The Rainbow Room

Rainbows are different things to different people – a colorful celebration of our global diversity! Source - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow

Below - The end of a rainbow.

Rainbows in art and photography

The end of a rainbow. A number of painters have depicted the rainbow. Frequently these have a symbolic or Harpe de Lumière, photo by Georges Noblet programmatic significance. (See, for example, Albrecht Dürer 's Melancholia I.) In particular, the rainbow often appears in religious art. (see Roger van der Weyden 's Last Judgment shown below.)

The rainbow is a favourite subject for photographers, to such an extent that photographs of rainbows seem to be more commonplace than rainbows themselves. Occasionally, a rainbow photo will be surprisingly artistic and beautiful, as Georges Noblet 's "Harpe de Lumière" shown right.

Below - Christ seated in judgment on a rainbow in the Last Judgment (the Beaune Altarpiece) by Roger van der Weyden. This particular aspect of the scene is a depiction of the verse in Revelation 4:3 - "… and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald."

Christ seated in judgment on a rainbow in the Last Judgment (the Beaune Altarpiece) by Roger van der Weyden. This particular aspect of the scene is a depiction of the verse in Revelation 4:3 - "… and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald."

Rainbows in literature

Virginia Woolf in To the Lighthouse highlights the transience of life and Man 's mortality through Mrs Ramsey 's thought,

"it was all as ephemeral as a rainbow"

A poem of William Wordsworth from 1802, "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold The Rainbow", begins:

My heart leaps up when I behold

A rainbow in the sky:

So was it when my life began;

So is it now I am a man;

So be it when I shall grow old,

Or let me die!…

Rainbows in popular culture

Left - Rainbow of Hearts photo by Seng P. Merrill. In popular culture, the colours of the rainbow are sometimes permuted.

The rainbow has also been used in more contemporary settings, such as the song "Over the Rainbow" in the musical film The Wizard of Oz, the hit song "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie, and in selling Lucky Charms by alluding heavily to leprechaun mythology.

The Greenpeace ship, Rainbow Warrior, was named after a Cree Native American prophecy that stated "When the world is sick and dying, the people will rise up like Warriors of the Rainbow.…"

Rainbow Gatherings are gatherings of hippies who come together on public lands with a stated mission to espouse the ideas of peace, love, freedom and community. In the 1960s, artists like Peter Blake made use of Rainbow colours in iconic prints such as Babe Rainbow, and later, Bobbie Rainbow.

Historically, a rainbow flag was used in the German Peasants' War in the 16th century as a sign of a new era, of hope and of social change.

Left -Current version of the Gay pride flag. The rainbow has become the universal symbol of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) persons, who are also known as 'rainbow people ', a reference to their diversity. The rainbow appears on the Gay pride flag, designed by Gilbert Baker for the 1978 San Francisco 's Gay Freedom Celebration. The colours of the rainbow are displayed as horizontal stripes, with red at the top and purple at the bottom. The rainbow flag was inspired by the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland, who is an LGBT icon herself.

Our rainbow shows the traditional seven colors as our lucky number is seven – Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange and Red! The artwork in this room is all from Vietnam.