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White: the story on HearLore | HearLore
White
The Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals created by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago, utilizing white calcite and chalk as both background and highlight alongside charcoal and ochre. This marks white as one of the very first colors used in human artistic expression, predating the complex color palettes of later civilizations. In ancient Egypt, white was inextricably linked to the goddess Isis, with priests and priestesses of Isis dressing exclusively in white linen to symbolize their sacred role. The same white linen was used to wrap mummies, connecting the color to the transition between life and the afterlife. The ancient Greeks viewed the world through a binary of darkness and light, considering white a fundamental color. Pliny the Elder recorded that famous painters like Apelles used only four colors in their work: white, red, yellow, and black. To achieve this white, artists used lead white, a highly toxic pigment created through a laborious process involving lead, vinegar, and cow dung fumes over the course of a month or more. This pigment remained the standard for centuries despite its dangers, until it was eventually replaced by safer alternatives in the 19th century.
The Politics of Purity
In ancient Rome, the white toga was a powerful political tool, with the plain white toga virilis worn by all citizens over the age of 14 to 18 for ceremonial occasions. Magistrates and certain priests wore a toga praetexta featuring a broad purple stripe, but the most politically significant garment was the toga candida. This was a white toga brightened with chalk, worn by men seeking public office, and it is the origin of the word candidate. The Latin word candere meant to shine or be bright, giving rise to words like candle and candid. During the time of Emperor Augustus, no Roman man was allowed to appear in the Roman forum without a toga, making white a mandatory symbol of civic participation. In the 18th and 19th centuries, white became the dominant color of architectural interiors in the Baroque and Rococo periods, designed to show the power, glory, and wealth of the church through curves, asymmetry, and gilding unified by white. After the French Revolution, a more austere white known as blanc cassé became the most fashionable color in women's costumes, modeled after the outfits of Ancient Greece and Republican Rome. These dresses were so revealing that the women wearing them were called les merveilleuses, or the marvellous, by French men of that era. The Empire style under Emperor Napoleon I was modeled after the more conservative outfits of Ancient Imperial Rome, yet the dresses were high in fashion but low in warmth, leading to the death of Napoleon's former wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, who caught pneumonia and died after taking a walk in the cold night air with Tsar Alexander I of Russia in 1814.
When did paleolithic artists create drawings in the Lascaux Cave using white calcite and chalk?
Paleolithic artists created drawings in the Lascaux Cave between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They utilized white calcite and chalk as both background and highlight alongside charcoal and ochre. This marks white as one of the very first colors used in human artistic expression.
Who wore white linen to symbolize their sacred role in ancient Egypt?
Priests and priestesses of Isis dressed exclusively in white linen to symbolize their sacred role. The same white linen was used to wrap mummies, connecting the color to the transition between life and the afterlife. This practice linked white to the goddess Isis in ancient Egypt.
When did Pope Pius V begin the practice of popes wearing white regularly?
Popes have worn white regularly since 1566, when Pope Pius V, a member of the Dominican Order, began the practice. Within the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church, lighter colors indicated higher rank, and outside a church, only the pope would wear white. This tradition continues to mark the highest rank in the church.
What year did the Geneva Convention officially recognize the white flag as a request to cease hostilities?
The white flag was officially recognized as a request to cease hostilities by the Geneva Convention of 1949. It is believed to have originated in the 15th century during the Hundred Years' War between France and England. This recognition standardized the symbol for surrender or truce requests.
When did chemical companies in Norway and the United States begin producing titanium white?
Between 1916 and 1918, chemical companies in Norway and the United States began to produce titanium white. It had first been identified in the 18th century by the German chemist Martin Klaproth. By 1945, 80 percent of the white pigments sold were titanium white.
When did the White movement in the Russian Civil War finally get defeated by the Bolsheviks?
The White movement was the opposition that formed against the Bolsheviks in the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was finally defeated by the Bolsheviks in 1921 to 1922. Many of its members emigrated to Europe after the defeat.
In 1666, Isaac Newton demonstrated that white light was composed of multiple colors by passing it through a prism to break it up into components and then using a second prism to reassemble them. Before Newton, most scientists believed that white was the fundamental color of light. White light can be generated by the sun, stars, or earthbound sources such as fluorescent lamps, white LEDs, and incandescent bulbs. On the screen of a color television or computer, white is produced by mixing the primary colors of light: red, green, and blue at full intensity, a process called additive mixing. The fact that light sources with vastly different spectral power distributions can result in a similar sensory experience is due to the way the light is processed by the visual system. A range of spectral distributions of light sources can be perceived as white, meaning there is no single, unique specification of white light. For example, when buying a white light bulb, one might buy one labeled 2700K or 6000K, which produce light having very different spectral distributions, yet this will not prevent the user from identifying the color of objects that those light bulbs illuminate. A perfectly white surface diffusely reflects all visible light that strikes it, without absorbing any, irrespective of the light's wavelength or spectral distribution. Since it does not absorb any of the incident light, white is the lightest possible color. If the reflection is not diffuse but rather specular, this describes a mirror rather than a white surface.
The White Flag and The White Knight
A white flag has long been used to represent either surrender or a request for a truce, believed to have originated in the 15th century during the Hundred Years' War between France and England when multicolored flags and firearms came into common use by European armies. The white flag was officially recognized as a request to cease hostilities by the Geneva Convention of 1949. In the Russian Civil War that followed the Russian Revolution of 1917, the White movement was the opposition that formed against the Bolsheviks, finally defeated by the Bolsheviks in 1921 to 1922, with many of its members emigrating to Europe. The Ku Klux Klan is a racist and anti-immigrant organization which flourished in the Southern United States after the American Civil War, wearing white robes and hoods, burning crosses, and violently attacking and murdering black Americans. In Iran, the White Revolution was a series of social and political reforms launched in 1963 by the last Shah of Iran before his downfall. White is also associated with peace and passive resistance, with the white ribbon worn by movements denouncing violence against women and the White Rose being a non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. In finance, a white knight is a friendly investor who steps in to rescue a company from a hostile takeover, while a white paper is an authoritative report on a major issue by a team of experts. The white feather is a symbol of cowardice, particularly in Britain, supposedly coming from cockfighting and the belief that a cockerel sporting a white feather in its tail is likely to be a poor fighter. At the beginning of the First World War, women in England were encouraged to give white feathers to men who had not enlisted in the British Armed Forces.
The Religion of White
In the Roman Catholic Church, white is associated with Jesus Christ, innocence, and sacrifice. Since the Middle Ages, priests wear a white cassock in many of the most important ceremonies and religious services connected with events in the life of Christ. White is worn by priests at Christmas, during Easter, and during celebrations connected with the other events of the life of Christ, such as Corpus Christi Sunday and Trinity Sunday. It is also worn at the services dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to those Saints who were not martyred, as well as other special occasions such as the ordination of priests and the installation of new bishops. Within the hierarchy of the church, lighter colors indicated higher rank; ordinary priests wore black, bishops wore violet, cardinals wore red, and outside a church, only the pope would wear white. Popes have worn white regularly since 1566, when Pope Pius V, a member of the Dominican Order, began the practice. In Islam, white clothing is worn during the required pilgrimage to Mecca, or Ihram pilgrimage, where men's garments often consist of two white un-hemmed sheets. In Judaism, during the rituals of Yom Kippur, the ceremony of atonement, the rabbi dresses in white, as do the members of the congregation, to restore the bonds between God and his followers. In traditional China, undyed linen clothing is worn at funerals, and as time passes, the bereaved can gradually wear clothing dyed with colors, then with darker colors. In Japan, undyed linen white robes are worn by pilgrims for rituals of purification, and bathing in sacred rivers. A white kimono is often placed in the casket with the deceased for the journey to the other world, as white represents death sometimes. In India, it is the color of purity, divinity, detachment, and serenity, with the name Sweta meaning white in Hindi.
The White in Nature and Art
Beaches with sand containing high amounts of quartz or eroded limestone also appear white, since quartz and limestone reflect or scatter sunlight rather than absorbing it. Tropical white sand beaches may also have a high quantity of white calcium carbonate from tiny bits of seashells ground to fine sand by the action of the waves. The White Cliffs of Dover take their white color from the large amount of chalk, made of limestone, which they contain, which reflects the sunlight. Snow is a mixture of air and tiny ice crystals. When white sunlight enters snow, very little of the spectrum is absorbed; almost all of the light is reflected or scattered by the air and water molecules, so the snow appears to be the color of sunlight, white. Sometimes the light bounces around inside the ice crystals before being scattered, making the snow seem to sparkle. In the case of glaciers, the ice is more tightly pressed together and contains little air. As sunlight enters the ice, more light of the red spectrum is absorbed, so the light scattered will be bluish. Clouds are white for the same reason as ice, composed of water droplets or ice crystals mixed with air, very little light that strikes them is absorbed, and most of the light is scattered, appearing to the eye as white. Many mountains with winter or year-round snow cover are named accordingly: Mauna Kea means white mountain in Hawaiian, Mont Blanc means white mountain in French, and Changbai Mountains literally meaning perpetually white mountains marks the border between China and Korea. In astronomy, a white dwarf is a stellar remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter, very dense, with a mass comparable to that of the Sun and a volume comparable to that of the Earth. Its faint luminosity comes from the emission of stored thermal energy, and over a very long time, a white dwarf will cool to temperatures at which it will no longer emit significant heat or light, and will become a cold black dwarf.
The Modern White
Until the 16th century, white was commonly worn by widows as a color of mourning, with the widows of the kings of France wearing white until Anne of Brittany in the 16th century. A white tunic was also worn by many knights, along with a red cloak, which showed the knights were willing to give their blood for the king or Church. The 19th-century American painter James McNeill Whistler created a series of paintings with musical titles where he used color to create moods, the way composers used music. His painting Symphony in White No. 1 , The White Girl, which used his mistress Joanna Hiffernan as a model, used delicate colors to portray innocence and fragility, and a moment of uncertainty. At the end of the 19th century, lead white was still the most popular pigment, but between 1916 and 1918, chemical companies in Norway and the United States began to produce titanium white, made from titanium oxide. It had first been identified in the 18th century by the German chemist Martin Klaproth, who also discovered uranium. It had twice the covering power of lead white, and was the brightest white pigment known. By 1945, 80 percent of the white pigments sold were titanium white. The absoluteness of white appealed to modernist painters. It was used in its simplest form by the Russian suprematist painter Kazimir Malevich in his 1917 painting the white square, the companion to his earlier black square. It was also used by the Dutch modernist painter Piet Mondrian, whose most famous paintings consisted of a pure white canvas with a grid of vertical and horizontal black lines and rectangles of primary colors. Black and white also appealed to modernist architects, such as Le Corbusier, who said a house was a machine for living in and called for a calm and powerful architecture built of reinforced concrete and steel, without any ornament or frills. Almost all the buildings of contemporary architect Richard Meier, such as his museum in Rome to house the ancient Roman Ara Pacis, or Altar of Peace, are stark white, in the tradition of Le Corbusier.