Color symbolism

Color circle , watercolored pen drawing by Goethe , 1809.
Original: Free German Hochstift - Goethe Museum in the Goethe House , Frankfurt

Color symbolism or color symbolism , as the symbolism of colors, deals with motifs and properties of colors. Individual colors are associated with certain motifs. Especially human characteristics, emotions and elementary experiences can with colors associated are.

Color symbols are more or less generally understandable in a cultural area and are accordingly "valid". They play a role in art (for example painting, film and literature), but also in everyday life.

In the poem of the Persian poet Nezami Seven Beauties , seven colors and their assignments are discussed. Yellow was associated with the sun, air, hot and humid conditions and youth, and brown with the earth, dry and cold conditions, Bukhara and age.

Meanings

In the following some color symbols that are understood in this way in the German-speaking area and some other cultures.

• Red : blood , love , passion , danger, aggression , socialism , communism , social democracy , fire , immaturity, envy, in Christian symbolism according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen redemption of people through the suffering of Christ as well as grace and divine love
• Green : nature , hope , ecology , poison , in Christian symbolism according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen purification of the soul through divine grace as well as the benefit of true repentance
• Blue : water , sky , distance, longing , harmony, trust, loyalty, according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen, viewing heavenly things as an incentive to virtue and perseverance in her
• Yellow : sunlight , warning color , envy , nobility
• Gold : wealth , splendor , freedom , best performance (see gold medal )
• Golden yellow : according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen, the joy of eternal glory and the deliciousness of eternal reward
• Violet : sorrow , rest , repentance , contemplation ,
• Orange : joie de vivre, drive, energy, exoticism
• White : light , decency, peace, neutrality, purity , in Christian symbolism according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen soul in the state of baptismal grace
• Black : death , sadness , darkness , black magic , evil , according to Beatrix von Inzigkofen soul in a state of sin
• Gray : Age , wisdom , monotony, objectivity, discretion , gray market
• Brown : Earth , down-to-earthness, National Socialism , tanning of the skin as a western ideal of beauty

See also

• Color (see section psychological effects )
• Identification color
• Signal color
• Color brand

literature

• Frédéric Portal : Des couleurs symboliques dans l'antiquité, le moyen age, et les temps modern . Paris 1857 ( digitized ).
• Eva Heller: How colors work: color psychology. Color symbolism. Creative color design. rororo paperback, 7th edition 2004, ISBN 978-3499619601

Web links

• Meyers Konversations-Lexikon (1905): Color symbolism
• Alpina colors: the importance of colors .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Duden online: Color symbolism and color symbolism
2. ↑ Karl Schlamminger: Introduction. In: Karl Schlamminger, Peter Lamborn Wilson : Weaver of Tales. Persian Picture Rugs / Persian tapestries. Linked myths. Callwey, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7667-0532-6 , pp. 9-13, here: pp. 11 and 13.
3. ↑ ^{a b} Christiane Wanzeck: On the etymology of lexicalized color word combinations . Rodopi, 2003, ISBN 90-420-1317-6 , p. 26 ( google.de ).
4. ^ Siegfried Ringler : The book with the colored cloth sheets of Beatrix von Inzigkofen. In: Burghart Wachinger et al. (Hrsg.): The German literature of the Middle Ages. Author Lexicon . 2nd, completely revised edition, volume 1: 'A solis ortus cardine' - Colmar Dominican chronicler . De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 1978, ISBN 3-11-007264-5 , Sp. 1079 f.