medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Were not blue vestments used at Princess Diana's funeral, with some
explanation of the reason?
Elizabeth McLachlan, [log in to unmask]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Bugslag" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 8:23 PM
Subject: Re: [M-R] Marian Blue?
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> > medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and
culture
> >
> > >Does anyone know how, when and why the color blue came to be so
> > intimately associated with the BVM, Titian's "Assumption"
notwithstanding?
> >
> > The answer could be something like the chicken and egg in terms of which
> > came first, general qualities or Mary's. That repository of
> > miscellaneous meaning, Brewer's Phrase and Fable (14th ed., 1989, in
> > hand), under Colours (p. 255-56), lists blue associations:
>
> Part of the problem with "colour symbolism" is that so much of it is
highly
> contextual. This is seldom pointed out by such sources as Brewer, however
useful
> they might generally be. George Ferguson's Signs and Symbols in Christian
Art, for
> example, claims that the colour red can symbolize both love and hate.
Presumably,
> not at the same time. As far as blue is concerned, at least part of the
reason that it
> became a "prestige" colour, like gold, in the later Middle Ages and
Renaissance was
> that the finest blue pigment for paint was ultramarine, made of crushed
lapis lazuli,
> which was mined principally, then as now, in Afghanistan, making it the
most
> expensive pigment, besides gold leaf, available in Europe. Surviving
contracts for
> paintings from the 14th and 15th century often specify both the quality
and the
> quantity of ultramarine to be used. Like gold, high-quality ultramarine
would have
> been recognized as materially valuable and thus suitable to a highly
valued subject.
> Cheers,
> Jim Bugslag
>
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