Mired Limned Ultramarine

Old Norse mýrr, mire / bog — past-participle of mire. As a color modifier, mired implies the deep-and-stuck-and-warm-brown quality of bog-and-peat-and-marsh-mud-immersion, like a Yorkshire-Moors hiker's boots after a rainy day on the saturated peat. Sits at the deep-and-warm end of the grid, parallel to peat-stained with earthy register.

Old French enluminer, to-illuminate. As a color modifier, limned implies a fine-line-and-illuminated-manuscript quality, the visual register of medieval-illuminated-manuscript hand-painted-and-fine-line illuminated-manuscript-and-margin-decoration limned-and-illuminated surfaces under medieval-illuminated-manuscript scriptorium-light. Sits at the modifier-and-texture end of the grid, parallel to inked and carved in usage.

The pigment ground from lapis lazuli — the Afghan mineral imported through Venice in the late Middle Ages, more expensive by weight than gold during the Renaissance. The color refers to a freshly mixed ultramarine pigment in linseed oil: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the matte finish of micron-ground rock. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal, with the art-historical weight of the blue Vermeer reserved for Mary's robe.