Table of Contents

Part 1: the contexts of colour; colour and culture; colour in art and its literature. Part 2: colour in history - relative and absolute; colour-words and colour-patches; Ghiberti and light; color Colorado; the fool's paradise; Newton and painting; Blake's Newton; magilphs and mystery; Turner as a colourist; "Two different worlds" - Runge, Goethe and the sphere of colour; mood indigo - from the Blue Flower to the Blue Rider; Chevreul between classicism and romanticism; the technique of Seurat; Seurat's silence; Matisse's black light; colour as language in early abstract painting; a psychological background for early modern colour; making sense of colour - the synaesthetic dimension.

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A compelling study of the meaning of colour through the ages

About the Author

John Gage was the former Head of the Department of History of Art at Cambridge University. He is an acknowledged international authority on the history of art and colour and has written many books on the subject, including Colour and Culture and Colour and Meaning, both published by Thames & Hudson.

Reviews

'Continues his brilliant exploration of art, paint, the spectrum and vision' - Marina Warner, Independent on Sunday
'Essential reading' - Nature