The colour purple has many associations through history. It is the colour of royalty, of creativity and spirituality. It’s rarity in nature makes it otherworldly, and this has meant it is considered sacred, a province of those who see beyond the ordinary.
The earliest examples of purple in art are prehistoric. Rock paintings have been found using purple made from a mixture of manganese and haematite. But after this period it was many thousands of years before purple emerged again.
In the Phoenician city of Tyre, purple dye was created from the secretions of sea snails. The amount of snails necessary for this was immense – according to Pliny the Elder, 10000 snails would produce 1 gram of dye. As a consequence the species was driven nearly to extinction. It also meant the dye was extremely expensive.
There are legends surrounding the creation of the dye. One legend says Hercules’ dog discovered the colour after picking up a murex snail and then drooling purple. Another legend has Tyre’s patron god Melqart walking on the beach with his mistress, and it was her dog that played with the snail and came back with a purple mouth.
The extreme value of Tyrian purple meant that it soon became the property of emperors and kings, as they were the people who mostly could afford it. Purple came to represent spirituality as an adjunct of royalty – the people wearing purple were supposedly descended from gods. It was the social standing and access to wealth that rulers had which led to purple being the royal colour. In Imperial Rome, for example, purple was for the imperial family and those of high rank. Laws were passed to enforce this – penalties could vary from fines through to executions depending on which emperor was in charge at the time. The Christian church and other faith leaders were also adopters of purple – after all, they were spiritual rulers and seen as being worthy to wear the purple by the favour of God (or whichever god they served.)
In China there was a different way to make purple – from a plant called a purple gromwell. This dye, however, did not adhere well to fabric. So while it was easier to make, it still was expensive and reserved for rulers.
The saying ‘born in the purple’ or ‘born to the purple’ is believed to have originated in the Byzantine empire. The idea was that to be a proper member of royalty you had to be born while your father was the ruler. So a child born before their father became king or emperor was in theory not destined for rule. ‘Porphyrogeniture’ became a system where a son born after the father became king could inherit ahead of an older brother born beforehand. This idea persevered in subsequent ages and other societies.
Laws governing the wearing of purple (and garments in general) were not uncommon in later times. In England, for example, ‘sumptuary’ laws (which governed what people were allowed to wear depending on their status) also reserved the wearing of purple for the royal family and close relatives. For example, in 1547 the Earl of Surrey was tried for treason against Henry VIII. One of the charges against him was that he was seen wearing purple.
As Tyrian purple became more rare, eventually other dyes such as kermes (made from insects), madder (from plants) and woad (also from plants) produced red, blue and violet that could be combined to approximate the same colour. Pre-Raphaelite artists, who aimed to hark back to an earlier time, used a mixture of madder and cobalt blue to create purple. The colour was not created synthetically until 1856.
Purple has been used as a symbolic representation of many things. Its connection to wealth and status has made it a powerful colour. More recently it has been associated with many social movements, probably because of its association with power. Some examples of this would be the woman’s suffrage movement at the start of the 20th century and then later the women’s liberation movement. It is also used by LGBTQ+, Lupus and other autoimmune disease awareness campaigns, and domestic violence campaigns.
It has been seen as ambiguous colour as it is a mixture of two primary colours, red and blue. The Christian church sees it as a colour of penitence and mourning, and it is used during Lent and Advent. It can be associate with vanity, extravagance, individualism and pride, again stemming from its original ancient connection to wealth and status. Taoism has it as metaphysically a transitional colour between yin and yang. It is one of the highest, holiest, most sacred values in China. In Thailand purple is the colour of mourning. It has, stemming from the spiritual connection, been connected to wisdom. It is often used in design to denote sophistication and luxury.
Purple has an interesting history. Seen so rarely in nature, humans sought to develop it for themselves and succeeded. This led to its use as a valuable commodity, a source of wealth, and a signifier of power. Today we are freed from the rules and price governing its use, and we can wear it and paint with it as we like. Purple retains an air of luxury and mystery for many. Whatever it means to you, it is a beautiful colour.
Bibliography
www.artsandcollections.com/a-history-of-the-colour-purple/
enviroliteracy.org/where-was-it-illegal-to-wear-purple/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Born in the purple
earlychurchhistory.org/fashion/colors-dyes-for-clothing-in-ancient-Rome/
mindbodygreen.com
verywellmind.com
“Psychology of colour: effects and symbols”, by Eva Heller.
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