Post XXV - Synthesis

For the course of Storia delle Cose given by the teacher Vittorio Marchis we were asked to create a blog to deepen our knowledges about a color and the wide world that exists around each of them that we have no idea about. Sometimes we don't know their names, how to create them or we don't even know about their existence... but colors are everywhere.

When I first started looking for informations, it was very hard to find things about the color Amaranth itself.  Since the very beginning, while looking for the meaning of the color and color code, I found out that Amaranth is a flower. So most of the information being found was related to the plant or its grain. The color itself comes from the color of the flower and it also gets its meaning from its Greek mythology: ever-lasting. To a better definition, it can be found on the Dictionary of Colors by A. Maerz and M. A. Paul in the post protagonist, even though it's not represented by the color known today as Amaranth. 

To make the search easier we looked for how to say our color name in different languages so we would find a bigger diversity of interactions of the color and different cultures. The languages helped me a lot in posts such as the one about music (in which Amaranth can be found in song titles, in their lyrics, as names of albuns or even names of bands all over the world), fashion design (where it can be found on the toge universitaire, a traditional costume used by students of the science field in France) and cinema.

Continuing on the Design field, it can be found in product design in a whole amount of objects. The one I chose to represent the color was Kouple Bathtub and Sink by Karim Rashid since the artist himself is known for using a lot of pink shades in his designs. In graphic design, it had been found in advertisements from a long time. I picked some examples, but the color is very present in cigarettes ads or related to women. It can also be highly found in Italian soccer teams' logos. From that and whole other researches, I came to know that Amaranth is very present in the Italian environment, and it is even the official color of one of its cities, Reggia Calabria.

Moving forward in the geographic world, if you're thinking about going to Portugal, you should know about the small town Amarante in the north of the country. It takes the name of the color, but it's nothing related to it. On the other side, in Russia, we can find the color on the architecture of The State Historical Museum in Moscow. 


In the scientific world it can hardly be seen by the physics who believe that the pink is the absence of the green color. But the truth is that it exists and can be seen due to the red sensitive cones activation together with a certain amount of blue and green sensitive cones. That's how it's possible for us to see the food additive E number E123 found in Chemistry. Even though its use is prohibited in a lot of countries, in the ones it isn't, it's a food colorant that creates the Amaranth color. Not only food can be artificially colored, but they can also be originally with the pinkish shade. The color can be specially found in fruits and vegetables. The amaranth dye is also used in a 1977's patent about Blood Gas Control to give the red color to the acidosis control.


But that's in the "exact's" field. In the "humanistic's" field it can mostly be found in different types of arts, such as in paintings, comics or video games. It can also be revealed in various literatures, such as documents or poems and further more in popular sayings that people use in their every days.  

During the lessons, we deepend our knowledges using the book Pensiero Selvaggio by the anthropologist Levi Strauss and Autopsia di una Macchina, a presentation by teacher Vittorio Marchis. According to the first one, we should talk about the primitive dimension of the color and with the second one try to enter in the "color's body" and talk about its anatomy as we were it.

For the color cloud I chose the flower as the shape of my brainstorm, for obvious reasons, and filled it with some words that, after all these discoverers better describe the Amaranth color in my opinion. 

I hope you agree with it after reading all the posts and getting to know this beautiful and deep color better! Hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did!

Post XIV - Color Cloud

Amaranth Flower
Even though it's not eternal, it brings happiness to all kind of people. 
With its naturalness it's able to pass on various emotions. 
It's capable of touching the bottom of the soul of the most passionate. 
And its vibrant color overflows with meanings. 
Enchant men with its delicacy.
Make women fall in love with its beauty. 

Post XXIII - Savage Color

Aztec Ceremony

The Amaranth was the favorite grain of Aztec Empire, where it was used in religious ceremonies. They used the amaranth to build statues of their Gods. In the end of the celebration, the statue was destroyed and eaten. Looking forward to stop these traditions, spanish colonizers prohibited the cultivation of amaranth which grew for years just as weed. The amaranth was discovered again in 1970 and gained popularity due to it's nutritional value. 

Pink Night

The Notte Rosa is subtitled the summer’s New Year’s Eve because everybody – young and old – feels the urge to join in the party. It runs all along the Adriatic Riviera on a given Saturday at the start of July. Towns like Rimini deck themselves out with pink lights, pink decorations, pink hot-air balloons etc, to get in the spirit. Like the famous White Nights organised in European cities like Paris or Rome, the idea is to create a safe and pleasant environment for friends, families, tourists, and in particular women (hence the pink theme) to enjoy themselves partying through the night. Bars, shops and restaurants stay open all night and at midnight there is a spectacular synchronised fireworks display along the 110km of coastline including towns like Ravenna, Rimini, Riccione and Cattolica.

Post XXII - Architecture

The State Historical Museum is the museum of Russian history located in Moscow between Red Square and Manege Square. It's situated where it used to be the Principal Medicine Store, built by order of Peter the Great in the Moscow baroque style. The present structure is project by Vladimir Osipovich Shervud, a Russian artist and architect, based on neo-Russian design between 1875 and 1881. The museum was founded in 1872 by interest to promote Russian history and national self-awareness. 

Contrary to its name, Moscow’s Red Square isn't red in color (they were actually whitewashed at certain times in history) so the Square doesn't take that name because of the color nor its association to communism. Rather, the name came about because the Russian word красная (krasnaya) can mean either “red” or “beautiful” .

Post XXI - Protagonist

A. Maerz and M. A. Paul talk about the amaranth color in their Dictionary of Color being one of the main ways for people to acknowledge about this color. The book is from New York, 1930 McGraw Hill Book Company and Amaranth is spoke of in page 189; Color Sample of Amaranth in page 127.

The color mentioned in the book is actually known today as Amaranth Deep Purple tone but it's referred as Amaranth. 

"amaranth - The reddish-purple or deep crimson colour of the leaves of the Amarantus. The words amarantin, amarantine and amaranthine, signifying ‘fadeless’, ‘immortal’ or ‘unwithering’, refer to Pliny’s imaginary and never fading amaranth flower. Also a purple food additive (E123)."

Other Designs

Amaranth 

A 106 meters long motor yacht with amazingly elegant design pluri celebrated by motoryaght design magazines.

The design has been conceived in 2011 by bicubedesign. Interestingly the proportions and the shape has been ideated by Guido Bottazzo with the speedform technique.

Name of the project: AMARANTH

Description: 3 decks, 106 meter long luxury motoryacht.
Total lenght: 106 meters

Alma Pm - Louis Vuitton

Effortlessly stylish, the Alma PM is one of Louis Vuitton's iconic designs. Looking marvelously elegant in shiny Monogram Vernis leather, it is still an ideal size for everyday use. Available in the colors: rose ballerine, hot pink, amarante, cherry, blueberry, magenta, dune and noir. 

Video Game

Arrogance—The only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty.

Amarant's quote

Amarant Coral nicknamed The Flaming Amarant or Red, and also known as Scarlet Hair, is a playable character from Final Fantasy IX. He is introduced to the player as Red-headed Man before his name can be chosen.

Amarant appears in-game as a tall man with red dreadlocks, a red chinstrap beard and bluish skin. His outfit consists of a green vest and trousers, a red belt round his waist, red bands on his upper arms and green bands on his wrists, and brownish-red boots.

A rather arrogant man who fights with the honor of a warrior, Amarant also seems a little naive, confused at Zidane's actions throughout the game, and follows him to understand more. He is enigmatic and rarely opens up.