Raw sienna
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Description
A dark yellow iron oxide pigment. Raw sienna is a natural earth mixture that contains at least 50% hydrated ferric oxide (goethite) mixed with alumina, clay, and some manganese dioxide. Raw sienna is a semi-opaque, permanent pigment. It was named for the south Italian city of Siena that produced fine grades of the pigment and was originally called Italian earth.
Synonyms and Related Terms
Pigment Yellow 43; CI 77492; Italian earth; terre de Sienne (Fr.); terra di Siena (It.); Sienaerde (Deut.); siena natural (Esp.); siena natural (Port.)
Physical and Chemical Properties
- Color = mid valued, moderately dull earth yellow
- Density = 3.14 g/ml
- Refractive Index = 1.87-2.17
Additional Images
Raw sienna at 500x
Transmitted light
Raw sienna at 500x
Polarized light
Resources and Citations
- R. J. Gettens, G.L. Stout, Painting Materials, A Short Encyclopaedia, Dover Publications, New York, 1966
- G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 577
- Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)
- Michael McCann, Artist Beware, Watson-Guptill Publications, New York City, 1979
- Dictionary of Building Preservation, Ward Bucher, ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York City, 1996
- Art and Architecture Thesaurus Online, https://www.getty.edu/research/tools/vocabulary/aat/, J. Paul Getty Trust, Los Angeles, 2000
- CHSOS: Spectra (Reflectance, XRF, Raman, FTIR) for Raw sienna
- Colourlex: Raw Sienna gives as Pigment Yellow 43, CI 77492
- Wikipedia: Sienna Accessed May 2026