A painted swatch of Vermilion:
Brief description of Vermilion:
An orangish red pigment with excellent hiding power and good permanence. It's a mercury sulfide used from antiquity through to the present. Now used only scarcely due to its toxicity. It was the principle red in painting until the manufacture of its synthetic equivalent, cadmium red.
Names for Vermilion:
| Pronounciation: | vir • mill • eon | ||||||
| Word origin: | The name "Vermilion" comes from Latin vermiculus = small worm, cochineal (which yields a red dye), from vermis = worm. | ||||||
| Non-English names: |
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| Color Index (C.I.) | PR 106 | ||||||
| Chemical name: | mercuric sulfide |
Source of Vermilion:
Natural minerals:
The main source of cinnabar is Almaden, Spain but deposits can also be found across Europe,China, Japan, California, Mexico and Peru.
Mineral cinnabar (at Mineralogy Database).
Sections: