Red, a three lettered word, has a plethora of feelings attached to it, almost always in opposing ways: good and bad, pure and impure, love and anger. Either way it is one of the widely used and historically significant colors used in art. “Did you know that red is the first color that humans perceive, after black and white? It’s the color that babies see first before any other, and the first that those suffering from temporary color blindness after a brain injury start to see again.” I didn’t know until now.
History of the Pigment
Red is the color of blood, it’s the color of fire. The words “blood” and “red” have the same Hebrew origin; “dm”, signifying both. One can observe the similar tension here; the balance of meaning between life and bloodshed, love and war, warmth and destruction.
Probably because of its abundance in nature, in us, animals, soil, clay– basically metal ores, that Stone Age hunters and gatherers ground up Ochre, a clay coloured red by iron oxide to create cave paintings, over 40,000 years ago! The ancient world had red madder lake, artificially-made red lead, and vermilion (natural mineral cinnabar). Artificially-made vermilion was the most prominent red pigment until the manufacture of cadmium red in 1907. “Other early red pigments came from lead tetroxide, used by the Han Dynasty in China (200BC to 200AD), the rubia plant from India, cinnabar and cochineal, which up until recently was used as a red food dye by Smarties chocolate.”
Scientists have found evidence that red was also used as protection in the afterlife, in the Paleolithic era when people buried their dead with red powder to ward off evil forces.
In ancient Egypt, red was the color of life and of victory. During celebrations, Egyptians would paint their bodies with red ochre.
The Evolution of Red
In Catholic churches, altars are decorated in red for the Feast of Pentecost to symbolize the Holy Ghost. Christ’s head is surrounded by a yellow glowing corona: Christ defeats darkness and leads the way to light.
Bright reds came to be used to draw attention to significant portraits painted in the Renaissance period.
Louis XIV in his official portraits wore red shoes as a symbol of authority, to instill the sense that he was chosen by God to rule.
Red as a primary colour
Red is one of the subtractive primary colors. It is the light of the longest wavelengths discernible by the human eye, in the wavelength range of roughly 630–740 nm. The most effective color systems are those that closely match the physical workings of the human eye, since it is ultimately the human eye which experiences the color. The human eye contains a curved array of light-sensing cells shaped like little cones and rods. Colored light is detected by the cone cells.
It’s the working of the cone cells which come in three varieties: red-detecting, green-detecting, and blue-detecting. They are named so because of how they discern the colors of red, green and blue and this way, humans have developed a mechanism that enables us to experience color systems, especially the ones that mix RGB.
Hemleena
Dearest gentle readers,One thing about this author that you might’ve already guessed and rightfully so, is that she’s passionate about art and literature. She handles the position of “Research Head” at Pouls.of.art and is always in the pursuit of research ideas, themes, and the silly in the seriousness.
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