Page "Pigment" Paragraph 32

Before the Industrial Revolution, many pigments were known by the location where they were produced.

Pigments based on minerals and clays often bore the name of the city or region where they were mined.

Raw Sienna and Burnt Sienna came from Siena, Italy, while Raw Umber and Burnt Umber came from Umbria.

These pigments were among the easiest to synthesize, and chemists created modern colors based on the originals that were more consistent than colors mined from the original ore bodies.

But the place names remained.