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| Matisse, Woman with purple robe, 1937 |
Talking about purple might be troublesome: what color are we exactly
referring to? If you are German, it’d be a red violet or carmine; if you are
Japanese, purple would be a light blue violet; if you are Italian, you’d think
in a dark red; and if you are American or English, it’d remind you of
amethysts… why does this happen?
Giving a name to this color depends on several factors, and most of
them are cultural issues, involving traditions.[1]
To some extent, how we remarked in our last post, it’s due violet’s
ambigueties. But in purple’s case, we have to add the fact that it’s not
present in the spectrum of light waves (for example, it doesn’t show in
rainbows). It’s only a result of mixed red and blue waves in a definite angle
of incidence, which makes it a highly unstable color, and that’s reflect in our
perception of it. In order to understand it better, take a look at some
bougainvillea flowers during different times of the day and you’ll see these
variations by yourself.
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| Rothko, Purple, black, orange, yellow on white and black, 1949 |
On the other hand, it’s also due to dying process we have already mentioned. A sea snail gland was used, after letting it ferment so it would
give out more mucus. This liquid was boiled with water until getting a yellow
dense extract (10 dl of it plus 100 l of water results in 5 l of dye). Clothes
were dyed with this substance, and dried under the sun. In the meantime, the
dye would turn first green, then red, and finally, violet. Depending on the
species of the snail, the resulting color could be a red violet or a dark
purple (This is why, purple can be closer to red than violet)
This technique was the usual in the Mediterranean, but it was similar
done in America and Asia, using not only snails, but also insects or plants.
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| Emperor Justinian, San Vitale Church, Ravenna (mosaic) |
Diocletian in 300 BC, took the masters to Constantinople and obtained a
great monopoly. In Byzantium, only the Emperor and Empress were allowed to wear
this color (Take a look at the mosaic of Ravenna: it’s a dark violet, called
“Tyrian Purple”). When the Turks invaded Constantinople in 1453, the dying
ateliers disappeared and their secrets with them. That’s when the dye taken
from the insect kermes started to be used, which gives out a carmine or scarlet,
despite being a more expensive process.
In 1908 Friedländer, discovered that in terms of Chemistry, it was
quite similar to the pigment taken from the flower indigo, which led to lab
synthesizing, making it a much more affordable product. And with kermes, purple
stopped being violet in several cultures.
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| Raffael, Pope Leon X with cardinal Medici and de Rossi 1518 |
This is how purple (like violet: check out our past post) was always related to authority and power, and
since the day is resistant, also related to ethernity and spiritualism. The
Catholic Bishops and Archbishops wear violet zucchettos, while cardinals wear
purple. Facing the lack of original purple, pope Paul II (1464) ordered the use
of indigo for violet and kermes for purple. Since kermes gives a dark red
pigment, cardinals don’t wear purple anymore nowadays.
Welsch,N.-Liebmann, C.Chr. Farben. München, Elsevier V.2004;
Heller, E. Wie Farben
auf Gefühl und Verstand wirken. München, Droemer V., 2000;
Gage, J. Color and
Meaning. Los Ángeles, University California Press, 1999;
personal notes.
[1] In the
future, we’ll talk more about color names. Some are weird, really weird…
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