How were colors used in Medieval Times?

Answer 1

1st Answer:

Colour was very hard to produce because it took natural ingredients to make any color for clothing or anything else. For instance, to make the color red gold had to be used. because of this colour was very basic. Black, brown, some blue for clothing and stain glass had a full range of colors from greens to reds.

2nd Answer:

This is a complicated issue because colors were used for many purposes, produced in many different way depending on use, and there were many ways to apply them. Just to give a few examples:

• Ecclesiastical colors included different colors for different offices of clergy. For example cardinals used crimson from, archbishops purple, priests used black, some monks used brown and others gray. All these colors were produced by dying fabrics to the correct color. Additionally, vestments for services had varying colors depending on the season of the liturgical year. For example, green was for much of the year, Eastertide vestments were white or gold, except for Pentecost, which was red.
• Heraldic tinctures ran a gamut of both colors and textures, including white, gold, blue, red, purple, black and green. Other colors were allowed, but these were basic. Heraldic colors were applied to clothing, armor, and flags. The colors and the pattern in which they were used, together with devices applied (for example a horse's head, clover leaf, caltrop, or any of a host of other things) identified the owner, which was important when a knight was in armor and other identification was not possible.
• Colored threads were used in weaving and embroidery of various cloth items, including clothing, carpets, and tapestries, all of which were very important in the middle ages. Some of these things were simple decorations, others rose to the level of fine arts. The Bayeaux Tapestry is a well known example.
• Enamel ware, cloisonne and other colorings were used widely in the Middle Ages. A lot of this was found in the Anglo saxon treasures at Sutton Hoo.
• Stained glass is largely a medieval development. The techniques used included both staining and applying pigments to the surface of the glass, so parts of the windows were solid and rather transparent, but others bear clear evidence of being painted, especially facial features of people.
• Both pigments and dyes were used in manuscript illuminations, paintings and architectural decorations.
• Wealthy women died their hair. Ancient Romans had over a hundred recipes of dyes for darkening hair. Many, possibly most, of these survived into the Middle Ages, and medieval people developed their own. In fact a book a book on cosmetics, sometimes attributed to Trotula of Salerno, was widely published during the Middle Ages.
• Medieval people had food dyes. Saffron is well known as an example.

The colors used were all what we would call natural, but they ran pretty much the full spectrum. Red fabric, for example, was dyed with different natural materials, including animal, plant, and mineral products. Red dyes for clothing were often produced from the bodies of insects called kermes, that lived on oak trees. Examples of fabric dyed with this product date back to ancient times and exist from Anglo Saxon England. By contrast, when red glass is to be produced, gold(III) chloride is powered and put into the molten glass when it is manufactured. This production technique was used for stained glass in the Middle Ages, and probably dates from antiquity.

There are links below.

Answer 2

Colors were pretty basic because they came from natural sources and there was no way to make artificial color. Laws were also passed that didn't allow the lower classes to wear certain colors or gems. Moreover the fact that hygiene was terrible, meant that their clothes were stained easily - this meant that many people's clothes were brown from waste.

Answer 3

There were many recipes for ink. One called for soot and a binder, such as a thin glue. Another was iron salts and tannin from natural sources, mixed with a binder. Yet other inks were made from vegetable stains.

There is a link below to the history section of an article on ink.

Answer 4

black