Editing Paint (section)

==History==
[[File:Lascaux, Megaloceros.jpg|thumb|right|A charcoal and ochre cave painting of [[Megaloceros]] from [[Lascaux]], France]]
Paint was used in some of the earliest known human artworks. Some [[cave paintings]] drawn with red or yellow [[ochre]], [[hematite]], [[manganese oxide]], and [[charcoal]] may have been made by early ''[[Homo sapiens]]'' as long as 40,000 years ago.<ref>{{Cite book|title=30,000 years of inventions|last=Craughwell|first=Thomas J.|date=2012|publisher=Tess Press|isbn=9781603763240|location=New York|oclc=801100207}}</ref> Paint may be even older. In 2003 and 2004, South African archeologists reported finds in [[Blombos Cave]] of a 100,000-year-old human-made [[ochre]]-based mixture that could have been used like paint.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0331_040331_ostrichman_2.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060316234244/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/03/0331_040331_ostrichman_2.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=March 16, 2006 |title=Is Bead Find Proof Modern Thought Began in Africa? |author=Hillary Mayell |date=March 31, 2004 |work=National Geographic News |page=2 |quote=Work published in 2001 described 28 bone tools and thousands of pieces of ocher—a mineral used to create paint for body decoration and cave painting—dated at roughly 70,000 years old found in Blombos Cave in South Africa. Two pieces of ocher appear to be marked with abstract lines that could be viewed as artistic expression.|access-date=May 20, 2016}}</ref><ref name=Guardian>{{cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/oct/13/stone-age-painting-kits |title=Stone Age painting kits found in cave |date=October 13, 2011 |work=The Guardian |access-date=May 20, 2016}}</ref> Further excavation in the same cave resulted in the 2011 report of a complete toolkit for grinding pigments and making a primitive paint-like substance.<ref name=Guardian/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.livescience.com/16538-oldest-human-paint-studio.html |title=Oldest Human Paint-Making Studio Discovered in Cave |author=Stephanie Pappa |date=October 13, 2011 |work=Live Science |access-date=October 14, 2011}}</ref>

Interior walls at the 5,000-year-old [[Ness of Brodgar#Structure 1|Ness of Brodgar]] have been found to incorporate individual stones painted in yellows, reds, and oranges, using ochre pigment made of haematite mixed with animal fat, milk or eggs.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-10763044 |title=Painted walls in Orkney '''5,000&nbsp;years old''' |date=26 July 2010 |work=[[BBC News]] |access-date=10 March 2021}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2011-08-05|title=Painted walls|url=https://www.nessofbrodgar.co.uk/painted-walls/|access-date=2021-03-10|website=The Ness of Brodgar Excavation|language=en-GB}}</ref>

Ancient colored walls at [[Dendera]], [[Egypt]], which were exposed for years to the elements, still possess their brilliant color, as vivid as when they were painted about 2,000 years ago. The Egyptians mixed their colors with a gummy substance and applied them separately from each other without any blending or mixture. They appear to have used six colors: white, black, blue, red, yellow, and green. They first covered the area entirely with white, then traced the design in black, leaving out the lights of the ground color. They used [[lead tetroxide|minium]] for red, generally of a dark tinge.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Christiansen |first=Thomas |last2=Cotte |first2=Marine |last3=de Nolf |first3=Wout |last4=Reyes-Herrera |first4=Juan |last5=de Meyer |first5=Steven |last6=Vanmeert |first6=Frederik |last7=Salvadó |first7=Nati |last8=Gonzalez |first8=Victor |last9=Lindelof |first9=Poul Erik |last10=Mortensen |first10=Kell |last11=Ryholt |first11=Kim |last12=Janssens |first12=Koen |last13=Larsen |first13=Sine |editor-last=Faber |editor-first=Katherine |date=October 26, 2020 |title=Insights into the Composition of Ancient Egyptian Red and Black Inks on Papyri Achieved by Synchrotron-Based Microanalyses |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2004534117 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2004534117 |journal=[[PNAS]] |access-date=2024-07-10|hdl=2117/335402 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

The oldest known oil paintings are Buddhist murals created {{circa|650 AD}}. The works are located in cave-like rooms carved from the cliffs of Afghanistan's [[Bamiyan Valley]], "using walnut and poppy seed oils."<ref>[http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/19/oldest-oil-painting.html "Oldest Oil Paintings Found in Afghanistan"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110603234713/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/19/oldest-oil-painting.html |date=June 3, 2011 }}, Rosella Lorenzi, Discovery News. Feb. 19, 2008.</ref> [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] mentions some painted ceilings in his day in the town of [[Ardea (RM)|Ardea]], which had been made before the foundation of [[Rome]]. After the lapse of so many centuries, he expressed great surprise and admiration at their freshness.

In the 13th century, oil was used to detail [[tempera]] paintings. In the 14th century, [[Cennino Cennini]] described a painting technique utilizing [[Egg tempera|tempera painting]] covered by light layers of oil.  The slow-drying properties of [[oil|organic oils]] were commonly known to early European painters. However, the difficulty in acquiring and working the materials meant that they were rarely used (and indeed, the slow drying was seen as a disadvantage<ref>[[Theophilus Presbyter]] Book I ch. 25</ref>). The paint was made with the yolk of [[Egg (food)|eggs]], and therefore, the substance would harden and adhere to the surface it was applied to. The pigment was made from plants, sand, and different soils. Most paints use either oil or water as a [[Binder (material)|base]] (the [[diluent]], solvent, or vehicle for the pigment).

The Flemish-trained or influenced [[Antonello da Messina]], who [[Vasari]] wrongly credited with the introduction of oil paint to Italy,<ref>{{cite book|title=Antonello da Messina, Sicily's Renaissance Master|author=Barbera, Giocchino|publisher=Metropolitan Museum of Art Yale University Press |location=New York|year=2005|type=exhibition catalogue}} {{ISBN|0-300-11648-9}} [http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/51392 (online)], p. 14</ref> does seem to have improved the formula by adding [[litharge]], or lead (II) oxide. A still extant example of 17th-century house oil painting is [[Ham House]] in [[Surrey]], [[England]], where a primer was used along with several undercoats and an elaborate decorative overcoat; the pigment and oil mixture would have been ground into a paste with a mortar and pestle. The painters did the process by hand, which exposed them to [[lead poisoning]] due to the white-lead powder.

In 1718, Marshall Smith invented a "Machine or Engine for the Grinding of Colors" in England. It is not known precisely how it operated, but it was a device that dramatically increased the efficiency of pigment grinding. Soon, a company called Emerton and Manby was advertising exceptionally low-priced paints that had been ground with labor-saving technology:
[[File:Window in a white wall. Suzdal, Russia.jpg|thumb|Paint used every day: White paint on a wall in [[Suzdal|Suzdal, Russia]]]]

{{Blockquote|One Pound of Colour ground in a Horse-Mill will paint twelve Yards of Work, whereas Colour ground any other Way, will not do half that Quantity.}}
By the proper onset of the [[Industrial Revolution]], in the mid-18th century, paint was being ground in steam-powered mills, and an alternative to lead-based pigments had been found in a white derivative of zinc oxide. Interior house painting increasingly became the norm as the 19th century progressed, both for decorative reasons and because the paint was effective in preventing the walls rotting from damp. Linseed oil was also increasingly used as an inexpensive binder.

In 1866, [[Sherwin-Williams]] in the [[United States]] opened as a large paint-maker and invented a paint that could be used from the tin without preparation.

It was only when the stimulus of [[World War II]] created a shortage of linseed oil in the supply market that artificial resins, or alkyds, were invented. Cheap and easy to make, they held the color well and lasted for a long time.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ploeger|first=Rebecca|date=2013|title=Characterization and Stability Issues of Artists' Alkyd Paints|url=https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/20494/16.Ploeger.SCMC3.Meck%3Cbr%20/%3E%20lenburg.Web.pdf?sequence=1|journal=New Insights into the Cleaning of Paintings: Proceedings from the Cleaning 2010 International Conference, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, and Museum Conservation Institute|volume=3|pages=89–91}}</ref>