Macedonian Phalanx Illustration

[Tarbicus]

So you do support the idea that blue represents iron in these paintings?

I'm coming to that opinion, I must admit, and maybe I was too definite in that last post. But I can see the case for both painted and reflection. Why would a bucket be painted blue in real life? Maybe to protect it from rust, and there was a very cheap blue paint?

What concerns me is whether the artists would be conscious of the blue reflection given to iron when painting a depiction. Why not just grey which we see even today so many times when armour is illustrated? They had the black and the white pigments to mix. I don't know enough about ancient Greek practices in art to say yes or no, to be honest.