Editing Brown (section)

== History and art ==

=== Ancient history ===
Brown has been used in art since prehistoric times. Paintings using [[umber]], a natural clay pigment composed of iron oxide and manganese oxide, have been dated to 40,000 BC.<ref>Varichon, ''Couleurs&nbsp;– pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples''. p. 254.</ref> Paintings of brown horses and other animals have been found on the walls of the [[Lascaux cave]] dating back about 17,300 years. The female figures in ancient Egyptian tomb paintings have brown skin, painted with umber. Light tan was often used on painted Greek amphorae and vases, either as a background for black figures, or the reverse.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans produced a fine reddish-brown ink, of a color called [[sepia (color)|sepia]], made from the ink of a variety of [[cuttlefish]]. This ink was used by [[Leonardo da Vinci]], [[Raphael]] and other artists during the Renaissance, and by artists up until the present time.

In Ancient Rome, brown clothing was associated with the lower classes or barbarians. The term for the plebeians, or urban poor, was "pullati", which meant literally "those dressed in brown".<ref>Eva Heller, ''Psychologie de la couleur: Effets et symboliques''. p. 219</ref>
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File:Lascaux2.jpg|Painting of a [[Dun gene|dun horse]] on the wall of [[Lascaux Cave]] in France
File:Maler der Grabkammer des Userhêt (II) 001.jpg|Tomb of [[Userhet]], 1300 BC. Brown was widely used in Ancient Egypt to represent skin color.
File:Antimenes Painter - Black-figure Amphora with Herakles and Apollo Fighting Over the Tripod - Walters 4821 - Detail B.jpg|A tan [[terracotta]] background on a Greek [[amphora]] with the figures of Hercules and Apollo. (about 720 BC)
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=== Post-classical history ===
In the Middle Ages brown robes were worn by monks of the [[Franciscan order]], as a sign of their humility and poverty. Each social class was expected to wear a color suitable to their station; and grey and brown were the colors of the poor. [[Russet (cloth)|Russet]] was a coarse homespun cloth made of wool and dyed with [[woad]] and [[Rose madder|madder]] to give it a subdued grey or brown shade. By the statute of 1363, poor English people were required to wear russet. The medieval poem ''[[Piers Plowman]]'' describes the virtuous Christian:<ref>{{Cite book |title=Growth and decline in Colchester, 1300–1525 |author=R. H. Britnell |pages=[https://archive.org/details/growthdeclineinc0000brit/page/55 55–77] |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-521-30572-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/growthdeclineinc0000brit/page/55 }}</ref> {{blockquote|And is gladde of a goune of a graye russet<br />As of a tunicle of Tarse or of trye scarlet.}}

In the Middle Ages, dark brown pigments were rarely used in art; painters and book illuminators artists of that period preferred bright, distinct colors such as red, blue and green rather than dark colors. The umbers were not widely used in Europe before the end of the fifteenth century; The Renaissance painter and writer [[Giorgio Vasari]] (1511–1574) described them as being rather new in his time.<ref>Daniel V. Thompson, (1956), ''The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting'', p. 88-89</ref>

Artists began using far greater use of browns when oil painting arrived in the late fifteenth century. During the Renaissance, artists generally used four different browns; raw umber, the dark brown clay mined from the earth around Umbria, in Italy; raw sienna, a reddish-brown earth mined near [[Siena]], in [[Tuscany]]; burnt umber, the Umbrian clay heated until it turned a darker shade, and burnt sienna, heated until it turned a dark reddish brown. In Northern Europe, [[Jan van Eyck]] featured rich earth browns in his portraits to set off the brighter colors.
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File:Leonardo da vinci, Drawings of Water Lifting Devices.jpg|Leonardo da Vinci used sepia ink, from cuttlefish, for his writing and drawing
File:Jan van Eyck - Baudouin de Lannoy.jpg|Jan van Eyck, Portrait de Baudoin de Lannoy (1435)
File:Maria Tudor1.jpg|[[Mary I of England]] (1554)
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=== Modern history ===

==== 17th and 18th century ====
The 17th and 18th century saw the greatest use of brown. [[Caravaggio]] and [[Rembrandt Van Rijn]] used browns to create [[chiaroscuro]] effects, where the subject appeared out of the darkness. Rembrandt also added umber to the ground layers of his paintings because it promoted faster drying. Rembrandt also began to use new brown pigment, called Cassel earth or Cologne earth. This was a natural earth color composed of over ninety percent organic matter, such as soil and peat. It was used by [[Rubens]] and [[Anthony van Dyck]], and later became commonly known as Van Dyck brown.
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File:Rembrandt van Rijn - Self-Portrait - Google Art Project.jpg|Self-portrait of [[Rembrandt]]. The older Rembrandt became the more brown he used in his paintings.
File:Anthonis van Dyck Self Portrait.jpg|[[Anthony van Dyck]], like Rembrandt, was attached to the pigment called Cassel earth or Cologne earth; it became known as Van Dyck brown
File:Portrait of Tsaritsa Natalya Kirillovna Naryshkina - Google Cultural Institute.jpg|[[Natalya Naryshkina]], [[Tsaritsa]] of Russia (late 17th century)
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==== 19th and 20th century ====
Brown was generally hated by the French impressionists, who preferred bright, pure colors. The exception among French 19th-century artists was [[Paul Gauguin]], who created luminous brown portraits of the people and landscapes of French Polynesia.

In the late 20th century, brown became a common symbol in western culture for simple, inexpensive, natural and healthy. Bag lunches were carried in plain brown paper bags; packages were wrapped in plain brown paper. Brown bread and brown sugar were viewed as more natural and healthy than white bread and white sugar.

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File:Jesus, Benedito Calixto de - Retrato de Dom Pedro I.jpg|Pedro of Braganza, Prince Royal of [[United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves|Portugal and Brazil]] (later Emperor [[Pedro I of Brazil]] and King Pedro IV of Portugal), by [[Benedito Calixto]] (1822)
File:Paul Gauguin - Parau na te Varua ino (1892).jpg|''Words of the Devil'', by Paul Gauguin (1892)
File:HJ Uniform.jpg|Uniform of the [[Hitler Youth]] movement in the 1930s
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