ultramarine blue
Definition
Noun: 1. A vivid blue pigment: A bright, deep blue pigment originally made by grinding the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli into powder. The name comes from Latin, meaning "beyond the sea," as the stone was historically imported from Asia. 2. The color of this pigment: The characteristic strong, slightly purplish blue color associated with this pigment.
Usage Examples
- Noun (as pigment):
- The artist used genuine ultramarine blue for the Virgin Mary's robe, making it the most expensive part of the painting.
- Synthetic ultramarine blue is now commonly used in paints and plastics.
- Noun (as color):
- The sky at dusk deepened into a rich ultramarine blue.
- She preferred the ultramarine blue of the classic jeans.
Advanced Usage
- Historical/Cultural Context: In art history, the use of natural ultramarine blue is often an indicator of a patron's wealth and the importance of a specific figure in a painting, due to its former extreme cost.
- Technical Specification: In color systems, ultramarine blue has specific coordinates (e.g., in the Pantone system, it is closely related to PMS 2728 C).
Variants and Related Words
- Ultramarine (noun/adjective): The more common short form. As a noun, it refers to the pigment or color. As an adjective, it describes something of this blue hue (e.g., "the ultramarine sea").
- French Ultramarine: A common name for the synthetic version of the pigment.
- Lapis Lazuli: The blue rock from which the original pigment was made.
Synonyms
- Azure: A bright, sky-like blue, often lighter than ultramarine.
- Cobalt Blue: A different synthetic blue pigment, often greener and less violet than ultramarine blue.
- Royal Blue: A deep, vivid blue, sometimes used interchangeably but often slightly brighter.
Related Phrases
- "True ultramarine": Often used to specify the pigment made from genuine lapis lazuli, as opposed to the modern synthetic version.
- "Ultramarine ash": A term for the greyish residue left after extracting the blue color from lapis lazuli, which was sometimes used as a pigment itself.
Noun
- blue pigment made of powdered lapis lazuli
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