, Cypriot Burnt Umber continues to be a preferred pigment in fine art and conservation, preserving its historical significance and natural beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePigment Information\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePigment Type: Natural (Iron and Manganese Oxide) from minerals (Goethite and Manganite, heat-treated) (Cyprus) \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSuitable Mediums: Watercolor, Oil, Tempera, Acrylic, Encaustic, Cold Wax, Casein, Milk, Swedish Flour, Lime \/ Fresco\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eLightfastness: Best \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOpacity: Semi-opaque \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOther Names: Cyprus Burnt Umber, Mediterranean Burnt Umber, Earth Brown \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eColor Index Code: PBr7\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eImage: 'The Night Watch' (Dutch: De Nachtwacht) by Rembrandt van Rijn from the Rijksmuseum\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Morrow Archival","offers":[{"title":"5 Grams","offer_id":47875241738462,"sku":"PE-010-0000-0005g","price":6.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"100 Grams","offer_id":47875241771230,"sku":"PE-010-0000-0100g","price":14.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"300 Grams","offer_id":47875241803998,"sku":"PE-010-0000-0300g","price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0739\/2821\/2702\/files\/f9dcafeb-5505-4f6d-bfa7-0a9a1582430a-copy.jpg?v=1769982486","url":"https:\/\/morrowarchival.com\/products\/cypriot-burnt-umber-pigment-425138024","provider":"Morrow Archival","version":"1.0","type":"link"}