raw sienna

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Raw sienna

Used from antiquity, sienna is compatible with all other pigments and is often used in mixture with several other pigments.

Manufacturer / product code: Kremer / 17050
Chemical description: iron oxides. brown earth from a site near Grosseto, Italy. Kremer PDF
Color: brown
Color Index: PY 43

The pigment known as raw sienna is one of the most enduring and historically significant colors in the artist’s palette, tracing its origins back to prehistory. As a natural earth pigment, it is a clay that is rich in iron oxide hydroxide (limonite), which grants it a distinct, warm, transparent yellowish-brown hue. Its name is derived from terra di Siena (“Siena earth”), referencing the historic city-state of Siena in Tuscany, Italy, where the finest deposits were traditionally mined. Alongside ochre and umber, sienna belongs to the oldest class of pigments used by humanity, with examples found in Paleolithic cave paintings, showcasing its incredible permanence.

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the use of earth colors flourished, especially in the Italian schools of painting. Artists like Duccio and later masters such as Caravaggio and Rembrandt relied heavily on raw sienna for its superb transparency and utility. Its light-value, brown-gold color made it ideal for creating delicate shadows, modeling forms, and providing rich, luminous underpaintings. Because of its permanence and versatility in both fresco and oil, raw sienna remained a staple brown pigment for everything from landscape foundations to rendering lifelike skin tones and rich drapery, securing its place as a cornerstone color throughout the history of Western art.

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