Colors in Ancient Egypt

[littlemissmartypants]

Gold (Ancient Egyptian name 'newb') represented the flesh of the gods and was used for anything which was considered eternal or indestructible. (Gold was used on a sarcophagus, for example, because the pharaoh had become a god.) Whilst gold leaf could be used on sculpture, yellow or reddish-yellows were used in paintings for the skin of gods.

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/egyptology/ss/EgyptColour.htm

Color Technology in Ancient Egypt Using Heat
Lead white was further transformed by reaction with antimony oxide, under heat, to form lead antimonite, a pale yellow pigment known today as Naples yellow (for the hue rather than the chemical composition). Heating lead white on its own would produce another form of lead oxide – red lead (known in medieval times as minium).

An Egyptian Legacy
Lead white, minium, Egyptian Blue, and other Ancient Egyptian pigments continued to be used in quantity by artists during the medieval and renaissance eras. Minium was so expensive, that it gave rise to the term miniature – a small painting, made so small because of the cost of the red paint used in painting it. Even today, traditional oil painters use some of the same pigments that were available to Ancient Egyptian artists.

http://africanhistory.about.com/od/hieroglyphs/a/ColorTech_2.htm

White (Ancient Egyptian name 'hedj') was the color of purity, sacredness, cleanliness, and simplicity. Tools, sacred objects, and even priest's sandals were white for this reason. Sacred animals were also depicted as white. Clothing, which was often just undyed linen, was usually depicted as white.

Silver (also known by the name 'hedj', but written with the determinative for precious metal) represented the color of the sun at dawn, and the moon, and stars. Silver was a rarer metal than gold in Ancient Egypt and held a greater value.