Black―favorite color of priests and penitents, artists and
ascetics, fashion designers and fascists―has always stood for powerfully
opposed ideas: authority and humility, sin and holiness, rebellion and
conformity, wealth and poverty, good and bad. In this beautiful and
richly illustrated book, the acclaimed author of Blue now tells the fascinating social history of the color black in Europe.
In
the beginning was black, Michel Pastoureau tells us. The archetypal
color of darkness and death, black was associated in the early Christian
period with hell and the devil but also with monastic virtue. In the
medieval era, black became the habit of courtiers and a hallmark of
royal luxury. Black took on new meanings for early modern Europeans as
they began to print words and images in black and white, and to absorb
Isaac Newton's announcement that black was no color after all. During
the romantic period, black was melancholy's friend, while in the
twentieth century black (and white) came to dominate art, print,
photography, and film, and was finally restored to the status of a true
color.
For Pastoureau, the history of any color must be a social
history first because it is societies that give colors everything from
their changing names to their changing meanings―and black is exemplary
in this regard. In dyes, fabrics, and clothing, and in painting and
other art works, black has always been a forceful―and ambivalent―shaper
of social, symbolic, and ideological meaning in European societies.
With its striking design and compelling text, Black will delight anyone who is interested in the history of fashion, art, media, or design.
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