Blue: Exploring color in art

by Valentina Zucchi, Viola Niccolai (Illustrator), Katherine Gregor (Translator)

Overview

We are all fascinated by the wonder of colour, from the lightest to the darkest, from one shade to another. True Color is a series of books that explores the subtle differences of each colour, how they were used, and why they were so important to famous artists throughout history.

Blue, perhaps the best loved color of all, is all around us. The sky, the sea dominate many works of art, but blue can also be mysterious, evoking infinity and stillness. From indigo to ultramarine, from the early Egyptians to modern art, Blue takes you on a journey of discovery.

The king of blue is ultramarine, a colour once as valuable as gold. It originated from lapis lazuli, a blue stone mined in the quarries of Badakshan, in Asia, by the source of the river Oxus which, when ground and carefully refined, becomes a deep blue powder. It was such an expensive colour that painters in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance used it sparingly, often for the clothes of divine figures, first and foremost Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the angels around her.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781800690554
Publisher:	Orange Hippo!
Publication date:	05/18/2021
Series:	True Color
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Valentina Zucchi was born in 1977 in Biella, Piedmont. She first graduated in History of Modern Art and then in Conservation of Cultural Heritage and has been working on the relationship between museums and visitors ever since. Valentina has lived in Florence since 2004, where she devotes herself to enhancing the collection of The Florentine Civic Museum, which is where the idea for this series of books about colours came from.

Viola Niccolai was born in 1986 in Castel del Piano, a small town in Tuscany. She attended a painting course at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence and then a two-year specialist course in illustration at the Academy of Bologna. Viola was selected for the illustrators’ exhibition at the Bologna Fair 2012 and at the Biennale of Illustrations in 2014.

Katherine Gregor translates from Italian, Russian and French. She is also a playwright and a fiction writer and maintains a regular blog.

Table of Contents

Looking at Blue 7

Egyptian Blue 8

Ultramarine 10

Madonnas 14

The Beauty of a Blue Sky 16

Body Decoration 19

Indigo 22

Woven Indigo 26

Azurite 29

Prussian Blue 32

Cornflower Blue 35

Picasso in Blue 39

Blue to Create Infinity 42

The Color of Metamorphosis 46

Night Skies 48

Questioning the Meaning 54

Painting with Your Whole Body 56

Painting in Blue 59

Where to Find Out More 63