Raw & Burnt Umber Pigment

Umber, known in Italian a terra d’ombra, is a natural earth pigment composed of iron (oxy)hydroxides and manganese oxides. It is the manganese content (7-20%) that distinguishes umber from ordinary ochres and siennas, giving it a cooler, greenish-brown tone and, crucially, the ability to accelerate the drying of oil paints.

The name derives from Latin umbra (shadow), describing the pigment’s primary function in painting: making shadows. Pliny the Elder mentions earths used by painters specifically for shadows (sil quo utuntur ad picturae umbras, Naturalis Historia, 33.56), sourcing them from the regions of Achaia, Skyros, and Lydia in the eastern Mediterranean. The principal historical source of umber was the island of Cyprus, where it was mined from iron-manganese deposits and exported across Europe. Imported into Italy through Venice, it was sold as sombra di Venezia (Venetian umber); after the Ottoman conquest of Cyprus in 1571, it became known in English as “Turkey umber.” Lomazzo also calls it falzalo. A secondary Italian source near Monte Amiata in southern Tuscany was discovered in the 18th century.

Vasari, in his Vite (Life of Agnolo Gaddi), explicitly notes that Cennini did not know terra d’ombra, listing it among pigments discovered after his time: “Si sono similmente ritrovate poi la terra d’ombra, che è di cava.” The phrase di cava (from a mine) is telling: this was not just any brown earth gathered from the ground, but a specific mined mineral, recognized as superior to ordinary brown earths. Manganese-rich brown earths certainly existed earlier and were likely used under other names or simply as darker varieties of ochre, but the deliberate identification and naming of terra d’ombra as a distinct pigment coincides with the rise of oil painting in the late 15th and early 16th century. Its unique siccative properties, which are due to the manganese dioxide acting as a natural drying catalyst, became practically important only in an oil medium. By the mid-16th century umber was firmly established in the painter’s toolkit: Vasari, Lomazzo, Armenini, and Borghini all describe it, and Ferrante Imperato (1599) gives a vivid physical description of the material: “di color affumato, di sostanza leggiera, sottilissima” (smoky in color, light in substance, very fine-grained).

In painting practice, umber served above all as the shadow color. Lomazzo prescribes it for flesh shadows, mixed with burnt green earth, terra di campana, asphaltum, and mummy, and declares: “le terre d’ombra sono amiche di tutti” (umbers are friends of all colors). The Paduan Manuscript codifies the rule most clearly: “All light colours, except white, are shaded with umber.” Beyond flesh, umber was used for hair, bark, stone, wood, drapery shadows, dark greens (mixed with verdigris and indigo), and as a glazing color mixed with lake for transparent shadows (Merrifield).

Its siccative properties also gave it a role as a processing aid: the Brussels Manuscript and Volpato both describe boiling umber with nut oil and minium to produce drying oil. Borghini describes its use in gilding mordants with giallorino, minium, and calcined vitriol. As a ground layer, opinions divided: Armenini recommended umber for imprimitura (priming) with white lead and verdigris, while the Brussels Manuscript warned that “umber is of no use in the primings, for it absorbs the colours which are laid on it.” Both positions reflect umber’s high oil absorption: the same property that makes it dry fast also makes it a hungry ground.

Burnt umber (terra d’ombra bruciata) is produced by calcining raw umber, converting hydrated iron oxides to anhydrous forms and shifting the color from cool greenish-brown to a warm reddish-brown. Volpato describes the process: earths are placed over a slow fire and gradually brought to vehement heat until thoroughly roasted. The Paduan Manuscript lists burnt umber among colori per miniare (colors for miniature painting).

Umber reached its maximum importance in the Baroque period, where it was essential to the chiaroscuro technique. It was employed by Titian, Caravaggio, Rubens, Velazquez, Rembrandt, and Vermeer, among many others. Its popularity declined with the Impressionists, who rejected premixed browns in favor of optical color mixing from synthetic pigments. In the 20th century, natural umber began to be replaced by synthetic iron-manganese oxide pigments (Mars colors), though natural umber from Cyprus and other sources remains available for historical reconstruction and specialist use.

Usage Timeline:

Key Properties: