Nicosia Green Earth is a deep green transparent oil color, remarkable for its undertones. It is manufactured from natural minerals sourced from Cyprus.
Natural green earths, such as Nicosia green, are transparent and are absolutely permanent in oil. Most oil colors labeled "green earth" from artists' paint manufacturers do not contain the natural mineral but a mixture of synthetic chromium oxide green and sometimes barium sulfate with either natural yellow ocher or yellow iron oxide. Rublev Colours Nicosia Green Earth contains only the mineral from Cyprus and linseed oil.
Green earth was used in verdaccio—a style of underpainting that uses green-grey colors to establish values for later layers of paint. Verdaccio is renowned for being particularly effective when painting flesh tones. It was popular amongst Italian Renaissance artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, who used verdaccio underpainting in his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa.
Composition and Permanence| Nicosia Green Earth | |
| Color: | Green |
| Binder: | Linseed oil |
| Additive(s): | None |
| Pigment Information | |
| Pigment: | |
| Pigment Classification: | Natural inorganic |
| Colour Index: | Pigment Green 23 (77009) |
| Chemical Name: | Hydrated Iron Potassium Silicate |
| Chemical Formula: | K(Mg,Fe)(Fe,Al)Si4O10(OH)2 |
| CAS No. | — |
| Properties | |
| Code: | 205 |
| Series: | 2 |
| Opacity: | Transparent |
| Tinting Strength: | Low |
| Drying Rate: | Medium |
| Lightfastness: | I |
| Permanence: | A |
| Safety Information: | Based on the toxicological review, there are no acute or known chronic health hazards with the anticipated use of this product. Always protect yourself against potentially unknown chronic hazards of this and other chemical products by avoiding ingestion, excessive skin contact, and inhaling spraying mists, sanding dust, and concentrated vapors. |
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Some separation of pigment and oil may occur in Rublev Colours Artist Oils and is a natural process when no wax or stabilizers are added to paint to prevent this from occurring.
All images of color swatches on this website are only approximations of the actual color of the oil paint. We have carefully matched the color in these pictures on calibrated color monitors to the actual color. However, because of the wide variance in color monitors, the results may vary.
Color Swatch Note: The color swatch was created with a thick application (left side) of color and a tint (right side) made with equal parts of color and titanium white and applied on acrylic primed cotton canvas.
Drawdown Note: The image of the "drawdown" contains a pre-mixed paint film of 6 mils (0.006 inches) thickness applied to a standard test card to examine color consistency, opacity, and other qualities. The drawdowns show the full-color strength (mass tone) on the left and mixed in a 1:2 ratio with titanium white on the right. The bottom area of the drawdowns is scraped to show undertones.
| Color Names | |
| Common Names: | English: green earth French: terre verte German: grüne Masse Italian: terre verde Portuguese: terra verde Russian: зеленаяземля Spanish: tierra verde |