Smoldering Pepper Ultramarine

The progressive participle of smolder, to burn slowly without flame. Used as a color word since the late nineteenth century for the deep reds and oranges of barely-flame coal — the warm saturated darks where the heat is internal rather than emitted. Sits in the bold-and-warm corner, slightly less luminous than burning and slightly less calm than rich.

Latin piper, black-pepper-corn. As a color modifier, pepper implies a black-pepper-corn-and-Malabar-Coast quality, the visual register of Malabar-Coast-and-Vietnamese-pepper hand-black-pepper-corn-and-Malabar-Coast Malabar-Coast-and-Vietnamese-pepper-and-Tellicherry pepper-and-black-pepper-corn surfaces under Malabar-Coast-and-Vietnamese-pepper-and-Tellicherry Malabar-and-Tellicherry-and-Phu-Quoc Indian-Ocean-spice-light. Sits at the modifier-and-flavor end of the grid, parallel to clove and cumin 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.