Crimson & Emerald & Purple

Crimson is the porphyry — the deep vivid crimson of the Byzantine Imperial porphyry (Porphyry Imperiale — the exclusive red-to-crimson volcanic rock quarried only at Mons Porphyrites — Jabal Abu Dukhan — in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, approximately 50 km from the Red Sea coast). The Imperial porphyry was the most legally restricted material in the history of Western art and architecture: from approximately the 3rd century CE, Byzantine Imperial law progressively restricted the use of Imperial porphyry to the exclusive use of the Emperor and the Imperial family. The purple room (porphyra — πορφύρα): the Imperial birthing chamber at the Great Palace of Constantinople was lined with Imperial porphyry — a Byzantine Emperor or Empress born in this room was called 'Porphyrogenitus' or 'Porphyrogenita' (πορφυρογέννητος — 'born in the purple') — one of the most prestigious titles in Byzantine court hierarchy. The porphyry sarcophagi: almost all Byzantine Emperors from Constantine I (died 337 CE) to the late Byzantine period were buried in sarcophagi of Imperial porphyry. Hagia Sophia's porphyry: the interior of Hagia Sophia contains numerous porphyry elements — the eight enormous Porphyry columns (approximately 6 meters tall, 1.5 meters in diameter) in the nave aisles are among the most celebrated individual architectural elements in Byzantine art. Emerald is the verde antico — the vivid jewel-green of the verde antico marble (verde antico — Italian: 'ancient green' — a dark green breccia marble — a marble composed of angular rock fragments cemented together — from Thessaly, Greece, specifically from the ancient quarries near Larissa). Verde antico has a characteristic deep, mottled dark green color produced by the specific mineralogy of the Thessalian serpentinite (the green mineral serpentine — Mg₃Si₂O₅(OH)₄ — a metamorphic mineral produced by the alteration of olivine and pyroxene under hydrothermal conditions) that forms the matrix of the breccia. Purple is the Tyrian purple — the deep red-to-purple of the Byzantine Imperial Tyrian purple dye, the most expensive pigment or dye in the ancient and Byzantine world. Tyrian purple (also: 'Imperial purple' — or, in antiquity: purpura or ostrum — from Greek: πορφύρα — porphyra) was produced from the mucous secretions of specific marine gastropod mollusks — primarily Murex brandaris (now: Bolinus brandaris) and Murex trunculus (now: Hexaplex trunculus) — both found in the Mediterranean. The production process: the mollusks were crushed or their hypobranchial glands were extracted; the mucous secretion was exposed to sunlight (the photochemical reaction converts the colorless precursor compound — indoxyl — to indigo, which is further converted by sunlight and air to the specific compound 6,6'-dibromoindigo — the true Tyrian purple pigment); the resulting purple solution was used to dye wool, silk, or other textiles. The cost: producing 1 gram of Tyrian purple required processing approximately 10,000 mollusks — at the height of Byzantine production, 1 pound of Tyrian-purple-dyed silk cost approximately 3-4 times the annual wage of a skilled craftsman.