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So, blue, and especially ultramarine pigment, was a luxury, a status symbol, worth even more than gold at times.
所以，顏色，尤其是深藍色顏料在那時是一種奢侈品，一種地位的象征，遠比黃金貴很多倍。
And you even had the wealthy ordering paintings with ultramarine to show others that they could afford something made from this precious pigment,
而你甚至還訂購了這么豐裕的藍色顏料來向其他人展示他們可以負擔得起某個由這種珍貴的顏料制成的東西，
much in the same way they would order gold leaf.
這就和他們訂購黃金葉是一樣的。
Actually, the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue, the first synthetic pigment in fact, if you can believe that.
事實上，古埃及人確實設法制作出了一種人工的藍色，如果你能相信的話，實際上那是首批人造顏料。
They passed the formula on to the Greeks and Romans, but then it was lost.
他們把配方傳給了希臘人和羅馬人，但是后來失傳了。
Anyway, not only was lapis lazuli hard to get, it was also hard to process.
天青石不僅很難獲得，也很難加工。
The recipe was difficult, the stone had to be ground finely, not easy to do with a rock, then mixed with melted wax, resins and oils,
配方很難，必須細致地研磨石頭，就巖石來說，這可不容易，然后要把它和融化的蠟、樹脂和油混合起來，
wrapped in a cloth and knitted like bread dough.
包在一塊布里，然后像揉面團一樣揉搓。
The fine particles of ultramarine were then separated from the rest.
接著精美的深藍色顆粒會被從剩下的部分分離。
The process was time-consuming, which also contributed to the high cost of producing ultramarine, and it didn’t even yield much usable pigment.
這個過程很耗時，這也是制造深藍色費用高昂的原因之一，而且這個過程甚至產不出多少可用的顏料。
As a result, the French government sponsored a competition in 1824 to find a cheaper way to make ultramarine pigment.
結果，法國政府1824年贊助了一個比賽尋找比較便宜的方法制作深藍色顏料。
And soon after, a process was demonstrated where a combination of coal, sulfur and other cheap, commonplace substances were heated,
在那之后不久，有人演示了一個加工方法，通過加熱煤、硫磺和其他便宜常見的物質的混合物，
creating a suitable synthetic substitute for lapis lazuli.
一種合適的天青石人造替代物產生了。
So there’s no doubt that 19th-century artists, after good synthetic versions were available, used more ultramarine.
所以，毫無疑問，在優(yōu)質的人造版本出現后，19世紀的畫家使用的深藍色變多了。
Think of the impressionists, for example, they had a lot more choices or at least, less expensive choices, than painters not that long before them.
比如，你們可以想想印象派畫家，他們比他們不久之前的畫家擁有更多選擇，至少不那么昂貴的選擇。
