Once believed to have mystical powers in the ancient world, centuries later the colour was associated with royalty, before blue dye was used for uniforms in the navy, hospitals and industrial factories. I just realized I had never posted this. Interesting book about the color blue. It is a metaphor for the eternal struggle between the haves and have-nots. It is rarely found in bronze age art. Blue’s story begins with lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone of intense blue color, found in a remote area of Afghanistan. by Princeton University Press. Are you similarly enthralled by color? The color of haint blue doesn’t have a huge following up North and even its Southern roots doesn’t mean that people agree on what it is. In this fascinating history, the renowned medievalist Michel Pastoureau traces the changing meanings of blue from its rare appearance in prehistoric art to its international ubiquity today. But in the Gullah culture of the lowcountry, the most visible and powerful form of defense against haints is the color blue, derived from indigo, which holds a deeply spiritual — and equally dark — meaning rooted in the history of the early American slave economy. Have you ever wanted to visit a museum, but didn’t want all … How, when it was so rare throughout history, did blue come to be the most common color in the world today? In China the colour blue generally signifies the natural world, springtime, youth and immortality. The ancients hardly used it or talked about it, except at times in Egypt. “Among the ancient elements,” writes William Gass in his treatise On Being Blue, “blue occurs everywhere: in ice and water, in the flame as purely as in the flower, overheard and inside caves, covering fruit and oozing out of clay.”Yet we can’t handle or touch the blue of the flame any more than we can bottle the blue of the sky. Blue’s story begins with lapis lazuli, a semiprecious stone of intense blue color, found in a remote area of Afghanistan. And the early church much favored red, black, and white. The big story is that all cultures had a 3 color system consisting of white, black, and red. At this time, the Church decided to color-code the saints, and Mary was given a blue robe. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. Overall I enjoyed this book, though I do have a fascination for the development of color and the way we use and manufacture it so it would have to be rather bad for me to at least not be interested in it. I think he really goes to far with some of his conclusions especially based off of the sources he uses –– but it was really interesting and new for me, so I don't mind. Prior to that time it was thought to be a "hot" color. (In another version of the story, when Kennedy found out that the Air Force had proposed a presidential livery for the plane in red and gold, he balked that those colors were too imperial.) The author does a fine job illustrating the second claim throughout the book, showing how attitudes towards colors change over time with changes in religious belief and social practices. International Klein Blue. The rise of blue's prevalence in heraldry, paintings, and cloth, from the 11th century, was a profound shift. Blue: The History of a Color Michel Pastoureau Princeton University Press // 216 pp Buy on Amazon . It's hard to comprehend that the sea used to be depicted as green, and blue had no association with divinity or purity. My co-host Steve Goldstein spoke with ASU Associate Professor Theresa Devine, who has a background in color theory, about the new blue and the history of other blues. So what is your favorite color? The first blue color was produced by ancient Egyptians in 2200 B.C. It is a fascinating and entertaining story about a simple color and the cultures and societies that impacted it throughout Western history. Blue was a color the Romans associated with barbarism. It's hard to comprehend that the sea used to be depicted as green, and blue had no association with divinity or purity. So fascinating! His section on Vermeer is an example. What was most surprising was that blue was ignored as a color for thousands of years. I think he really goes to far. This book is as beautiful as the previous one. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. (© Jaroon/iStock) Blue was a color the Romans associated with barbarism. It is rarely found in bronze age art. But the first, audacious claim has to be false. How-- and why-- did various laws try to prohibit the creation of certain colors? "Michel Pastoureau paints a massive canvas in which the history of one color becomes the history of culture itself. Fascinating analysis of the changing symbolic and social role of the color blue over time. A colorful history In the West, pink first became fashionable in the mid-1700s, when European aristocrats -- both men and women -- wore faint, powdery variants as a symbol of luxury and class. Start by marking “Blue: The History of a Color” as Want to Read: Error rating book. Nice book - very interesting and beautifully done. I’m besotted with GREEN: The History of a Color by French art historian Michel Pastoureau. Rose Heichelbech. Published: Monday, February 22, 2021 - 11:44am. The Rise of Indigo Dye in America. Finally, Pastoureau follows blue into contemporary times, when military clothing gave way to the everyday uniform of blue jeans and blue became the universal and unifying color of the Earth as seen from space. Any history of color is, above all, a social history. A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages. I always enjoy Pastoureau's lavishly illustrated books about the history of color--this one traces blue, neglected by the ancient world in favor of white, red and black, associated with barbarians because of woad and indigo, but rehabilitated by Saint-Denis' decorating scheme and elevated to the signature color of the Virgin Mary and the French monarchy. Colour… is in some way telling us about the chemical composition of objects – if you like, a form of psychological spectroscopy. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. Blue hasn't always meant what we (in the US) associate it with now. Thanks to this study, which is certain to become a classic, blue will never look the same again. This blue already has widespread applications in a number of industries, including commercial paints for buildings, fashion, art, and even cosmetics. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Starting with the rise of civilization around 4500 B.C. Over time, the shade of blue that Mary wore became what is now known as "navy blue." It talked about how blue meant different things throughout history, how it was made and used throughout history. Purple came from sea urchins and blue from lapis rocks. Phone: +1 609 258 4900 I wrote a 300 word review for this book and it was eaten by the GR popup :(. The Indigo dye for a deep, rich, vibrant blue was too expensive to ship from the middle east. I think you have to like history and/or art. Very informative. Welcome back. Originally the pigment was so expensive so as to only be afforded by kings, … Blue was helped along by being unregulated... a lack o. With sidelights on the economic battle between woad and madder (red) dyers, Protestant austerity and blue, Young Werther's blue coat and yellow. The rise of blue's prevalence in heraldry, paintings, and cloth, from the 11th century, was a profound shift. It’s being called YInMN, and it's already moved into the mainstream with representation in crayons and paint. Really only discusses Europe (+USA), in particular, the normal Western European conception of Europe (Anglo-French + German, with an eye to what happens in the papacy, but not really Italy). I never thought I'd find myself reading a "history of a color," but a recent review of another entry by this author (red, to be exact), was surprisingly interesting, so I thought I'd give this first volume a try. Princeton, New Jersey 08540 Who would have thought that the color blue was not only hated but not named, or tolerated until the 14th century. The book is full of exquisite color pictures and historical descriptions. There’s more to this color than just a pretty hue! This book is filled with such fun facts. A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Refresh and try again. A New Discovery: YInMn. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Lavishly illustrated. But the first, audacious claim has to be false. He studied at the École Nationale des Chartes, a college for prospective archivists and librarians. Tweet. Chemistry researcher Mas Subramanian, who discovered the pigment at the Oregon State College of Science. China Directions, Princeton Asia (Beijing) Consulting Co., Ltd. I just found it interesting and the pictures were gorgeous. After reading "the black", I read "the blue". Red, white and black were the only recognized colors for ce. There is ample evidence that the structure of color perception is dependent on the fact that humans are trichromats, and that facts about color opposition (red is opposed to green, blue to yellow) are due to the role of opponent-processes in the human visual system. A beautifully illustrated visual and cultural history of the color blue throughout the ages Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. fascinating; did you know Europeans never wore blue until the Middle Ages or later? Updated: Monday, February 22, 2021 - 12:02pm. I'm still not sure how or when blue went from being a unconsidered, un-respected color to being the most popular color in the Western world, but perhaps that is one of the things that can never be fully known considering social changes weren't really documented deliberately in the past but have to be inferred by what is considered important enough to put down in writing of some sort. The color blue was costly in the Renaissance; donors could flaunt their wealth by requiring liberal use of only the best blues in commissioned work. No pun intended. It felt more like he took the opportunity to write about his favorite artist and had to find a way to shoehorn him into the topic rather than the topic naturally allowing for the artists insertion. Share Pin. Many medieval artists preferred to depict water as green rather than blue. For Homer, the sea was “wine-red”. In art history, bright blue was used to emphasize otherworldliness. This is a study not of color as mere matter but as idea—presenting thousands of years of thinking in blue. Egyptian blue—the first color to be synthetically produced—was invented in Ancient Egypt around 2,200 B.C., around the same time the Great Pyramids were built. Why? in an effort to create a permanent pigment that could be applied to a variety of surfaces. Roy G. Biv: An Exceedingly Surprising Book About Color by Jude Stewart takes a clever look into the meaning of color and the emotional and social impact color has on our lives. Want to learn about something you never thought about before? and continuing to this day, people have found creative ways to produce blue for artistic expression. The Greeks and Romans didn’t have a word for the color blue. As I recall, one factoid was that the popularity of black and white for men's clothing, still epitomized in the tuxedo, came from sumptuary laws that restricted wealthy merchants to those colors. In … The book spends several chapters explaining why the French army switched from red to blue and why blue is the treasured color of the French flag. If you like history (yes) and if you love blue (yes), then this book should be on your shelves. I do wish it were formatted in a standard book form vs. the "coffee table" size and shape, it made it awkward to read and I couldn't take it with me. And biological facts, like genetic color deficiencies, surely affect the "meaning" of colors for those with the deficiencies. Be the first to ask a question about Blue. The story of a color is, of course, the story of how humans perceive that color and, comparatively, other colors. The History Behind the Southern Tradition of Haint Blue. The color blue seemed to arise out of a growing human perception of color, of the color wheel, and ofthe development of dyeing techniques. It was fascinating to read about the lack of mention in early records of the color we know as blue. Gives the reader new insight as to why artists used the color in some of their most important work. The tradition originated with the Gullah in Georgia and South Carolina.The ceiling of the slave quarters at the Owens–Thomas House in Savannah, Georgia, built in the early nineteenth century, were painted haint blue. The history of the colors purple and blue goes beyond amazing. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. "—Michael Camille, author of The Medieval Art of Love and Glorious Visions, "Michel Pastoureau brilliantly uses the shifting meanings of blue to challenge a whole spectrum of assumptions about color and its symbolic value. Not only it goes back to the ancient roots of blue, it also covers its entire history until today. . These are the questions that M. Pastoureau answers in this sumptuously illustrate. Microhistory: Social Histories of Just One Thing, 33 Sweeping Multigenerational Family Dramas. Today, most people prefer blue to any other color. Furthermore, he came up with a kind of color-naming timeline. Fascinating and very approachable for a lay audience. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Very expensive and difficult to get, lapis lazuli has been prized since the beginning of recorded history, Walton said. United States But the author tends to repeat the same insights over and over again, as if padding the page count. It was culturally and socially unacceptable to wear blue. I'm still not sure how or when blue went from being a unconsidered, un-respected color to being the most popular color in the Western world, but perhaps that is one of the things that can never be fully known considering social. United Kingdom Prior to that time it was thought to be a "hot" color. That uniqueness made the color a luxury commodity for thousands of years. Some scholars even thought that the Romans and Greeks couldn't even SEE blue. Directions, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock Red, white and black were the only recognized colors for centuries. I really enjoyed reading about how the color blue changed through the ages. Blue has had a long and topsy-turvy history in the Western world. Pastoureau has written a whole series of books on the histories of specific colors. It is beyond dimensions.” Phone: +44 1993 814500 Prussian Blue; and in five letters Diesbach, one of two inventors indicated by Stahl (5), is mentioned (Frisch writes his name “Diessbach” or “Dieszbach”). During Picasso’s blue period, while blue was the colour he predominantly used, the painter incorporated yellow as a contrast and highlight for faces and significant objects. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As I recall, one factoid was that the popularity of black and white for men's clothing, st. . Historically, the colour blue has had a wealth of connotations. . Lovely overview of the emergence of blue as an important color in medieval Europe an of its changes of connotations up to the modern period, when blue constitutes the most neutral color. Blue remains a muse precisely because it is a mirage. 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