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For the ancient Egyptians each colour had a precise meaning.
Green and turquoise, that recalled vegetation and water, represented youth and
regeneration.
Red was the desert and so the caos (the Egyptian listed
the names of the entities believed to be dangerous).
To this colour was
opposed the black of the land fertilired by the mud that symbolized the
eternal rebirth of nature.
The yellow, the colour of gold, was
associated to the god’s limbs.
The white of the silver, corresponded to
their bones.
The blue of the lapislazuli symbolized their hair.
The white was obtained from plastes or grinded limestone.
To obtain light blue they used azzurrite.
For the browns iron oxide and
white pigments were mixed.
For the red was used anhydride iron oxide.
The green was produced reducing the malachite to dust.
To obtain the
yellow they used oxide of hydrated iron.
From the XII dynasty the
arsenic appears.
The bond for the colours has not yet been identified with certainty.
Maybe rubbery materials were used, bee wax and egg albumen.
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