The Bruce Museum

The Greenwich Antiques Society will host a multimedia lecture, Cochineal Red: The Art History of a Color, on Monday, February 6th 2012, at 1:00 at The Bruce Museum, located at One Museum Drive, Greenwich, Connecticut. Elena Phipps, author, independent scholar and former Senior Museum Conservator for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York will present the lecture.

Throughout history, color, especially for textiles, has always been associated with social status. The richer the hue, the wealthier the owner of the clothes. In early Europe, royal blue and shades of deep purple were used in garments for the regal and the most powerful.

When the Spaniards arrived in the ancient Americas, they were fascinated by the intense scarlet color of cochineal dye, derived from a small insect that feeds only on certain types of prickly pear cacti. The color was considered brighter and better than any known shade of red in the Old World. Textiles dyed with cochineal were quickly shipped to Europe and onto Asia and the Middle East through global trade networks. Soon, next to gold, cochineal was the most desired import commodity from Middle America.

Join Elena Phipps as she traces the history of a single color, originating from a lowly bug, and the social and financial upheaval it created as it traveled across the known world.

Refreshments and open discussion with Ms. Phipps will follow the presentation. Admission for non-members of the Greenwich Antiques Society is $20

For reservations or more information please call (203) 869-3491 or (914) 631-9439

www.greenwichantiques.org