Redefining memento mori: Using the dead as an ingredient in paint.

This painting by French artist Martin Drölling was completed in 1815 and now calls the Louvre home. It's a lovely domestic scene that holds a macabre secret. The deep brown shade of paint used by Drölling in this painting was called "Mummy Brown",  a pigment that originated in ancient Egypt and was mixed using white pitch, myrrh, and the ground up remains of Egyptian mummies and their mummified pets.

The colour ceased being produced in its traditional form later in the 20th century when the supply of available mummies was exhausted and also because people began to realize that making paint from the  bodies of the departed exploited the dead and another culture’s archaeological riches.

(If it makes you feel better, art historians believe Drolling used the remains of French kings disinterred from the royal abbey of St. Denis in Paris, rather than ancient Egyptian remains.)



Via Strange Remains, a great site I've just discovered.Via Nag on the Lake