Christ | part 1

Passion of Christ, female sexuality, blood of war and a symbol of power. What did red mean in the art of different eras

 The first color in human history to be named was red. The Knife tells what this color has symbolized at different times - from rock paintings to contemporary art objects - and which artists have endowed it with new meanings.

 Origin of red

 The first dyes were exactly red. In some languages, for example in Russian, both "paint" and "red" come from the same word - "beauty".

 The fabric, which was specially dyed, made its wearer stand out among people. Changing the natural color of the canvas to bright red was not only difficult, but also very expensive. To get 1 gram of dye, it was necessary to catch, boil and crush tens of thousands of mollusks, and about 200 grams of one ancient Roman toga (about 6 meters of fabric) took! It is logical that in ancient drawings this color was often associated with power and sacred rites, and only rulers could wear red clothes for a long time.

 But images with red pigment began to appear at the same time when people began to paint.

 Rock paintings in the caves of Altamira, Lascaux and Pesch-Merle have preserved the palette of primitive artists: black, brown, red and occasionally yellow.

 Bison in Altamira Cave (12-40 thousand years ago). A source

 If the black pigment is taken from charcoal, and brown and yellow from the ground, then with red everything is much more complicated. To get it, it was necessary to extract hematite crystals from the ground, wash them, filter them, then grind them in a mortar, add feldspar and dilute them with fat. Most likely, the Paleolithic artist saw the sacred meaning in red, because for the sake of him people learned to process minerals into paints.

 Religious plots: blood and passions

 The growing popularity of red in our era is associated with the history of the Church. If in Antiquity only very rich people could afford red (the frescoes of the nouveau riche in Pompeii and the clothes of ancient Roman dandies and emperors were red), then in the Middle Ages this color appeared in every house, regardless of the status of its owners.

 The fact is that at this time, the plots of the crucifixion of Christ multiply, the Passion of the Lord is glorified in Europe, and the cult of the Mother of God appears in Russia.

 In icon painting, red primarily means blood, not only of Christ, but of all Christian martyrs. Only in the Western tradition is the emphasis on scenes of the crucifixion, the bloody process of torture, and on Byzantine (and then on Russian) icons we see red only in Jesus' clothes as a reminder of the blood he shed.

 Savior on the throne. A source

 Icon painters depict the Son of the Lord in different subjects and poses, but the clothes will always be two-colored: the chiton (shirt up to the toes) is red, and the himation (cape) is blue. These colors symbolize human nature, the blood shed for the salvation of people, and the heavenly origin of Christ.

 But red on icons speaks not only of suffering and physical torment. For example, the Old Testament character Elijah the Prophet is traditionally depicted on a red background. But he was never subjected to bodily torture (three-year starvation in the desert does not count) and for his special piety he was sent alive to heaven: "Suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared, and they separated them both, and Elijah rushed in a whirlwind to Heaven."

 A source

 The second meaning of the red color in the icon is connected with this plot - it is strong faith, which gives hope to everyone who turns to God.

 So, in religious scenes, red is associated with natural phenomena. In this context, the connection with fire and blood seems quite obvious: the icon was perceived as the Bible for the illiterate and abstract concepts and complex mysticism were superfluous there.