Textiles and Dress

History of red

The color red has historically been derived from several materials, including iron, mercury, and lead (however mercury and lead paints were toxic). The color Red was used in several applications by humans, which early on included use in calligraphy and writing beginning in 8th century China as a way to mark underlines and draw attention to portions of a script. The color red also included a wide variety of different cultural meanings. Sometimes the color was a color of romance, while in other cases being the color of violence. In short, different cultures and regions applied, and still do apply, vastly different cultural meanings to the color of red, and its use varies wildly, as well as its meaning.

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See also

• ▸Dress
• ▸Heliodorus stele
• ▸Chaga people

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Text from Wikipedia; plate via Wikimedia Commons. Text CC BY-SA 4.0; plate freely licensed (see Commons). Source record. Images and catalogue data are reproduced from open-access collections.