A Colorful Exhibit

The other special exhibit currently at the San Carlos Museum in Mexico City is called a "Cultural History of Color"

The exhibit looks at the uses and symbolism of colors in painting from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.  It also discusses how pigments were made prior to the development of synthetic paints.  Pigments were created from plants, animal and mineral sources.  In some cases these paints were extremely expensive.  Ultramarine blue, for example, was made from ground lapis lazuli, and cochineal, an insect which lives on the prickly pear cactus was the source of bright red dyes and paints. In colonial Mexico, cochineal was an important export second only to silver.

Here are some of the paintings from the museum's collection which were used as examples of the use of color...

"The Assumption of the Virgin"

by Francisco Gómez de Valencia

17th century

White symbolizes purity and virtue, and is used here in the Virgin's tunic.

"San Genaro"

by Andrea Vaccaro

17th century

Gold symbolizes triumph and joy and is used in the saint's miter and chasuble. 

"Peace and Happiness in the State"

by Victor Wolfvoet

17th century

In this allegory, the figure of Abundance wears a gold robe.  Here the color symbolizes the ripening fields of wheat.

"King Philip II"

by Alfonso Sánchez Coello

circa 1581

Monarchs were often painted wearing rich garments of gold brocade.

None of these paintings used real gold.  A sulfide mineral called orpiment was used to create rich tones of gold and yellow.

"Italian Landscape"

painter and date unknown

Green is the color of nature, rebirth and hope.

"Adam and Eve"

by Lucas Cranach the Elder

1530

But green can also symbolize sin, as exemplified by green serpent.

"Adoration of the Holy Kings"

painter and date unknown

Deep ultramarine blue was the most expensive of pigments, so it was reserved for the garments of the most important figures in a painting.  The Virgin's blue robe is an allusion to the sky and her position as the Queen of Heaven.

"St. Michael the Archangel"

painter and date unknown

Red can have a positive connotation, symbolizing regeneration, purification and strength.

"Samson and Delilah"

by Rutilio Manetti

date unknown

"Interior of an Inn"

by Richard Brakenburgh

17th century

But red also symbolized lust, violence, sin, and prostitution.

"Portrait of Mrs. Rosario Almanza de Echeverría"

by Pelegrín Clavé
1848

"Portrait of Octaviano Muñoz Ledo"

by Pelegrín Clavé

1850

In the 19th century, black was the color of choice among the bourgeois. It conveyed a sense of sobriety and austerity, but at the same time luxury.  Campeche wood from the peninsula of Yucatán was a primary source of dark dyes and paints.