Colour in our lives has evolved and changed yet it still remains to be an integral part of society. There has always been a big demand for colour throughout history and the stakes have been high. 02. COLOUR JOURNEYS
Trade wars, secret recipes and gruelling processes under cloak and dagger have increased desire for the latest colour invention.
From as early as the Byzantine period, demand for particular colours has changed depending on what is themost expensive colour on the market at the time in question. Julius Caesar banned anyone other than royalty fromwearing the infamous Tyrian purple. Rulers have continually restricted the use of certain colours, although the working class could not afford anything other than the cheapest. Prized pigments and exotic dyes symbolised wealth and power, King Richard I in 1197 imposed a sumptuary law limiting the lower classes to wearing dull clothing, while nobility adorned their homes in sumptuous hues and swanned around in premium coloured clothing, the equivalent of wearing Channel couture today. Popularity of colours was a result of valuable dyes and natural pigments of the time. The dress of the Virgin
Mary has been portrayed in different colours depending on themost expensive colour available at the time. Mary has been portrayed wearing purple, red and finally ultramarine, the same blue that is now the colour usually associated with one of the most precious religious figures of the Christian faith. and occasionally the root cause of unscrupulous actions. The best red dye was produced by the Aztecs, Incas and Maya using a cochineal insect, (originally documented as beries ), that was dried, crushed and mixed with an alum. It took 150,000 Colour production has been a highly valuedmoney making industry insects tomake one kilogramof dye and so coloured cloth, wall hangings and floor coverings were the preserve of the very wealthy. Spanish Conquistadors were so impressed by the Aztecs’ vibrant red that after acquiring the formula they produced
huge quantities of the dye and at the end of the sixteenth century, exported up to 160 tons a year making it one of themost profititable trades of its time. Any foreigners caught smuggling the cochineal insects from the Spanish Colonies faced the death penalty. The death penalty was also imposed by the French In 1609 against anyone using indigo. In Britain, Woad growers opposed to the import of Indigo, (seeing it as a threat to the home grown blue) petitioned to have indigo classified as poisonous. They succeeded even though it wasn’t. Renaissance artists were limited to certain colours because of the availability or stability of pigments. Hundreds of years later Van Gogh reputedly said ‘ A painter had better start from the colours on his palette than from the colours in nature.’ (Ball 2008).
For technical reasons the colours shown will not exactly match the paint colour and do not represent a particular texture or finish.
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