Colour symbolism in different cultures

Symbolic colour meanings have been associated in art and anthropology with different cultural, spiritual or religious groups throughout our recorded history. In many ancient cultures, colour symbolism was related to the natural elements – earth, water, fire, air, etc.

For example, traditional Chinese colour symbolism associates the elements and primary colours shown in Table 1.2.

Red (Zhusha Hong) = fire
Yellow (Ming Huang) = earth
White (Chun Bai) = metal
Black (Xuan Se) = water
Blue (Qing Se) = wood
Table 1.2 Chinese colour symbolism

In other cultures, certain colours that were made from rare pigments were highly prized and thus came to have symbolic meaning. Here are two examples:

Tyrian purple

In ancient Roman culture, purple (Tyrian purple or Phoenecian red/purple) was a special colour reserved for the clothing of emperors and senators. This was because the vibrant purple dye was made from a particular species of sea snail (Murex or Muricidae) and it was expensive and very difficult to create.

Statue of Minerva with red porphyry dress
Figure 1.25. Minerva as the goddess Roma. Image attribution: Dennis Jarvis from Halifax, Canada, Italy-0540 – Dress is not painted…. (5168496402), on Wikimedia CommonsCC BY-SA 2.0

Deep red porphyry from Egypt (Imperial Porphyry) is an igneous rock that was also valued by the Romans because it was very close to Tyrian purple in colour. Figure 1.25, shows a statue of Minerva (as Goddess Roma) from Capitol Square in Rome (c 300 CE). Her dress is made from red porphyry to represent the Tyrian purple dye of imperial Roman clothing. (Read more about dyes in 3.4 Colour systems: pigments and dyes)

Ultramarine (lapis lazuli)

Blue was used symbolically in Christian religious imagery during the Renaissance – partly because the blue pigment was very rare. The cloak of the Virgin Mary was often coloured with ultramarine blue (Figure 1.26). The colour blue also represented the heavens and the celestial, so it had more than one symbolic meaning in this context.

Madonn with child and angels
Figure 1.26. Madonna del Cardellino by Raffaello Sanzio shows the Madonna with a blue cloak painted with ultramarine pigment. Image attribution: Raphael artist QS:P170,Q5597, Raffaello Sanzio – Madonna del Cardellino – Google Art Project, marked as public domain, on Wikimedia Commons

Ultramarine pigment was made from a deep blue precious stone –lapis lazuli, said to be worth more than gold at the time. It has been claimed that Michelangelo couldn’t afford enough ultramarine blue for the Virgin’s cloak, and so never completed his painting The Entombment.

Johannes Vermeer put his family in debt to acquire the pigment for his paintings such as The Milk Maid (Figure 1.27).

Johannes Vermeer - Het melkmeisje (the Milkmaid)
Figure 1.27. The Milk Maid by Johannes Vermeer. Image attribution: Johannes Vermeer artist QS:P170,Q41264, Johannes Vermeer – Het melkmeisje – Google Art Project, marked as public domain,  on Wikimedia Commons

Flags of the world

In contemporary international culture, we see symbolic colour all around us in fashion, products and media.  Flags of the world are also an obvious example of symbolic colour (Figure 1.28). Colours used in national flags have symbolic meanings related to a country’s culture and history.

Flag-map of the world
Figure 1.28.  Flag-map of the world. Image attribution: Transparent 6lue, Flag-map of the world, marked as public domain, on Wikimedia Commons. Select image to enlarge.

Australian First Nation flags

Our Australian Aboriginal flag (Figure 1.29) has three colours in a design that represents:

  • the earth (red),
  • the people (black), and
  • the sun (yellow)
Figure 1.29. Australian Aboriginal Flag Image attribution: Aboriginal artist Harold Thomas (Vector graphics image by Trisreed), Australian Aboriginal Flag, marked as public domain, on Wikimedia Commons

The Torres Strait flag has the following colour symbolism:

  • Green – the mainlands (Papua New Guinea and Australia)
  • Black – the people of the Torres Strait Islands
  • Blue – the waters surrounding the islands
  • White Dhari – the Dhari is a traditional headdress made and worn by men. The white colour symbolises peace.
  • White Five-Pointed Star – the five major island groups and their ties to navigation by sea

View the Torres Strait Flag here (copyright permission to reproduce the flag must be obtained from the TSIRC).

Pride flags

Pride flags of the LGBTIQA+ community use colours symbolically to represent various groups.  There is one overarching rainbow flag for the whole community (Figure 1.30) (and a Progress Pride flag – Figure 1.31), but each subgroup also has their own flag with symbolic use of colour.

Figure 1.30. Pride flag. Image attribution: Philadelphia City Council and Tierney, Philadelphia Pride Flag, marked as public domain, more details on Wikimedia Commons
Progress Pride Flag - LGBTQIA+ Flag
Figure 1.31. Progress pride flag. Image attribution: Paul2520, LGBTQ+ rainbow flag Quasar “Progress” variant, marked as public domain, on Wikimedia Commons

Learn more about Pride flags and colour symbolism from these online resources:

Colour symbolism in Australian Indigenous culture

Aboriginal rock painting, Wunnumurra Gorge
Figure 1.32. Image attribution: Aboriginal rock art in ochre colours, Graeme Churchard from Bristol (51.4414, -2.5242), UK, Aboriginal rock art on the Barnett River, Mount Elizabeth Station, on Wikimedia CommonsCC BY 2.0

Traditional Australian Aboriginal artists used the materials at hand – ochres from the ground (Figure 1.32), plants and other substances used to make dyes.  Different language groups across the continent developed their own symbolic uses for colour to represent the earth, sky, animals, people, waters etc. There isn’t one set of meanings that covers the whole country, and some meanings and colour making methods may be protected knowledge of certain groups.

 

This artwork is an Australian Aboriginal dot painting in the style and tradition of the Central Desert people. It uses acrylic paint not traditional pigments
Figure 1.33. Image attribution: Esther 1721 https://pixabay.com/nl/users/esther1721-534895/, Aboriginal-art-503444 960 720, CC0 1.0

Since European colonisation, many Indigenous artists have embraced a wider range of colours in their work – partly due to the availability of ready-made paints, or the use of digital media. In particular, since the 1970s and the beginnings of painting movements by groups in central and western Australia, materials like acrylic paints have become popular because they are available in a variety of colours, are easy to use and quick to dry. Brighter colours have been incorporated into many Indigenous artists’ practices (Figure 1.33). These colours are symbolically used to represent the intensely coloured and vibrant features of diverse landscapes across the country. Learn more about pigments and dyes in Chapter 3 – Colour systems: paint pigments and dyes

Learn more about colour in indigenous culture from these resources:

 

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Colour Theory: Understanding and Working with Colour Copyright © 2023 by RMIT University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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