Cobalt Blue: from ‘fake silver’ to colourful pigment
In the art of painting cobalt is mainly known as a colour blue. The pigment that was traditionally extracted from a mineral comes, however, in various shades, varying from yellow to red and from blue to green. It was traditionally used to colour glass and ceramics. The name is derived from subterranean sprites or ‘kobolds’. But for this we have to go far back in time, to well before the Common Era.