In the Medieval Age, oil painting and watercolor did not exist. Painters had to mix pigments with water and… eggs ! This is why this technic is named the egg tempera painting. The artists used mineral pigments, such as red ochre, yellow ochre, umber, or lime white.
These pigments were dug right out the earth and shaped into sticks with knives.
The warm colour of natural red chalks was very appreciated by artists for centuries, even after Medieval Ages.
The Green earth pigment, used since Antiquity, was useful in order to underpaint flesh tones. Greens were also created with malachite or verdigris.
Blue colours were developed with azurite durant ancient Egypt, but medieval painters mainly used utlramarine.
European medieval art is inseparable from a religious and spiritual dimension. Therefore, colours were enriched by symbolic meanings. For example, the Virigin often is painted with blue garments ; this colour was a symbol of purity. Ultramarine, a pigment from Afghanistan, was a very expensive material. It represented the sacrality of the religious painting, and the importance of the Virgin. Golden sheets were also used very often in religious paintings, symbolizing a sacralized dimension.
Some political figures understood the importance of art and became important patrons. Dukes of Burgundy, especially Philip the Bold (1363-1404) and Philip the Good (1419-1467), played an important role in the development of Flamish art, protecting artists and financing their works.
The portraits of Philip the Good are representative of his understanding of the symbolic of colours and their use : he often is depicted in black garments, an unusual colour at the time. If this pigment first represented his mourning after his father’s murder, he continued to dress in black, because this colour symbolized his values : seriousness and temperance. The fabrication of garments with this rare pigment was very expensive : it expressed his power and his wealth. Moreover, golden jewels, as the symbol of the Order of Knighthood of the Golden Fleece (Toison d'Or), were valorized on this colour.
Sources http://www.webexhibits.org/
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