Color as Symbol

  In reply to a recent blog, Kay Halcrow asked if my paintings were inspired or connected to the burning of Rome. The use of red has long been associated with fire, just as all colors are saturated with cultural meanings.  The meaning of colors varies with culture and context. Red might mean “thoughtful” as in sanguine, or “royal” as in royal blood. It’s one of our oldest words stemming from ancient Sanskrit. Yellow might be the color of cowardice for us but, it was the color of seduction for Cleopatra and, it was the imperial color ( derived from expensive saffron) of Genghis Khan.  Let me give you some other examples. In the first painting by Giovanni Di Paolo, “The Creation of The World and The Expulsion from Paradise”, you see a set of concentric circles. They illustrate a cosmological and iconological map of 15th  century European color.  From antiquity until a few hundred years ago common European knowledge held that the world was composed of four basic elements, Earth, Air, Fire and Water.  During Giovanni’s time in the Renaissance there was a new desire to see a unified and logical universe. Therefore, if there were four elements there had to be four elemental colors which corresponded to the elements. For Leonardo da Vinci, for example, there were four primary colors; green was considered a primary color.  They are all illustrated in Giovanni’s painting.  Blue is the color of air. Everyone believed that infinite space was composed of infinite air. Fire was the color red, of course. Even though a blue flame  is hotter than a red one. We still consider blue as cold and red as hot.  Water was the color green. The final primary color was for Earth, yellow or a yellow-brown. We  had no strong yellow pigment until the 19th century with the invention of chrome yellow. Giovanni’s outermost circle is dark blue with astrological signs. As you get closer to Earth in the center( remember in the 15th century most people thought the Earth was the center of the universe and the sun traveled around it) we pass through paler shades of blue until we reach a circle of red, the sun’s path. Next, on the perimeter of Earth is a band of green and finally, the center of Earth is yellow brown.  You might also have observed the four rivers of  Paradise or Eden flowing away, below Adam and Eve.  I’ll bet you thought those were four snakes. Observe that God’s head and his Angel’s head are both surrounded by a golden yellow, the divine light of Eden, the light that enters the windows in Dutch paintings.  In my last painting example, by Artemenesia Gentileschi  from the first half of the 17th century, we see Danae who has been locked away by her father to prevent Zeus from impregnating her. But Zeus is crafty and assumes the form of falling golden coins.  Danae is white, the color of purity, virginity, chastity but, her bed cover is red, hot and indicating sexual passion and potency.  The yellow and gold are associated with deities, strength and great value (see Giovanni’s painting) .