LoginA blue more expensive than gold − ultramarine | Stories in Colour Podcast S2 Ep2 | National Gallery
In this episode, writer Victoria Finlay joins Beks for a discussion on how researching ultramarine took her to Afghanistan. She journeyed to the blue mines where you can find lapis lazuli, the semi-precious stone ultramarine comes from. Along the journey, we pause to look at some of the National Gallery’s paintings – including one noteworthy for its lack of ultramarine...
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Victoria has written several books about colour - including 'Colour, Travels through the Paintbox' and 'The Brilliant History of Color in Art' - which involved travelling across the globe to the very places that ancient pigments and dyes came from. Her most recent book is about the hidden histories of fabric.
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🎨 Find out more about the artworks in this episode:
English or French (?), ‘The Wilton Diptych’, About 1395-9 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/english-or-french-the-wilton-diptych
Michelangelo, ‘The Entombment (or Christ being carried to his Tomb)’, About 1500-1 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/michelangelo-the-entombment-or-christ-being-carried-to-his-tomb
Sassoferrato, ‘The Virgin and Prayer’, 1640-50 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sassoferrato-the-virgin-in-prayer
Titian, ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, 1520-3 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-bacchus-and-ariadne
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ‘The Umbrellas’, About 1881-6 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pierre-auguste-renoir-the-umbrellas
Claude Monet, ‘Irises’, About 1914-17 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/claude-monet-irises
Paul Cezanne, ‘Hillside in Provence’, About 1890-2 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/paul-cezanne-hillside-in-provence
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Further reading:
Victoria Finlay, ‘Color: A Natural History of the Palette’, 2002
Victoria Finlay, ‘Colour: Travels through the Paintbox’, 2002
Victoria Finlay, ‘The Brilliant History of Color in Art’, 2014
Victoria Finlay, ‘Fabric: The Hidden History of the Material World’, 2021
Cennino Cennini, ‘Il Libro dell'Arte’, produced in the late 14th-century
Find out more about Ultramarine in our ‘Chemistry of Colour’ YouTube series: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1EzUlnRtDGM
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Episode credits:
Guest: Victoria Finlay
Host and executive producer: Beks Leary
Producer: Harry Rosehill
Researcher: Hannah Rogers
Technicians: Ian Warren and Tom Gulliver
Video Producers: Jeanne Kenyon and Alessandro Sorenti
Editor: Paul Frankl
Theme music: Theo Elwell
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The National Gallery houses the national collection of paintings in the Western European tradition from the 13th to the 19th centuries. The museum is free of charge and open 361 days per year, daily between 10am - 6pm and on Fridays between 10am - 9pm.
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