Editing Sienna (section)

==History==
The pigment sienna was known and used in its natural form by the ancient Romans. It was mined near [[Arcidosso]] (formerly under Sienese control, now in the [[province of Grosseto]]) on [[Monte Amiata]] in southern [[Tuscany]]. It was called ''terra rossa'' (red earth), ''terra gialla'' (yellow earth), or terra di Siena''.''{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

In the [[Middle Ages]] the sienna pigments were used by artists such as [[Duccio|Duccio di Buoninsegna]] and other painters who lived and worked in and around the [[Republic of Siena]].<ref name="Manasse-2006">{{Cite journal |last1=Manasse |first1=Andrea |last2=Mellini |first2=Marcello |date=2006-12-20 |title=Iron (hydr)oxide nanocrystals in raw and burnt sienna pigments |url=https://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/ejm/detail/18/57371/Iron_hydr_oxide_nanocrystals_in_raw_and_burnt_sien?af=crossref |journal=European Journal of Mineralogy |volume=18 |issue=6 |language=en |pages=845–853 |doi=10.1127/0935-1221/2006/0018-0845|bibcode=2006EJMin..18..845M }}</ref> Duccio was painting with earth pigments in the late 13th century until his death in the early 14th century.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

During the [[Renaissance]], [[Giorgio Vasari]] made note of the pigment under the name terra rossa. Along with umber and yellow ochre, sienna became one of the standard browns used by artists from the 16th to 19th centuries, including [[Caravaggio]] (1571–1610) and [[Rembrandt]] (1606–1669), who used all three earth colors in his palette.<ref name="Burnet-1880">John Burnet (1880), A Treatise on Painting in Four Parts, (Google Books)</ref><ref name="Bomfeld-1988">David Bomfeld, Christopher Brown, Ashok Roy, (1988) I ''Rembrandt – Art in the Making''. Yale University Press, ({{ISBN|978-0-300-06145-1}}).</ref> Cross sections of Rembrandt's works, analyzed by X-Ray and infrared lenses, reveal that he used variations of sienna to prime his paintings. This was especially true for some of his later works.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Plesters |first=Joyce |date=1956 |title=Cross-Sections and Chemical Analysis of Paint Samples |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1505000 |journal=Studies in Conservation |volume=2 |issue=3 |pages=122–125 |doi=10.2307/1505000 |jstor=1505000 |archive-date=2022-11-17 |access-date=2025-01-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221117165015/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1505000 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although these artists are known to have used sienna and its variations in their works, scholars have pointed out that the pigment was not commonly referenced by name in European sources until the mid-eighteenth century.<ref name="Helwig-2007" />{{Rp|page=52}}

By the 1940s, the traditional Italian sources of the pigment were nearly exhausted. Much of today's sienna production is carried out in the [[Insular Italy|Italian islands]] of [[Sardinia]] and [[Sicily]], while other major deposits are found in the [[Appalachian Mountains]], where it is often found alongside the region's iron deposits. It is also still produced in the French Ardennes in the small town of Bonne Fontaine near Ecordal.<ref name="Roelofs-2012">{{cite book
|last= Roelofs
|first= Isabelle
|title= La couleur expliquée aux artistes
|year= 2012
|publisher= Groupe Eyrolles
|isbn= 978-2-212-134865}} p. 30</ref> It is important to note that the chemical composition of the umbers produced in France are distinctly different from the original siennas.{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}

In the 20th century, pigments began to be produced using synthetic iron oxide rather than natural deposits. The labels on paint tubes indicate whether they contain natural or synthetic ingredients. PY-43 indicates natural raw sienna, while PR-102 indicates natural burnt sienna.

<gallery>
File:Giorgio Vasari - The battle of Marciano in Val di Chiana - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Giorgio Vasari]] (1511–1574) used earth colors, including ochre and sienna, in his frescos such this in the Hall of the Five Hundred at the [[Palazzo Vecchio]] in Florence.<ref>Web exhibits, Pigments through the Ages.</ref> In his writings Vasari referred to sienna as ''terra rossa''.<ref>Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects. (Google Books).</ref>
File:Rembrandt Self-portrait (Kenwood).jpg|[[Rembrandt]] van Rijn used all the earth pigments (sienna, ochre, and umber) to create his rich and complex browns.<ref name="Burnet-1880"/><ref name="Bomfeld-1988"/>
</gallery>