Colours & symbols
Colour symbolism in traditions, heraldry, liturgy and art.
Beatrice's three colours: white, green and red in Dante
White veil, green mantle, flame-coloured gown: Dante dresses Beatrice in the colours of the theological virtues. Their meaning in the Vita nova and Comedy.
Black in the traditions: fertile earth, mourning and humility
Black is not only mourning: from the black land of Egypt to the habits of monks and the night before dawn, the symbolism of the darkest of all colours.
Black and white: chessboards, floors and symbols of duality
From the chessboard to the chequered floors of churches and lodges, to the Dominican habit: the symbolism of black and white paired as opposites.
Cardinal red and the colours of the church hierarchy
Cardinals' red, bishops' violet, the pope's white, priests' black: how the colours of clerical dress express rank, service and symbol in the Church.
Chiaroscuro: Leonardo, Caravaggio and the light that reveals
From Leonardo's sfumato to the beam of light in The Calling of Saint Matthew: how painting used light and shadow to speak of revelation and mystery.
Colour names in languages: how cultures divide the spectrum
Homer's wine-dark sea, the blue and green some languages do not separate, the basic colour terms: how different cultures give names to colours.
The colours of the directions: Maya, Navajo and cardinal points
Red in the east, black in the west: how the Maya, the Navajo and other peoples of the Americas linked colours, directions and sacred mountains.
The colours of the military orders: mantles, crosses and banners
The Templars' white mantle and red cross, the Hospitallers' white cross, the Teutonic black cross: the language of colour in the religious-military orders.
Ermine and vair: heraldic furs and their symbolism
Ermine, vair and their variants: how heraldic furs came about, how to recognise them on a shield and the symbolism of purity and rank that goes with them.
The colours of the five Buddhas in the Tibetan Buddhist mandala
White, blue, yellow, red and green: the five wisdom Buddhas, their directions and colours in the Tibetan mandala, between mental poisons and wisdoms.
Goethe's Theory of Colours: colour between light and darkness
For Goethe colour arises where light meets darkness: the Theory of Colours, the colour circle, the moral effect of colours and the dispute with Newton.
The gold ground: divine light in icons and mosaics
Why icons, mosaics and medieval panels use gold in place of the sky: gilding technique, theological meaning and the symbolism of a light without shadows.
Gothic stained glass: the colour of light and Abbot Suger
From the windows of Saint-Denis to the blue of Chartres: how Gothic builders turned coloured light into visible theology, after Suger's anagogical method.
Green: rebirth, Islam and the mystery of the Green Knight
Green-faced Osiris, the colour of the Prophet, the Green Knight of Arthurian legend: green between regeneration, paradise and the wild power of nature.
Heraldic tinctures: metals, colours and the rule of tincture
Gold, silver, red, blue, green, black and purple: the seven tinctures of heraldry, the rule against metal on metal and their traditional symbolic meanings.
Liturgical colours: white, red, green, violet in the sacred year
Why the priest wears violet in Advent and red at Pentecost: the history and symbolism of the liturgical colours of the Roman rite, from white to rose.
Newton and the seven colours: the spectrum, music and harmony
Why the rainbow has seven colours: Newton's prism experiments, the analogy with the musical scale and the ancient idea of a cosmos ordered by harmony.
The rainbow in myth: Iris, Bifröst and the covenant of Noah
Messenger of the gods, bridge to Asgard, sign of covenant, creator serpent: how traditions have read the rainbow as a bridge between heaven and earth.
Red: blood, life and protection in folk traditions
The red thread, the ochre of prehistoric burials, Chinese brides, the painted face of the triumphant general: red as the colour of life and protection.
The shadow as soul: folk beliefs, myths and tales
The Egyptian shadow, Plato's cave, Peter Schlemihl who sold his shadow: why so many cultures have seen in the shadow a living part of the person.
Tabernacle colours: tekhelet, purple, scarlet and fine linen
Blue, purple, scarlet and white linen: the four coloured materials of the Tabernacle in Exodus, the blue thread of the fringes and their symbolic readings.
Tyrian purple: history and symbol of the imperial colour
From Mediterranean sea snails to the robes of emperors: how Tyrian purple was obtained and why it became the supreme symbol of sacred power in antiquity.
Ultramarine blue: from lapis lazuli to the Virgin's mantle
Why the Madonna wears blue: the history of ultramarine made from lapis lazuli, its cost in sacred painting and the heavenly symbolism of the colour blue.
White: candour, initiation and mourning across cultures
From the Roman toga candida to the white mourning of the East and of French queens: white as a symbol of purity, passage and the light that contains all.
Yellow: solar light and the ambivalence of a contested colour
Chinese imperial yellow, the saffron robes of monks, Judas's garment in medieval painting: why yellow has been both a sacred colour and a mark of infamy.