Lavish Eden Ultramarine

Old French lavasse, downpour — sharing root with laver (to wash). As a color modifier, lavish implies a saturated-and-extravagant quality where the hue spills over its visual boundaries with luxurious pigmentation. Sits at the bold-and-saturated end of the grid, parallel to opulent and sumptuous in usage.

Hebrew ‘Ēden, garden-of-paradise. As a color modifier, eden implies a primal-paradise-and-garden-of-creation quality, the visual register of Genesis-Eden-and-Lucas-Cranach-paradise hand-primal-paradise-and-garden-of-creation Genesis-Eden-and-Lucas-Cranach-paradise-and-Northern-Renaissance eden-and-primal-paradise-and-garden-of-creation surfaces under Genesis-Eden-and-Lucas-Cranach-paradise-and-Northern-Renaissance Cranach-and-Bosch-and-Hieronymus primal-garden-light. Sits at the modifier-and-myth end of the grid, parallel to avalon and bliss 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.