Color In The Middle Ages Essay

When you look at a piece of art like a painting from the medieval period do you ever wonder why they use certain colors? Different colors and different color combinations meant different things for example, colors were used to determine a group of people or a single person class whether they were on the low end or high end. When I first looked at a piece of art from that period I just thought it was just a bunch of colors thrown together and just focused on the objects. I also focused on the way they were positioned but now that I realize that colors are more than just colors it all comes together and tells the full story behind the painting. There are two paintings that resemble why certain colors were used to explain their meaning.

In the

As I said previously that the red is the meaning of power and importance while the orange is used to symbolize the courage, strength, and endurance. The painting also had people in brown robes asking for assistance in the painting. Other colors that had have a certain meaning were green, black, purple, yellow, and white. Green was a interesting color to be used during the medieval period because the color green was referred to as love and joy and while that sounds wonderful the life of a peasant in the medieval period was not all that great. The color green was not used as much as it is later on in the years as it was during the that period. Death and fear symbolize the color black, but sometimes can be referred to as power and authority. Which is strange because in the Renaissance black was looked upon as wealthy or high class. The meaning behind purple is that anything with the color purple is associated with Royalty usually kings or queens are wearing some kind of purple on their robes. Purple was nearly nonexistent during this period because of the snail that went into extinction which using the snail in order to make that royal purple that are found on the kings and queens in

I do not understand how some people can say that color means nothing to the painting as if the color alone does explain and give you a better understanding of what the artist is trying to show the viewer of the painting. The meaning of color back in the medieval period is where artists started using colors in their paintings it illustrated the power, or fear that was in the painting. The colors in some paintings from this time period were not considered valuable for example, the rare colors that weren’t as common along with colors of low importance. As you can see in all paintings the color of clothing is the most important along with the color of the environment if its unusual then is brings out the feeling and meaning of what the painting is trying to get across. There is all kinds of information involving the meaning behind color and to the people that do not believe color has anything to do with the paintings I do not understand because all types of colors add to the meaning of whatever it is that you are looking at. It gives you an instant feeling for example, when you look at a lightly covered painting you feel relaxed compared to if you looked at a very dark painting you feel more depressed or sad depending on what object is