Spartan Copse Ultramarine

Greek Spartiátēs, of Sparta — adjectival suffix referring to the Lacedaemonian warrior city. As a color modifier, spartan implies a saturated-and-disciplined-and-formal quality, the deep-rich color of Spartan-hoplite military-class crimson-and-bronze armor-and-cloak. Sits at the bold-and-formal end of the grid, parallel to austere and stern in tone.

Old French copeiz, cut wood. As a color modifier, copse implies a small-coppiced-wood quality, the visual register of English-hedgerow-and-pasture-margin small coppiced-hazel-and-hornbeam wood-fragment hand-cut surfaces under small-shaded English-hedgerow filtered light. Sits at the modifier-and-place end of the grid, parallel to wood and grove 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.