Copper-based green pigments in Andean Medicine and Art

GABRIELA SIRACUSANO

Colonia

Workshop; CHARISMATIC SUBSTANCES; 2015

Morphomata Center for Advanced Studies, University of Cologne

Pigments have been protagonists in the construction of a European visual culture. Grinded on stones and mixed with egg yolks, oils and resins, these pigments provided the colours that would give life to the immense universe of images painted through the centuries. In the leaves of a plant, in landscapes and air perspectives, in the arches of the rainbow or in the costumes and objects of everyday life or legendary characters, green copper based pigments would contribute to the formation of a rich body of images, either on wood, canvas, or paper, among other surfaces. They also adopted important artistic uses and functions in the colonial Spanish American territories, particularly in the Andean region ? the Viceroyalty of Peru ? where Spanish, Italian, indigenous and creole painters and apprentices employed them to represent the universe of meanings around them, in a manner that was closely intertwined with a native tradition of employing green colours. In the Andes, as elsewhere, however, copper-based green pigments would be used in both medicine and the arts.