Ercolano is modern Italian for Herculaneum and is a town located at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. You can see from this thermal shot the size of the volcano.
This side view shows the veins of rich red and orange oxides formed from volcanic action. Hematite and other minerals form the bright veins of ercolano pigments.
Ercolano red is a beautiful rich oxide composed of hematite, clay, chalk and silica.
Ercolano red gives depth and warmth when used in traditional egg tempera.
When studying with
Carolina d'Ayala Valva last month, we used ercolano red as one of our main colors of our palette.
Ercolano orange is not as strong in hematite, thus the color is not as red. It is also mined in the quarries in northern Italy -product of the volcanic action from Mount Vesuvius...
Ercolano blue is , to me, the most prized as it is much harder to find. It is deeper than sky blue , almost a turquoise.
I just received over five kilos (bought all that the supplier had!) This will be shared with a friend who introduced me to the color many years ago. I will now have to find new suppliers-here is
one and
another if you care to work with the magic of ercolano!
