As practiced in early modern Europe, painting was closely intertwined with geological pursuits. By 1500, most Italian paintings were created using an oil-based medium in which microscopic fragments of color were suspended in a mixture of linseed oil and other additives. Some pigments were derived from organic matter, principally the particularly intense shade of red that was taken from the desiccated corpses of cochineal bugs, from which it takes its name. However, the vast majority of pigments were produced by manipulating various minerals. Early modern artists obtained some pigments from metals; verdigris, for instance, is derived from copper alloys, which produce a green patina when brought into prolonged contact with acidic compounds. Others, like ultramarine, are made from pulverized stones, in this case lapis lazuli. When considering the geological heritage of painting, we do well to remember that prior to Linnaeus's reorganization of taxonomy both rocks and metals were considered different species under the same category: ‘fossil,’ which encompassed essentially all things that came out of the ground. Indeed, the Latin term fossilis simply means ‘dug out of the ground.’ Pliny, the author of the most important ancient discussion of painting, took seriously the geological origins of painterly materials: his discussion of painting is embedded in a chapter that discusses various kinds of stone, making clear that painting is an epiphenomenon of stone. This is a point that pre-modern artists rarely forgot, and recovering the linkage between painting and the sediments of geology changes our perspective on early modern art history.