van Eyck, Portrait of a Man, 1433
“Red,” writes historian Michel Pastoureau in Red: The
History of a Color, “is the archetypal color, the first color humans mastered,
fabricated, reproduced, and broke down into different shades.” As such, it
dominated visual culture for centuries. With the advent of the Protestant
Reformation, however, people began to view the shade as gaudy, even immoral,
and its preeminence began to fade. Today, both blue and green surpass red as
the West’s favorite colors.
But the bold hue—whether crimson, vermilion, cardinal, or
scarlet—still retains power. Red artworks fetch the highest prices at auction.
Red is the color of revolution, of seduction. And its story is far from over.
The scientists who last year announced the discovery of a new blue pigment are
now hunting for a never-before-seen red. From some of humanity’s earliest cave
paintings to Mark Rothko’s immersive abstract canvases, here is a brief
history of red in art.
Blue ... HERE.
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