Black Lipstick

Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates.

Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings. It was used in ancient Egypt and Greece as the color of the underworld. In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic. In the 14th century, it was worn by royalty, clergy, judges, and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. According to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end, secrets, magic, force, violence, fear, evil, and elegance.

Black is the most common ink color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, as it provides the highest contrast with white paper and thus is the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white screen is the most common format used on computer screens.Heller, Eva, ''Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques'' (2009), p. 126 As of September 2019, the darkest material is made by MIT engineers from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.

Etymology

The word ''black'' comes from Old English ''blæc'' ("black, dark", ''also'', "ink"), from Proto-Germanic *''blakkaz'' ("burned"), from Proto-Indo-European *''bhleg-'' ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from base *''bhel-'' ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon ''blak'' ("ink"), Old High German ''blach'' ("black"), Old Norse ''blakkr'' ("dark"), Dutch ''blaken'' ("to burn"), and Swedish ''bläck'' ("ink"). More distant cognates include Latin ''flagrare'' ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and Ancient Greek ''phlegein'' ("to burn, scorch"). The Ancient Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. ''Kuanos could mean both dark blue and black.Michel Pastoureau, ''Noir – Histoire d'une couleur'', p. 34. The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ''ater'' was a flat, dull black, while ''niger'' was a brilliant, saturated black. ''Ater'' has vanished from the vocabulary, but ''niger'' was the source of the country name ''Nigeria,'' the English word ''Negro'', and the word for "black" in most modern Romance languages (French: ''noir''; Spanish and Portuguese: ''negro''; Italian: ''nero''; Romanian: ''negru'').

Old High German also had two words for black: ''swartz'' for dull black and ''blach'' for a luminous black. These are parallelled in Middle English by the terms ''swart'' for dull black and ''blaek'' for luminous black. ''Swart'' still survives as the word ''swarthy'', while ''blaek'' became the modern English ''black''. The former is cognate with the words used for black in most modern Germanic languages aside from English ( German: ''schwarz'', Dutch: ''zwart'', Swedish: ''svart'', Danish: ''sort'', Icelandic: ''svartr''). In heraldry, the word used for the black color is sable, named for the black fur of the sable, an animal.

Art

Prehistoric

Black was one of the first colors used in art. The Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They began by using charcoal, and later achieved darker pigments by burning bones or grinding a powder of manganese oxide.

Ancient

For the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations; being the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the form of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead. To ancient Greeks, black represented the underworld, separated from the living by the river Acheron, whose water ran black. Those who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, where he was seated upon a black ebony throne. Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making black-figure pottery and later red figure pottery, using a highly original technique. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures with a glossy clay slip on a red clay pot. When the pot was fired, the figures painted with the slip would turn black, against a red background. Later they reversed the process, painting the spaces between the figures with slip. This created magnificent red figures against a glossy black background.

In the social hierarchy of ancient Rome, purple was the color reserved for the Emperor; red was the color worn by soldiers (red cloaks for the officers, red tunics for the soldiers); white the color worn by the priests, and black was worn by craftsmen and artisans. The black they wore was not deep and rich; the vegetable dyes used to make black were not solid or lasting, so the blacks often faded to gray or brown.

In Latin, the word for black, ''ater'' and to darken, ''atere'', were associated with cruelty, brutality and evil. They were the root of the English words "atrocious" and "atrocity". Black was also the Roman color of death and mourning. In the 2nd century BC Roman magistrates began to wear a dark toga, called a ''toga pulla'', to funeral ceremonies. Later, under the Empire, the family of the deceased also wore dark colors for a long period; then, after a banquet to mark the end of mourning, exchanged the black for a white toga. In Roman poetry, death was called the ''hora nigra'', the black hour.

The German and Scandinavian peoples worshipped their own goddess of the night, Nótt, who crossed the sky in a chariot drawn by a black horse. They also feared Hel, the goddess of the kingdom of the dead, whose skin was black on one side and red on the other. They also held sacred the raven. They believed that Odin, the king of the Nordic pantheon, had two black ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who served as his agents, traveling the world for him, watching and listening.

File:Tutanhkamun jackal.jpg, Statue of Anubis, guardian of the underworld, from the tomb of Tutankhamun.
File:Akhilleus Aias MGEt 16757.jpg, Greek black-figure pottery. Ajax and Achilles playing a game, about 540–530 BC. (Vatican Museums).
File:Pyxis Peleus Thetis Louvre L55 by Wedding Painter.jpg, Red-figure pottery with black background. Portrait of Thetis, about 470–480 BC. (The Louvre)

Postclassical

In the early Middle Ages, black