Velvety Loggia violet

An adjectival form of velvet, used since the eighteenth century for colors that read as if they had the matte light-absorbing quality of velvet. Implies high saturation combined with a non-glossy surface — the matte richness of a deep wine in a fabric rather than in a glass. Sits in the bold-and-deep corner of the grid alongside plush and lush.

Italian loggia, roofed-open-gallery. As a color modifier, loggia implies an Italian-and-Mediterranean-roofed-open-gallery quality, the visual register of Italian-Renaissance-and-Mediterranean-loggia hand-built roofed-open-gallery loggia-and-arcade-and-pergola architectural surfaces under Italian-Renaissance-and-Mediterranean loggia-arcade afternoon light. Sits at the modifier-and-architecture end of the grid, parallel to atrium and stoa in usage.

Viola odorata, the European sweet violet — small, fragrant, and the original meaning of the color name in English (the Violet of the rainbow). The color refers to a fresh sweet violet blossom in late winter: a saturated, slightly red-shifted deep blue-purple with the matte finish of small five-petaled flower. Cooler than amethyst, warmer than indigo, with the perfumed weight of a flower used in Roman garlands and Victorian eau de toilette.