The colour blue has long been associated with the rich and divine, from the ancient Egyptians who discovered it to the Virgin Mary – though it is a little more accessible todayThe colour blue is a relatively modern invention. Prehistoric artists were strangers to it. You won’t find cerulean or azure in cave paintings. The ancient Greeks had no word for blue as we know it today – Homer described the sea as “wine-dark” in the Odyssey – and neither can it be found in the Icelandic sagas, the Koran, ancient Chinese stories or myriad other texts. The only ancient culture to have a word for blue was the Egyptians, and they were also the only culture that had a way to produce a blue dye. Blue rarely appears in nature – there are few blue animals, fruits or vegetables – and the early painter’s palette was restricted to “earth colours”: reds, browns, yellows, blacks. Blue only appeared when the Egyptians started mining and unearthed lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone first found in Afghanistan about 6,000 years ago. Lapis was scarce and thus greatly prized, and was used to adorn the tombs of pharaohs and the eyes of Cleopatra. Related: The invention of the colour purple Continue reading...
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