Editing Violet (color) (section)

==In history and art==

=== Prehistory and antiquity ===
Violet is one of the oldest colors used by humans. Traces of very dark violet, made by grinding the mineral [[manganese]], mixed with water or animal fat and then brushed on the cave wall or applied with the fingers, are found in the [[prehistoric cave art]] in [[Pech Merle]], in France, dating back about 25,000 years. It has also been found in the [[cave of Altamira]] and [[Lascaux]].<ref>Phillip Ball (2001), ''Bright earth- Art and the Invention of Colour'', p. 84</ref> It was sometimes used as an alternative to black charcoal. Sticks of manganese, used for drawing, have been found at sites occupied by [[Neanderthal]]s in France and Israel. From the grinding tools at various sites, it appears it may also have been used to color the body and to decorate animal skins.

More recently, the earliest dates on cave paintings have been pushed back farther than 35,000 years. Hand paintings on rock walls in Australia may be even older, dating back as far as 50,000 years.

Berries of the genus [[rubus]], such as [[Blackberry|blackberries]], were a common source of dyes in antiquity. The ancient Egyptians made a kind of violet dye by combining the juice of the [[mulberry]] with crushed green grapes. The Roman historian [[Pliny the Elder]] reported that the [[Gauls]] used a violet dye made from [[bilberry]] to color the clothing of slaves. These dyes made a satisfactory purple, but it faded quickly in sunlight and when washed.<ref>Anne Varichon (2000), ''Couleurs: pigments et teintures dans les mains des peuples'', p. 146–148</ref>

===Middle Ages and Renaissance===
Violet and purple retained their status as the color of emperors and princes of the church throughout the long rule of the [[Byzantine Empire]].

While violet was worn less frequently by Medieval and Renaissance kings and princes, it was worn by the professors of many of Europe's new universities. Their robes were modeled after those of the clergy, and they often wore square violet caps and violet robes, or black robes with violet trim.

Violet also played an important part in the religious paintings of the Renaissance. Angels and the [[Virgin Mary]] were often portrayed wearing violet robes. The 15th-century Florentine painter [[Cennino Cennini]] advised artists: "If you want to make a lovely violet colour, take fine lacca, ultramarine blue (the same amount of the one as of the other)..." For fresco painters, he advised a less-expensive version, made of a mixture of blue indigo and red [[hematite]].<ref>Lara Broecke, ''Cennino cennini's ''Il Libro dell'Arte'': a New English Translation and Commentary with Italian Transcription'', Archetype 2015, p. 115</ref>

<gallery widths="220" heights="220">
File:The Wilton Diptych (Right).jpg|The [[Wilton Diptych]] (1395), painted for King [[Richard II]].
File:Rafael - Ressurreição de Cristo (detalhe - anjo).jpg|A violet-clad angel from the ''[[Resurrection of Christ (Raphael)|Resurrection of Christ]]'' by Raphael (1483–1520).
</gallery>

===18th and 19th centuries===
In the 18th century, purple was a color worn by royalty, aristocrats and other wealthy people. Good-quality purple fabric was too expensive for ordinary people.

The first [[cobalt violet]], the intensely red-violet cobalt arsenate, was highly toxic. Although it persisted in some paint lines into the 20th century, it was displaced by less toxic cobalt compounds such as cobalt phosphate. Cobalt violet appeared in the second half of the 19th century, broadening the palette of artists with its range of purple colors. Cobalt violet was used by [[Paul Signac]] (1863–1935), [[Claude Monet]] (1840–1926) and [[Georges Seurat]] (1859–1891).<ref>Isabel Roelofs (2012), ''La couleur expliquée aux artistes'', p. 52–53</ref> Today, cobalt ammonium phosphate, cobalt lithium phosphate and cobalt phosphate are available for use by artists. Cobalt ammonium phosphate is the most reddish of the three. Cobalt phosphate is available in two varieties — a deep less saturated blueish type and a lighter and brighter somewhat more reddish type. Cobalt lithium phosphate is a saturated lighter-valued bluish violet. A color similar to cobalt ammonium phosphate, cobalt magnesium borate, was introduced in the later 20th century but was not deemed sufficiently lightfast for artistic use. Cobalt violet is the only truly lightfast purple pigment with relatively strong color saturation. All other light-stable purple pigments are dull by comparison. The high price of the pigment and the toxicity of cobalt have limited its use.

In the 1860s, the popularity of using violet colors suddenly rose among painters and other artists.<ref name="Computational evidence of first ext"/> For example, [[Vincent van Gogh]] (1853–1890) was an avid student of color theory. He used violet in many of his paintings of the 1880s, including his paintings of irises and the swirling and mysterious skies of his starry night paintings, and often combined it with its [[complementary color]], yellow. In his painting of [[Bedroom in Arles|his bedroom in Arles]] (1888), he used several sets of complementary colors; violet and yellow, red and green and orange and blue. In a letter about the painting to his brother Theo, he wrote, "The color here...should be suggestive of sleep and repose in general....The walls are a pale violet. The floor is of red tiles. The wood of the bed and the chairs are fresh butter yellow, the sheet and the pillows light lemon green. The bedspread bright scarlet. The window green. The bed table orange. The bowl blue. The doors lilac....The painting should rest the head or the imagination."<ref>John Gage (2006), ''La Couleur dans l'art'', p. 50–51. Citing Letter 554 from Van Gogh to Theo. (translation of excerpt by D.R. Siefkin)</ref>

In 1856, a young British chemist named [[William Henry Perkin]] was trying to make a synthetic [[quinine]]. His experiments produced instead an unexpected residue, which turned out to be the first synthetic [[aniline dye]], a deep purple<ref name="Computational evidence of first ext"/> color called [[mauveine]], or abbreviated simply to [[mauve]] (the dye being named after the lighter color of the mallow [mauve] flower). Used to dye clothes, it became extremely fashionable among the nobility and upper classes in Europe, particularly after [[Queen Victoria]] wore a silk gown dyed with mauveine to the Royal Exhibition of 1862. Prior to Perkin's discovery, mauve was a color which only the aristocracy and rich could afford to wear. Perkin developed an industrial process, built a factory, and produced the dye by the ton so almost anyone could wear mauve. It was the first of a series of modern industrial dyes which completely transformed both the chemical industry and fashion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Garfield, S.|year=2000|title=Mauve: How One Man Invented a Colour That Changed the World|publisher=Faber and Faber, London, UK|isbn=978-0-571-20197-6}}</ref>

<gallery widths="220px" heights="220px">
File:Musée Fabre expo. Jean Ranc48 Ranc Jean infant Charles.jpg|Charles de Bourbon, the future King [[Carlos III of Spain]] (1725).
File:Arthur Hughes - April Love - Google Art Project.jpg|In England, [[pre-Raphaelite]] painters like [[Arthur Hughes (artist)|Arthur Hughes]] were particularly enchanted by purple and violet. This is ''[[April Love (painting)|April Love]]'' (1856).
File:Whistler James Nocturne Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow 1876.jpg|''Nocturne: Trafalgar Square Chelsea Snow'' (1876) by [[James McNeill Whistler]], used violet to create a wintery mood.
File:VanGogh-starry night.jpg|''[[The Starry Night]]'', by [[Vincent van Gogh]] (1889), [[Museum of Modern Art]].
</gallery>

===20th and 21st centuries===
[[File:Five Presidents Oval Office.jpg|thumb|Five presidents in the oval office. The two more recent presidents, [[George W. Bush]] and [[Barack Obama]], are wearing violet ties.]]
Violet or purple neckties became popular at the end of the first decade of the 21st century, particularly among political and business leaders.{{Citation needed|date=April 2020}}