How did the middle ages made paint?

Answer 1

Most large medieval paintings were done on plastered walls, on stone surfaces or on wood. Smaller paintings were included in manuscript illuminations.

For paints used on wood, linseed oil (extracted from the flax plant) was mixed with pigments, while in paints used on lime mortar the colours were mixed with lime so that the pigments dried into the surface of the plaster and became part of it.

For paintings on parchment or vellum used in manuscripts, pigments were mixed with egg yolk or eggwhite, or sometimes fish or hide glue,and the resulting paints are called tempera.

Pigments were generally of mineral origin: ochres (yellow and red), carbon black, green copper carbonate, malachite, azurite, vermilion and white (simply white lime or sometimes white lead) were the colours used on walls or ceilings. In manuscripts, ultramarine blue, made from imported lapis lazuli, was far more rare and valuable than gold. Some plants were also used: madder root for a dull red and turnsole seeds for blue or violet.

White lead and vermilion were highly toxic, as were many of the pigments used in medieval painting. Vermilion was obtained either from naturally-occurring cinnabar or by heating Mercury and sulphur together and condensing the resulting toxic vapour.