![]() Literally, it’s a purple garment or raiment (think fancy). and the “Ars Poetica” of Horace, according to Charles Harrington Elster in his 2005 book, “What in the Word?”Ī phrase Horace used, the Latin “purpureus pannus,” denoted an irrelevant and excessively ornate passage. The term “purple prose” stretches back to circa 18 B.C. “Its ambiguity means you can explore more emotions and concepts that are less clear and established,” Sloane said. In creating a world in sound, “purple doesn’t have as clear a set of connotations” as some other colors, like the sadness of blue or the rage of red, said Nate Sloane, who specializes in the history of popular music and jazz at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.įor musical artists, he said, that’s freedom. Prince’s Paisley Park estate outside Minneapolis remains bathed in purple at night. Purple rain pertains to the end of the world and being with the one you love and letting your faith/God guide you through the purple rain.” Of the song’s meaning and title, Prince once explained: “When there’s blood in the sky … red and blue equals purple. After his 2016 death, his estate worked with Pantone to come up with an official Prince purple, dubbed “Love Symbol #1.” And he leaned in with his purple attire, purple guitar and purple piano. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1984, it forever connected Prince with the color. He became The Purple One after he and his band, the Revolution, put out “Purple Rain” in 1984 and a won a Grammy for it, along with an Oscar for the score to the companion film. Purple has been peppering songs for decades, but no musical artist has been more closely aligned with the color than Prince. 1 Billboard single for April Stevens and her brother, Nino Tempo, in 1963. The Grammy-winning song “Deep Purple,” a No. Prince’s “Purple Rain.” Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze.” Juice WRLD’s “Purple Devil.” The rockers Deep Purple. Well before then, synthetic dyes, including purple were available. Purple was reserved for royalty, priests and nobles at various times in history and in various places.īy the 14th century, the secrets of Tyrian purple were lost, according to the University of Chicago Library’s 2007 exhibition “The Origins of Color.” But all hail Tyrian purple! In 2001, through trial and error, the technique for making it resurfaced. (Finlay wrote that at least 250,000 were needed for half an ounce of dye.) Ancient Tyrian purple, named for the town of Tyre in what is now southern Lebanon, was also rose, bluish red or velvety black, she writes. Many, MANY mollusks were required to make purpura, which sometimes wasn’t the color we know today. But before them, Caesar decreed that only Caesars could wear togas dyed completely purple. It’s a love later taken up by Byzantine emperors. and met Queen Cleopatra, he noted her love of purple and embraced it himself. When Julius Caesar traveled to Egypt in 48 B.C. The liquid transformed into purple when left out in the sun. ![]() and returned home with lots of pigments and dyes, writes Victoria Finlay in “The Brilliant History of Color in Art.” The most celebrated was “purpura,” which turned into a fashion phenom made with secretions of certain mollusks. The Romans conquered the Greeks in the second century B.C. Some ways to think about purple, the hues nestled between blue and red: “It’s a color that stands out, that makes a statement, that has a singular presence in the world.” “It can take on so many contexts,” Pressman said. To Oprah, purple is “seminal.” To others, it’s a shapeshifter, said Laurie Pressman, vice president of the Pantone Color Institute, which analyzes and consults on color, including for the folks who made this year’s “The Color Purple.” And she wore a purple taffeta gown by Christian Siriano in her recently unveiled portrait for the National Portrait Gallery. Oprah Winfrey, who played Sofia in the 1985 film version of “The Color Purple,” has donned purple frequently to promote the new musical she helped produce. In Walker’s novel, Celie, the main character, wants a pair of purple shoes but can’t afford them, so she settles on blue. In the early 20th century, purple attire and signage signified loyalty and dignity among the suffragists. In contemporary history and fiction, it often represents something sought dearly. It also expresses creativity, independence, pride, peace, mystery and magic. Now, with the Christmas Day opening of the second film based on Walker’s 1982 book, purple takes a seat at the box office after the historic popularity of “Barbie” and all things pink.Ĭonsider it a many-layered cultural counterpart to its frothier cousin. In nature, among the priestly and royal, as a symbol of independence, pride and magic, purple is weighty in history and culture. ![]() “I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it,” Shug tells Celie in Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple.” ![]()
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