In the 16th and 17th centuries In
Renaissance painting, red was used to draw the attention of the viewer; it was often used as the color of the cloak or costume of
Christ, the
Virgin Mary, or another central figure. 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, usually through
Venice,
Genoa or
Seville, and
Marseille. Venice was the major depot importing and manufacturing pigments for artists and dyers from the end of the 15th century; the catalog of a Venetian
Vendecolori, or pigment seller, from 1534 included vermilion and
kermes. 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, made from a tiny
scale insect which fed on the branches and leaves of the oak tree. For those with even more money there was
Polish Cochineal; also known as
Kermes vermilio or "Blood of Saint John", which was made from a related insect, the
Margodes polonicus. 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 (
Armenian cochineal, also known as Persian
kirmiz), made by collecting and crushing
Porphyophora hamelii, an insect which lived on the roots and stems of certain grasses. 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. In 1826, the French chemist
Pierre-Jean Robiquet 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
Carl Graebe and
Liebermann 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. The 19th century also saw the use of red in art to create specific emotions, not just to imitate nature. It saw the systematic study of color theory, and particularly the study of how complementary colors such as red and green reinforced each other when they were placed next to each other. These studies were avidly followed by artists such as
Vincent van Gogh. Describing his painting,
The Night Cafe, to his brother Theo in 1888, Van Gogh wrote: "I sought to express with red and green the terrible human passions. The hall is blood red and pale yellow, with a green billiard table in the center, and four lamps of lemon yellow, with rays of orange and green. Everywhere it is a battle and antithesis of the most different reds and greens." Bonnet Phrygien.png|A
Phrygian cap, or liberty cap, was worn by the supporters of the
French Revolution of 1789. Les furies de guillotine.jpg|During the
Reign of Terror during the later French Revolution, the "Furies of the Guillotine" cheered on each execution. Horace Vernet-Barricade rue Soufflot.jpg|Red flag over a barricade on Rue Soufflot in Paris during the
French Revolution of 1848. Vincent Willem van Gogh 076.jpg|
The Night Café (1888), by
Vincent van Gogh, used red and green to express what Van Gogh called "the terrible human passions."
In the 20th and 21st centuries In the 20th century, red was the color of Revolution; it was the color of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and of the
Chinese Communist Revolution, and later of the
Cultural Revolution. Red was the color of
communist parties from Eastern Europe to
Cuba to
Vietnam. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the German chemical industry invented two new synthetic red pigments:
cadmium red, which was the color of natural vermilion, and mars red, which was a synthetic red ochre, the color of the very first natural red pigment. The French painter
Henri Matisse (1869–1954) was one of the first prominent painters to use the new cadmium red. He even tried, without success, to persuade the older and more traditional
Renoir, his neighbor in the south of France, to switch from vermilion to cadmium red. Matisse was also one of the first 20th-century artists to make color the central element of the painting, chosen to evoke emotions. "A certain blue penetrates your soul", he wrote. "A certain red affects your blood pressure." Rothko also began using the new synthetic pigments, but not always with happy results. In 1962 he donated to Harvard University a series of large murals of the Passion of Christ whose predominant colors were dark pink and deep crimson. He mixed mostly traditional colors to make the pink and crimson; synthetic ultramarine, cerulean blue, and titanium white, but he also used two new organic reds, Naphtol and Lithol. The Naphtol did well, but the Lithol slowly changed color when exposed to light. Within five years the deep pinks and reds had begun to turn light blue, and by 1979 the paintings were ruined and had to be taken down. Bathing of a Red Horse (Petrov-Vodkin).jpg|
Bathing of a Red Horse, by the Russian symbolist painter
Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin (1912), used a bright red horse to surprise and shock viewers. It provoked a furious discussion among Russian critics. == See also ==