On another list I am on, a topic coming up regarding the relevance the colour blue is to Jewish women came up, relative to the Book of Judith and all the spin off paintings it has created particularly in Italian ren paintings.
While bantering the topic, I came to find that a certain shade of blue is important to the Jewish culture. I thought that the use of blue on the Judith figures in the paintings marked her visually as a Jewess. Someone suggested that it was not relevant in that regard but connected it to the blue veil of the Virgin - that didn't ring right for me, since Judith is a widow. Rootling a little more, I found that she wore a blue widow's veil - I didn't know that a widow's veil was blue in any culture I just assumed they were always black, so this was news to me. So, is this representation of blue because she is a Jewess, or because she is a widow? And, because of the connection of blue, has anyone noticed that blue is not a well represented colour amongst the Christian nobility? It occurs on occasion in Italian art, according to my memory, I haven't yet done a serious survey to make any real conclusions. Kathy Ermine, a lion rampant tail nowed gules charged on the shoulder with a rose Or barbed, seeded, slipped and leaved vert (Fieldless) On a rose Or barbed vert a lion's head erased gules. It’s never too late to be who you might have been. -George Eliot Tosach eólais imchomarc. - Questioning is the beginning of knowledge. http://www.sengoidelc.com/node/131 _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
