Hooded Pollux Ultramarine

Old English hōd, hood — past-participle of hood, sharing root with German Hut (hat). As a color modifier, hooded implies the deep-and-veiled-and-fabric-shrouded quality of monk-and-friar enveloping-cowled-cloak silhouette in Cistercian-and-Benedictine monastic tradition. Sits at the deep-and-veiled end of the grid, parallel to cloaked and mantled with monastic register.

Greek Πολυδεύκης, Gemini-twin-and-immortal-boxer. As a color modifier, pollux implies a Gemini-twin-and-immortal-brother quality, the visual register of Gemini-Pollux-and-Castor-twin hand-Gemini-twin-and-immortal-brother Gemini-Pollux-and-Castor-twin-and-Argonaut pollux-and-Gemini-twin-and-immortal-brother surfaces under Gemini-Pollux-and-Castor-twin-and-Argonaut spring-Gemini-and-Bortle-1-sky stellar-twin-light. Sits at the modifier-and-cosmic end of the grid, parallel to castor and spica in usage.

The pigment ground from lapis lazuli — the Afghan mineral imported through Venice in the late Middle Ages, more expensive by weight than gold during the Renaissance. The color refers to a freshly mixed ultramarine pigment in linseed oil: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the matte finish of micron-ground rock. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal, with the art-historical weight of the blue Vermeer reserved for Mary's robe.