Is Pink H/A?

[DonaCatalina]

more pink

[Lady Isabella]

DonaCatalina
Ok you ARE the Portriat Goddess!!!

[Blushing]

I am definitely keeping some of these references, I still think pink would not gain approval at one of the faires I visit, but on the other hand, I love testing knowledge!

[Anna Iram]

I can't believe I forgot about this one and I'm making this dress in brown right now.

I have some fabric that is almost identical to this. To my eye anyway. While this portrait looks like it's close to a terracotta, I imagine, like the others it's truer to a pink in person.

Anyway, I've been waiting for inspiration as to what to make from it. This is lovely. Can't wait to see how your's turns out Dona.

[gem]

I will add photos later, but I've just returned from a visit to the St. Louis Museum of Art (wonderful place--they have Holbein's Mary Guildford!!), and their medieval and Renaissance galleries had *tons* of paintings with pink, and like others have said: amazingly bright, intense PINK pink! I had heard the colors were much more vibrant in real life, but you just don't really get that until you're standing in front of the original artwork thinking, "Oh, yeah. These people weren't pinkophobes!" LOL

[operafantomet]

I will add photos later, but I've just returned from a visit to the St. Louis Museum of Art (wonderful place--they have Holbein's Mary Guildford!!), and their medieval and Renaissance galleries had *tons* of paintings with pink, and like others have said: amazingly bright, intense PINK pink! I had heard the colors were much more vibrant in real life, but you just don't really get that until you're standing in front of the original artwork thinking, "Oh, yeah. These people weren't pinkophobes!" LOL

I'm so glad to hear that (+ that you had a wonderful time)!

As I wrote in my original post, the intensity of a fabric colour was a direct sign of wealth. The more intense colour, the more expensive. The first fabrics dipped in the colour batch were the fine ones, and when there were little colour left (=pastel) the inexpensive fabrics went in. It wasn't until the middle and late 18th century that pastels gained popularity.

In this context you might think black weren't that special, but it was hard to produce intense black shades which didn't fade. Merchant families often had a wealth to match the nobility, but not their privileges (I.E. the right to wear certain red and purple shades). The deep blacks therefore became a middle class sign of wealth in the late 15th and early 16th century.

I also wrote in my initial post that pink was a variant of red, not a colour in its own right. Basically every dye stuff used to create red could vary from bright pink to deep maroon, depending on what it was mixed with. So the statement "pink isn't period" is incorrect. Pink as a name of a colour might not have been used, but the actual shade was much used, and the brighter, the better. As an example of PIIIINK in period sources, let me introduce you to manneristic art:


The first one is a deposition scene by Francesco Salviati, ca. 1547-48. The second is the same subject by Jacopo Pontormo's altar pice for the Capponi chapel, ca. 1528. Whereas the reason(s) for using these bright colours isn't solely to flash wealth, it is an example of 16th century people being well aware of (unquestionable) pink colours. Especially that Salviati painting is one collection of intense colours, it stopped me in my track. The second one also has bizarre colours, but it's usually interpreted as trying to copy the colours of the surrounding frecoes.

I will probably never fully understand manneristic art, but God how I love it!

[Genievea Brookstone]

Gem wore her pink corrset this weekend and it was stunning!

[gem]

Here's the first of my pink pictures from the St. Louis Museum of Art.  We couldn't use a flash, so everything looks a little warmer than it did IRL. I've fiddled with it in Photoshop to try to get it to look right, but I'm also posting a comparison from an online image, just in case.



Jan Mertens the Younger's "The Marriage of the Virgin"

The thing I remembered being so striking about this picture was the *incredibly bright* yellow "apron-like" garment on the man to the left of Joseph. It's not coming out that vibrantly in my image, but you can see it below in a pic I've nabbed from the web (IMO, mine overall is closer to the original):



Either way, you can see that 1.) The artist certainly didn't shy away from pink, and 2.) The pink is pretty darn pink!

Oooh! Found an even better one on Flicker (someone had a better camera than mine! :b)
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3010/2421512159_6bf11130e2.jpg

[operafantomet]

http://pic50.picturetrail.com/VOL417/1033223/17480040/387349385.jpg
Jan Mertens the Younger's "The Marriage of the Virgin"

The thing I remembered being so striking about this picture was the *incredibly bright* yellow "apron-like" garment on the man to the left of Joseph. It's not coming out that vibrantly in my image, but you can see it below in a pic I've nabbed from the web (IMO, mine overall is closer to the original):

http://www.oceansbridge.com/paintings/museums/stlouismuseum/Jan-Mertens-the-Younger---The-Marriage-of-the-Virgin.jpg

Either way, you can see that 1.) The artist certainly didn't shy away from pink, and 2.) The pink is pretty darn pink!

I agree, the colours appears so much more conventional in that online version than in the in situ pictures. I've found that this is often the case, especially with 16th century art. They had colours, and weren't afraid to use them...

As for the guy to the left, he's wearing a yellow mantle (mantello) with black trim. It is constructed as a big semi circular piece without shoulder area, and could be draped around the body at will. He is simply lifting the left side up in front of his legs, in classical manner. A Roman toga was worn in pretty much the same way, except it was more oval in shape, and one end went all around the body:
http://www.theweebsite.com/earlygarb/images/toga.gif

[DonaCatalina]

[LadySeasan]

my gown is pink!

[DonaCatalina]

time to bump this topic. Multiple pages of documentation of pink.

[operafantomet]

You want PINK?

Not sure this link has been posted before, but if not... prepare for... PINK! Page 30, 45, 46 and 48 in particular.

http://www.weissgallery.com/catalogue/weiss25years.htm

[Devangelon]

I'm sorry.. I just wanted to add my two cents here...I still see none of the examples as "Pink" as we know it. Perhaps that is why I can't wrap my head around it. They are more red to me. And yes, I read the post about how there were different types of red and such. But in my head its the "Paint fades over time" theory. *Shrugs*

I just can't wrap my head around it. :/

[DonaCatalina]

I'm sorry.. I just wanted to add my two cents here...I still see none of the examples as "Pink" as we know it. Perhaps that is why I can't wrap my head around it. They are more red to me. And yes, I read the post about how there were different types of red and such. But in my head its the "Paint fades over time" theory. *Shrugs*
I just can't wrap my head around it. :/

Really? This French Countess looks like she's wearing red to you?

And as far as fading, you can read some specifics about fading of oil paints here that will go a lot further than I can in explaining how a red would not fade to this type of pink. It would turn into a dark dull brownish red.
As for the next one- I have seen it in person and it is a bright non-faded pepto bismol color.