The Ancient World
Red is one of the first colors to be used by humans as art or body painting. In an archaeological site in South Africa, ochre colored iron oxide drawings were discovered dating back to between 170,000 to 40,000 years ago.
More intense red, later called vermillion was made in the Neolithic period by drying and crushing tiny insects called Kermes Vermilio by the Romans, hence vermillion red.
A red dye called Kermes was made beginning in the Neolithic Period by drying and then crushing the bodies of the females of a tiny scale insect in the genus Kermes, primarily Kermes vermilio. Kermes is mentioned in the Bible. In the Book of Exodus, God instructs Moses to have the Israelites bring him an offering including cloth "of blue, and purple, and scarlet." The term used for scarlet in the 4th century Latin Vulgate version of the Bible passage is coccumque bis tinctum, meaning "colored twice with coccus." Coccus, from the ancient Greek Kokkos, means a tiny grain, and is the term that was used in ancient times for the Kermes vermilio insect used to make the Kermes dye. This was also the origin of the expression "dyed in the grain."
In ancient Egypt, red was associated with life, health, and victory. Egyptians would color themselves with red ochre during celebrations. Egyptian women used red ochre as a cosmetic to redden cheeks and lips, and also used henna to color their hair and paint their nails. The ancient Egyptians began manufacturing pigments in about 4000 BC. Red ochre was widely as a pigment for wall paintings, particularly as the skin color of men. The Egyptians used the root of the rubia, or madder plant, to make a dye, later known as alizarin, and also used it to color white power to use as a pigment, which became known as madder lake, alizarin or alizarin crimson.
In Ancient China, craftsmen made a red pigment, lead tetroxide, which they called ch-ien tan, by heating lead white pigment. Like the Egyptians, they made a red dye from the madder plant to color silk fabric for gowns, and used pigments colored with madder to make red lacquerware.
Red lead or Lead tetroxide pigment was widely used as the red in Persian and Indian miniature paintings, and in European art, where it was called minium. This is where the term miniatures comes from, not from their size.
In India, the rubia plant has been to make dye since ancient times. It has been used by Indian monks and hermits for centuries to dye their robes.
The early inhabitants of America had their own vivid crimson dye, made from the cochineal, an insect of the same family as the Kermes of Europe and the Middle East, which feeds on the prickly pear cactus plant.
In Ancient Rome, Romans wore togas with red stripes on holidays, and the bride at a wedding wore a red shawl, called a flammeum. Red was used to color statues and the skin of gladiators. Red was also the color associated with army; Roman soldiers wore red tunics, and officers wore a cloak called a paludamentum which, depending upon the quality of the dye, could be crimson, scarlet or purple. In Roman mythology red is associated with the god of war, Mars. The Romans liked bright colors, and many Roman villas were decorated with vivid red murals. The pigment used for many of the murals was called vermilion, and it came from the mineral cinnabar, a common ore of mercury. It was one of the finest reds of ancient times – the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries. The source of cinnabar for the Romans was a group of mines near Almadén, southwest of Madrid, in Spain. Working in the mines was extremely dangerous, since mercury is highly toxic; the miners were slaves or prisoners, and being sent to the cinnabar mines was a virtual death sentence.
In the Middle Ages
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the princes of Europe and the Roman Catholic Church adapted red as a color of majesty and authority.
In Western Europe, Emperor Charlemagne painted his palace red as a very visible symbol of his authority, and wore red shoes at his coronation. Kings, princes and, beginning in 1295, Roman Catholic cardinals began to wear red costumes. When Abbe Suger rebuilt Saint Denis Basilica outside Paris in the early 12th century, he added stained glass windows colored blue cobalt glass and red glass tinted with copper. Together they flooded the basilica with a mystical light. Soon stained glass windows were being added to cathedrals all across France, England and Germany. In Medieval painting red was used to attract attention to the most important figures; both Christ and the Virgin Mary were commonly painted wearing red mantles. Red clothing was a sign of status and wealth. It was worn not only by cardinals and princes, but also by merchants, artisans and townspeople, particularly on holidays or special occasions.
In the Renaissance and Baroque eras
In Venice, Titian was the master of fine reds, particularly vermilion; he used many layers of pigment mixed with a semi-transparent glaze, which let the light pass through, to create a more luminous color.
During the Renaissance trade routes were opened to the New World, to Asia and the Middle East, and new varieties of red pigment and dye were imported into Europe.
There were guilds of dyers who specialized in red in Venice and other large Europeans cities. The Rubia plant was used to make the most common dye; it produced an orange-red or brick red color used to dye the clothes of merchants and artisans. For the wealthy, the dye used was Kermes. For those with even more money there was Polish Cochineal; also known as Kermes vermilio or "Blood of Saint John". It made a more vivid red than ordinary Kermes. The finest and most expensive variety of red made from insects was the Kermes of Armenia. The pigment and dye merchants of Venice imported and sold all of these products and also manufactured their own color, called Venetian red, which was considered the most expensive and finest red in Europe. Its secret ingredient was arsenic, which brightened the color.
But early in the 16th century, a brilliant new red appeared in Europe. When the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés and his soldiers conquered the Aztec Empire in 1519-1521, they discovered slowly that the Aztecs had another treasure beside silver and gold; they had the tiny cochineal, a parasitic scale insect which lived on cactus plants, which, when dried and crushed, made a magnificent red. The cochineal in Mexico was closely related to the Kermes varieties of Europe, but unlike European Kermes, it could be harvested several times a year, and it was ten times stronger than the Kermes of Poland. It worked particularly well on silk, satin and other luxury textiles. In 1523 Cortes sent the first shipment to Spain. Soon cochineal began to arrive in European ports aboard convoys of Spanish galleons. At first the guilds of dyers in Venice and other cities banned cochineal to protect their local products, but the superior quality of cochineal dye made it impossible to resist. By the beginning of the 17th century it was the preferred luxury red for the clothing of cardinals, bankers, courtisans and aristocrats.
In the 18th and 19th centuries
During the French Revolution, Red became a symbol of liberty and personal freedom used by the Jacobins and other more radical parties. Many of them wore a red Phrygian cap, or liberty cap, modeled after the caps worn by freed slaves in Ancient Rome. During the height of the Reign of Terror, women wearing red caps gathered around the guillotine to celebrate each execution. They were called the "Furies of the guillotine". The guillotines used during the Reign of Terror in 1792 and 1793 were painted red, or made of red wood.
In the mid-19th century, red became the color of a new political and social movement, socialism. It became the most common banner of the worker's movement, of the French Revolution of 1848, of the Paris Commune in 1870, and of socialist parties across Europe.
As the Industrial Revolution spread across Europe, chemists and manufacturers sought new red dyes that could be used for large-scale manufacture of textiles. One popular color imported into Europe from Turkey and India in the 18th and early 19th century was Turkey red, known in France as rouge d'Adrinople. Beginning in the 1740s, this bright red color was used to dye or print cotton textiles in England, the Netherlands and France. Turkey red used madder as the colorant, but the process was longer and more complicated, involving multiple soaking of the fabrics in lye, olive oil, sheep's dung, and other ingredients. The fabric was more expensive but resulted in a fine bright and lasting red, similar to carmine, perfectly suited to cotton. The fabric was widely exported from Europe to Africa, the Middle East and America. In 19th century America, it was widely used in making the traditional patchwork quilt.
In 1826, a French chemist discovered the organic compound alizarin, the powerful coloring ingredient of the madder root, the most popular red dye of the time. In 1868, German chemists were able to synthesize alizarin, and to produce it from coal tar. The synthetic red was cheaper and more lasting than the natural dye, and the plantation of madder in Europe and import of cochineal from Latin America soon almost completely ceased.
COUNTRIES
China:
- associated with courage, loyalty, honor, success, fortune, fertility, happiness, passion, summer
- brides traditionally wear red dresses
- red paper is frequently used to wrap gifts of money or other objects
- obituaries are traditionally written in red ink, and to write someone's name in red signals either cutting them out of one's life, or that they have died.
- commonly used for the walls, pillars, and gates of temples because it is believed to have the power to resist evil
Japan:
- traditional color for a heroic figure
India:
- traditional color of bridal dresses
- symbolic color for married women; brides traditionally wear a red sari, called the sari of blood, offered by their father, signifying that his duties as a father are transferred to the new husband, and as a symbol of his wish for her to have children. Once married, the bride will wear a sari with a red border, changing it to a white sari if her husband dies. In Pakistan and India, brides traditionally also have their hands and feet painted red with henna by the family of their new spouse, to bring happiness and signify their new status
- associated with purity, wealth, beauty, and the goddess Lakshmi
Central Africa:
- Ndembu warriors rub themselves with red paint during celebrations. Since their culture sees the color as a symbol of life and health, sick people are also painted with it. Like most Central African cultures, the Ndembu see red as ambivalent, better than black but not as good as white.
- In other parts of Africa, red is a color of mourning, representing death.
- Because red bears are associated with death in many parts of Africa, the Red Cross has changed its colors to green and white in parts of the continent.
FAITH
Christianity:
- associated with the blood of Christ and the sacrifice of martyrs
- In the Roman Catholic Church it is also associated with Pentecost and the Holy Spirit. Since 1295, it is the color worn by Cardinals, the senior clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. Legend has it, that cardinals started wearing red in when Pope Innocent IV bestowed the famed red hat upon the cardinals.
- It is the liturgical color for the feasts of martyrs, representing the blood of those who suffered death for their faith. Because of its association with martyrdom and the Spirit, it is also the color used to commemorate the Apostles (except for the Apostle St. John, who was not martyred, where white is used).
- In the Old Testament of the Bible, the Book of Isaiah said: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." In the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation, the Antichrist appears as a red monster, ridden by a woman dressed in scarlet
Buddhism:
- one of the five colors which are said to have emanated from the Buddha when he attained enlightenment
- associated achievement, wisdom, virtue, fortune and dignity
- believed to have the power to resist evil
Shintoism:
- the gateways of temples, called torii, are traditionally painted vermilion red and black. The torii symbolizes the passage from the profane world to a sacred place
- bridges in the gardens of Japanese temples are also painted red (and usually only temple bridges are red, not bridges in ordinary gardens), since they are also passages to sacred places
- considered a color which could expel evil and disease
IDIOMS
Many idiomatic expressions exploit the various connotations of red:
Expressing emotion
- "to see red" (to be angry or aggressive)
- "to have red ears / a red face" (to be embarrassed)
- "to paint the town red" (to have an enjoyable evening, usually with a generous amount of eating, drinking, dancing)
Giving warning
- "to raise a red flag" (to signal that something is problematic)
- "to be in the red" (to be losing money, from the accounting habit of writing deficits and losses in red ink)
Calling attention
- "a red letter day" (a special or important event, from the medieval custom of printing the dates of saints' days and holy days in red ink.)
- "to lay out the red carpet" or "give red-carpet treatment" (to treat someone royally as a very special person)
- "to catch someone red-handed" (in the act of doing something wrong, such with blood on his hands after a murder or poaching game)
Other
- "to tie up in red tape". In England red tape was used by lawyers and government officials to identify important documents. It became a term for excessive bureaucratic regulation. It was popularized in the 19th century by the writer Thomas Carlyle, who complained about "red-tapism".
- "red herring." A false clue that leads investigators off the track. Refers to the practice of using a fragrant smoked fish to distract hunting or tracking dogs from the track they are meant to follow.
Trivia
- Red hair occurs naturally on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently (2–6%) in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations.
- Red is the international color of stop signs and stop lights on highways and intersections. It was standarized as the international color at the Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals of 1968.
- It is a common belief in the United States that red cars are stopped for speeding more often than other color cars. However, there is no statistical evidence that this is true. Many police departments have denied it, saying their officers stop drivers for their behavior, not the color of their cars. The one survey that was made on this subject in 1990 by a St. Petersburg, Florida newspaper showed that the number of speeding tickets given to drivers of red cars was about the same as the proportion of red cars on the road in the community
- The cave of Altamira in Spain has a painting of a bison colored with red ochre that dates to between 15,000 and 16,500 BC.
- Seats in opera houses and theaters are traditionally red.
- Red is the single most used color in national flags.
- In 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots, accused of treason against Queen Elizabeth I, wore a red shirt at her execution, to proclaim that she was an innocent martyr.
- In 17th century New England, red was associated with adultery. In the 1850 novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, set in a Puritan New England community, a woman is punished for adultery with ostracism, her sin represented by a red letter 'A' sewn onto her clothes.
- Red is commonly associated with prostitution. Prostitutes in many cities were required to wear red to announce their profession, and houses of prostitution displayed a red light. Beginning in the early 20th century, houses of prostitution were allowed only in certain specified neighborhoods, which became known as red-light districts.
- In Roman Catholicism, red represents wrath, one of the Seven Deadly Sins.
- In both Christian and Hebrew tradition, red is also sometimes associated with murder or guilt, with "having blood on one's hands", or "being caught red-handed”.
- Santa Claus traditionally wears red, because the original Saint Nicholas was a bishop of the Greek Christian church in the 4th century.
- Because red attracts attention, it is frequently used in advertising, though studies show that people are less likely to read something printed in red because they know it is advertising, and because it is more difficult visually to read than black and white text.
- People wearing red seem to be closer than those dressed in other colors, even if they are actually the same distance away
http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/reds2.html
http://www.swide.com
www.wikipedia.com
Congrats to TorstenOK for another FTF!