Red madder (Rubia tinctorum) is a precious plant for organic red dyes. Its bright roots yield two red dye pigments. One is alizarin; the other purpurin. The dyes are isolated in the 19th century. First evidence of dye extraction goes back to the Neolithic.
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Red rooted Madder species of plants is native to the Mediterranean, Asia, Africa and the Americas. The organic madder root has long been cultivated for natural dyes and pigments, and used in natural health. It's the first organic color to be synthesized.
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The plant genus name Rubia derives from the Latin ruber or red. Rubinus, from the same root, means 'ruby'. The plant's roots contain the key anthracene compound alizarin, which is the primary coloring agent of red or rose madder dye.
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Pigments created with the madder root are lake pigments, meaning organic. The term lake comes from lac, referring to secretions of the Indian wood insect Kerria lacca, used in shellac, dye and wax.
First production of dyes from madder is found at prehistoric Anatolian site Çatalhöyük (Catalhoyuk), c. 8000 BCE. The practice of making red pigments from extracts of the madder plant is well known in the ancient world.
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Used as a dye since the 18th century, Turkey red is a rich red created from madder (rubia) root. A binder or mordant is added for lightfastness in paint and dyes. The process of creating this color is complex and time-consuming.
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In South America the color created is carmine, a red extract from cochineal insects. This red is one of the colors of prehistoric rock art. In Eurasia the kermes insect is used. The problem in canvas art is poor lightfastness, tendency brown in sunlight, and humidity damage.
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Carmine is a pigment without permanence. When exposed to environmental factors such as humidity, sunlight and temperature change, properties of the pigment are altered.
Over time color can lighten, darken or fade away. Carmine is classed as a fugitive color.
Madder has been cultivated as a dye source since antiquity in Central and South Asia. Dye extraction and use develops in India and China. Ancients of Egypt know the method of producing a lake pigment from madder.
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The pics above of ground madder root from different plants show the variance in grain coarseness and color potential. Some orange tones come from the naturally occurring pigment purpurin.
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To make Turkey red, fabrics are soaked several times in different solutions, including lye, olive oil and sheep dung (full process at end of this post). Due to the labor Turkey red fabric is more expensive, but the red is bright and enduring.
One of its advantages is its friendly relationship with cotton (Gossypium herbaceum Linnaeus), a textile in use by c. 2000 BCE. Cotton may have been domesticated by c. 5000 BCE in eastern Sudan, where early cotton cloth is produced.
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Dyes are among the popular trade items on ancient land and sea routes. The Egyptian word for red is desher. Red is the first color the human eye perceives after birth, besides black and white.
In the ancient civilizations, red colors also come naturally from oxidized iron and red ochre, a clay formed with hematite, an iron ore. A silvery dark magnetic stone with high iron content, hematite is popular for carving cylinder seals, and can be ground to a fine red hue.
Madder reds are used to render flesh tones in ancient and modern art. Egyptians cultivate Rubia tinctorum or madder by c. 1500 BCE. Cloth colored with madder root dye is found in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun (d. 1323 BCE).
In the ancient and modern world, red colors are equated with both love and war. Symbolizing the blood, fire and passion of life, the color red can also correspond to evil and destruction.
Fire also has a nurturing, protective aspect. The colors of fire found in the madder pigments range from dark burgundy or blood red to warm golden orange.
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The madder root produces alizarin and purpurin, both of which are isolated much later, in the 19th century. Alizarin is discovered before purpurin, by heating ground madder with acid and potash to create yellow vapor.
The yellow vapor crystallizes into bright red needles of alizarin. An alizarin concentrate, it comprises just 1% of the madder root. The name alizarin derives from Arabic al,usara.
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Root pigments of rubia have been known to cause red bones in pigs fed madder plants. Also called rose madder, today's manufactured alizarin is medium red to red-purple in tone. Alizarin crimson, made synthetically, is an enduring color on the ever-changing palette.
While commercial alizarin crimson has a specific hue, natural alizarin isn't just one color but refers in general to the reds derived from the alizarin extracted from the red madder root. Its products can range from orange to earthy reds and red-purple.
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Alizarin reds and related hues are favorites of artists now as in the ancient world. Originally they're derived from organic source lake pigments, unlike rocks and minerals such as the expensive lapis lazuli (ultramarine) or mercury-loaded ore cinnabar.
Other Rubia plants include R. cordifolia from India, also called Indian Madder. Apart from yielding red dyes, the root is used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to treat ailments such as digestive issues, skin conditions, and inflammation. Madder is also used for kidney stones.
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Madder appears in ancient Corinth, Greece, in Italy in the Baths of Titus and the ruins of Pompeii. It's mentioned in the Talmud and in writings by Dioscorides, Hippocrates and others.
The artist Johann Vermeer (1632 - 1675) uses red madder pigments in his paintings. In later art it's called rubio, found in paintings by English artist Joseph Turner (1775 - 1851) and as a ceramics color. In Spain, madder is introduced and cultivated by Moors.
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On an Egyptian tomb painting of the Greco-Roman period it's diluted with gypsum to produce pink. Addition of gypsum is also used to incorporate or bind paintings into walls, as in frescoes.
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The process of dyeing cotton Turkey red, as practiced in Turkey in the 18th century, is described by a dyer in 1786 Manchester, England:
1. Boil cotton in lye of Barilla (a type of saltwort) or wood ash
2. Wash and dry
3. Steep in a liquor of Barilla ash or soda plus sheep's dung and olive oil
4. Rinse, let stand 12 hours, dry
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 three times.
6. Steep in a fresh liquor of Barilla ash or soda, sheep's dung, olive oil and white argol (potassium tartrate).
7. Rinse and dry
8. Repeat steps 6 and 7 three times.
9. Treat with gall nut solution
10. Wash and dry
11. Repeat steps 9 and 10 once.
12. Treat with a solution of alum, or alum mixed with ashes and Saccharum Saturni (lead acetate used as a sugar substitute).
13. Dry, wash, dry.
14. Madder once or twice with Turkey madder to which a little sheep's blood is added.
15. Wash
16. Boil in a lye made of soda ash or the dung liquor
17. Wash and dry.
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Colors derived from Rubia madder are the common reds worldwide until 1868, when two German chemists, Carl Gräbe and Carl Liebermann, isolate the alizarin component. It becomes the first natural dye color to be synthetically duplicated.
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