Passage:
During the early eighteenth century, European painters relied heavily on lapis lazuli, a costly natural pigment imported exclusively from mines in Badakhshan (modern Afghanistan), to produce vibrant blue hues. Because of its prohibitive cost, lapis lazuli was reserved almost entirely for high-status commissions, limiting the artistic range of lower-budget workshops. In 1706, chemist Johann Jacob Diesbach accidentally synthesized iron ferrocyanide—later named Prussian blue—in a Berlin laboratory using contaminated potash. Prussian blue possessed a tinting strength comparable to lapis lazuli but could be manufactured at a fraction of the cost from widely available industrial byproducts.
Initially, established guilds in major art capitals like Paris and Venice resisted adopting Prussian blue, alleging that synthetic pigments lacked the lightfast longevity of natural minerals. However, textile dyers quickly embraced the synthetic compound due to its solubility in vat-dyeing processes, creating a massive industrial demand that stabilized commercial production. By 1720, as bulk manufacturing drove prices down further, young painters outside the traditional guild system began using Prussian blue extensively in landscape and genre paintings.
Recent quantitative trade analyses reveal that between 1715 and 1735, imports of raw lapis lazuli into Western Europe declined by nearly sixty percent. Scholars originally attributed this drop solely to supply chain disruptions caused by regional conflicts in Central Asia. Yet, accounting records from major merchant houses show that lapis lazuli prices remained stable during this period even as import volumes shrank. This price stability, combined with the rapid adoption of Prussian blue among non-guild artists, suggests that the market contraction for natural lapis lazuli was primarily demand-driven rather than the result of foreign supply shortages.
Based on the passage, evaluate whether the following statement is True or False:
Statement: European merchant houses maintained stable prices for lapis lazuli between 1715 and 1735 primarily because Central Asian supply disruptions restricted the overall availability of the pigment in European markets.
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