Have you ever noticed that one of the earliest colors to emerge in spring is that purply brownish red of red maple leaves, raspberry canes, peony shoots, wild rose buds?
Caput Mortuum, which translates from Latin as "head of death" is a name given to that color.
Caput, which meant "head" in the original Latin, went through several changes, as words always do. In German camp slang "
kaputt" meant "wrecked or broken or dead". Somewhere along the way, Goethe is said to have stated that because that early spring color of red maple blossoms signals the death of winter
[i.e. death],
caput mortuum was indeed an appropriate name for that brownish red that is really quite prevalent in early spring.
The actual pigment that is called
caput mortuum is a hematite iron oxide, iron oxide being a residue of oxidation. It was called
caput mortuum as were other residues of alchemy that were seen as useless.
Caput mortuum was a popular pigment in the 16th and 17th centuries to use in painting the robes of religious figures. It was also sometimes made from ground up mummies, perhaps another reason for the death's head reference in the name.
Today's drawings are of some
caput mortuum colored red maple twigs, raspberry canes, cyclamen, and peony shoots, all labeled to identify their parts.
Ground up mummies...I'll never look at caput mortuum the same. :-)
ReplyDeleteMakes me wonder about the first time someone thought that would be a good idea : 'I love the color of mummified bodies. Let's grind up one and make paint!' 'Okay, you get the mummy!'
ReplyDeleteLOL!
Deletehow macabre and cool to have ones remains made into paint, rather a different take on immortality
ReplyDeleteDefinitely!
DeleteMy husband said 'Will your body to art.'
ReplyDeletethis is one of my favorite colors, and the red osier dogwood that grows here has a bright red that deepens into this caput mortuum. it also turns up in the ecoprint dyepot. what a grand thing to discover on this inauspicious morning!
ReplyDelete