jmd
Even with altering colours over time (for example, brass, which looks a little similar to gold, becoming green due to the oxidation of its copper base), pigments can usually be ascertained by careful magnification and, in only some rare cases, chemical analysis. The hue may not be rightly determined, but then, neither would it have been consistently applied at the time.
Frankly, and though I entirely agree that their was a 'colour meaning' at the time, this I do not think would have been taken in isolation of its setting: sure royal blue and Madonna blue had their specific connection - and in some cases, may have had the equivalent of 'copyright usage'. On the whole, however, the colour used would have been meaningful only if assigned to an image having its complement in iconographic reference. For example, a deep blue, on a Madonna-like figure, may be quite different than if applied to mosaïc tiling (though the Madonna blue is one of the more fixed of all colours in terms of its association).
If the image is going to be coloured, I would suggest that its determining factor would be how the colour brings out the intended image. For this, perhaps three principal factors may well be:
Frankly, and though I entirely agree that their was a 'colour meaning' at the time, this I do not think would have been taken in isolation of its setting: sure royal blue and Madonna blue had their specific connection - and in some cases, may have had the equivalent of 'copyright usage'. On the whole, however, the colour used would have been meaningful only if assigned to an image having its complement in iconographic reference. For example, a deep blue, on a Madonna-like figure, may be quite different than if applied to mosaïc tiling (though the Madonna blue is one of the more fixed of all colours in terms of its association).
If the image is going to be coloured, I would suggest that its determining factor would be how the colour brings out the intended image. For this, perhaps three principal factors may well be:
its naturalness and realism when feasible (grass as green; ground as brown or black; skin as flesh-colour; clothes as realistic);
its symbolic value if and only if pertinent (for example, heraldic device; avoidance of symbolic ambiguity or incompatibility by colour);
as mentioned before, availability (and cost) of pigment, artistic overall colour sense of individual doing the colouration, and need for contrast.
I personally do not think, then, that specific colours were generally applied because of meaning. Nonetheless, colour-sense would have affected its various application.its symbolic value if and only if pertinent (for example, heraldic device; avoidance of symbolic ambiguity or incompatibility by colour);
as mentioned before, availability (and cost) of pigment, artistic overall colour sense of individual doing the colouration, and need for contrast.