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All About Purple: An Introduction

 

When thinking of the Imperial Roman Empire and the many Emperors that took rule through the centuries, we recall the imagery and symbolism carried with it through art. The representation of Emperors in their dress was constantly depicted in purple robes. Purple thereby became associated with Roman Imperial Emperors in art, portraiture, and architecture. The extraction process of each material, porphyry and murex dye, held great difficulty and was therefore expensive. With the large price tag of these materials use, it was then only the Emperors that could take advantage of these products. Through such restricted usage, association grew between emperor rule to porphyry and murex dye. The rarity of the colour purple and complexity of its production and extraction during the Imperial Roman Empire was the reason for its use as a status symbol and aesthetic antiquity.

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Porphyry & Murex Dye Tied Together: A Conclusion

  • Writer: Sydney
    Sydney
  • Apr 16, 2018
  • 2 min read

As a reserved material for the Imperial Roman Emperors, porphyry stone and its application in daily life thereby held significant symbolism. Porphyry and its relationship to imperial emperors is that it reflected power and high rank. The use of the material applications advised from the emperor reveals the power association to its extent. This external association is to be a reminder of imperial authority and hierarchy. The rarity and difficulty of the material makes it so that it is reserved for emperor use and therefore formulates its symbolism. In daily life of imperial Roman Emperors, the significance of the colour purple transitions to their dress. The same rarity, complexity of extraction, and cost of porphyry stone that defines its restricted use is then applied to murex dye.

With the exclusivity of the dye, the symbolism of the colour purple in relation to emperor status strengthened. W. T. Avery (1940) discusses the growth of the colour as it comes to represent power. This then to be cult-symbol type and as a worship tool. This is done through association of restriction of colour use. Overall, it contributes to the imagery being enforced to support cult-like worship. Through the progression of the Imperial Roman Empire, there was the development of emperors being depicted as divine. As purple became a tool to support such ideologies, and made it clear that the emperor held power over all Romans with the wearing of a single colour. To which that “the most enduring status symbol of the ancient world was the colour purple” (Reinhold, 1970).

Purple being owned by the emperors in the duration of the Imperial Roman Empire brought the personal use of porphyry and murex dye. With these restrictions based around the intense extractions of either material, adds to the symbolic importance of obtaining and usage of such materials and overall imagery and symbolism of colour purple.

 
 
 

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