Double Take
15 / 64
Issue— 4
laser light to activate vibrations in molecules or crystalline material on the surface of an object. The scattered light is collected and a vibrational spectrum is produced—a unique fingerprint of that material. Compared with the spectra of known materials, a match can be made, and within minutes, our blue was confirmed to be azurite.
Although this discovery was initially met with a tinge of disappointment, given the historical allure of ultramarine, what we have in the azurite is a high-quality brilliant pigment in an excellent state of preservation after 600 years, a most befitting color for the representation of the heavens for St. Nicholas. Great thanks to Dr. Jens Stenger and Dr. Paul Whitmore at Yale for providing the Raman analysis of the pigment.