An Overview of Traditional Pigments (Part I): White Lead and Red Lead

In the distant past, painters, scribes, dyers, and other artists have always created different forms of art with pigments. The beginning of pigment usage goes back to early human societies. Pigments are important from an aesthetic point of view, highlighting the differentiation of objects and influencing human thoughts and feelings. Moreover, the identification of traditional pigments is essential for conservation, restoration, historical interpretation of artworks, and understanding the evolution of art. Therefore, this research aims to provide comprehensive knowledge of traditional pigments, in which, in this report, two pigments, including white lead and red lead, have been discussed. Actually, in this research, by collecting the studies of other researchers and examining the current knowledge of this field to evaluate and categorize these pigments from the point of view of their structure, applications, degradation, evolution throughout history, production process furthermore the methods of synthesis, identification in different artworks and identification methods have been discussed. Accordingly, this study paves the way for future studies on historical samples composed of these compounds.