Red Dye Is #1

This weekend I checked out an exhibit at the Museum of Russian Art called Peasant Women of the Russian North: Heritage of a Culture Lost.

One part that particularly enchanted me was the embroidery, which emphasized the color red. One piece had a red background, with colored embroidery:

But generally the main body of the works was made up of white linen with red-dominant embroidery:

An embroidered gift towel, which would have been used by the parents of a bride and groom to offer the newlyweds bread and salt as they left the church.

A display of 19th century ritual towels. The towels are "remarkable works of peasant art that preserved intact the archaic symbolism of Russia's pre-Christian past." The painting portrays women laying out towels to bleach them in the sun.

Close-up of the end of the ritual towel shown at lower right on the wall.

Though it wasn't mentioned in the accompanying notes, I found out from a docent that the red dyes were made from beet roots or a plant called madder (Rubia tinctorum). As I understand it, madder is a Mediterranean plant and not hardy in Minnesota, so I assume it's not hardy in northern Russia either. 

I had been thinking that, given the prevalence of red in the fabrics, the source of the red dye must be a plant that grew wild in Russia. But instead, beets are an annual that's cultivated, and madder isn't hardy there. Beets also don't make this kind of red: it results in more of a purplish red. 

So they must have been importing madder roots as a matter of course just because they liked the way the dye looked: not because the plants were what was available.

The exhibit is on display until September 22, 2024.