There's a documentary, 'Tudor Monastery Farm', which explores what farming/ life was like in the pre-Reformation world- one of the big things explored, was just how big a part religion played- it was in so many aspects of everyone's daily life. Jocelyn from 'A Knights' Tale' was right when she said the stained glass in a chuch was, 'a riot of colour (in a dreary, gray world)' The reconstructed pre-Reformation chuch had painted walls, stained glass, & decorated tiles, some donated by wealthy patrons. The vestments (already of rich materials like silk, silk velvet, & high quality linen & wool) of the high clergy in England were decorated with Opus Anglicanum (an exquisite high quality goldwork), which was the envy of the rest of Europe....
The main problem for colour in the pre modern world is that ( and why movies show most people in shades of brown or grey ) 1-you spend a lot of time outside with lots of UV light and rain getting on stuff 2- most pigments from before the 19th century are not stable under UV light and many can be washed out by repeatedly getting wet and drying ( try using a vegetable died cotton and leaving it outside for 3 months and see how bright the colour it is, you will not be impressed ) 3- Pigments were extremely expensive ( we tend to look at the medieval world from the point of view of the 1% but most people are not Lords or kings and do not live in large cities but in small towns or on farms, there buildings had no window glass and had smoky fires inside to cook which covered things in smoke and ash )
@@woltews Almost all natural dyes required fixatives or mordants (which comes from the French, meaning, 'to bite'- ie. Get the dye to take); things as common as salt, vinegar, copper or iron- but also other items like alum- several needed to be imported - there was also a cachet for getting imported dyestuffs (ie. French woad, as opposed to local English woad- & there were issues like sumptuary laws- where monarchs/ governments tried to reduce foreign consumption for commoners- along with adding extra tariffs), which made their price point higher. Shades could be changed by what part of the plant was used, along with the mordant chosen^ Dyeing was also time-consuming (as was the opposite process- bleaching - as wool & linen had natural colours; shades of off-white, cream, ecru, ivory, pale greys, & palest browns - so if a poor person in a medieval artwork _looks_ like they're wearing white, it might not be 'symbolic', & it might not be bleached- it could simply be undyed. But the Medieval world **loved** colour- there were plenty of cheap, locally obtained colours: reds, yellows, light yellow-greens, oranges, bright browns, olive greens, grey-greens, & some blues. A rich green was often expensive, as it required over-dyeing- that is, the fabric was first dyed yellow, & then blue (a cheaper purple could also be produced the same way, with red & blue overdyeing). Overdyeing also meant darker shades were expensive, which is why the rich wore them- black being the most expensive; it was considered ideal for formal dress, which was why so many people in paintings (which were not cheap, nor done frequently) are wearing dark (their best) clothes (in the past, most people would have worn 'poor black', if they even had it, rather than true black - Izabel from the RUclips channel PriorAttire explains it, in a video on a Tudor woman's dress) - there was also a sheep, from Italy or Spain- that had naturally occurring black wool, & people went nuts for it... However, natural dyes produced a technicolour of shades- pink is even historically accurate- there was even a couple of purple dyes available from local or regional plants & lichens (which might be how the well-to-do peasants acquired purple in a 14th c manuscript- RUclips also has a depiction of it- I believe the channel is CrowsEye Productions) - there are several videos that have explored natural dyeing - natural dyes are only able to work on natural fabric (with the exception of rayon) - what makes natural dyeing so difficult, other than the fact mentioned above, that different parts of plants & different mordants created different effects ^ (copper imparted a blue-green tint, meaning it enhanced those shades- alum & tin brightened, & the former helped longevity from the dyestuff, [which was why alum was often used in conjunction with others]- whereas iron was used as a 'saddening' agent, to dull or deepen colours & enhance black dyes). The other major factors in the complexity of natural dyeing, was the fact that 1) different fabrics had different processes- wool & linen were the easiest to dye, cotton & silk had slightly more complex processes (requiring more of the herb as well)- & 2) the end results could vary between the types of fabric- some dyes come up very differently on silk, than on linen or wool. And I suppose there's the unspoken third factor: plants are affected by sun, rain, soil conditions, time of year they were picked (sometimes, even the time of day has an effect)- & as a result, no two dyelots will ever be exactly the same...
Great video! Well animated as well.
Thanks for comment!!
There's a documentary, 'Tudor Monastery Farm', which explores what farming/ life was like in the pre-Reformation world- one of the big things explored, was just how big a part religion played- it was in so many aspects of everyone's daily life.
Jocelyn from 'A Knights' Tale' was right when she said the stained glass in a chuch was, 'a riot of colour (in a dreary, gray world)'
The reconstructed pre-Reformation chuch had painted walls, stained glass, & decorated tiles, some donated by wealthy patrons.
The vestments (already of rich materials like silk, silk velvet, & high quality linen & wool) of the high clergy in England were decorated with Opus Anglicanum (an exquisite high quality goldwork), which was the envy of the rest of Europe....
Thank you for thiis information!
The main problem for colour in the pre modern world is that ( and why movies show most people in shades of brown or grey )
1-you spend a lot of time outside with lots of UV light and rain getting on stuff
2- most pigments from before the 19th century are not stable under UV light and many can be washed out by repeatedly getting wet and drying ( try using a vegetable died cotton and leaving it outside for 3 months and see how bright the colour it is, you will not be impressed )
3- Pigments were extremely expensive ( we tend to look at the medieval world from the point of view of the 1% but most people are not Lords or kings and do not live in large cities but in small towns or on farms, there buildings had no window glass and had smoky fires inside to cook which covered things in smoke and ash )
Thank for the info !! :)
@@woltews
Almost all natural dyes required fixatives or mordants (which comes from the French, meaning, 'to bite'- ie. Get the dye to take); things as common as salt, vinegar, copper or iron- but also other items like alum- several needed to be imported - there was also a cachet for getting imported dyestuffs (ie. French woad, as opposed to local English woad- & there were issues like sumptuary laws- where monarchs/ governments tried to reduce foreign consumption for commoners- along with adding extra tariffs), which made their price point higher.
Shades could be changed by what part of the plant was used, along with the mordant chosen^
Dyeing was also time-consuming (as was the opposite process- bleaching - as wool & linen had natural colours; shades of off-white, cream, ecru, ivory, pale greys, & palest browns - so if a poor person in a medieval artwork _looks_ like they're wearing white, it might not be 'symbolic', & it might not be bleached- it could simply be undyed.
But the Medieval world **loved** colour- there were plenty of cheap, locally obtained colours: reds, yellows, light yellow-greens, oranges, bright browns, olive greens, grey-greens, & some blues.
A rich green was often expensive, as it required over-dyeing- that is, the fabric was first dyed yellow, & then blue (a cheaper purple could also be produced the same way, with red & blue overdyeing). Overdyeing also meant darker shades were expensive, which is why the rich wore them- black being the most expensive; it was considered ideal for formal dress, which was why so many people in paintings (which were not cheap, nor done frequently) are wearing dark (their best) clothes (in the past, most people would have worn 'poor black', if they even had it, rather than true black - Izabel from the RUclips channel PriorAttire explains it, in a video on a Tudor woman's dress) - there was also a sheep, from Italy or Spain- that had naturally occurring black wool, & people went nuts for it...
However, natural dyes produced a technicolour of shades- pink is even historically accurate- there was even a couple of purple dyes available from local or regional plants & lichens (which might be how the well-to-do peasants acquired purple in a 14th c manuscript- RUclips also has a depiction of it- I believe the channel is CrowsEye Productions) - there are several videos that have explored natural dyeing - natural dyes are only able to work on natural fabric (with the exception of rayon) - what makes natural dyeing so difficult, other than the fact mentioned above, that different parts of plants & different mordants created different effects ^ (copper imparted a blue-green tint, meaning it enhanced those shades- alum & tin brightened, & the former helped longevity from the dyestuff, [which was why alum was often used in conjunction with others]- whereas iron was used as a 'saddening' agent, to dull or deepen colours & enhance black dyes).
The other major factors in the complexity of natural dyeing, was the fact that 1) different fabrics had different processes- wool & linen were the easiest to dye, cotton & silk had slightly more complex processes (requiring more of the herb as well)- & 2) the end results could vary between the types of fabric- some dyes come up very differently on silk, than on linen or wool.
And I suppose there's the unspoken third factor: plants are affected by sun, rain, soil conditions, time of year they were picked (sometimes, even the time of day has an effect)- & as a result, no two dyelots will ever be exactly the same...