Portrait of a Lady

Meet La Shiavona. Isn’t she stunning ?

Titian was a colour minimalist, and boasted that 'a good painter needs only three colours: black, white and red’. But in order to create this deliciously wooly purple dress, he must have included blue, don’t you think? This called for a deep dive into the scientific archives from the National Gallery….and they did not disappoint! It turns out that the main pigments in the fabric were definitely red (Carmine) and blue (Ultramarine). Titian layered the colours on the canvas, as opposed to mixing them together. So one layer of Carmine (which was actually crushed insects) followed by a layer of Ultramarine (which was the precious stone Lapiz Lazuli, from Afghanistan). 
This stuff is sure to come up in your next pub quiz, so I’m glad you were paying attention. 

Titian
Portrait of a Lady (La Shiavona)
c. 1510-1512
The National Gallery, London
@nationalgallery