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| Jusepe de Ribera St James the Greater ca. 1614 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Duncan Grant Portrait of Vanessa Bell on Red Sofa 1917 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
"Gellius is reporting a conversation he had with Fronto (a poet and grammarian) and Favorinus (a philosopher). Favorinus remarked that eyes are able to isolate more colors than words can name. Red (rufus) and green (viridis), he said, have only two names but many species. ... Rufus is a name, but what a difference between the red of blood, the red of purple, the red of saffron, and the red of gold! They are all differences of red but, in order to define them, Latin can only make recourse to adjectives derived from the names of objects, thus calling flammeus the red of fire, sanguineus the red of blood, croceus the red of saffron, aureus the red of gold. Greek has more names, Favorinus says, but Fronto replies that Latin, too, has many color terms and that, in order to designate russus and ruber (red), one can also use fulvus, flavus, rubidus, poeniceus, rutilus, luteus, spadix."
– Umberto Eco, from a 1985 essay translated into English under the title How Culture Conditions the Colors We See
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| Anthony van Dyck St Jerome 1615-16 oil on canvas Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna |
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| Duncan Grant Portrait of Vanessa Bell ca. 1918 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| Palma il Vecchio La Bella 1518-20 oil on canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Titian Judith with Head of Holofernes ca. 1515 oil on canvas Galleria Doria-Pamphilij, Rome |
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| Daniel Mytens Portrait of Endymion Porter 1627 oil on canvas National Portrait Gallery, London |
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| Bernhard Strigel Annunciation to St Anne ca. 1505-10 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Lucas Cranach the Elder St Christopher ca. 1514 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Carlo Dolci Christ Child with Flowers 1663 canvas Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Gabriel Zehender Portrait of a married couple 1525 oil on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |
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| Bartolomeo Nazari Portrait of Doge Vincenzo Querini 18th century oil on canvas Museo Correr, Venice |
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| Alessandro Allori Portrait of Francesco I de'Medici ca. 1558 oil on lead private collection |
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| Bernardino Butinone Adoration 1493 oil and tempera on panel Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid |