A brief history of ultramarine.Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, ca. 1665.Michelangelo couldn’t afford ultramarine. His painting The Entombment, the story goes, was left unfinished as the result of his failure to procure the prized pigment. Rafael reserved ultramarine for his final coat, preferring for his base layers a common azurite; Vermeer was less parsimonious... <a href="Read">http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/06/08/true-blue/">Read More</a> <span class="link">»</span>