Natural dyestuffs; history of technology and scientific research

As in many other fields of material research into objects of art and science, the research into the identification of natural dyestuffs and pigments should be carried out in collaboration between historians, art historians and scientists. This contribution aims to emphasize the necessity and possibilities of such a cooperation. In one of the Apocrypha about the life of Christ, Jesus is represented as a dyer’s apprentice. In the absence of his master he put some pieces of cloth in the same dye..