This is poison hemlock, or Conium maculatum. Its leaves look a lot like flat-leaf parsley, don’t they? That similarity was unfortunate for one man, a Scottish tailor named Duncan Gow. In 1845 his children made him a sandwich for his… Read More
In his book Il Libro dell’Arte, Cennino Cennini (1370 – 1440) cautions painters against working with the arsenic-based yellow pigment, realgar. “There is no keeping company with it . . . . look out for yourself.”