color

Madder

Colors & materials

A red dye from Rubia roots, fixed with mordants for cloth and lake pigments. Not cochineal, and not generic red.

Also known as Rubia

  • Madder is used in Dye.

    Pliny’s Natural History treats madder (rubia) among plant dyes that fix reds on cloth. A Roman-era dye use of the root, not cochineal, not carmine as a later lake alone, and not generic red.

    from Pliny the Elder · Natural History, c. 77 CE

    used in · sourced · documented

sources