Back Home
Search

All Results

Generic filters
Search in excerpt
  • About
      • About Smarthistory
      • Press coverage
      • Board of Advisors and Board of Trustees
      • Major donors
      • Smarthistory partners
      • Content editors and contributors
      • Recommended by…
      • A Smarthistory timeline
      • Contribute an essay to Smarthistory
      • Contact Us
      • Support our work
      • We believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background.

        Smarthistory unlocks the expertise of hundreds of scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.
  • Histories of Art
      • Prehistoric
        • Overview of Prehistoric
          • Paleolithic
          • Neolithic
      • Africa
        • Overview of Africa
            • East Africa
            • West Africa
            • North Africa
            • Southern Africa
            • Central Africa
      • Americas
        • Overview of Americas to 1900
            • North America to 1500
            • North America 1500 – 1900
            • South America to 1500
            • South America 1500 – 1900
      • Asia
        • Overview of Asia
            • Hinduism and Buddhism
            • China
            • Japan
            • Korea
            • South Asia
            • Afghanistan
            • Southeast Asia
            • The Himalayas
      • Ancient Mediterranean
        • Overview of Ancient Mediterranean
            • Ancient Near East
            • Egyptian
            • Aegean
            • Greek
            • Nabataean
            • Etruscan
            • Roman
            • Palmyra
      • Medieval Europe & Byzantine
        • Overview of Medieval Europe + Byzantium
            • A beginner’s guide
            • Christianity and art
            • Judaism and art
            • The medieval book
            • Early Christian
            • Byzantine
            • Carolingian
            • Ottonian
            • Romanesque
            • Gothic Art
            • The crusades
      • The Islamic World
        • Overview of the Islamic World
          • Early Period
          • Medieval Period
          • Later period
      • Europe 1300-1800
        • Overview of Europe 1300 – 1800
              • Italy: 14th century
              • Italy: 15th century
              • Italy: 16th century
              • Northern Europe: 15th century
              • Northern Europe: 16th century
              • Spain: 15th and 16th century
              • Reformation and Counter-Reformation
              • Baroque: 17th century
              • Rococo: early to mid 18th century
              • Neoclassicism: late 18th century
              • British: 18th century
      • Europe 1800-1900
        • Overview of Europe: 19th century
            • Romanticism
            • Early Photography
            • Victorian art
            • Realism
            • Second Empire
            • Impressionism
            • Post-Impressionism
            • Symbolism / Art Nouveau
            • The Peredvizhniki
      • Oceania
        • Overview of Oceania
            • Lapita
            • Polynesia
            • Melanesia
            • Micronesia
            • Australia
      • Modernisms 1900-1980
        • Overview of Modernisms 1900 – 1980
            • A beginner’s guide
            • Fauvism + Expressionism
            • Cubism + Early Abstraction
            • Dada + Surrealism
            • German art between the wars
            • Latin American modernism
            • American art to WWII
            • Postwar American art
            • Postwar European art
            • Conceptual + Performance art
            • Post Minimalism
            • Global vanguard
            • Architecture + Design
      • Global cultures 1980 to now
        • Overview of Global Cultures 1980 – now
            • Appropriation and ideological critique
            • Identity and the body
            • Banality and kitsch
            • Ritual, spirituality and transcendence
            • Histories real and imagined
  • Guided learning
      • Start here
          • OVERVIEW
              • Looking at art
              • Approaches to art history
              • Understanding religion in art
              • Understanding museums
              • For the very beginner
              • seeingamericaFeatured | Art that brings U.S. history to life
      • Courses in art history & history
          • OVERVIEW
              • Seeing America – a portal to American history and art
              • ARCHES – At-Risk Cultural Heritage Education Series
              • Short courses – spend an hour — learn a lot!
              • Across cultures – An interconnected world is not as recent as we think.
              • Teaching with images – For K-12 teachers
              • Syllabi / AP & A-level courses
              • Art Appreciation
              • Creating + conserving
      • Smarthistory books
        • Overview – More titles coming soon!
            • AP® Art History (vol. 1) – nos. 1 – 47
            • AP® Art History (vol. 2) – nos. 48-98
            • AP® Art History (vol. 3) – nos. 99 – 152
            • AP® Art History (vol. 4) – nos. 153 – 191
            • AP® Art History (vol. 5) – nos. 192 – 250
            • Ancient Near Eastern art
            • Ancient Egyptian Art
            • Ancient Aegean Art
            • Ancient Greek Art
            • Ancient Etruscan art
            • Ancient Roman art
            • Guide to Italian art in the 1300s
      • Virtual visits – museums & sites
        • Overview – art by location
          • Austria
          • China
          • Egypt
          • France
          • Germany
          • Greece
          • Italy
          • India
          • Japan
          • Mexico
          • Netherlands
          • Peru
          • Russia
          • Spain
          • Turkey
          • United Kingdom
          • United States
  • Commons
  • Support
      • Donate – Help Smarthistory continue to make a difference
      • Contribute an essay – Help make art history relevant and engaging
      • Shop – Support us by purchasing merchandise
      • We created Smarthistory to provide students around the world with the highest-quality educational resources for art and cultural heritage—for free.
Search

Creating + conserving

Browse this content
The conservator's eye
The conservator's eye: Marble statue of a wounded warrior
The conservator's eye: Taddeo Gaddi, Saint Julian
The conservator’s eye: a stained glass Adoration of the Magi
The conservator’s eye: Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
The conservator's eye: Madame Cézanne in the Conservatory
The conservator’s eye: Anselm Kiefer, Bohemia Lies by the Sea
What is conservation?
Art Conservation Behind the Scenes
What does a conservator do?
Tools of the Trade
Scientific research glossary of terms
Conservation glossary of terms
Painting
Materials and techniques
Browse this content
Tempera paint
Oil paint in Venice
Gold-ground panel painting
How to stretch a large canvas
Almost Invisible: The Cartoon Transfer Process
Investigating Rothko's Technique
How to paint like...
How to paint like Franz Kline
How to paint like Willem de Kooning
How to paint like Yayoi Kusama
How to paint like Agnes Martin
How to paint like Barnett Newman
How to paint like Jackson Pollock
How to paint like Ad Reinhardt
How to paint like Mark Rothko
About color
Browse this content
Making Purple: The Science of Art
Making Green: Tempera versus Oil
The Alchemy of Color and Chemical Change in Medieval Manuscripts
How to paint like...
Browse this content
How to paint like Willem de Kooning
How to paint like Franz Kline
How to paint like Yayoi Kusama
How to paint like Agnes Martin
How to paint like Jackson Pollock
How to paint like Barnett Newman
How to paint like Ad Reinhardt
How to paint like Mark Rothko
Art terms in action
Browse this content
Art Terms in Action: Paint
Art Terms in Action: Turpentine Burn
Art Terms in Action: Palette Knife
Art Terms in Action: Tint, Shade, and Tone
Art Terms in Action: Emulsion
Art Terms in Action: Enamel
Art Terms in Action: Stain
Art Terms in Action: Viscosity
Conserving
Remaking a fourteenth-century triptych
Conservation of paintings
Ghent Altarpiece project overview
Conserving a portrait of King Edward VI
Jan Gossart – Conservation Discoveries
Conserving Velázquez's Portrait of Philip IV
Conserving Flowers in a Glass Vase
Michael Gallagher on Everhard Jabach and His Family
Conserving the Virgin of Guadalupe
Conserving Vincent van Gogh's Field with Irises near Arles
Van Gogh's Enclosed Field with Ploughman under raking light
The Science of Van Gogh's Bedrooms
Restoring Rothko
Sculpture
Making
Carving Marble with Traditional Tools
Quarrying and carving marble
Medieval goldsmiths – Treasures of Heaven at the British Museum
Making a Spanish polychrome sculpture
Bronze casting using the lost-wax technique
Bronze casting using the direct lost-wax method
Working jade
Conserving
The Conservation of Tullio Lombardo's Adam
Object Conservation – Salisbury Cross
Contemporary Art Conservation at Smithsonian's Hirshhorn Museum
Prints, drawings, and manuscripts
Printmaking
Browse this content
Introduction to printmaking
Introduction to relief printmaking
Relief process
Introduction to intaglio
Intaglio process
Lithography process
Introduction to lithography
Making and conserving manuscripts and drawings
Making manuscripts
Drawing with Charcoal: Historical Techniques of 19th-Century France
Science and Paper: Conserving a Drypoint by Michael Heizer
Conserving Old Master Drawings
Henri Matisse: Conserving The Swimming Pool
Photographs
Making
Browse this content
Before photography (1 of 12)
The Daguerreotype (2 of 12)
Talbot's Processes (3 of 12)
The Cyanotype (4 of 12)
The Collodion process (5 of 12)
The Albumen Print (6 of 12)
The Platinum Print (7 of 12)
The Pigment Processes (8 of 12)
The Woodburytype (9 of 12)
The Gelatin Silver Process (10 of 12)
Color Photography (11 of 12)
Digital Photography (12 of 12)
Ceramic and lacquer
Making
Greek Vase-Painting, an introduction
Ancient Greek vase production and the black-figure technique
Making Greek vases
Mosaic, metalwork and glass
Making
Glassmaking technique: free-blown glass
Mold-blown Glass
Ancient and Byzantine Mosaic Materials
Medieval Goldsmiths
Enamelling
The Electrotyping Process
Textiles
Making
The art of making a tapestry
Conserving
William Morris, The Bullerswood Carpet
Conserving the Emperor's Carpet
Frames
Choosing
Framing Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth
Conserving
Behind the scenes of the framing department at The National Gallery, London
Van Dyck's Self-portrait: The Frame and its Conservation
Architecture
Conserving
Kasbah Taourirt: Conserving Earthen Heritage in Morocco
Conservation Reel archive
What is conservation?
Lab Tour: Conservation Science
IMA Conservation: Examining a Work
IMA Conservation: The Oddy Test
IMA Conservation: Documentation Imaging
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Richard McCoy
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Linda Witkowski
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Kristen Adsit
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Gregory Smith
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with David Miller
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Amanda Holden
IMA Conservation: 5 Questions with Aaron Steele
Manuscripts and works on paper
How to Examine a Work on Paper
Wrapping Paper Objects for Hand Transport
Painting
Conservation Notes: Tom Thomson's The West Wind
Finding the Lost Crucifix in a Perugino Panel Painting
Finding the Original Context of Rosselli's Kneeling Angel
Examining a Panel Painting
IMA Conservation: Cleaning a Painting
Inpainting a Van Dyck
IMA Conservation: Pigment Analysis with XRF Spectrometry
What X-Rays of a Vivarini Reveal About Its Past
Examining a Veronese with XRF Spectrometry
Sebastiano Mainardi: The Science of Art Installation, Behind the Scenes
Sculpture + installation
Lab Tour: Objects and Variable Art
Preserving Art: Tara Donovan's Untitled (Plastic Cups)
Tara Donovan's Untitled (Mylar)
Artist Max Dean on the conservation of As Yet Untitled
Talking Chaos with Roland Wetzel
A Conversation with Robert Irwin on Light and Space III
IMA Conservation: The Lightbulbs in Light and Space III
Evidence of Lost Wax Casting
Textiles
IMA Conservation: Preparing a Mola Garment for Display
IMA Conservation: Preparing Mola Textiles for Display
Frames
Examining a 17th-century frame
Architecture
The Making of the Bartholomew County Veterans Memorial
Modern Architecture as Heritage
Talks + symposia
Innovative Approaches to Conservation
Conservation Data and Digital Asset Management
Moving Responsibilities: The Care of Performance-Based Sculpture
The Invention of Glory: A Symposium
The Plus/Minus Dilemma: The Way Forward in Environmental Guidelines

Making Purple: The Science of Art

by The National Gallery (London)

Video from The National Gallery (London)

Cite this page as: The National Gallery (London), "Making Purple: The Science of Art," in Smarthistory, May 5, 2017, accessed November 23, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/making-purple-science-of-art/.

Flickr IconBrowse Smarthistory images for teaching & learning! 

Sign up for our newsletter!

Receive occasional emails about new Smarthistory content.

It's been a tough year.....

Honoraria for early career art historians

Have you suffered financial hardship due to the pandemic?

Smarthistory is offering honoraria for emerging scholars who have suffered financial hardship

Apply here
Join the Commons Facebook group Close

At Smarthistory we believe art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. We believe that the brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other provider.

  • Donate
  • Subscribe to our newsletter
  • Contact Us
facebook icon
twitter icon
instagram icon
youtube icon
flickr icon
  • About Smarthistory
  • Smarthistory’s blog
  • Contribute an essay
  • Content editors and contributors

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

· © 2020 Smarthistory · Designed by Press Customizr · Powered by ·