Ancient world Scarlet has been a color of power, wealth, and luxury since ancient times. Scarlet dyes were first mentioned in the 8th century BC under the name
Armenian Red, and they were described in Persian and Assyrian writings. The color was exported from Persia to Rome. During the
Roman Empire, it was second in prestige only to the purple worn by the emperors. Roman officers wore scarlet cloaks called
paludamenta, and persons of high rank were referred to as the
coccinati ('people of red'). The color is also mentioned several times in the
Hebrew Bible and the
Christian Bible's
Old and
New Testaments. In the
Latin Vulgate version of the
book of Isaiah (1:18) it says, "If your sins be as scarlet (
si fuerint peccata vestra ut coccinum) they shall be made white as snow", and the
Christian book of Revelation (17:1-6) describes a "Great Harlot" (
meretricius magnus) dressed in scarlet and purple (
circumdata purpura et coccino) and riding a scarlet beast (
besteam coccineam). The Latin term for scarlet used in the Hebrew Bible comes from
coccus ('tiny grain'). The finest scarlets in ancient times were made from a tiny
scale insect (called a
kermes), which fed on specific oak trees in Turkey, Persia, Armenia, and parts of the Middle East. The insects contained a very strong natural dye (also called "kermes"), which produced the scarlet color. The insects were so small they were historically thought to be a kind of grain. This was the origin of the expression "dyed in the grain."
Middle Ages and Renaissance The
early Christian church adopted many of the symbols of the
Roman Empire, including the importance of the color scarlet. The flag of the
Crusades was a scarlet cross on a white background, symbolizing blood and sacrifice. By a Roman Catholic edict in 1295, Cardinals of the church, second in authority to the
Pope, wore red robes, albeit a red closer in color to the purple of the
Byzantine Emperors—a color coming from the
murex, a type of mollusk. After the
Fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, however, the imperial purple was no longer available, and Cardinals began instead to wear scarlet made from kermeses. During the
Middle Ages and the
Renaissance, scarlet was the color worn by kings, princes, and the wealthy, partly because of its color and partly because of its high price. The exact shade, which varied widely, was less important than the brilliance and richness of the color. The finest scarlet, called
scarlatto or
Venetian scarlet, came from Venice, where it was made from kermes by a specific guild which closely guarded the formula. Cloths dyed scarlet cost as much as ten times as much as cloth dyed blue. File:Folio 197r - The Pope and His Cardinals - detail.jpg|In the 15th century, Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church wore scarlet robes dyed with kermes. Illustration from
Les Tres Riches Heures du duc de Berry (1412–1416). File:Whore of Babylon (XIV).jpg|In the Middle Ages, scarlet also symbolized sin. The
Whore of Babylon, depicted in a 14th-century French illuminated manuscript riding a scarlet beast. The woman appears attractive, but she is wearing a scarlet undergarment under her blue garment. File:Richard II of England large 02.jpg|Scarlet was the color of royalty. Portrait of
King Richard II of England (1390s). File:Lorenzo il popolano, xv century.jpg|In the Renaissance, scarlet was the color of the Italian nobility. Portrait of a young man by
Sandro Botticelli (1469).
16th to 19th century In
the Assumption by
Titian (1516–1518), the figures of
God, the
Virgin Mary and two
apostles are highlighted by their scarlet costumes, painted with vermilion
pigment from
Venice. The young Queen
Elizabeth I (here in about 1563) liked to wear bright reds, before she adopted the more sober image of the "Virgin Queen". Her satin gown was probably dyed with
kermes. In the 16th century, an even more vivid scarlet began to arrive in
Europe from the
New World. When the
Spanish conquistadores conquered
Mexico, they found that the
Aztecs were making brilliant red shades from another variety of scale insect called
cochineal, similar to the European kermes vermiilo, but producing better shades of red at lower costs. The first shipments were sent from Mexico to
Seville in 1523. The Venetian guilds at first tried to block the use of the cochineal in Europe, but before the century was over, it was being used to make scarlet dye in Spain,
France,
Italy, and
Holland, and almost all the fine scarlet garments of Europe were made with cochineal. File:Tizian 041.jpg| The
Assumption, by
Titian (1516–1518). File:Elizabeth I Steven Van Der Meulen.jpg|The young Queen
Elizabeth I (here in about 1563) File:Aztecheaddress.jpg|Dyed feather headdress from the
Aztec people of Mexico and Central America. For red, they used
cochineal, a brilliant scarlet dye made from insects. File:Indian collecting cochineal.jpg| A native of
Central America collecting cochineal insects from a
cactus to make red dye (1777). File:Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn - Het Joodse bruidje.jpg|Rembrandt used
carmine lake, made of
cochineal, to paint the skirt of the bride in the painting known as "The Jewish bride" (1665–1669). Scarlet was the traditional color of the British nobility in the 17th and 18th centuries. The members of the
House of Lords wore red ceremonial gowns for the opening of Parliament, and today sit on red benches. The
red military uniform was adopted by the English
New Model Army in 1645, and was still worn as a dress uniform until the outbreak of the
First World War in August 1914. Ordinary soldiers wore red coats dyed with
madder, while officers wore scarlet coats dyed with the more expensive
cochineal. This led to British soldiers being known as
red coats. After 1873, all ranks of the regiments wearing red tunics changed to the more vivid shade of scarlet. File:Louis XIV of France.jpg|The scarlet heels of the shoes of King
Louis XIV of France were symbols of his royal status. File:Queen Anne in the House of Lords by Peter Tillemans.jpeg|Scarlet is the traditional color of the British nobility.
Queen Anne addresses the
House of Lords (1708–1714), whose members wear their red ceremonial robes. File:4th Regiment of Horse, 1687.jpg|The uniform of the 4th Regiment of Horse (1687) File:Uniform - Fusilier - Royal Scotch Fusiliers (1742 Cloathing Book).jpg|Uniform of the Royal Scotch Fusiliers (1742) File:Officer and Private, 40th Foot, 1815.jpg|Officer and soldier of the British Army (1815).
20th and 21st century From the 8th century until the early 20th century, the most important scarlet pigment used in Western art was
vermilion, made from the mineral
cinnabar. It was used, along with red lake pigments, by artists from
Botticelli and
Raphael to
Renoir. However, in 1919, commercial production began of an intense new synthetic pigment,
cadmium red, made from
cadmium sulfide and
selenium. The new pigment became the standard red of
Henri Matisse and the other important painters of the 20th century. In the 20th century, scarlet also became associated with revolution. Red flags were first used as revolutionary emblems, symbolizing the blood of martyrs, during the
French Revolution and the Paris uprisings in 1848. Red became the color of
socialism, then
communism, and became the color of the flags of both the
Soviet Union and Communist
China. China still uses a scarlet flag; in Chinese culture, red is also the color of happiness. Since the
fall of the Soviet Union, the
flag of Russia consists of red, blue, and white, the colors of the historic Russian flag from the time of
Peter the Great, which he adapted from the colors of the
flag of the Netherlands. File:PigmentRed108.jpg|In the early 20th century, the vivid synthetic scarlet pigment
cadmium red became the standard red of
Henri Matisse and other Western artists. File:Garde nationale mobile pendant les Journées de Juin.JPG|A French soldier takes down a red flag from the barricades during the Paris uprising of 1848. File:Gravure La Commune de Paris.jpg|A poster from the Paris Commune (1871) File:Kustodiev The Bolshevik.jpg| Red was the color of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The Bolshevik, painting by
Boris Kustodiev (1920). File:Flag of the Soviet Union.svg|The
flag of the Soviet Union (1923–1991). The hammer symbolized workers, the sickle represented peasants, and the red star symbolized the Communist Party. File:Chinese flag (Beijing) - IMG 1104.jpg|In China, scarlet is the color of both communism and happiness. ==In science and nature==