A closer look
The intense gothic vibe of 18th-century art had a very literal source: grave robbing. For over three hundred years, European artists highly prized a rich, transparent pigment known as 'Mummy Brown.' It was manufactured by violently grinding up stolen ancient Egyptian mummies—both human and feline—and mixing the dust with white pitch and myrrh. The practice only completely stopped in the 1960s when the supply of available mummies completely ran out. You're literally looking at pulverized pharaohs in classic museums.
