Editing Red (section)

== History and art==
{{See also|History of red}}

=== In prehistory and the ancient world ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
File:9 Bisonte Magdaleniense polícromo.jpg|Bison in red ochre in the [[Cave of Altamira]], Spain, from the [[Upper Paleolithic]] era (36,000 BC)
Pech Merle main.jpg|Image of a human hand created with red [[ochre]] in [[Pech Merle]] cave, France ([[Gravettian]] era, 25,000 BC)
KnossosFrescoRepro06827.jpg|''The Prince of Lilies'', from the [[Bronze Age]] Palace of Minos at [[Knossos]] on [[Crete]]
Pompeii - Fullonica of Veranius Hypsaeus 2 - MAN.jpg|Roman wall painting showing a dye shop, Pompeii (40 BC) 
</gallery>

Inside cave 13B at [[Pinnacle Point]], an archeological site found on the coast of South Africa, [[paleoanthropologists]] in 2000 found evidence that, between 170,000 and 40,000 years ago, [[Late Stone Age]] people were scraping and grinding [[ochre]], a clay colored red by [[iron oxide]], probably with the intention of using it to color their bodies.<ref name="Marean 2007">{{cite journal|last1=Marean|first1=C. W.|last2=Bar-Matthews|first2=M|last3=Bernatchez|first3=J.|last4=Fisher|first4=E.|last5=Goldberg|first5=P.|last6=Herries|first6=A. I. R.|last7=Jacobs|first7=Z.|last8=Jerardino|first8=A.|last9=Karkanas|first9=P.|display-authors=3|year=2007|title=Early Human use of marine resources and pigment in South Africa during the Middle Pleistocene|journal=Nature|volume=449|issue=7164|pages=905–08|bibcode=2007Natur.449..905M|doi=10.1038/nature06204|pmid=17943129|last10=Minichillo|first10=T.|last11=Nilssen|first11=P. J.|last12=Thompson|first12=E.|last13=Watts|first13=I.|last14=Williams|first14=H. W.|s2cid=4387442|url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/15550/files/PAL_E2962.pdf|access-date=2023-01-20|archive-date=2023-05-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230525103726/https://doc.rero.ch/record/15550/files/PAL_E2962.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Red [[hematite]] powder was also found scattered around the remains at a grave site in a [[Zhoukoudian]] cave complex near [[Beijing]]. The site has evidence of habitation as early as 700,000 years ago. The hematite might have been used to symbolize blood in an offering to the dead.<ref name=":0" />{{Rp|4}}

Red, black and white were the first colors used by artists in the [[Upper Paleolithic]] age, probably because natural pigments such as red ochre and iron oxide were readily available where early people lived. [[Rubia|Madder]], a plant whose root could be made into a red dye, grew widely in Europe, Africa and Asia.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le petit livre des couleurs|last1=Pastoureau|first1=Michel|last2=Simonnet|first2=Dominique|date=2014|publisher=Seuil|isbn=9782757841532|location=Paris|pages=32|oclc=881055677}}</ref> The [[cave of Altamira]] in Spain has a painting of a bison colored with red ochre that dates to between 15,000 and 16,500 BC.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/310/video |title= Cave of Altamira and Paleolithic Cave Art of Northern Spain|publisher=unesco |access-date= December 30, 2016}}</ref>

A red dye called [[Kermes (dye)|Kermes]] was made beginning in the [[Neolithic Period]] by drying and then crushing the bodies of the females of a tiny [[scale insect]] in the genus ''[[Kermes (insect)|Kermes]]'', primarily ''[[Kermes vermilio]]''. The insects live on the sap of certain trees, especially [[Kermes oak]] trees near the Mediterranean region. Jars of kermes have been found in a Neolithic cave-burial at Adaoutse, [[Bouches-du-Rhône]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Prehistoric Textiles|last=Barber|first=E. J. W.|date=1991|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0691035970|location=Princeton, N.J.|oclc=19922311}}</ref>{{Rp|230–31}}  Kermes from oak trees was later used by Romans, who imported it from Spain. A different variety of dye was made from [[Armenian cochineal|''Porphyrophora hamelii'' (Armenian cochineal)]] scale insects that lived on the roots and stems of certain herbs. It was mentioned in texts as early as the 8th century BC, and it was used by the ancient Assyrians and Persians.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|title=A perfect red|last=Greenfield|first=Amy Butler|date=2005|publisher=Autrement|isbn=9782746710948|location=Paris|oclc=470600856}}</ref>{{Rp|45}}

In ancient Egypt, red was associated with life, health, and victory. Egyptians would color themselves with red ochre during celebrations.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/reds.html |title=Pigments through the Ages – Intro to the reds |publisher=Webexhibits.org |access-date=2012-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121004065950/http://www.webexhibits.org/pigments/intro/reds.html |archive-date=2012-10-04 |url-status=live }}</ref> Egyptian women used red ochre as a [[Cosmetics|cosmetic]] to redden cheeks and lips<ref>{{Cite book|title=Ancient Egypt: The Kingdom of the Pharaohs|last=Hamilton|first=R.|date=2007|publisher=Paragon Inc.|isbn=9781405486439|location=Bath|pages=[https://archive.org/details/ancientegypt0000hami/page/62 62]|oclc=144618068|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientegypt0000hami/page/62}}</ref> and also used [[henna]] to color their hair and paint their nails.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/sacredluxuriesfr0000mann/page/127|title=Sacred luxuries|last=Manniche|first=Lise|date=1999|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=978-0801437205|location=New York|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sacredluxuriesfr0000mann/page/127 127–43]|oclc=41319991|access-date=2018-11-23}}</ref>

The ancient Romans wore [[togas]] with red stripes on holidays, and the bride at a wedding wore a red shawl, called a ''flammeum''.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|46}} Red was used to color statues and the skin of gladiators. Red was also the color associated with army; Roman soldiers wore red tunics, and officers wore a cloak called a [[paludamentum]] which, depending upon the quality of the dye, could be crimson, [[Scarlet (color)|scarlet]] or purple. In [[Roman mythology]] red is associated with the god of war, [[Mars (god)|Mars]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=Colour|last=Feisner|first=Edith A.|date=2006|publisher=Laurence King|isbn=978-1856694414|edition=2nd|location=London|pages=127|oclc=62259546}}</ref> The [[vexilloid]] of the [[Roman Empire]] had a red background with the letters [[SPQR]] in [[Gold (color)|gold]]. A Roman general receiving a [[Roman triumph|triumph]] had his entire body painted red in honor of his achievement.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Triumphus.html |title=Triumphus |first=William |last=Ramsay |access-date=2007-12-09 |year=1875 |archive-date=2024-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606044526/https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA%2A/Triumphus.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The Romans liked bright colors, and many [[Roman villas]] were decorated with vivid red murals. The pigment used for many of the murals was called [[vermilion]], and it came from the mineral [[cinnabar]], a common ore of [[Mercury (element)|mercury]]. It was one of the finest reds of ancient times – the paintings have retained their brightness for more than twenty centuries. The source of cinnabar for the Romans was a group of mines near [[Almadén]], southwest of [[Madrid]], in Spain. Working in the mines was extremely dangerous, since mercury is highly toxic; the miners were slaves or prisoners, and being sent to the cinnabar mines was a virtual death sentence.<ref>{{cite book |title=Principles and Methods of Toxicology |edition=5th |author=Hayes, A. W. |publisher=Informa Healthcare |location=New York |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-8493-3778-9}}</ref>

=== The Middle Ages ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Innozenz3.jpg|Roman Catholic Popes wear red as the symbol of the blood of Christ. This is [[Pope Innocent III]], in about 1219.
File:S.George (Novgorod, mid. 14 c, GTG).jpg|Red was the traditional color of [[martyrs]]. A Russian icon of [[Saint George]] (14th c.).
File:Domschatz Halberstadt Karlsteppich.png|The color of majesty - portrait of [[Charlemagne]], King of the Franks and Holy Roman Emperor, Netherlands (14th c.)
</gallery>
After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, red was adopted as a color of majesty and authority by the [[Byzantine Empire]], and the princes of Europe. It also played an important part in the rituals of the [[Roman Catholic Church]], symbolizing the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholic.org/clife/lcolors.php|title=Liturgical Colors|website=Catholic Online|language=en|access-date=2019-10-08|archive-date=2019-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008055940/https://www.catholic.org/clife/lcolors.php|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.catholicherald.com/Faith/What_do_liturgical_colors_mean_/|title=What do liturgical colors mean?- The Arlington Catholic Herald|last=Herald|first=Catholic|website=catholicherald.com|access-date=2019-10-08|archive-date=2019-10-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191008055940/https://www.catholicherald.com/Faith/What_do_liturgical_colors_mean_/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In Western Europe, Emperor [[Charlemagne]] painted his palace red as a very visible symbol of his authority, and wore red shoes at his coronation.<ref name=":3" />{{Rp|36–37}} Kings, princes and, beginning in 1295, Roman Catholic cardinals began to wear red colored [[Religious habit|habitus]]. When [[Abbe Suger]] rebuilt [[Saint Denis Basilica]] outside Paris in the early 12th century, he added [[stained glass]] windows colored blue cobalt glass and red glass tinted with copper. Together they flooded the basilica with a mystical light. Soon stained glass windows were being added to cathedrals all across France, England and Germany. In medieval painting red was used to attract attention to the most important figures; both [[Christ]] and the [[Virgin Mary]] were commonly painted wearing red mantles.

In western countries red is a symbol of martyrs and sacrifice, particularly because of its association with blood.<ref name=":2"/> Beginning in the Middle Ages, the Pope and Cardinals of the [[Roman Catholic Church]] wore red to symbolize the blood of Christ and the Christian martyrs. The banner of the Christian soldiers in the [[First Crusade]] was a red cross on a white field, the [[St. George's Cross]].  According to Christian tradition, [[Saint George]] was a Roman soldier who was a member of the guards of the Emperor [[Diocletian]], who refused to renounce his Christian faith and was martyred. The Saint George's Cross became the [[Flag of England]] in the 16th century, and now is part of the [[Union Flag]] of the United Kingdom, as well as the Flag of the Republic of [[Georgia (country)|Georgia]].<ref name=":3"/>{{Rp|36}}

=== Renaissance ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Elizabeth I Steven Van Der Meulen.jpg|The young Queen [[Elizabeth I]] (here in about 1563) 
File:Pieter Bruegel the Elder - The Wedding Dance - 30.374 - Detroit Institute of Arts.jpg|''The Wedding Dance'' (1566), by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]]
Jan Vermeer van Delft 006.jpg|''The Girl with the Wine Glass'', by [[Johannes Vermeer]] (1659–60) 
File:Willem Wissing and Jan van der Vaardt - Queen Anne, when Princess of Denmark, 1665 – 1714 - Google Art Project.jpg|Princess Anne of Denmark (later Queen [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne of Great Britain]]) (1685)
</gallery>
In [[Renaissance]] painting, red was used to draw the attention of the viewer; it was often used as the color of the cloak or costume of [[Christ]], the [[Virgin Mary]], or another central figure.

In [[Venice]], [[Titian]] was the master of fine reds, particularly [[vermilion]]; he used many layers of pigment mixed with a semi-transparent glaze, which let the light pass through, to create a more luminous color. The figures of God, the Virgin Mary and two apostles are highlighted by their vermilion red costumes.

Queen [[Elizabeth I]] of England liked to wear bright reds, before she adopted the more sober image of the "Virgin Queen". 
 
Red costumes were not limited to the upper classes. In Renaissance [[Flanders]], people of all social classes wore red at celebrations. One such celebration was captured in ''[[The Wedding Dance]]'' (1566) by [[Pieter Bruegel the Elder]].

The painter [[Johannes Vermeer]] skilfully used different shades and tints of vermilion to paint the red skirt in ''[[The Girl with the Wine Glass]]'', then glazed it with madder lake to make a more luminous color.

=== Reds from the New World ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150px">
Paracas textile, British Museum.jpg|Textiles dyed red from the [[Paracas culture]] of [[Peru]] (about 200 BC), in the [[British Museum]]
Aztecheaddress.jpg|Feather headdress from the [[Aztec]] people of Mexico and Central America, dyed with [[cochineal]]
Indian collecting cochineal.jpg|A native of [[Central America]] collecting cochineal insects from a [[cactus]] to make red dye (1777)
</gallery>

In Latin America, the [[Aztec people]], the [[Paracas culture]] and other societies used [[cochineal]], a vivid scarlet dye made from insects. From the 16th until the 19th century, cochineal became a highly profitable export from [[New Spain|Spanish Mexico]] to Europe.

=== 18th to 20th century ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="150">
File:Portrait of Joseph Emanuel, King of Portugal (1773) - Miguel António do Amaral.png|King [[Joseph I of Portugal]] (1773)
File:François-René Moreaux - O imperador D. Pedro II, sua esposa Teresa Cristina e suas filhas, princesas Isabel e Leopoldina, 1857.JPG|The [[Brazilian imperial family]] (1857)
File:Edward VII in coronation robes.jpg|King [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom]] (1901)
File:Kustodiev The Bolshevik.jpg|Red flag of the Bolsheviks, by [[Boris Kustodiev]] (1920)
File:Chinese honor guard in column 070322-F-0193C-014.JPEG|Chinese [[honour guard]], Beijing, 2007
</gallery>
In the 18th century, red began to take on a new identity as the color of resistance and revolution.  It was already associated with blood, and with danger; a red flag hoisted before a battle meant that no prisoners would be taken. In 1793–94, red became the color of the [[French Revolution]]. A red [[Phrygian cap]], or "liberty cap", was part of the uniform of the [[sans-culottes]], the most militant faction of the revolutionaries.<ref name="auto">Pastoureau, Michel, "Rouge - Histoire d'une couleur" (2019), p. 166</ref>

In the late 18th century, during a strike English dock workers carried red flags, and it thereafter became closely associated with the new labour movement, and later with the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] in the United Kingdom, founded in 1900.

In  Paris in 1832, a red flag was carried by working-class demonstrators in the failed [[June Rebellion]] (an event immortalised in ''[[Les Misérables]]''), and later in the [[1848 French Revolution]].<ref name="marh">{{cite book |first=Mark |last=Traugott |title=The Insurgent Barricade |publisher=University of California Press |year=2010 |pages=4–8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=isK7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT21 |isbn=978-0-520-94773-3 |access-date=2022-07-21 |archive-date=2024-06-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240606044526/https://books.google.com/books?id=isK7AgAAQBAJ&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> The red flag was proposed as the new national French flag during the 1848 revolution, but was rejected by at the urging of the poet and statesman [[Alphonse Lamartine]] in favour of the tricolor flag. It appeared again as the flag of the short-lived [[Paris Commune]] in 1871. It was then adopted by [[Karl Marx]] and the new European movements of [[socialism]] and [[communism]]. [[Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic|Soviet Russia]] adopted a red flag following the [[Bolshevik Revolution]] in 1917. The People's Republic of China adopted the red flag following the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]]. It was adopted by [[North Vietnam]] in 1954, and by all of Vietnam in 1975.