Rats, Ash and Pears. Color Vocabulary in the Interior of the XVIII Century.

Abstract

The Spanish Enlightenment saw colour as an essential factor in its reform of  the  so called  secondary  arts  or  crafts  as  shown  by  the  numerous  recipe-books and handbooks dedicated during the 18th century to the improvement of the art of dyeing. Until the present, the taste  for  new 18th century colour combinations has been studied mainly by researchers dedicated to fashion and costume. Their assumptions  have  been  used  in  the  historiography  of  domestic interiors  without further critical discussion. But other sources not so far examined from this point of view, such as notarial inventories of domestic objects, challenges thisreceived image.  The  present  article,  based  on  the  study  of  over  two  hundred inventories from  the  city  of  Zaragoza  between  1700  and  1804, examines  systematically  the colour  denominations  used  by  notary  clerks  in  their  descrptions  of  domestic objects  with  the  aim  of  initiating  a  study  of  the  different  cultural meanings  of colour.