The Natural History of Color Palette

In this captivating journey through the colors of an artist's palette, Victoria Finlay takes us on an enthralling adventure around the world and through the ages, illuminating how the colors we choose to value have determined the history of culture itself. Finlay explores the physical materials that color our world, such as precious minerals and insect blood, as well as the social and political meanings that color has carried through time. This vivid and engaging book is full of extraordinary people, events, and anecdotes, all painted in Finlay's captivating style.

The author takes us on a thrilling adventure as she travels on a donkey along ancient silk trade routes, with the Phoenicians sailing the Mediterranean in search of a special purple shell that garners wealth, sustenance, and prestige, and with modern Chilean farmers breeding and bleeding insects for their viscous red blood. The colors that craft our world have never looked so bright.

Finlay explores how the most precious color blue traveled all the way from remote lapis mines in Afghanistan to Michelangelo's brush, and the connection between brown paint and ancient Egyptian mummies. She delves into the history of why Robin Hood wore Lincoln green, and how Roman emperors used to wear togas dyed with a purple color that was made from an odorous Lebanese shellfish, which probably meant their scent preceded them. In the eighteenth century, black dye was called logwood and grew along the Spanish Main, and some of the first indigo plantations were started in America by a seventeen-year-old girl named Eliza.

The author also uncovers the fascinating story behind the popular van Gogh painting White Roses at Washington's National Gallery, which had to be renamed after a researcher discovered that the flowers were originally done in a pink paint that had faded nearly a century ago. Color is a captivating exploration of the physical and symbolic meanings of the hues that shape our world, told with Finlay's engaging and insightful style.

product information: