An iron oxide red named after Venice, where it was widely produced and exported during the Renaissance. One of the most historically important reds in European painting — cheap, opaque, and permanent.

Venetian red is warm, earthy, and grounded — less aggressive than cadmium red, more complex than burnt sienna. It is the red of terracotta rooftops, of warm shadows in flesh, of Mediterranean earth.

Used as a ground colour (imprimatura) by Titian and Tintoretto — the distinctive warm undertone in much Venetian Renaissance painting comes from Venetian red beneath the surface. Still used today as a primary flesh tone in classical painting instruction.