Coats of Arms, Fabrics, and Dyes in Russia in the Early Modern Period: Was there a Hierarchy of Colour?

The colours red and green played a significant role in the cultural and artistic traditions of the Russian Middle Ages. This conclusion is supported by several studies that employed quantitative analysis methods. Nevertheless, the issue of colour in studies on early modern Russia remains a relatively marginal concern. In modern historiography, the history of the attitude to colour in European society in the Middle Ages and the modern period has been studied in detail, largely due to the work of Michel Pastoureau. His conclusions and methodological developments are relevant in the study of the hierarchy of colour in Russia in the eighteenth century, which is the subject of this article. The work pays close attention to noble coats of arms, coloured fabrics and dyes, and delves deeply into the wills of noblemen and merchants, monastery revenue and expenditure books, customs books, and legislative sources. The results of the quantitative research demonstrate that the colour blue is the most prevalent in both family coats of arms and the attire of nobles. The colour red is somewhat less prevalent, while green is frequently insignificant. It has been demonstrated that in Russia during the eighteenth century, the blue colour group represented the most expensive one. The described hierarchy of colour in Russian society was, in many respects, typical of that observed among the inhabitants of Western Europe in the early modern period. It can therefore be argued that one of the principal reasons for the shift in attitudes towards colour in Russia during the period under study was Western influence, which is explored in greater detail in this article.