Vermilion

Wisd. xiii. 14. Vitruv. l. 7. c. 5.VERMILION. This Word comes from the Latin, Vermis, or Vermiculus, a Worm; because Crimson and Scarlet are dyed with those little Worms that are gathered from a kind of green Oak, which affords the Kermes, or Grain of Scarlet. See WORM. But the true Vermilion is quite another thing, and has no relation to the Vermiculus, but in point of Colour. The Vermilion that was known to the Ancients¹ was found in Spain, upon inaccessible Rocks. They were Stones that were beat down with Arrows. They were found also in Cholchis. The Artificial was made of a red Sand, which was got near Ephesus, after it was washed several times. The Vermilion made use of at present is composed of an artificial Cinnaber, which has been levigated for a long time upon Porphyry, and reduced to an impalpable Powder.

T he Book of Wisdom speaks of Vermilion, with which they formerly painted the Statues of the Gods: Laying it over with vermilion and with paint, colouring it red, and covering every spot therein. When the Statuary had formed a Statue of crooked and knotty Wood, he rubbed it with Vermilion and red Paint, to give it a borrowed Colour, and by the Paint to hide the Deformities of the Wood. The Ancients much esteemed Vermilion, and were very thrifty in the use of it, because of its Scarcity and great Price. In the time of Vitruvius, it was grown pretty common, and whole Walls were to be seen that were painted with it. Verrius, quoted in Pliny, Plin. l. 33. c. 6.informs us, that on high Festival Days, there was a Ceremony, and a kind of Prodigality, in daubing the Face of Jupiter with Vermilion. I have seen a Diana’s Head, wherein the Vermilion might still be perceived, if it were rubbed with a little Water. The Censors in Pliny’s time, hired out to Undertakers, the care of painting Jupiter’s Statue with Vermilion: A Censoribus Jovem miniandum locari. Camillus triumphed all daubed over with Vermilion. Such was the Taste and Delicacy of the ancient Romans. Among the Ethiopians, they painted the Statues of their Gods with this Colour; and great Men daubed their whole Bodies with it.

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