The bright blue pigment that is received from lapis lazuli is known as Ultramarine and it was brought to some European countries from Afghanistan. To extract ultramarine blue, the stone is pulverized until it begins to display ultramarine blue.

Two of many pieces of Lapis Lazuli bought in Afghanistan over the last 10 months. by violinsoldier.

It’s worth mentioning that lapis lazuli use as a pigment is not a gift of this modern age, as even in fifth and sixth century AD, some paintings have been found in different Afghan temples in which this pigment is quite prominent. Afghanistan is a country where Lapis Lazuli is mined more than any other country of the world. Similarly, the traces of this pigment can also be seen in ninth and tenth centuries Chinese paintings and some Indian wall paintings of twelfth and thirteenth century also found with this pigment.  In fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Italian painters used the lapis lazuli pigment in their paintings.