Tag Archives: Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Color Redux

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A run down of great links on color, what it is and how we see it as well as how other species perceive it, how our perception has changed historically, and what we could see in the future:

  • Secondly, two articles that borrow heavily from the Radiolab episode but goes on to address how naming colors impacts our ability to see them in more detail: here and here.
  • Thirdly, a TED Talk by an artist who has never seen color but, thanks to a device he has created, can now hear it: here.

And I’ll throw in some of my own posts to round things off:

RGB Colorspace Atlas by Tara Auerbach and Mantis Shrimp
http://artsravel.blogspot.com/2012/07/rgb-colorspace-atlas-and-mantis-shrimp.html
Making Color: about Victoria Finlay’s history of color
http://artsravel.blogspot.com/2011/12/color.html
Celadon Talking Jars
http://artsravel.blogspot.com/2011/12/celadon-talking-jars.html
Black’s historical uses
http://artsravel.blogspot.com/2011/12/back-to-black.html
based on ARTNews’s article
http://www.artnews.com/2011/11/24/the-color-that-wasn%E2%80%99t-a-color/
The making of red, orange, and yellow
http://artsravel.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-orange-yellow.html

Celadon Talking Jars

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Celadon green was not always the shade of green we now consider celadon, but it was said to possess magical properties. China had an early monopoly on celadon ceramics, which were a popular export in part because celadon was thought to have secret, magical powers. Colors from natural dyes and pigments were often associated with magic. People in central Asia believed that celadon acted as an antidote to poison, and that these dishes would protect against poisoned food and drink.

The people of Southeast Asia believed that the Chinese celadon jars could contain a magical spirit in their clay. Jars were valued most highly if they could produce a clear ringing sound when struck. This was the jar’s ability to talk.

“…on the island of Luzon in the Phillipines, there were famous talking jars with their own names and characters. The most famous was called Magsawi and was believed to go off on long journeys on its own, particularly to see its girlfriend, a female talking jar on the island of Ilocos Norte. Legend had it that they had a baby together: a little talking jar, or perhaps at first a little screaming jar.” –Color: A Natural History of the Palette, p.258 

These large celadon jars were highly prized in South Asia, and the most famous ones like Magsawi became known outside of their tribes. The Philippine folk tale of Magsawi says:

“Though that was many years ago, the jar still lives, and its name is Magsawi. Even now it talks; but some years ago a crack appeared in its side, and since then its language has not been understood by the Tinguian.
Sometimes Magsawi goes on long journeys alone when he visits his wife, a jar in Ilocos Norte, or his child, a small jar in San Quintin; but he always returns to Domayco on the hillside near the cave.”

Read the whole folktale here.

Red, Orange, Yellow

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RED

A new red from the new world once took Europe by storm, as countries vied to find the secret to this mysetrious dye from the Spanish colonies. They did not guess for a long time that it came from cochineals, little white bugs on pirckly pear cacti. These charming little bugs still color nearly everything consumable and red: lipstick, Cherry Coke, etc. Yum.

ORANGE

Orange madder are long roots that burrow deep in the ground, so much so that in Holland there were laws forcing farms to pull up their madder every few years lest it burrow into the dyke. The mysterious ingredient that created the beautfiul orange varnish of Stradavarious violins has long excited speculation.

Not purple, but YELLOW

Fields of purple crocuses create saffron, an expensive golden yellow, first produced by drying the crimson red stamen of the perennial autumn crocus flower. Now most saffron grows in Iran, but once a small, punny town in England grew saffron in the Middle Ages: Saffron Walden. Their coat-of-arms features a crocus… walled in.

All these fun facts come from Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay. One more fun fact: Minium, which was the name for white lead heated turns until it turned “minium” red, was a popular color with Persian, Ottoman, and Indian artists in Medieval times. Their work then became known as “miniatures,” which only more recently referenced size.