The Color Green. Between Freshness, Beauty and Danger

Jan Van Eyck. Untitled, known in English as The Arnolfini Portrait, The Arnolfini Wedding, The Arnolfini Marriage, The Arnolfini Double Portrait, or Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife, 1434 Source/Photographer: Web site of National Gallery, London Image: Wikimedia Commons

Green is the color of new life and the color of rebirth. Green is the color of spring and therefore of youth, hope and joy. However, historically, this is one of the most controversial colors. Green is also the color of decay, and often symbolizes jealousy. 
The fact that the green color is associated with nature and youth, has been used as a symbol in different historical periods. 

Chlorophyll gives plants the green color that has been associated with nature since antiquity. Osiris, originally the Ancient Egyptian god of vegetation, and later of the underworld, was often depicted in mural paintings with green face and body. 

Green symbolizes youth because of its association with spring. There are two aspects to this: the positive associations of vigor and strength, counterbalanced by naivety or greenness. [5.] 

What has been the role of green in fashion history and when it first became a sign of modernity? When I was writing this story I tried to find it out. And I did it because green is also one of my favorite colors.

The Ancient Color Green 

Green costumes were worn already in ancient Mesopotamia as shown by ceramics, but it is not known how the green dyes were produced and what has been symbolic meaning of those vivid green clothes. 

Green was the symbol of regeneration and rebirth, and all the living nature. Egyptian artists used finely ground malachite for mural paintings, papyrus and as a substance for cosmetics. They also mixed yellow ochre and blue azurite. Egyptians used dyes made from saffron to color fabrics. After that they soaked them in blue dye from the roots of the woad plant.

The hieroglyph for green in Ancient Egypt was represented by a growing papyrus sprout, showing the close connection between green color and vegetation, vigor, and growth. The ruler of the underworld, Osiris, was depicted in mural paintings with a green face and body, because green was the symbol of good health and rebirth.  Palettes of green facial makeup, made with malachite, were found in tombs. Green color in makeup was worn by both the living and the dead. It was especially used around the eyes, to protect them from evil. 

It is interesting that in Ancient Greece, green and blue were sometimes considered the same color. There was only one word that sometimes described the color of the sea and the color of trees. Green was not counted among the four classic colors of Greek painting – red, yellow, black and white – and is rarely found in Greek art. It is also unknown whether the Greeks used green in their clothing.

The Romans loved the color green as it was the color of Venus, the goddess of gardens, vegetables, vineyards, beauty and love. Green pigment was widely used in the mural paintings of Pompeii, Herculaneum, and other Roman cities. The green pigment called 'verdigris' that was made by soaking copper plates in fermenting wine was also quite widespread in Ancient Rome. By the second century AD, the Romans were using green in paintings, mosaics and glass, and there were ten different words in Latin for varieties of green.

During the time of Roman emperor Nero, the use of green emeralds in the making of jewelry was a fashion trend. Nero himself was very fond of emeralds. There are many fantastical stories to be found in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History.  In book 37, Pliny discussed various precious stones valued by the Romans, particularly that of smaragdus. It is often translated from Greek language as “emerald”. [17.]

The princeps Nero viewed the combats of the gladiators in a smaragdus.
— Pliny, Natural History, 37.16.

The reason for that was the properties of emerald that jewelers had noticed. The stone was soothing to the eyes of gem cutters.

Medieval & Renaissance Green

Bartolomeo Veneto. Portrait of a Lady in a Green Dress. 1530. Image: wikiart.org public domain

Medieval scholars inherited the idea from ancient times that there were seven colors: white, yellow, red, green, blue, purple and black. Green was the middle color, which meant that it sat balanced between the extremes of white and black. It was also considered a soothing color, so much so that scribes often kept emeralds and other green objects beside them to look at when they needed to rest their eyes.

Green is often associated with the Islamic religion, but this idea only developed in the twelfth-century. In the Quran green is mentioned eight times, always in a positive sense, as a color of vegetation, spring and paradise. The Prophet Muhammad was also said to have liked to wear a green turban and other green fabrics. [ 4.] 

After the Crusades, the color green could have spread in Western Europe as one of the influences of Islamic region. This is evidenced in many 15th-century miniatures and paintings in which we will see women in green costumes. Sometimes the knights who were younger and less experienced were also dressed in green clothes.

And yet, in the Middle Ages, green was considered a quite controversial color. 
In the 15th century art, the devil was depicted green. Medieval poets such as Chaucer also drew connections between the color green and the devil. In his 'Friar’s tale', the devil came dressed in green. Why? Green was perceived as a pleasant color and one that attracted animals. Hunters dressed in green so as not to forewarn their prey. The Friar’s devil clearly fits this description. The devil is a hunter dressed in green seeking his prey “under a forest syde.” [10.] And maybe that is why the green has been a fashionable color of clothing for several centuries? 

However, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the color of clothing also showed a person's social rank and profession. Red could only be worn by the nobility, brown and gray by peasants, and green by merchants, bankers and the gentry and their families. The bride in the Arnolfini portrait by Jan van Eyck (see the first image at the beginning of this article) wears green houppelande. Also, Mona Lisa painted by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci wears green in her portrait. At that time, an expressive color green was expensive and such clothes were sign of status. For those who wanted or were required to wear green, there were not washing and sunlight resistant green pigments. Green dyes were made out of the fern, buckthorn berries, the juice of nettles and of leeks, and of many other plants and trees, but those color pigments rapidly faded out or changed their color.
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​The 16th century came with innovation. For the first time was produced green dye by dyeing the fabric with woad that made it blue, and then with yellow pigment. It was obtained from Reseda luteola, also known as yellow-weed.

Dangerous Green of the 18th and 19th Century 

Little is known about the use of green in the 17th century, but the costumes that have survived to this day indicate that this color has been used more in the very beginning of the century.

The 18th and 19th century brought the discovery and production of synthetic green pigments rapidly replacing mineral and vegetable pigments and dyes. These new dyes were more stable and brilliant than the vegetable dyes, but some of them contained high levels of arsenic. The Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele introduced the color in 1775. The deadly hue, named Scheele's Green soon took over the Victorian age. The fact that this particular hue was used for the coloring of Bonaparte’s bedroom wallpaper forces many historians to believe that Scheele’s Green caused his death in 1821. [9.] Sources also say, that Schweinfurt green, also known as emerald or Paris green, was used in wallpaper and upholstery in the 19th century and contained high levels of arsenic. [ 6.] This particular hue connected the color green pigments and the toxic chemical arsenic that was used in textile industry. 

Green has become a modern color not only in clothing but also in the interior. In the 18th and 19th century, green was closely related to the romantic movement in literature and art. The French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau praised naturalness and the green was a symbol of nature. The German poet and philosopher Goethe declared that green was the most relaxing color and therefore, is very suitable for decorating a bedroom.

Green was associated with many symbolic meanings in the 19th century. It was a color of rebels and outsiders.  It was a color of nature, and, of course - it was the color of the artistic expression. 

In Victorian England, the color green was also associated with homosexuality. At the end of the 19th century, green was the color highly praised by artists. The depiction of the green color of nature was revived in Impressionism partly because of the advent of tubes for pigments, which made it possible to paint in Plein Air, and partly thanks to the manufacture of new and brighter green pigments. In his painting “The Japanese Bridge,” 1899, Monet uses the color of hope together with the symbol of a bridge. The bridge stands for the uniting of people and revives hope for a peaceful future. [10.] 

Also in the 20th and 21st century, the color green has not lost its symbolic meanings of  the past. S till it is perceived with a certain degree of dualism.  Green is not a color of social status anymore, but it is the color of prosperity, freshness and nature. 
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Green is the color of some political parties. Interesting enough, that the first known green party was a political fraction in Constantinople during the 6th century Byzantine Empire. It took its name from a popular chariot racing team. They were bitter opponents of the blue fraction, which supported Emperor Justinian I and which had its own chariot racing team In 532 AD rioting between the factions began after one race, which led to the massacre of green supporters and the destruction of much of the center of Constantinople. [14.] 

​Green was the traditional color of Irish nationalism, beginning in the 17th century with deep roots in the Celtic culture. 

Green is the color of ecologically oriented movements. "Going green" is an expression commonly used to refer to preserving the natural environment, and participating in activities such as recycling materials. And this list could be continued, because the color green is still associated with something bright and fresh, despite the mistakes of the past. 

References & Further Reading: 

1. Finlay, V., The Brilliant History of Color in Art.-  Getty Publications, 2014
2. Ball, P., Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color - Univ. of Chicago Press, 2003
3. Gage, J.,Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism - Univ. of California Press, 1992. 
​4. Pastoureau, M. Green: The History of a Color. - Princeton University Press, 2014.
5. Signs & Symbols. An Illustrated Guide To Their Origins And Meanings. /Project Editor: Kathryn Wilkinson. - London, New York, Munich, Melbourne, Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Limited, 2008.  
6. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/26/why-green-just-cant-be-trusted
​7. www.the-athenaeum.org/art/detail.php?ID=100497
8.www.sensationalcolor.com/color-meaning/color-meaning-symbolism-psychology/all-about-the-color-green-4309#.WuTFEYiFPIU
​9. www.widewalls.ch/the-color-green-pantone-2017/
​10. www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/greens.html
11.pictorial.jezebel.com/the-arsenic-dress-how-poisonous-green-pigments-terrori-1738374597
​12.www.artsy.net/article/the-art-genome-project-a-brief-history-of-color-in-art
​13.www.printmag.com/design-inspiration/magical-turbulent-history-color-green-part-1/
14. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green
15.​www.medievalists.net/2018/02/color-middle-ages/
16.​www.wikiart.org/en/bartolomeo-veneto/portrait-of-a-lady-in-a-green-dress-1530
17.sarahemilybond.com/2016/05/22/i-wear-my-sunglasses-at-the-fight-the-emperor-nero-and-the-history-of-sunglasses/

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