Blue: The History Of A Color

Author: Michel Pastoureau

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General Fields

  • : $62.99 AUD
  • : 9780691181363
  • : Princeton University Press
  • : Princeton University Press
  • : January 2018
  • : 235mm X 229mm
  • : November 2017
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  • : books

Special Fields

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  • : Michel Pastoureau
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  • : Hardback
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  • : English
  • :
  • :
  • : 216
  • : AC
  • : 99 color plates.
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Barcode 9780691181363
9780691181363

Description

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. The ancient Greeks scorned it as ugly and barbaric, but most Americans and Europeans now cite it as their favorite color. 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.


Any history of color is, above all, a social history. Pastoureau investigates how the ever-changing role of blue in society has been reflected in manuscripts, stained glass, heraldry, clothing, paintings, and popular culture. Beginning with the almost total absence of blue from ancient Western art and language, the story moves to medieval Europe. As people began to associate blue with the Virgin Mary, the color became a powerful element in church decoration and symbolism. Blue gained new favor as a royal color in the twelfth century and became a formidable political and military force during the French Revolution. As blue triumphed in the modern era, new shades were created and blue became the color of romance and the blues. 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.


Beautifully illustrated, Blue tells the intriguing story of our favorite color and the cultures that have hated it, loved it, and made it essential to some of our greatest works of art.

Author description

Michel Pastoureau is a historian and emeritus director of studies at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes de la Sorbonne in Paris. A specialist in the history of colors, symbols, and heraldry, he is the author of many books, including Red, Green, and Black (all Princeton) and The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes. His books have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Table of contents

INTRODUCTIONColor is Not Black and White 71. AN UNCOMMON COLORPrehistory to the Twelfth Century 132. A NEW COLORThe Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century 493. A MORAL COLORThe Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century 854. THE FAVORITE COLORThe Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century 1235. BLUE TODAY 179Notes 182Bibliography 206Index 213Photography Credits 216