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The Resource Black : the history of a color, Michel Pastoureau ; [translated from the French by Jody Gladding]

Black : the history of a color, Michel Pastoureau ; [translated from the French by Jody Gladding]

Creator
Contributor
Summary
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 book, the author of Blue now tells the fascinating social history of the color black in Europe. In the beginning was black, he 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 the author, 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
Language
  • eng
  • fre
  • eng
Work
Publication
Edition
English language ed.
Extent
210 p.
Note
Translation from the French of: Noir
Contents
  • In the beginning was black : from the beginning to the year 1000
  • Mythologies of darkness
  • From darkness to colors
  • From palette to lexicon
  • Death and its color
  • The black bird
  • Black, white, red
  • In the devil's palette : tenth to thirteenth centuries
  • The devil and his images
  • The devil and his colors
  • A disturbing bestiary
  • To dispel the darkness
  • The monk's quarrel: white versus black
  • A new color order: the coat of arms
  • Who was the black knight?
  • A fashionable color : Fourteenth to sixteenth centuries
  • The colors of the skin
  • The Christianization of dark skin
  • Jesus with the dyer
  • Dyeing in black
  • The color's moral code
  • The luxury of princes
  • The gray of hope
  • The birth of the world in black and white : sixteenth to eighteenth centuries
  • Ink and paper
  • Color in black and white
  • Hachures and guillochures
  • The color war
  • The Protestant dress code
  • A very somber century
  • The return of the devil
  • New speculations, new classifications
  • A new order of colors
  • All the colors of black : eighteenth to twenty-first centuries
  • The triumph of color
  • The age of enlightenment
  • The poetics of melancholy
  • The age of coal and factories
  • Regarding images
  • A modern color
  • A dangerous color?
Isbn
9780691139302
Link
Instance
Label
Black : the history of a color
Title
Black
Title remainder
the history of a color
Statement of responsibility
Michel Pastoureau ; [translated from the French by Jody Gladding]
Creator
Contributor
Subject
Language
  • eng
  • fre
  • eng
Summary
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 book, the author of Blue now tells the fascinating social history of the color black in Europe. In the beginning was black, he 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 the author, 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
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1947-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Pastoureau, Michel
Dewey number
155.9/1145
Illustrations
illustrations
Index
no index present
LC call number
BF789.C7
LC item number
P3813 2009
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
http://library.link/vocab/relatedWorkOrContributorName
Gladding, Jody
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • Black
  • Color
  • Color
  • Symbolism of colors
  • Black in art
Label
Black : the history of a color, Michel Pastoureau ; [translated from the French by Jody Gladding]
Link
Instantiates
Publication
Note
Translation from the French of: Noir
Bar code
  • 31223107965544
  • 31223107965486
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-210)
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
In the beginning was black : from the beginning to the year 1000 -- Mythologies of darkness -- From darkness to colors -- From palette to lexicon -- Death and its color -- The black bird -- Black, white, red -- In the devil's palette : tenth to thirteenth centuries -- The devil and his images -- The devil and his colors -- A disturbing bestiary -- To dispel the darkness -- The monk's quarrel: white versus black -- A new color order: the coat of arms -- Who was the black knight? -- A fashionable color : Fourteenth to sixteenth centuries -- The colors of the skin -- The Christianization of dark skin -- Jesus with the dyer -- Dyeing in black -- The color's moral code -- The luxury of princes -- The gray of hope -- The birth of the world in black and white : sixteenth to eighteenth centuries -- Ink and paper -- Color in black and white -- Hachures and guillochures -- The color war -- The Protestant dress code -- A very somber century -- The return of the devil -- New speculations, new classifications -- A new order of colors -- All the colors of black : eighteenth to twenty-first centuries -- The triumph of color -- The age of enlightenment -- The poetics of melancholy -- The age of coal and factories -- Regarding images -- A modern color -- A dangerous color?
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
English language ed.
Extent
210 p.
Isbn
9780691139302
Isbn Type
(hardcover : alk. paper)
Lccn
2008025145
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
ill. (some col.)
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
bro-copy20140604-147
System control number
  • 231587317
  • (OCoLC)231587317
Label
Black : the history of a color, Michel Pastoureau ; [translated from the French by Jody Gladding]
Link
Publication
Note
Translation from the French of: Noir
Bar code
  • 31223107965544
  • 31223107965486
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-210)
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
  • nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
  • txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
In the beginning was black : from the beginning to the year 1000 -- Mythologies of darkness -- From darkness to colors -- From palette to lexicon -- Death and its color -- The black bird -- Black, white, red -- In the devil's palette : tenth to thirteenth centuries -- The devil and his images -- The devil and his colors -- A disturbing bestiary -- To dispel the darkness -- The monk's quarrel: white versus black -- A new color order: the coat of arms -- Who was the black knight? -- A fashionable color : Fourteenth to sixteenth centuries -- The colors of the skin -- The Christianization of dark skin -- Jesus with the dyer -- Dyeing in black -- The color's moral code -- The luxury of princes -- The gray of hope -- The birth of the world in black and white : sixteenth to eighteenth centuries -- Ink and paper -- Color in black and white -- Hachures and guillochures -- The color war -- The Protestant dress code -- A very somber century -- The return of the devil -- New speculations, new classifications -- A new order of colors -- All the colors of black : eighteenth to twenty-first centuries -- The triumph of color -- The age of enlightenment -- The poetics of melancholy -- The age of coal and factories -- Regarding images -- A modern color -- A dangerous color?
Dimensions
25 cm
Edition
English language ed.
Extent
210 p.
Isbn
9780691139302
Isbn Type
(hardcover : alk. paper)
Lccn
2008025145
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
  • n
Other physical details
ill. (some col.)
http://library.link/vocab/ext/overdrive/overdriveId
bro-copy20140604-147
System control number
  • 231587317
  • (OCoLC)231587317

Subject

Member of

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      37.779376 -122.415795

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