THE COLORS OF SACRED ART
By Victoria Finlay
When I was 8 and on holiday in France with my parents, we went to Chartres Cathedral, just south of Paris. My father took me by the hand as we both stared at the blue glass casting reflections all over the
limestone in the great medieval church.
“That blue was made 800 years ago,” he said. “And we can’t make it like that any more.”
From that moment on I was fascinated—obsessed you could say—by colors. Not just by what effect they have on the eye (though for me any encounter with a new piece of art is almost always about the colors first), but also by their history and, of course, how they were and are made. For, as I learned, colors are amazing and complex things. Even the purest and
brightest natural colors like madder-root orange are actually blends of many colors when viewed under the microscope: yellow, red, even blue and white. Chemical colors (so much less delightful!) often are just one...read
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