THE ART OF COLOUR

Did you know that the ultramarine that shimmers at the centre of Vermeer's Milkmaid connects that masterpiece with 6th-century Zoroa strian paintings found on the walls of cave temples in Bamiyan, Afghanistan? Or that the surging waves that crest and curl in Hokusai's perilous Great Wave off Kanagawa owe their absorbing blue lustre to an alchemist who was born in Frankenstein's Castle in 1673? And were the Pre-Raphaelites really obsessed with a murky brown hue derived from the pulverized remains of ancient mummies? (Spoiler: they were...[Llegir més]