In literature, the term vermilion is often employed to evoke vivid, almost tactile imagery that enhances the text’s emotional or visual impact. Authors use it to describe everything from the radiant blush on a lover’s cheeks and lips, as in the depiction of blood-like beauty [1, 2, 3], to the dramatic gleam of a sunset or an exotic locale, where a rich vermilion hue transforms an ordinary scene into a moment of intense color and feeling [4, 5]. At times, vermilion also carries a technical precision, found in discussions of pigments used in sealing wax or artistic techniques [6, 7], underscoring its dual role as both a substance and a symbol. Whether adorning a character’s features or serving as a metaphor for passionate intensity, vermilion bridges descriptive art and deeper allegorical meaning.
- Their cheeks were dyed with vermilion, their arms from the elbow to the wrist were covered with red parrots’ feathers.”
— from The Golden Bough: A Study of Magic and Religion by James George Frazer
- A rich vermilion glow burnt upon her olive cheek and lips, and set off the dazzling whiteness of her even and pearly teeth.
— from Roughing It in the Bush by Susanna Moodie
- Her mouth, the vermilion of her lips, and her ivory teeth were all perfect.
— from The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt, 1725-1798. Complete by Giacomo Casanova
- The sun, now hastening to his setting, was tingeing all the western ocean with a rich vermilion glow.
— from The Island Home by Richard Archer
- Paris, more vague than the ocean, glimmered before Emma’s eyes in an atmosphere of vermilion.
— from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
- Red sealing-wax is composed of shellac, Venice turpentine, and vermilion red; for the black sealing-wax ivory-black is used instead of the vermilion.
— from French Polishing and Enamelling: A Practical Work of Instruction by Richard Bitmead
- —The following formulas may be followed for making sealing wax: Take 4 pounds of shellac, 1 pound of Venice turpentine, and 3 pounds of vermilion.
— from Henley's Twentieth Century Formulas, Recipes and Processes