Gallant Void Rose

Old French galant, brave / charming — present-participle of galer (to make merry). As a color modifier, gallant implies a saturated-and-chivalrous-and-confident quality, the deep-rich color of Three-Musketeers and Cyrano-de-Bergerac swashbuckling adventure tradition. Sits at the bold-and-chivalrous end of the grid, parallel to valiant and heroic.

Latin vocivus, empty-or-vacant. As a color modifier, void implies an empty-and-vacant-and-bottomless quality, the visual register of Yves-Klein-and-Rothko-void hand-empty-and-vacant-and-bottomless Yves-Klein-and-Rothko-and-Malevich-Black-Square voided-and-empty-and-vacant-and-bottomless surfaces under Yves-Klein-and-Rothko-and-Malevich-Black-Square monochrome-canvas-and-color-field-and-suprematist gallery-and-void-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to blank and hollow in usage.

The Latin rosa, the Greek rhodon, the Persian gul — every European language has a different name for the same flower and the same color. Rose covers the spectrum from blush to fuchsia depending on the cultivar, but in pigment shorthand it means a cool, slightly bluish red — the inside of a damask petal, the dye that washes out of madder root.