Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION Color is Not Black and White 7 1. AN UNCOMMON COLOR Prehistory to the Twelfth Century 13 2. A NEW COLOR The Eleventh to the Fourteenth Century 49 3. A MORAL COLOR The Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century 85 4. THE FAVORITE COLOR The Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century 123 5. BLUE TODAY 179 Notes 182 Bibliography 206 Index 213 Photography Credits 216

Promotional Information

Michel Pastoureau paints a massive canvas in which the history of one color becomes the history of culture itself. This is a study not of color as mere matter but as idea--presenting thousands of years of thinking in blue. -- 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... Thanks to this study, which is certain to become a classic, blue will never look the same again. -- Jori Finkel and Jonathon S. Keats

About the Author

Michel Pastoureau is a historian and Director of Studies at the Ecole practique des hautes etudes, Paris, and at the Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris. He is the author of several books in French as well as The Devil's Cloth: A History of Stripes and Striped Fabrics.

Reviews

A miracle of poetry in the midst of academic rigidity. -- Telerama ... a rich volume, intelligently illustrated... With sure-footed scholarship, trenchant opinions, Michel Pastoureau goes beyond a perfunctory visit: he makes us realize the importance of this material and avoids the errors of a number of other historians. -- Le Monde ... a delicious mix of erudition and lighthearted fun. -- Livres Pastoureau's text moves us through one fascinating area of activity after another... The jacket, cover and end-papers of this luscious book are appropriately blue; its double-columned text breathes easily in the space of its pages; it is so well sewn it opens flat at any place; and fascinating, aptly chosen color plates, not confined to the title color, will please even those eyes denied the good luck of being blue. -- William Gass, Los Angeles Times Book Review Blue is both prettily produced and whimsically enjoyable. -- Julian Bell, Times Literary Supplement Michel Pastoureau takes us into territory that could be made to feel impossibly dense and absurdly specialized. To his credit, the tour is brisk and challenging. -- John Loughery, Washington Post Book World A generous, gorgeous book full of nearly 100 historical and artistic plates, all illustrating the meaning and role of the color blue in Western history... Pastoureau has created something rare: a coffee table book that is also a good read. And not just a good read, but a compelling read. -- Brian Bouldrey, Chicago Tribune Blue ... is confident, stylish, well-turned out... The book's sapphire glow will grace the most discriminating coffee tables. -- Jane Gardam, Spectator This beautifully illustrated book is well written and informative, and makes an important contribution to the social history of art. -- Choice In this beguiling and beautiful mixture of art book and social history, the distinguished French scholar shows how the rarest of all colors became the commonest. -- Emma Hagestadt and Boyd Tonkin, The Independent Magazine The material history of a certain section of the spectrum, from the costly tones of the Virgin's cloak to uniforms, Picasso and jeans. History can make you blind, but some historians can make you see again. -- James Davidson, Daily Telegraph