Lead-Tin Yellow

(massicott, gialllolino)

Origin, History and Characteristics

If natural ultramarine blue could be considered the king of Vermeer's palette, lead-tin yellow would justly be called its queen. What is now commonly called lead-tin yellow has had several different names in the past. Italian manuscripts have described a color, gialllolino, which is identical to lead-tin yellow. In northern parts of England the term massicott was used to describe the same pigment. The current name lead-tin yellow is self explanatory. It is a result of the components of the pigment lead and tin which combine to form a yellow hue. Due to its high lead content, it is very poisonous and has been replaced by safer products. Used between 13th and 18th centuries, but most common from 15th to 17th centuries.

Lead-tin yellow has a strong lemon hue and is is very light in tone. It has good hiding power. One of the most important uses of lead-tin yellow pigment was in the color glass production in Venice and Bologna in the Middle Ages. It was used widely in Western Europe in frescoes and panels. It was commonly used in drapery, light parts of the sky, foliage with green and earth pigments.

Lead-Tin Yellow in Vermeer's Painting

"Lead-tin yellow is the principle pigment used by Vermeer for his characteristic yellow draperies, including the fur trimmed jackets. Two different preparations of lead-tin yellow were used in the yellow jacket of A Lady Writing. Vermeer seems to have first modeled the strong lights with a coarser variety of lead-tin yellow and the refined the modeling and chiaroscuro with a finer one. He textured the underpaint by using granular pigments and strongly marked brush handling. These textured passages of underpaint were used in the final image, where they draw the viewer's attention. The lightest passages are literally the most eye-catching parts of the painting."¹

Vermeer's mixed lead-tin yellow with various shades of blue to obtain subtle greens. The green trompe d'oeile curtain in the Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window was made with lead-tin yellow and azurite. The same combination occurs in the green shutter in the Little Street.

a detail of Vermeer's Guitar Player

Vermeer's mastery of color can be seen in his use of lead-tin yellow, which is very difficult to harmonize with flesh tones.

One of the most curious uses of lead-tin yellow occurs in the greenish highlights, which contained lead-tin yellow, of the far sleeve of the Woman Holding a Balance. There seems to be no logical explanation for this in the lighting condition represented in the painting, but it must have had some significance for the artist since he repeated precisely this technique in the later Girl with a Red Hat. Arthur Wheelock, who has extensively analyzed Vermeer's painting technique, gives the following explanation: "By accenting the highlight with bright yellow strokes rather than with white or light blue ones, he imbued the cool blue robe with a certain warmth without reducing its level of color saturation."²