Wie hängen sie zusammen

Mary appears in the painting as if wrapped in a blue cloud. Stefan Lochner painted her coat with real ultramarine from lapis lazuli. It is a long way from Afghanistan, where lapis lazuli comes from, to Cologne, where Stefan Lochner had his workshop. No wonder Lochner only painted the main figures with the pigment, which was more expensive than gold. Lochner applied the coarse-grained pigment crumbs very thinly. Underneath is a thick layer of inexpensive azurite.