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