Listing description
Detailed description
Ochre is a natural earth pigment containing hydrated iron oxide, which ranges in color from yellow to deep
orange or brown. It is also the name of the colors produced by this pigment, especially
a light brownish-yellow.[1][2] A variant of ochre containing a large amount of hematite, or
dehydrated iron oxide, has a reddish tint known as "red ochre" (or,
in some dialects, reddle).
Use in history, art and culture
Prehistory and early history
Iron oxide is one of the most common minerals found
on earth, and there is much evidence that yellow and red ochre pigment was used
in prehistoric and ancient times by many different civilizations on different
continents. Pieces of ochre engraved with abstract designs have been found at
the site of the Blombos Cave in
South Africa, dated to around 75,000 years ago.[4]
In Wales, the paleolithic burial
called the Red Lady of Paviland from its coating of
red ochre has been dated to around 33,000 years before present. Paintings of
animals made with red and yellow ochre pigments have been found in paleolithic
sites at Pech Merle in
France (ca. 25,000 years old), and the cave of Altamira in Spain (ca.
15,000-16,500 BC). The cave of Lascaux has an image of a
horse colored with yellow ochre estimated to be 17,300 years old.
According to some scholars, Neolithic burials used
red ochre pigments symbolically, either to represent a return to the earth or
possibly as a form of ritual rebirth, in which the color symbolizes blood and
the Great Goddess.[5]
In Ancient Egypt, yellow was
associated with gold, which was considered to be eternal and indestructible.
The skin and bones of the gods were believed to be made of gold. The Egyptians
used yellow ochre extensively in tomb painting, though occasionally they used orpiment, which made a
brilliant color but was highly toxic, since it was made with arsenic. In tomb paintings,
men were always shown with brown faces, women with yellow ochre or gold faces.[6]
Red ochre in Ancient Egypt was used as a rouge, or
lip gloss for women.[7] Ochre-colored lines
were also discovered on the Unfinished Obelisk at the northern
region of the Aswan Stone Quarry, marking work sites. Ochre clays were also used medicinally in Ancient Egypt:
such use is described in the Ebers Papyrus from Egypt, dating to about 1550 BC.
Ochre was the most commonly used pigment for
painting walls in the ancient Mediterranean world. In Ancient Greece, red ochre was
called μίλτος, míltos (hence Miltiades, red-haired or
ruddy). In Athens when Assembly was called, a contingent
of public slaves would sweep the open space of the Agora with ropes dipped in miltos: those citizens that
loitered there instead of moving to the Assembly
area would risk having their clothes stained with the paint. This
prevented them from wearing these clothes in public again, as failure to attend
the Assembly incurred a fine. It was also known as "raddle",
"reddle" or "ruddle"[8] and was used to mark
sheep and can also be used as a waxy waterproof coating on structures. The
reddle was sold as a ready-made mixture to farmers and herders by travelling
workers called reddlemen.[9] A reddleman named
Diggory Venn was prominently described in Thomas Hardy's 1878 novel
entitled The Return of the
Native.
In classical antiquity, the finest red ochre came
from a Greek colony on the Black Sea where the modern
city of Sinop in Turkey is located. It was
carefully regulated, expensive and marked by a special seal, and this color was
called sealed Sinope. Later the Latin and Italian name sinopia was
given to wide range of dark red ochre pigments.[10] The Romans used
yellow ochre in their paintings to represent gold and skin tones, and as a
background color. It is found frequently in the murals of Pompeii.
The Ancient Picts were said to paint themselves
"Iron Red" according to the Gothic historian Jordanes. Frequent references in Irish myth to
"red men" (Gaelic: Fer Dearg) make it
likely that such a practice was common to the Celts of the British Isles, bog iron being particularly
abundant in the midlands of Ireland.
PRICE
$25/KG
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