Orpiment

Lore & Background

Orpiment takes its name from the Latin auripigmentum, referring both to its deep-yellow color and to the historical belief that it contained gold. The Latin term was used by Pliny in the first century CE. The Greek for orpiment was arsenikon, deriving from the Greek word arsenikos, meaning 'male', from the belief that metals were of different sexes; this Greek term was used by Theophrastus in the fourth century BC. The Chinese term for orpiment is Ci-Huang, meaning 'female yellow', and the Persian term is zarnikh, deriving from the word 'zar', the Persian for gold. Orpiment and realgar are closely related minerals, both arsenic sulfides belonging to the monoclinic crystal system. They are found in the same deposits and can form in the same geologic environments. In Chinese, the names for orpiment and realgar are Ci-Huang and Xiong-Huang, respectively meaning 'female yellow' and 'male yellow', symbolizing their close natural conjunction. Orpiment typically has a vibrant golden-yellow color, while realgar normally has an orange or reddish hue. Orpiment has historically been used in artworks in many locales in the Eastern Hemisphere. It was one of the few clear, bright-yellow pigments available to artists until the 19th century. Its extreme toxicity and incompatibility with other common pigments, including lead and copper-based substances such as verdigris and azurite, meant that its use as a pigment ended when cadmium yellows, chromium yellows and organic aniline dye-based colors were introduced during the 19th century.

Reader's Guide

Orpiment's significance lies in its long history as a vivid yellow pigment and its role in art, alchemy, and medicine across multiple cultures, despite its high toxicity. In Egypt, lumps of orpiment pigment have been found in a fourteenth-century BC tomb. In China, it was used to color Chinese lacquer and as a correction fluid. It has been identified on Central Asian wall paintings from the sixth to the thirteenth centuries, and in a traditional Thai painting technique still in use today, yellow ink for writing and drawing on black paper manuscripts is made using orpiment. Medieval European artists imported orpiment from Asia Minor, and it has been identified on Norwegian wooden altar frontals, polychrome sculptures, and folk art objects, including a crucifix. It was also used in twelfth- to sixteenth-century Eastern Orthodox icons from Bulgaria, Russia, and the former Yugoslavia. Orpiment was commonly combined with indigo dye to make a dark, rich green, as seen in the Wilton Diptych (c. Its legacy is also marked by conservation challenges: yellow orpiment degrades into arsenic oxides, which are soluble in water and migrate to the surrounding environment, and it is sensitive to light exposure, decaying into a friable white arsenic trioxide over time. Proper conservation methods should minimize exposure to strong light, emphasize humidity control, and avoid the use of water-based cleaning agents.

Did You Know?

• Orpiment takes its name from the Latin auripigmentum, meaning 'gold pigment', due to its deep-yellow color and the historical belief that it contained gold.
• In Chinese, orpiment is called Ci-Huang, meaning 'female yellow', while realgar is called Xiong-Huang, meaning 'male yellow'.
• Orpiment was used in ancient China as a correction fluid and as fly poison, and to tip arrows with poison.