Colours in Religious Art

[StrictCatholicGirl]

I can't let this reference to Bougeureau as a Pre-Raphaelite painter slide! He was an academic painter, probably in many ways diametrically opposed to the Pre-Raphaelites since they were considered very unconventional at the time.  

My mistake. I only know his artwork is included on site of a Pre-Raphaelites - and those later associated with the Brotherhood.
 
Ilusions Gallery.
 
- Lisa

[Jacafamala]

This might sound like a ridiculous topic but I would like to know if there are any resources that might explain why certain colours were used in religious art. For example, why was Our Lady presented wearing blue when a woman of her particular background could not have afforded to wear such a colour?

Thanking you in advance.

It's an interesting question. I don't know the answer.

But from a painter by the name of Fairfield Porter, I learned that atmospherically,  blue is a color that sets itself apart from all other colors. If you look at a landscape in mid day, you'll see that it's true.

My conclusion is that, because Many is set apart, hence she should have the blue mantle. This is my interpretation of it anyway. I really don't know why of it. In school I learned that traditional artists were concerned with symbolism with regard to gestures of the hands and also of the objects that a saint holds. No one ever spoke of the symbolism of color to my recollection.

[OKinyobe]

I'd like to thank everybody again. I explained this to my Catechism students. They were quite interested.

[bluecarmel]

Well, I can't find a source to quote, right now; but I read that the red color represents divine nature, and the blue-green represents earthly nature; so that Christ is depicted in icons as wearing red underneath (having a primary nature of divinity) and wearing the "humanity" color on the outside, since He took on our flesh and nature.  Mary, on the other hand, is primarily human, but has been clothed with divine nature, through her fiat and unique, immaculate worthiness.  It was in a book on worship using icons.

[Mhoram]

For some reason love-sick, suicidal princesses seem to appeal to certain men. I wonder why that is...

As Mike and the bots said during Horror of Party Beach, when a fetching damsel turned into a horrid monster with a "matronly bosom": "I think the director had some issues with his mother."

We've been watching Civilisation, a history of civilization as seen through art, presented in 1969 by Lord Kenneth Clark of Britain and now on DVD.  It clearly shows how, for several centuries, all the worthwhile art--all civilizing influences, really--came from the Catholic Church.  One thing that struck me was how often Church-funded art included Greek and Roman mythology, even gods and goddesses like Venus and Apollo.  Not in the sense of worshipping them, of course, but it was still surprising to an art history neophyte like myself to see them in that context at all.

[libby]

I don't know the Christian choices of color -

However, I understand that the opposite of our "blue for boys, pink for girls" was once true -

Blue was the "female" color, and red was the "male" color.

as far as pink for the Infant.....hmm....maybe because he was a younger male (red)?

I have no idea!

[VoxClamantis]

Oh, I have a thing for Ophelias! That Millais Ophelia was in a text book I had in Junior High, and it captured my imagination for some reason. I used to look at it a lot... But my favorite is this one, by Alexandre Cabanel (click to see it enlarged! I totally recommend it!!!:

[Benno]

Chesterton was an ex artist who found his way into journalism, and continued to put something about his theories of colour (and the lost appreciation for it) into nearlly everything he wrote. Almost like an annoying guest at a dinner party at times! Check out some things that he said about colour. And Augustine thought that an appreciation of colour was one of the best gifts given to man. It's an important part of the tradition of Beauty in Catholicism, which some scholars say reached its summit (for mere mortals any way) in the Transfiguration.

[Avalonik]

Oh, I have a thing for Ophelias! That Millais Ophelia was in a text book I had in Junior High, and it captured my imagination for some reason. I used to look at it a lot... But my favorite is this one, by Alexandre Cabanel (click to see it enlarged! I totally recommend it!!!:

I'm embarrassed to admit I've never seen this painting.  It's   beautiful.  Thanks for posting that!

[Satori]

I prefer this Ophelia by Millais. I hung a copy next to my bathtub.

[GeorgeT]

In art history I learned that the most important figures in stained glass had the most red. This was because gold was precious, could be used to color glass and turned out red when it colored glass.