So Naples Yellow is... is

great because it's a misnomer so naples yellow uh is a um or was sorry i mean it's it's still used today but but much less often now naples yellow was originally a lead antiminate pigment that's a synthetic pigment um that was first created um oh thousands of years ago in ancient mesopotamia um connected to ceramic production i think and it um So it's got nothing to do with Naples, basically.

But then at some point in the 18th century, it was, I suppose, theorised by an Italian man whose name I can't remember, that the pigment was sourced from the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, so that it was...

It was a Naples yellow.

And it's just stuck.

And it's really interesting how...

And it's interesting, though, because the colour, if you look at it, it does have a kind of Neapolitan quality in its sandy yellowness.

Are there other examples that come to mind with that?

... painting.

So exciting.

So conservators found that, um, that parts of this painting had been, um, over-painted later on.

And when they removed the over-paint, they found that there was a, a red border around the, around the whole composition.

And within that red border is a yellow foliate design, so scrolling leaves, I suppose.

And that has been painted with orpiment.

But what is really fun and exciting is that because it's been protected by that over-paint, the yellow is still very, very rich.

So how do realgar and orpiment react with other pigments? Do other pigments blacken or change when combined with them?