Ultramarine
“The blue that is still the most expensive natural pigment is manufactured from the hard semi-precious stone lapis lazuli, until recently mined only in Afghanistan; and it is still generally called by the name given to it in late-medieval France and Italy, ultramarine, because it came to western Europe from ‘beyond the sea’.”
–John Gage, from Color in Art, 2006.
a faded yellow
“Through the woods they could see a long, low-eaved, weather-beaten building. Through the trees it was a faded yellow. Closer the window frames were painted green. The paint was peeling.”
—Ernest Hemingway, from In Our Time, 1925.
heavy yellow shells
“He was sitting on his bed now, cleaning a shotgun. He pushed the magazine full of the heavy yellow shells and pumped them out again. They were scattered on the bed.”
—Ernest Hemingway, from In Our Time, 1925.
agent of the mind
“One must respect black. Nothing prostitutes it. It does not please the eye or awaken another sense. It is the agent of the mind even more than the beautiful colour of the palette or prism.”
—French Symbolist Odilon Redon, (1840–1916); quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006. Pictured is Louise Nevelson’s Sky Cathedral, 1958.
a ‘distracting embellishment’
“No colors. ‘Color blinds.’ ‘Colors are an aspect of appearance, so only of the surface.’ Colors are barbaric, unstable, suggest life, ‘cannot be completely controlled’ and ‘should be concealed.’ Colors are a ‘distracting embellishment.’’
—Ad Reinhardt, Rule 6 of his Twelve Rules for a New Academy, 1957; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.
[Grey]
“[Grey] makes no statement whatever, it evokes neither feelings nor associations; it is really neither visible nor invisible. . . . To me, grey is the welcome and only possible equivalent for indifference, non-commitment, absence of opinion, absence of shape.”
—Gerhard Richter, 1975; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.
the most lively colors
“I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself, in the most lively colors, how I must have acted if I had got nothing out of the ship.”
—Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719.
a checker-work of Providence
“How strange a checker-work of Providence is the life of man!”
—Daniel Defoe, The Life and Strange Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, 1719.
The city above
“As John did name these stones is Scripture,
I knew each one in neat rotation.
The gem of jasper, the first to treasure,
I saw formed there on firm foundation;
It glistened greenly in lowest measure.
Sapphire was set in second station.
Chalcedony then, a spotless pleasure,
Glowed pale and pure, third in formation.
The emerald, the fourth, a green creation,
The sardonyx, the fifth, a stone put on,
The sixth, the ruby, he saw with elation
In the Apocalypse, the apostle John.
John then saw the chrysolite,
The seventh gem in ornament,
The eighth, the beryl, clear and white,
The twin-hued topaz, ninth in ascent,
The tenth, the chrysoprase, set there tight,
The jacinth, eleventh, heaven-sent,
The twelfth, the gentlest in that site,
The amethyst purple, with indigo blent.
The rising wall’s embellishment
Was jasper pure; like glass it shone.
I knew it by his development
In the Apocalypse, the apostle John.
As John described, yet saw I there
These twelve, great steps were broad and steep.
The city above, completely square,
Was long and high, and of wide sweep,
With streets of gold, like glass so rare,
And jasper wall, like glair we keep.
The abodes within, adorned with flair,
Had every jewel one finds in a heap.”
—Pearl, a 14th-century medieval poem, author unknown; translated from the Middle English by William Vantuono, 1995.
pearl affluent
“Hedgerows on lands, and rivers through lairs;
Their currents gleamed like fine gold filament.
I strolled to a stream displaying its wares;
Lord, dear was its adornment.
The adornments dear in depths that glow
Revealed fair banks of beryl bright.
Swirling freely, the stream did flow,
Whispering en route, whirling aright.
Biding at bottom, stones bestow
Glistening beams, void of blight,
Like stars which woodsmen sleep below,
Streaming in sky on winter’s night;
For each jewel joined under floods in flight
Was emerald, sapphire, or pearl affluent,
Lending that brook its luminous light,
So dear was its adornment.”
—Pearl, a 14th-century medieval poem, author unknown; translated from the Middle English by William Vantuono, 1995.