Visible materials, invisible meanings: colour-based hierarchies in the Middle Ages

Grazia Maria Fachechi; Alberto Virdis

doi:10.14568/cp36110

Autores

Grazia Maria Fachechi Department of Humanities, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Via Bramante 17, 61029 Urbino, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2995-496X
Alberto Virdis Centre for Early Medieval Studies, Department of Art History, Masaryk University, Veveří 470/28, 60200 Brno, Czech Republic https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2862-5670

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14568/cp36110

Palavras-chave:

Arte medieval, Hierarquia de materiais e cores, Pigmentos, Lápis-lazúli, Azurite, Simbolismo da cor

Resumo

A escolha dos pigmentos utilizados nas obras de arte medievais baseou-se em múltiplos critérios. Um deles, era o seu valor económico, muitas vezes ligado à raridade da matéria-prima de onde os pigmentos provinham, ou à menor disponibilidade no mercado. A par do valor económico, existia também o valor simbólico atribuído aos materiais e aos pigmentos, a partir de um simbolismo muitas vezes enraizado em referências encontradas nas Sagradas Escrituras, em textos exegéticos, teológicos, enciclopédicos ou outros. Os estudos de caso apresentados neste artigo, baseados em obras realizadas com diferentes suportes e cujos pigmentos foram submetidos a análises arqueométricas específicas, evidenciam que, ao longo da Idade Média, por vezes foram empregues hierarquias precisas na escolha dos pigmentos, sendo os mais preciosos reservados para as figuras mais importantes ou para os pormenores mais significativos.

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