Stately Loggia Fuchsia

An adjectival form of state, condition of dignity. Used as a color modifier since the seventeenth century for the deep saturated jewel tones of formal ceremony — the deep blue of a robes-of-state, the deep red of a state-banquet velvet. Sits in the bold-and-formal corner alongside imperial and royal, with slightly less institutional weight.

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.

The genus Fuchsia — South American shrubs named in 1703 for the German botanist Leonhart Fuchs. The color refers to the calyx and tube of a vibrant Fuchsia magellanica hybrid: a saturated, slightly cool deep pink-magenta with the satiny finish of a tubular hummingbird-pollinated flower. Brighter than rose, warmer than orchid, with the bedding-and-basket weight of a plant genus whose flowers gave English the most attention-demanding pink in the spectrum.