the.com/ultramarine
A blue so precious painters once priced it above gold, per ounce.
means A deep, vivid blue, historically the pigment ground from lapis lazuli, and now also any color matching that intense violet-leaning blue.
from From Latin ultra ('beyond') plus marinus ('of the sea') — literally 'beyond the sea.' The name doesn't describe the color but the trade route: the finest lapis lazuli came from mines in Afghanistan, shipped across the Mediterranean into Europe, so Italian merchants called the imported pigment azzurro oltremarino, 'blue from overseas.' The name stuck even as the stone's origin faded from memory.
- origin
- ground from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan
- name meaning
- literally beyond the sea, oltremare
- renaissance cost
- rationed like gemstones, reserved for Virgin Mary's robes
- modern version
- synthesized in 1826, killing the price overnight