History of a Colour Cochineal Red

The Metmuseum  has produced a series of YouTube videos in a series of lectures under the title of "Sunday at the Met" 

Cochineal produces a red crimson dye.  Elena Phipp, Textile historian takes us through its history via the textile collection at the Metropolitan Museum. 

The story starting off with the history of red as a colour and following the history of dyes stuff around the globe you can easily listen and stitch to Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Colour (that is what I did ) so settle back and hear a very interesting well researched lecture on the history of this dyestuff.

Comments

[Beth Robinson]

If anyone wants to read more about the cultural aspects of how cochineal red came from South America to Europe then they might want to read A Perfect Red by Amy Butler Greenfield. It's one of those historical books told as a story and I enjoyed the read. It only touches lightly on the artistic aspects, though.

[Gerry Krueger]

This sounds fascinating but I couldn't access it from here and couldn't find it at the Met site...

[Sharon B]

Gerry perhaps your inability to access the site iwas just a momentary thing as the talk is hosted on Youtube. I have just checked the link and it's fine but here it is the Youtube link so you can go direct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqx5EHKfKtI&feature=player_embedded

I looked for it on the met site as well but could not find it but you can subscribe to the Mets videos here http://www.youtube.com/user/metmuseum

Hope this helps

[Judy Harper]

Thanks for this - the dyes and their history and chemistry was one of my favorite things in the study of textiles in college. I especially loved the purple made from mollusks in the Mediterranen, which was "royal purple" due to it's scarcity and expense. I wish someone would do that story.