Deep blue rock flecked with gold pyrite. Ground into paint for a thousand years.
The aesthetic
Lapis lazuli is a rock rather than a single mineral, its deep blue coming from lazurite, with white calcite marbling and brassy specks of pyrite mixed through it. The most valued material is an even, saturated blue with a scatter of gold and little visible calcite. Ground and purified, it was the source of ultramarine, for centuries the most expensive pigment available to painters.
The dynamic
Lapis is associated with insight, truthfulness and self-knowledge, and has been used as a stone of rank and of protection since the earliest Mesopotamian burials.
Some variations
- afghan lapis
- chilean lapis
- denim lapis
- lapis with pyrite