Bright Earth: Art and the Invention of Color

Bright Earth Provides A Glimpse Into A Little-explored Avenue In The History Of Art And Science: The Creation Of Pigments And Dyes And Their Influence On Painting, As Well As On Fashion, Merchandising, And The Textile And Chemical Industries. For As Long As Artists Have Turned Their Dreams Into Images, They Have Relied On Technical Knowledge To Supply Their Materials. Today Almost Every Shade Imaginable Is Easily Available In Off-the-shelf Tubes; Every Hue And Tincture Is Manufactured And Ready For Immediate Use By The Painter. But Up Until The Eighteenth Century, Most Artists Ground And Mixed Their Own Pigments, And By Necessity Had Considerable Skill As A Practical Chemists.--jacket. The Eye Of The Beholder: The Scientist In The Studio -- Plucking The Rainbow: The Physics And Chemistry Of Color -- The Forge Of Vulcan: Color Technology In Antiquity -- Secret Recipes: Alchemy's Artistic Legacy -- Masters Of Light And Shadow: The Glory Of The Renaissance -- Old Gold: The Revival Of Austere Palette -- The Prismatic Metals: Synthetic Pigments And The Dawn Of Color Chemistry -- The Reign Of Light: Impressionism's Bright Impact -- A Passion For Purple: Dyes And The Industrialization Of Color -- Shades Of Midnight: The Problem Of Blue -- Time As Painter: The Ever-changing Canvas -- Capturing Color: How Art Appears In Reproduction -- Mind Over Matter: Color As Form In Modernism -- Art For Art's Sake: New Materials, New Horizons. Philip Ball. First Published In 2001 By Penguin, Great Britian. Published In The United States By Farrer, Straus And Giroux In 2002--t.p. Verso. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [355]-360) And Index.