The history of color
Color: A Natural History of the Palette by Victoria Finlay is a history of dyes, pigments, and paints. Finlay traveled all over the globe to write this book. The chapter on ochre has her in Australia, talking to aboriginal painters. The section on green talks about how the bright green paints of the nineteenth century had arsenic. Yellow shades tend to be poisonous, too. White, too. Lead white was notorious for killing women who wore it as makeup. The book isn't about killer paints, though. There's lot of other tales. Michaelango never finished one of his paintings probably because his patron never got him the expensive ultramarine he needed for the Virgin's robes. Finlay goes to the lapis lazuli mines in Afghanistan to see the source for ultramarine paint for that chapter. She goes to Spain and India in search of the indigo plant. Red takes her to Mexico to see where carmine red is produced. (It's from a bug. There is bug juice in your lipsticks and Cherry Coke as coloring.)
I loved everything about this book except for one thing: Finlay's flights of fancy. She imagines journeys and dreams of historical personages sometimes, and it's really fucking annoying. I wish she'd stuck with facts and her travelogue. They're certainly interesting enough on their own. But her dreaming is a small part of the book, and it's a great read otherwise.
I loved everything about this book except for one thing: Finlay's flights of fancy. She imagines journeys and dreams of historical personages sometimes, and it's really fucking annoying. I wish she'd stuck with facts and her travelogue. They're certainly interesting enough on their own. But her dreaming is a small part of the book, and it's a great read otherwise.