Cochineal - Art

Art

The carmine of antiquity (Old World kermes, NR3) also contains carminic acid, and was extracted from a similar insect, Kermes vermilio, that lives on scarlet oaks native to the Near East and the European side of the Mediterranean basin. Kermes carmine was used as a dye and a laked pigment in ancient Egypt, Greece, and the Near East and is one of the oldest organic pigments; cochineal carmine was used by the Aztecs and was first imported to Europe in the 1530s from Spanish conquests in America. Recipes for artists' use of carmine appear in many early painting and alchemical handbooks throughout the Middle Ages; the laking process for both pigments was improved in the 19th century. Carmine lakes appear frequently in European oil paintings from François Boucher to Raoul Dufy; in watercolours it has extremely poor lightfastness and has not been widely used since alizarin crimson became available in the late 19th century.

Deep-brownish-red (Indian lake or lac (NR25)) is made from the blood-red secretion of female scale insects (Laccifer lacca) that feed on the twigs of various trees native to India, including Butea frondosa and Ficus religiosa. The twigs become encrusted with a reddish, bumpy, and glossy resin that is processed to extract the red colourant; lighter grades of the resin are used as the basis for shellac, and was used as a silk dye in India and imported to Spain since the early 13th century. In chemical terms, lac is closely related to carmine, and is equally fugitive.