> Can anyone tell me more about this?
"The allegory of colour, which already at the end of the thirteenth century showed slight signs of development, had now become a language comprehensible to nearly everyone, and the full-fledged dandy had now the means of proclaiming to the world his amorous adventures by the scale of colours displayed in his dress."
Linda, I looked into this question of "color coding" when I was working on my book about the history of the color red. There was indeed a language of color at work at the time, and you can find Renaissance books and other documents that spell out the meaning of different colors. One of the most famous and influential is Sicile's Le Blason des couleurs, written in the 15th century (but more easily available in a French reprint from 1860).
What I'd argue with, though, is the idea that the language was "comprehensible to nearly everyone." Often the specific meaning of a color depended on which text you consulted. Red was actually one of the more consistent colors, tending to signify ideas related to fire and boldness, but even so its meaning to one author might be courage and to another, anger. And sometimes the meanings of a color diverged much more widely.
The Elizabethan lexicons are the most fun to read, in part because they are specific to the point of absurdity. A good source on this is Jane Ashelford, Dress in the Age of Elizabeth I (London, 1988). For a more general look at the question of color and meaning in clothing and painting and heraldry, you might also want to turn to John Gage's Color and Culture, or to the various works of Michel Pastoreau (though I should add the caveat that Pastoreau's evidence is not always what it should be).
Enjoy! Amy G. Amy Butler Greenfield www.amybutlergreenfield.com [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
