Persian blue comes in three major tones: Persian blue proper: a bright medium
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
; medium Persian blue (a medium slightly grayish blue that is slightly indigoish); and a kind of dark
blue
Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between violet and cyan on the spectrum of visible light. The eye perceives blue when obs ...
which is referred to as Persian indigo, dark Persian blue, or regimental, that is much closer to the
web color
Web colors are colors used in Web design, displaying web pages on the World Wide Web, and the methods for describing and specifying those colors. Colors may be specified as an RGB color model, RGB triplet or in hexadecimal format (a ''hex triple ...
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
.
Other colors associated with Persia include
Persian pink,
Persian rose,
Persian red
Persian red is a deep reddish orange earth or pigment from the Persian Gulf composed of a silicate of iron and alumina, with magnesia. It is also called artificial vermillion.
The first recorded use of ''Persian red'' as a color name in Engl ...
,
Persian orange
In optics, orange has a wavelength between approximately 585 and 620 nm and a hue of 30° in HSV color space. In the RGB color space it is a secondary color numerically halfway between gamma-compressed red and yellow, as can be seen in t ...
and
Persian green
Persian green is a color used in pottery and Persian carpets in Iran. It is also utilized in the architecture of religious places.
Other colors associated with Persia include Shades of pink#Persian pink, Persian pink, Shades of rose#Persian rose, ...
.
Persian blue
The color Persian blue is named from the blue color of some
Persian pottery
Persian pottery or Iranian pottery is the pottery made by the artists of Persia (Iran) and its history goes back to early Neolithic Age (7th millennium BCE). Agriculture gave rise to the baking of clay, and the making of utensils by the people ...
and the color of
tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
s used in and on
mosques and palaces in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
and in other places in the Middle East. ''Persian blue'' is a representation of the color of the mineral
lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
which comes from
Persia
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
(i.e. modern Iran) and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. (The color
azure is also named after the mineral lapis lazuli.)
The first recorded use of ''Persian blue'' as a color name in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
was in 1669.
Variations
Medium Persian blue
The medium tone of Persian blue shown at right is the color called ''Persian blue'' in color sample #178 of the ISCC-NBS color list.
Persian indigo
The color Persian indigo is displayed at right. Another name for this color (seldom used nowadays) is regimental. The color was called regimental because in the 19th century it was commonly used by many nations for navy uniforms.
''Persian indigo'' is named for an association with a product from Persia: Persian cloth dyed with
indigo
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
.
The first recorded use of ''regimental'' (the original name for the color now called Persian indigo) as a color name in English was in 1912.
In human culture
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...
* Many
mosque
A mosque (; from ar, مَسْجِد, masjid, ; literally "place of ritual prostration"), also called masjid, is a place of prayer for Muslims. Mosques are usually covered buildings, but can be any place where prayers ( sujud) are performed, ...
s in
Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
, such as the enormous
Shah Mosque in
Isfahan
Isfahan ( fa, اصفهان, Esfahân ), from its Achaemenid empire, ancient designation ''Aspadana'' and, later, ''Spahan'' in Sassanian Empire, middle Persian, rendered in English as ''Ispahan'', is a major city in the Greater Isfahan Regio ...
, have interiors that are faced with
tile
Tiles are usually thin, square or rectangular coverings manufactured from hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, baked clay, or even glass. They are generally fixed in place in an array to cover roofs, floors, walls, edges, or o ...
s that are ''Persian blue'' or close variations of it.
[ Picture of the Interior of the Shah Mosque:]
Military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
* The color ''Persian indigo'', which as noted above was originally called ''regimental'', was called by that name because it used to be the color of the
navy
A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...
uniforms of a number of different
nation
A nation is a community of people formed on the basis of a combination of shared features such as language, history, ethnicity, culture and/or society. A nation is thus the collective identity of a group of people understood as defined by those ...
s in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to the fact that it was easy and inexpensive to use
indigo dye
Indigo dye is an organic compound with a distinctive blue color. Historically, indigo was a natural dye extracted from the leaves of some plants of the ''Indigofera'' genus, in particular ''Indigofera tinctoria''; dye-bearing ''Indigofera'' pla ...
to dye navy uniforms.
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
* The
metaphysical
Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
books (on topics such as the
seven rays) written by the
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...
Prophetess
Alice A. Bailey
Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Manchest ...
(which she claimed to have
channeled from the
ascended master Djwal Khul Djwal Khul (variously spelled 'Djwhal Khul', 'Djwal Kul', the 'Master D.K.', 'D.K.', or simply 'DK'), is believed by some Theosophists and others to be a Tibetan disciple in "The Ageless Wisdom" esoteric tradition. The texts describe him as a membe ...
), published by the
Lucis Trust
Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Manchest ...
and called by her followers the ''
Alice A. Bailey material'', in earlier editions up to and including the 1970s were originally bound in
matte
Matte may refer to:
Art
* paint with a non-glossy finish. See diffuse reflection.
* a framing element surrounding a painting or watercolor within the outer frame
Film
* Matte (filmmaking), filmmaking and video production technology
* Matte p ...
''medium Persian blue'', but since the 1980s, they have been bound in
glossy
Gloss is an optical property which indicates how well a surface reflects light in a specular (mirror-like) direction. It is one of the important parameters that are used to describe the visual appearance of an object. The factors that affect glos ...
''Persian blue''.
Persian carpet
A Persian carpet ( fa, فرش ایرانی, translit=farš-e irâni ) or Persian rug ( fa, قالی ایرانی, translit=qâli-ye irâni ),Savory, R., ''Carpets'',(Encyclopaedia Iranica); accessed January 30, 2007. also known as Iranian ...
s
* When blue
Persian carpet
A Persian carpet ( fa, فرش ایرانی, translit=farš-e irâni ) or Persian rug ( fa, قالی ایرانی, translit=qâli-ye irâni ),Savory, R., ''Carpets'',(Encyclopaedia Iranica); accessed January 30, 2007. also known as Iranian ...
s are produced in Iran, ''medium Persian blue'' is one of the most commonly used tones of blue.
References
External links
* (1870): A painting by
Jean-Léon Gérôme
Jean-Léon Gérôme (11 May 1824 – 10 January 1904) was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as academicism. His paintings were so widely reproduced that he was "arguably the world's most famous living artist by 1880." The ran ...
which shows a snake charmer in a Persian market with Persian blue tiles in the background
{{Shades of violet
Shades of blue