Visual exploration, Colour story, Week 4 (12/02/2024)

In my continuation into my research for the module colour story, I decided to primarily focus on the colour venetian red (as researched in the previous weeks). I chose this colour as it has significantly interesting history, visual exploration options and has a notable amount of information available about its composition and utilizations. 

To begin my research, I decided to find a variety of examples in which the pigment of venetian red had been used within artist's compositions. These examples throughout history include:

Portrait of a man, Jan Van Eyck (1433)

The nativity, Piero Della Francesca (1472-1474)

The red studio, Henri Matisse (1911)

Blood relations, Anish Kapoor (2007)

Red, white and blue, Mark Nielsen (2012)

In each of these examples, venetian red was employed as an integral part of the visual language of the composition to contrast with the environment and/or subjects. Furthermore, another example of the employment of venetian red that I found in my research was red figure pottery within ancient Greek history. In the 530 BCE in ancient Greece, red figure pottery replaced the previous popular design of black figure pottery technique and remained prevalent for a 130 years later. It is thought that painter Andokides (530-515 BCE) aided the development and gain in popularity of this particular design and technique. This technique made it easier to incorporate more highly decorative and detailed paintings into the pottery as the black lines could be used as relief lines instead of incisions. The kiln process for this particular technique were as follows;

- Fired in an oxidized environment to enhance the colour (venetian red)

- Fired without airflow to darken the black outlines (reduction stage)

- Final fire without oxygen to seal

These variety of pots created were used for a multitude of practical tools based on the shape and size such as water storage, religious/ceremonial or vessels. Despite its practical uses, these works of pottery were also used for story telling and made literature and religion accessible to all classes and ages in ancient Greece. Most commonly, these painting within the pottery visualized stories from Greek mythology and used the distinct venetian red to symbolize the cycle of growth an decay. 

In relation to my project, I would like to continue my exploration into this particular technique of pottery and its links to Greek mythology as well as how the pigment of venetian red interacts with these subjects. For instance, the Greek god of war Ares was heavily associated with the colour red and worship to him was primarily situated in the northern regions of Italy and Greece. Linking to this, in these regions the pigment of venetian red was mainly sourced from this environment in the earth. 

Herakles and Athena, Andokides (520 BCE)

Terracotta column-krater, Lydos (date unknown)