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Purple is acolor similar in appearance toviolet light. In theRYB color model historically used in the arts, purple is asecondary color created by combining red and blue pigments. In theCMYK color model used in modern printing, purple is made by combiningmagenta pigment with eithercyan pigment,black pigment, or both. In theRGB color model used in computer and television screens, purple is created bymixing red and blue light in order to create colors that appear similar to violet light.
Purple has long been associated with royalty, originally becauseTyrian purple dye—made from the secretions of sea snails—was extremely expensive in antiquity.[1] Purple was the color worn by Roman magistrates; it became the imperial color worn by the rulers of theByzantine Empire and theHoly Roman Empire, and later by Roman Catholicbishops. Similarly inJapan, the color is traditionally associated with theemperor and aristocracy.[2]
According to contemporary surveys in Europe and the United States, purple is the color most often associated with rarity, royalty, luxury, ambition, magic, mystery,piety and spirituality.[3][4] When combined withpink, it is associated witheroticism,femininity, andseduction.[5]
Etymology and definitions
The modern English wordpurple comes from theOld Englishpurpul, which derives fromLatinpurpura, which, in turn, derives from theGreekπορφύρα (porphura),[6] the name of theTyrian purpledye manufactured in classical antiquity from a mucus secreted by thespiny dye-murex snail.[7][8] The first recorded use of the wordpurple dates to the late 900s AD.[7]
Purple first appeared in prehistoric art during the Neolithic era. The artists ofPech Merle cave and otherNeolithic sites in France used sticks ofmanganese andhematite powder to draw and paint animals and the outlines of their own hands on the walls of their caves. These works have been dated to between 16,000 and 25,000 BC.[9]
Purple textiles, dating back to the early second millennium BCE, were found inSyria, making them the oldest known purple textiles in the world. These findings include textiles from a burial site inChagar Bazar, dating back to the 18th-16th centuries BCE, as well as preserved textile samples discovered in gypsum at the Royal Palace ofQatna.[10][11][12]
As early as the 15th century BC, the citizens ofSidon andTyre, two cities on the coast of AncientPhoenicia (present day Lebanon), were producing purple dye from a sea snail called thespiny dye-murex.[13] Clothing colored with the Tyrian dye was mentioned in both theIliad ofHomer and theAeneid ofVirgil.[13] The deep, rich purple dye made from this snail became known as Tyrian purple.[14]
The process of making the dye was long, difficult and expensive. Thousands of the tiny snails had to be found, their shells cracked, the snail removed. Mountains of empty shells have been found at the ancient sites of Sidon and Tyre. The snails were left to soak, then a tiny gland was removed and the juice extracted and put in a basin, which was placed in the sunlight. There, a remarkable transformation took place. In the sunlight the juice turned white, then yellow-green, then green, then violet, then a red which turned darker and darker. The process had to be stopped at exactly the right time to obtain the desired color, which could range from a bright crimson to a dark purple, the color of dried blood. Then either wool, linen or silk would be dyed. The exact hue varied between crimson and violet, but it was always rich, bright and lasting.[15]
Tyrian purple became the color of kings, nobles, priests and magistrates all around the Mediterranean. It was mentioned in theHebrew Bible (Old Testament); in theBook of Exodus, God instructsMoses to have theIsraelites bring him an offering including cloth "of blue, and purple, and scarlet,"[16] to be used in the curtains of theTabernacle and the garments of priests. The term used for purple in the 4th-centuryLatin Vulgate version of the Bible passage ispurpura or Tyrian purple.[17] In theIliad ofHomer, the belt ofAjax is purple, and the tails of the horses of Trojan warriors are dipped in purple. In theOdyssey, the blankets on the wedding bed ofOdysseus are purple. In the poems ofSappho (6th century BC) she celebrates the skill of the dyers of the Greek kingdom ofLydia who made purple footwear, and in the play ofAeschylus (525–456 BC), QueenClytemnestra welcomes back her husbandAgamemnon by decorating the palace with purple carpets. In 950 BC,King Solomon was reported to have brought artisans from Tyre to provide purple fabrics to decorate theTemple of Jerusalem.[18]
The Roman custom of wearing purpletogas may have come from theEtruscans; an Etruscan tomb painting from the 4th century BC shows a nobleman wearing a deep purple and embroidered toga.
In Ancient Rome, theToga praetexta was an ordinary white toga with a broad purple stripe on its border. It was worn by freeborn Roman boys who had not yet come of age,[19]curule magistrates,[20][21] certain categories of priests,[22] and a few other categories of citizens.
TheToga picta was solid purple, embroidered with gold. During theRoman Republic, it was worn by generals in theirtriumphs, and by thePraetor Urbanus when he rode in the chariot of the gods into the circus at theLudi Apollinares.[23] During the Empire, thetoga picta was worn by magistrates giving publicgladiatorial games, and by theconsuls, as well as by the emperor on special occasions.
During the Roman Republic, when a triumph was held, the general being honored wore an entirely purple toga bordered in gold, and Roman Senators wore a toga with a purple stripe. However, during theRoman Empire, purple was more and more associated exclusively with the emperors and their officers.[24] Suetonius claims that the early emperorCaligula had theKing of Mauretania murdered for the splendour of his purple cloak, and thatNero forbade the use of certain purple dyes.[25] In the late empire the sale of purple cloth became a state monopoly protected by the death penalty.[26]
The actual color of Tyrian purple seems to have varied from a reddish to a bluish purple. According to the Roman writerVitruvius, (1st century BC), themurex shells coming from northern waters, probablyBolinus brandaris, produced a more bluish color than those of the south, probablyHexaplex trunculus. The most valued shades were said to be those closer to the color of dried blood, as seen in the mosaics of the robes of theEmperor Justinian inRavenna. The chemical composition of the dye from the murex is close to that of the dye fromindigo, and indigo was sometimes used to make a counterfeit Tyrian purple, a crime which was severely punished. What seems to have mattered about Tyrian purple was not its color, but its luster, richness, its resistance to weather and light, and its high price.[28]
In modern times, Tyrian purple has been recreated, at great expense. When the German chemist Paul Friedander tried to recreate Tyrian purple in 2008, he needed twelve thousand mollusks to create 1.4 ounces of dye, enough to color a handkerchief. In the year 2000, a gram of Tyrian purple made from ten thousand mollusks according to the original formula cost two thousand euros.[29][30]
In ancient China, purple was obtained not through the Mediterranean mollusc, butpurple gromwell. The dye obtained did not easily adhere to fabrics, making purple fabrics expensive. Purple became a fashionable color in thestate of Qi (齊, 1046 BC–221 BC) because its ruler,Duke Huan of Qi, developed a preference for it. As a result, the price of purple fabric was over five times that of plain fabric. His minister,Guan Zhong (管仲), eventually convinced him to relinquish this preference.
China was the first culture to develop a synthetic purple color.[31]
An old hypothesis suggested links between the Chinese purple and blue andEgyptian blue, however, molecular structure analysis and evidence such as the absence of lead in Egyptian blue and the lack of examples of Egyptian blue in China, argued against the hypothesis.[32][33] The use of quartz, barium, and lead components inancient Chinese glass and Han purple and Han blue has been used to suggest a connection between glassmaking and the manufacture of pigments,[34] and to prove the independence of the Chinese invention.[32]Taoistalchemists may have developed Han purple from their knowledge of glassmaking.[32]
Lead is used by the pigment maker to lower the melting point of the barium in Han Purple.[35]
Purple was regarded as a secondary color in ancient China. In classical times, secondary colors were not as highly prized as the five primary colors of the Chinese spectrum, and purple was used to allude to impropriety, in contrast to crimson, which was deemed a primary color and symbolized legitimacy. Nevertheless, by the 6th century AD, purple was ranked above crimson. Several changes to the ranks of colors occurred after that time.
An Egyptian bowl colored with Egyptian blue, with motifs painted in dark manganese purple. (between 1550 and 1450 BC)
Painting of a man wearing an all-purpletoga picta, from anEtruscan tomb (about 350 BC).
Roman men wearingtogae praetextae with reddish-purple stripes during a religious procession (1st century BC).
Different purple hues obtained from three types of sea snails
Dye bath of Tyrian purple
Cloth dyed with Tyrian purple. The color could vary from crimson to deep purple, depending upon the type ofmurex sea-snail and how it was made.
Purple in the Byzantine Empire and Carolingian Europe
Through the early Christian era, the rulers of theByzantine Empire continued the use of purple as the imperial color, for diplomatic gifts, and even for imperial documents and the pages of the Bible.Gospelmanuscripts were written in gold lettering onparchment that was colored Tyrian purple.[36] Empresses gave birth in the Purple Chamber, and the emperors born there were known as "born to the purple," to separate them from emperors who won or seized the title through political intrigue or military force. Bishops of the Byzantine church wore white robes with stripes of purple, while government officials wore squares of purple fabric to show their rank.
In western Europe, the EmperorCharlemagne was crowned in 800 wearing a mantle of Tyrian purple, and was buried in 814 in a shroud of the same color, which still exists (see below). However, after the fall ofConstantinople to theOttoman Turks in 1453, the color lost its imperial status. The great dye works of Constantinople were destroyed, and graduallyscarlet, made with dye from thecochineal insect, became the royal color in Europe.[37]
A medieval depiction of the coronation of the EmperorCharlemagne in 800. The bishops and cardinals wear purple, and the Pope wears white.
The Middle Ages and Renaissance
In 1464,Pope Paul II decreed that cardinals should no longer wear Tyrian purple, and instead wear scarlet, fromkermes and alum,[38] since the dye from Byzantium was no longer available. Bishops and archbishops, of a lower status than cardinals, were assigned the color purple, but not the rich Tyrian purple. They wore cloth dyed first with the less expensiveindigo blue, then overlaid with red made fromkermes dye.[39][40]
While purple was worn less frequently by medieval andRenaissance kings and princes, it was worn by the professors of many of Europe's new universities. Their robes were modeled after those of the clergy, and they often wore square/violet or purple/violet caps and robes, or black robes with purple/violet trim. Purple/violet robes were particularly worn by students of divinity.
Purple and violet also played an important part in the religious paintings of the Renaissance. Angels and theVirgin Mary were often portrayed wearing purple or violet robes.
A 12th-century painting ofSaint Peter consecratingHermagoras, wearing purple, as a bishop.
A purple-clad angel from theResurrection of Christ by Raphael (1483–1520)
18th and 19th centuries
In the 18th century, purple was still worn on occasion byCatherine the Great and other rulers, by bishops and, in lighter shades, by members of the aristocracy, but rarely by ordinary people, because of its high cost. But in the 19th century, that changed.
In 1856, an eighteen-year-old British chemistry student namedWilliam Henry Perkin was trying to make a syntheticquinine. His experiments produced instead the first syntheticaniline dye, a purple shade calledmauveine, shortened simply tomauve. It took its name from the mallow flower, which is the same color.[41] The new color quickly became fashionable, particularly afterQueen Victoria wore a silk gown dyed with mauveine to the Royal Exhibition of 1862. Prior to Perkin's discovery, mauve was a color which only the aristocracy and rich could afford to wear. Perkin developed an industrial process, built a factory, and produced the dye by the ton, so almost anyone could wear mauve. It was the first of a series of modern industrial dyes which completely transformed both the chemical industry and fashion.[42]
Purple was popular with thepre-Raphaelite painters in Britain, includingArthur Hughes, who loved bright colors and romantic scenes.
QueenAnne of Great Britain in golden dress and a purple velvet and ermine mantle (1705)
At the turn of the century, purple was a favorite color of the Austrian painterGustav Klimt, who flooded his pictures with sensual purples and violets.
In the 20th century, purple retained its historic connection with royalty;George VI (1896–1952), wore purple in his official portrait, and it was prominent in every feature of the coronation ofElizabeth II in 1953, from the invitations to the stage design insideWestminster Abbey. But at the same time, it was becoming associated with social change; with theWomen's Suffrage movement for the right to vote for women in the early decades of the century, withFeminism in the 1970s, and with thepsychedelic drug culture of the 1960s.
In the early 20th century, purple, green, and white were the colors of theWomen's Suffrage movement, which fought to win the right to vote for women, finally succeeding with the19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Later, in the 1970s, in a tribute to the Suffragettes, it became the color of thewomen's liberation movement.[43]
ThePurple Rain Protest was a protest againstapartheid that took place inCape Town, South Africa on 2 September 1989, in which a policewater cannon with purple dye sprayed thousands of demonstrators. This led to the sloganThe Purple Shall Govern.
The violet or purple necktie became very popular at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, particularly among political and business leaders. It combined the assertiveness and confidence of a red necktie with the sense of peace and cooperation of a blue necktie, and it went well with the blue business suit worn by most national and corporate leaders.[45]
Gustav Klimt portrait of woman with a purple hat (1912).
Symbol of theFeminist movement in the United States (1970s). The purple color was chosen as a tribute to the Suffragette movement a half-century earlier.
In science and nature
Optics
The meanings of the color terms violet and purple varies even among native speakers of English, for example between United Kingdom and United States.[46] Optics research on purple and violet contains contributions of authors from different countries and different native languages, it is likely to be inconsistent in the use and meaning of the two colors.
According to some speakers/authors of English, purple, unlike violet, is not one of the colors of thevisible spectrum.[47] It was not one of the colors of the rainbow identified byIsaac Newton. According to some authors, purple does not have its ownwavelength of light. For this reason, it is sometimes called anon-spectral color. It exists in culture and art, but not, in the same way that violet does, in optics. According to some speakers of English, purple is simply a combination, in various proportions, of two primary colors, red and blue.[48] According to other speakers of English, the same range of colors is called violet.[49]
In some textbooks ofcolor theory, and depending on the geographical-cultural origin of the author, a "purple" is defined as anynon-spectral color betweenviolet and red (excluding violet and red themselves).[50] In that case, thespectral colors violet and indigo would not be shades of purple. For other speakers of English, these colors are shades of purple.
In the traditional color wheel long used by painters, purple is placed between crimson and violet.[51] However, also here there is much variation in color terminology depending on cultural background of the painters and authors, and sometimes the term violet is used and placed in between red and blue on the traditional color wheel. In a slightly different variation, on thecolor wheel, purple is placed between magenta and violet. This shade is sometimes called electric purple (seeshades of purple).[52]
In theRGB color model, named for the colors red, green, and blue, used to create all the colors on a computer screen or television, the range of purples is created by mixing red and blue light of different intensities on a black screen. The standardHTML color purple is created by red and blue light of equal intensity, at a brightness that is halfway between full power and darkness.
In color printing, purple is sometimes represented by the colormagenta, or sometimes by mixing magenta with red or blue. It can also be created by mixing just red and blue alone, but in that case the purple is less bright, with lowersaturation or intensity. A less bright purple can also be created with light or paint by adding a certain quantity of the third primary color (green for light or yellow for pigment).
Purple is closely associated withviolet. In common usage, both refer to a variety of colors between blue and red inhue.[53][54][55] Historically, purple has tended to be used for redder hues and violet for bluer hues.[53][56][57] Inoptics, violet is aspectral color; it refers to the color of any different single wavelength of light on the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, between approximately 380 and 450 nanometers,[58] whereas purple is the color of various combinations of red, blue, and violet light,[50][55] some of which humans perceive as similar to violet.
On achromaticity diagram, the straight line connecting the extreme spectral colors (red and violet) is known as theline of purples (or 'purple boundary'); it represents one limit of humancolor perception. The color magenta used in theCMYK printing process is near the center of the line of purples, but most people associate the term "purple" with a somewhat bluer tone, such as is displayed by the color "electric purple" (a color also directly on the line of purples), shown below.
On theCIE xy chromaticity diagram, violet is on the curved edge in the lower left, while purples are on the straight line connecting the extreme colors red and violet; this line is known as theline of purples, or the purple line.[59][60]
On a computer or television screen, purple colors are created by mixing red and blue light. This is called theRGB color model.
Hematite andmanganese are the oldest pigments used for the color purple. They were used byNeolithic artists in the form of sticks, like charcoal, or ground and powdered and mixed with fat, and used as a paint. Hematite is a reddishiron oxide which, when ground coarsely, makes a purple pigment. One such pigment iscaput mortuum, whose name is also used in reference tomummy brown. The latter is another pigment containing hematite and historically produced with the use of mummified corpses.[61] Some of its compositions produce a purple color and may be called "mummy violet".[62] Manganese was also used in Roman times to color glass purple.[63]
Han purple was the first synthetic purple pigment, invented in China in about 700 BC. It was used in wall paintings and pottery and other applications. In color, it was very close toindigo, which had a similar chemical structure. Han purple was very unstable, and sometimes was the result of the chemical breakdown of Han blue.
During the Middle Ages, artists usually made purple by combining red and blue pigments; most often blue azurite or lapis-lazuli withred ochre,cinnabar, orminium. They also combined lake colors made by mixing dye with powder; usingwoad or indigo dye for the blue, and dye made fromcochineal for the red.[64]
Cobalt violet was the first modern synthetic color in the purple family, manufactured in 1859. It was found, along withcobalt blue, in the palette ofClaude Monet,Paul Signac, andGeorges Seurat. It was stable, but had low tinting power and was expensive, so quickly went out of use.[65]
Manganese violet was a stronger color than cobalt violet, and replaced it on the market.
Quinacridone violet, one of a modern synthetic organic family of colors, was discovered in 1896 but not marketed until 1955. It is sold today under a number of brand names.
Hematite was often used as the red-purple color in the cave paintings ofNeolithic artists.
A sample ofpurpurite, or manganese phosphate, from the Packrat Mine in Southern California.
A swatch of cobalt violet, popular among the Frenchimpressionists.
Manganese violet is a synthetic pigment invented in the mid-19th century.
Quinacridone violet, a synthetic organic pigment sold under many different names.
Dyes
The most famous purple dye in the ancient world wasTyrian purple, made from a type of sea snail called themurex, found around the Mediterranean. (See history section above).[47]
In westernPolynesia, residents of the islands made a purple dye similar to Tyrian purple from thesea urchin. In Central America, the inhabitants made a dye from a different sea snail, thepurpura, found on the coasts ofCosta Rica andNicaragua. TheMayans used this color to dye fabric for religious ceremonies, while theAztecs used it for paintings of ideograms, where it symbolized royalty.[64]
In the Middle Ages, those who worked with blue and black dyes belonged to separate guilds from those who worked with red and yellow dyes, and were often forbidden to dye any other colors than those of their own guild.[66] Most purple fabric was made by the dyers who worked with red, and who used dye frommadder orcochineal, so medieval violet colors were inclined toward red.[67]
Orcein, orpurple moss, was another common purple dye. It was known to the ancient Greeks and Hebrews, and was made from a Mediterraneanlichen called archil or dyer's moss (Roccella tinctoria), combined with anammoniac, usually urine. Orcein began to achieve popularity again in the 19th century, when violet and purple became the color of demi-mourning, worn after a widow or widower had worn black for a certain time, before he or she returned to wearing ordinary colors.[68]
From the Middle Ages onward, purple dyes for the clothing of common people were often made from theblackberry or other red fruit of the genusrubus, or from themulberry. All of these dyes were more reddish than bluish, and faded easily with washing and exposure to sunlight.
A popular new dye which arrived in Europe from the New World during the Renaissance was made from the wood of thelogwood tree (Haematoxylum campechianum), which grew in Spanish Mexico. Depending on the different minerals added to the dye, it produced a blue, red, black or, with the addition ofalum, a purple color, it made a good color, but, like earlier dyes, it did not resist sunlight or washing.
In the 18th century, chemists in England, France and Germany began to create the first synthetic dyes. Two synthetic purple dyes were invented at about the same time.Cudbear is adye extracted fromorchillichens that can be used to dyewool andsilk, without the use ofmordant. Cudbear was developed by Dr Cuthbert Gordon ofScotland: production began in 1758, The lichen is first boiled in a solution ofammonium carbonate. The mixture is then cooled andammonia is added and the mixture is kept damp for 3–4 weeks. Then the lichen is dried and ground to powder. The manufacture details were carefully protected, with a ten-feet high wall being built around the manufacturing facility, and staff consisting of Highlanders sworn to secrecy.
French purple was developed in France at about the same time. The lichen is extracted by urine or ammonia. Then the extract is acidified, the dissolved dye precipitates and is washed. Then it is dissolved in ammonia again, the solution is heated in air until it becomes purple, then it is precipitated withcalcium chloride; the resulting dye was more solid and stable than other purples.
Cobalt violet is a synthetic pigment that was invented in the second half of the 19th century, and is made by a similar process ascobalt blue,cerulean blue andcobalt green. It is the violet pigment most commonly used today by artists. In spite of its name, this pigment produces a purple rather than violet color.[46]
Its chemical name is 3-amino-2,±9-dimethyl-5-phenyl-7-(p-tolylamino)phenazinium acetate.
Fuchsine was another synthetic dye made shortly after mauveine. It produced a brilliant fuchsia color.
In the 1950s, a new family of purple and violet synthetic organic pigments calledquinacridone came onto the market. It had originally been discovered in 1896, but were not synthesized until 1936, and not manufactured until the 1950s. The colors in the group range from deep red to bluish purple in color, and have the molecular formula C20H12N2O2. They have strong resistance to sunlight and washing, and are widely used today in oil paints, water colors, and acrylics, as well as in automobile coatings and other industrial coatings.
Blackberries were sometimes used to make purple dye in the Middle Ages.
This lichen, growing on a tree in Scotland, was used in the 18th century to make a common purple dye called Cudbear.
A sample of silk dyed with the original mauveine dye.
Certain grapes, eggplants, pansies and other fruits, vegetables and flowers may appear purple due to the presence of natural pigments calledanthocyanins. These pigments are found in the leaves, roots, stems, vegetables, fruits and flowers of all plants. They aidphotosynthesis by blocking harmful wavelengths of light that would damage the leaves. In flowers, the purple anthocyanins help attract insects who pollinate the flowers. Not all anthocyanins are purple; they vary in color from red to purple to blue, green, or yellow, depending upon the level of theirpH.
The purple colors of thiscauliflower, grapes, fruits, vegetables and flowers comes from natural pigments calledanthocyanins.
Anthocyanins range in color from red to purple to green, blue and yellow, depending upon the level of theirpH.
Anthocyanins also account for the purple color in thesecopper beech trees, and in purple autumn leaves.
Anthocyanins produce the purple color in blood oranges.
In April 2007, it was suggested that earlyarchaea may have usedretinal, a purple pigment, instead ofchlorophyll, to extract energy from the sun. If so, large areas of the ocean and shoreline would have been colored purple; this is called thePurple Earth hypothesis.[72]
Astronomy
One of thestars in thePleiades, calledPleione, is sometimes calledPurple Pleione because, being a fast spinning star, it has a purple hue caused by its blue-white color being obscured by a spinning ring of electrically excited redhydrogen gas.[73]
Purple Mountain is located on the eastern side ofNanjing. Its peaks are often found enveloped in purple clouds at dawn and dusk, hence comes its name "Purple Mountain". ThePurple Mountain Observatory is located there.
Purple Mountain in County Kerry, Ireland, takes its name from the color of the shivered slate on its summit.
It has been observed that the greater the distance between a viewers eyes and mountains, the lighter and more blue or purple they will appear. This phenomenon, long recognized byLeonardo da Vinci and other painters, is calledaerial perspective or atmospheric perspective. The more distant the mountains are, the less contrast the eye sees between the mountains and the sky.
The bluish color is caused by an optical effect calledRayleigh scattering. The sunlit sky is blue becauseair scatters short-wavelength light more than longer wavelengths. Since blue light is at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, it is more strongly scattered in the atmosphere than long wavelength red light. The result is that the human eye perceives blue when looking toward parts of the sky other than the sun.[74]
At sunrise and sunset, the light is passing through the atmosphere at a lower angle, and traveling a greater distance through a larger volume of air. Much of the green and blue is scattered away, and more red light comes to the eye, creating the colors of the sunrise and sunset and making the mountains look purple.
The phenomenon is referenced in the song "America the Beautiful", where the lyrics refer to "purple mountains' majesty" among other features of the United States landscape. ACrayola crayon called Purple Mountain Majesty in reference to the lyric was first formulated in 1993.
The more distant mountains are, the lighter and more blue they are. This is called atmospheric perspective oraerial perspective.
Julius Pollux, a Greek grammarian who lived in the second century AD, attributed the discovery of purple to the Phoenician god and guardian of the city of Tyre,Heracles.[75] According to his account, while walking along the shore with thenymph Tyrus, the god's dog bit into a murex shell, causing his mouth to turn purple. The nymph subsequently requested that Heracles create a garment for her of that same color, with Heracles obliging her demands giving birth to Tyrian purple.[75][41]
In the West, purple or violet is a color often associated with piety and religious faith.[76][77] In AD 1464, shortly after the Muslim conquest ofConstantinople, which terminated the supply ofTyrian purple toRoman CatholicEurope,Pope Paul II decreed thatcardinals should henceforth wear scarlet instead of purple, the scarlet being dyed with expensivecochineal.[citation needed]Bishops were assigned the coloramaranth, being a pale and pinkish purple made then from a less-expensive mixture of indigo and cochineal.
The color purple is also associated with royalty in Christianity, being one of the three traditional offices ofJesus Christ, i. e. king, although such a symbolism was assumed from the earlier Roman association or at least also employed by the ancient Romans.
Vanity, extravagance, individualism
In Europe and America, purple is the color most associated with vanity, extravagance, and individualism. Among theseven deadly sins, it representspride. It is a color which is used to attract attention.[78]
The artificial, materialism and beauty
Purple is the color most often associated with the artificial and the unconventional. It is the major color that occurs the least frequently in nature, and was the first color to be synthesized.[79]
Ambiguity and ambivalence
Purple is the color most associated with ambiguity. Like other colors made by combining two primary colors, it is seen as uncertain and equivocal.[80]
Mourning
In Britain, purple is sometimes associated withmourning. In Victorian times, close relatives wore black for the first year following a death ("deep mourning"), and then replaced it with purple or dark green trimmed with black. This is rarely practised today.[81]
In culture and society
Cultures of Asian countries
The Chinese word for purple,zi, is connected with the North Star,Polaris, orzi Wei in Chinese. In Chinese astrology, the North Star was the home of the Celestial Emperor, the ruler of the heavens. The area around the North Star is called thePurple Forbidden Enclosure inChinese astronomy. For that reason theForbidden City inBeijing was also known as the Purple Forbidden City (zi Jin cheng). Purple often represents "the highest," holiest, and "mostsacred values" in China.[77]
Purple was a popular color introduced into Japanese dress during theHeian period (794–1185). The dye was made from the root of the alkanet plant (Anchusa officinalis), also known asmurasaki in Japanese. At about the same time, Japanese painters began to use a pigment made from the same plant.[82]
In Europeanalchemy during this time, "the 'precious purple tincture'" was a term for various substances alchemists hoped to create.[77] The term and goal of the alchemists evoked kingliness,[77] since thedivine right of kings was also thought to aid the alchemists' future.
Engineering
The color purple plays a significant role in the traditions of engineering schools across Canada.[83] Purple is also the color of the Engineering Corp in the British Military.[84]
Idioms and expressions
Purple prose refers to pretentious or overly embellished writing. For example, a paragraph containing an excessive number of long and unusual words is called a purple passage.
Born to the purple means someone who is born into a life of wealth and privilege. It originally was used to describe the rulers of theByzantine Empire.
Apurple patch is a period of exceptional success or good luck.[85] The origins are obscure, but it may refer to the symbol of success of the Byzantine Court. Bishops in Byzantium wore a purple patch on their costume as a symbol of rank.
Wearing purple is a military slang expression in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for an officer who is serving in a joint assignment with another service, such as an Army officer on assignment to the Navy. The officer is symbolically putting aside his or her traditional uniform color and exclusive loyalty to their service during the joint assignment, though in fact they continue to wear their own service's uniform.[87]
Purple squirrel is a term used by employment recruiters to describe a job candidate with precisely the right education, experience, and qualifications that perfectly fits a job's multifaceted requirements. The assumption is that the perfect candidate is as rare as a real-life purple squirrel.
Military
ThePurple Heart is a United Statesmilitary decoration awarded in the name of the President to those who have been wounded or killed during their service.
Politics
In United States politics, apurple state (typically aswing state) is a state roughly balanced betweenRepublicans (generally symbolized by red in the 21st century) andDemocrats (symbolized by blue).
In thepolitics of Belgium, as with the Netherlands, a purple government includes liberal and social-democratic parties in coalition. Belgium was governed by Purple governments from 1999 to 2007 under the leadership ofPrime MinisterGuy Verhofstadt.
In the United Kingdom, the color scheme for thesuffragette movement in Britain and Ireland was designed with purple for loyalty and dignity, white for purity, and green for hope.[88][89][90]
Rhyme
Purple was a central motif in the career of the musicianPrince. His 1984 film and albumPurple Rain is one of his best-known works. Thetitle track is Prince'ssignature song and was nearly always played in concert. Prince encouraged his fans to wear purple to his concerts.[91][92]
Purple is sometimes associated with thelesbian,gay,bisexual, andtransgender (LGBT) community.[93] It is the symbolic color worn onSpirit Day, a commemoration that began in 2010 to show support for young people who are bullied because of theirsexual orientation.[94][95] Purple is closely associated with bisexuality, largely in part to thebisexual pride flag which combines pink – representing homosexuality – and blue – representing heterosexuality – to create the bisexual purple.[96][97] The purple hand is another symbol sometimes used by the LGBT community during parades and demonstrations.
Sports and games
InMotorsport, purple is used to indicate the fastest times of the race.[98]
Costa Rica's Primera División soccer teamDeportivo Saprissa's main color is purple (actually aburgundy like shade), and their nickname is the "Monstruo Morado", or "Purple Monster".
Purple is the color of the ball inSnooker Plus with a 10-point value.
In the game ofpool, purple is the color of the 4-solid and the 12-striped balls.
Cadbury logo as displayed at Cadbury World in Bournville, England
Business
The British chocolate companyCadbury chose purple as it wasQueen Victoria's favourite color.[99] The company trademarked the color purple for chocolates with registrations in 1995[100] and 2004.[101] However, the validity of these trademarks is the matter of an ongoing legal dispute following objections byNestlé.[102]
The lower band of the flag of thesecond Spanish republic (1931–39) was colored a tone of purple, to represent the common people as opposed to the red of the Spanish monarchy, unlike other nations of Europe where purple represented royalty and red represented the common people.[103]
In Japan, the prefecture ofTokyo's flag is purple, as is the flag ofIchikawa and other Japanese municipalities.
Porpora, orpurpure, a shade of purple, was added late to the list of colors of Europeanheraldry. A purple lion was the symbol of the old SpanishKingdom of León (910–1230), and it later appeared on the flag ofSpain, when theKingdom of Castile and Kingdom of León merged.
^John Gage (2009),La Couleur dans l'art, p. 148–150.
^Eva Heller,Psychologie de la couleur: effets et symboliques, p. 163
^Phillip Ball (2001),Bright Earth, Art, and the Invention of Colour, p. 291
^Thieme, C. 2001. (translated by M. Will) Paint Layers and Pigments on the Terracotta Army: A Comparison with Other Cultures of Antiquity. In: W. Yongqi, Z. Tinghao, M. Petzet, E. Emmerling and C. Blänsdorf (eds.)The Polychromy of Antique Sculptures and the Terracotta Army of the First Chinese Emperor: Studies on Materials, Painting Techniques and Conservation. Monuments and Sites III. Paris: ICOMOS, 52–57.
^Varichon, AnneColors: What They Mean and How to Make Them New York:2006 Abrams Page 140 – This information is in the caption of acolor illustration showing an 8th-century manuscript page of theGospel of Luke written in gold on Tyrian purple parchment.
^Anne Varichon (2000),Couleurs: pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples, p. 137–38
^Eva Heller, Psychologie de la couleur: effets et symboliques.
^abTager, A.; Kirchner, E.; Fedorovskaya, E. (2021). "Computational evidence of first extensive usage of violet in the 1860s".Color Research & Application.46 (5):961–977.doi:10.1002/col.22638.S2CID233671776.
^Matschi, M. (2005). "Color terms in English: Onomasiological and Semasiological aspects".Onomasiology Online.5:56–139.
^Cooper, A.C.; McLaren, K. (1973). "The ANLAB colour system and the dyer's variables of "shade" and strength".Journal of the Society of Dyers and Colourists.89 (2):41–45.doi:10.1111/j.1478-4408.1973.tb03128.x.
^Lanier F. (editor)The Rainbow Book Berkeley, California: Shambhala Publications and The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (1976) (Handbook for the Summer 1976 exhibitionThe Rainbow Art Show which took place primarily at theDe Young Museum but also at other museums) Portfolio of color wheels by famous theoreticians—see Rood color wheel (1879) p. 93
^abTager, A.; Kirchner, E.; Fedorovskaya, E. (2021). "Computational evidence of first extensive usage of violet in the 1860s".Color Research & Application.46 (5):961–977.doi:10.1002/col.22638.S2CID233671776.
^Fehrman, K.R.; Fehrman, C. (2004).Color - the secret influence. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
^abMatschi, M. (2005). "Color terms in English: Onomasiological and Semasiological aspects".Onomasiology Online.5:56–139.
^"violet, n.1".OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved2020-04-06.
^"Violet".Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Retrieved2020-04-06.
^Georgia State University Department of Physics and Astronomy."Spectral Colors".HyperPhysics site. Retrieved20 October 2017.
^Barnett, Lincoln and the editorial staff of LifeThe World We Live In New York:1955--Simon and Schuster--Page 284 There is also an illustration of Purple Pleione by the noted astronomical artistChesley Bonestell.
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