Literary notes about ochre (AI summary)
Literary writers use "ochre" as both a precise descriptor of natural hues and a symbol rich in cultural resonance. In descriptive passages, it conveys the warm, earthen tones of a landscape—as in a watercourse glowing with an ochre yellow ([1]) or the rugged, ochre-painted stone that stands as a symbol of ancient lore ([2]). At the same time, ochre appears in accounts of human expression and ritual: characters have their identities marked either by the application of ochre on their skin ([3], [4]) or by the earthy stains of body paint during rites of passage ([5]). The term is also incorporated into technical treatises on art and architecture, where instructions for mixing paints and creating durable finishes call for precise proportions of ochre with other pigments ([6], [7]), and even in settings where its use to adorn building surfaces evokes a sense of historic grandeur ([8], [9]).
- The colour of the water is ochre yellow.
— from Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume I (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Scherzer, Karl, Ritter von - Before it stood the carved-upon, the ochre-painted stone, sign and symbol of the Great Turtle.
— from The Wanderers by Mary Johnston - Their idols are dressed in scarlet, furnished with weapons, and their faces smeared with ochre.
— from Strange Survivals: Some Chapters in the History of Man by S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - An Indian is only half an Indian without the blue-black hair and the brilliant eyes shining out of the wonderful dusky ochre and rose complexion.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - Perhaps, too, as is the case with modern savages, the ochre and red-chalk were used besides for painting or tatooing his body.
— from Primitive Man by Louis Figuier - 2. Burnt ochre, which is very serviceable in stucco work, is made as follows.
— from The Ten Books on Architecture by Vitruvius Pollio - 100 parts (weight) Light Ochre require 72 parts of oil.
— from Barkham Burroughs' Encyclopaedia of Astounding Facts and Useful Information, 1889 by Barkham Burroughs - Firmly snapping the door to, she crossed the corridor, with its gloomy, yellow-ochre walls, and its infinite vista of brown, numbered doors.
— from The Forsyte Saga, Volume I. by John Galsworthy - Windows with Italian Renaissance frames pierce the ochre masonry.
— from Cathedrals of Spain by John A. (John Allyne) Gade
