Art Unfolded

Electronic book text

A History of Art in Four Colours

Divine blue

Sensual red

Deathly green

Glistening gold

These four colours tell the story of art in a way that few other elements can. From the pigments used to make them - sometimes wildly expensive, like ultramarine, or dangerously toxic, like emerald green - to the varied and changing meanings applied to them, these colours grant us access to fascinating stories, both of individual works of art and the world in which they were created.