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The Provenance of Lapis Lazuli, the Written Sources, and its Distribution as Pigment in the Wall Paintings of Central Asia and the Middle East

  • Claudio, SECCARONI (ENEA - Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Economic Development) ;
  • Michael, JUNG (Department of Islamic Archaeology and Ancient Southern Arabia - Museum of Oriental Art/Museo delle Civilta)
  • Received : 2022.04.29
  • Accepted : 2022.11.24
  • Published : 2022.12.15
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Abstract

Since the most ancient times, lapis lazuli had been used for luxury goods such as jewelry and seals, to embellish sculptures and weapons or the precious objects of tombs, such as the golden mask of Tutankhamon or the famous "Standard" of the royal cemetery of Ur. Much more recent seems to be its frequent use as a pigment in wall paintings or polychrome stucco. In this article, the question of the sources for this extremely rare mineral is briefly discussed and the places proposed by ancient scholars as deposits of the mineral are presented and examined. The information provided in the medieval Arabic and Persian scientific literature has been considered and compared with the data of our modern geological knowledge. A list of sites in Central Asia, the Middle East, and India with lapis lazuli occurrence on wall paintings illustrate its wide use in different artistic cultures and periods between the 2nd and 10th centuries C.E. These cultures are in fact different in ethnic and linguistic origin and in the religious, economic, and social sphere, but closely interconnected by common pan-regional artistic traditions in style, materials, and techniques employed. A case study investigated by the authors in the Friday Mosque of Iṣfahān gives an example of the use of lapis lazuli pigment in Islamic wall paintings and stuccoes.

Keywords

References

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