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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，颜色，尤其是深蓝色颜料在那时是一种奢侈品，一种地位的象征，远比黄金贵很多倍。
And you even had the wealthy ordering paintings with ultramarine to show others that they could afford something made from this precious pigment,
而你甚至还订购了这么丰裕的蓝色颜料来向其他人展示他们可以负担得起某个由这种珍贵的颜料制成的东西，
much in the same way they would order gold leaf.
这就和他们订购黄金叶是一样的。
Actually, the ancient Egyptians did manage to make an artificial blue, the first synthetic pigment in fact, if you can believe that.
事实上，古埃及人确实设法制作出了一种人工的蓝色，如果你能相信的话，实际上那是首批人造颜料。
They passed the formula on to the Greeks and Romans, but then it was lost.
他们把配方传给了希腊人和罗马人，但是后来失传了。
Anyway, not only was lapis lazuli hard to get, it was also hard to process.
天青石不仅很难获得，也很难加工。
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,
配方很难，必须细致地研磨石头，就岩石来说，这可不容易，然后要把它和融化的蜡、树脂和油混合起来，
wrapped in a cloth and knitted like bread dough.
包在一块布里，然后像揉面团一样揉搓。
The fine particles of ultramarine were then separated from the rest.
接着精美的深蓝色颗粒会被从剩下的部分分离。
The process was time-consuming, which also contributed to the high cost of producing ultramarine, and it didn’t even yield much usable pigment.
这个过程很耗时，这也是制造深蓝色费用高昂的原因之一，而且这个过程甚至产不出多少可用的颜料。
As a result, the French government sponsored a competition in 1824 to find a cheaper way to make ultramarine pigment.
结果，法国政府1824年赞助了一个比赛寻找比较便宜的方法制作深蓝色颜料。
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，有人演示了一个加工方法，通过加热煤、硫磺和其他便宜常见的物质的混合物，
creating a suitable synthetic substitute for lapis lazuli.
一种合适的天青石人造替代物产生了。
So there’s no doubt that 19th-century artists, after good synthetic versions were available, used more ultramarine.
所以，毫无疑问，在优质的人造版本出现后，19世纪的画家使用的深蓝色变多了。
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，你们可以想想印象派画家，他们比他们不久之前的画家拥有更多选择，至少不那么昂贵的选择。
