Colour Symbolism

A brief history of systems of colour symbolism from prehistory to modern information technology. Archetypal powers were ascribed to colours in the past because of their evocative qualities in everyday life, qualities caused by physiological aspects of colour perception. Long enduring colour systems included the Greco-Roman theories of the colours of the temperaments. These and the classical musical modes were interpreted in colour in art. Before the early Renaissance, learned alchemists had personalised the colours of the planets and Christian dignitaries introduced the liturgical colours. Various countries adopted heraldic and sumptuary colours. Since Newton’s prismatic colour circle and the paradoxical synaesthetic movements, the most practical and evocative colour symbolisms of today are derived from contemporary Jungian colour systems that can project specific mood and mental effects brought about by artists and designers using the power of psychological aesthetics.