"Renaissance Colour Symbolism brings together texts and translations of the four earliest printed books on the meaning of colours: Le Blason de toutes armes et éscutz [The Blazon of All Arms and Escutcheons] (1495) by Jean Courtois, the Sicily Herald; Le Blason des couleurs en armes, livrées et devises [The Blazon of Colours in Arms, Liveries and Devices] (1527) by Gilles Corrozet; Libellus de coloribus [Booklet on Colours] (1528) by Antonio Telesio (Thylesius); and Del significato de' colori [On the Signification of Colours] (1535) by Fulvio Pellegrino Morato. Parts of three other early books are included, from The Accedens of Armory (1562) by Gerard Legh; Trattato dell'arte della pittura, scoltura, et archittetura [Treatise on the Arts of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture] (1584) by Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo; and A Tracte Containing the Artes of Curious Paintinge, Carvinge and Buildinge (1598) by Richard Haydocke"--Provided by publisher.

'Telesio and Morato on the Meaning of Colours' brings together the original texts with original English translations of two closely related primary sources on Renaissance colour symbolism. The first is the 'Libellus de coloribus' (Booklet on colours), the most extensive lexicon of colour terminology of its time, published in Venice in 1528 by Antonio Telesio (1482-1534), who latinised his name as Antonius Thylesius. The second is 'Del significato de' colori' (On the signification of colours), the most extensive digest of current and classical colour meanings of its time, published in Venice in 1535 by Fulvio Pellegrino Morato (c. 1483-1548). They were the third and fourth books on colour to be printed in Europe. Roy Osborne is an artist, educator and historian, and author of books on colour. He was awarded the Turner Medal of the Colour Group (Great Britain) in 2003, and the Colour in Art, Design and Environment Medal of the International Colour Association in 2019.

'Sicily Herald and the Blazon of Colours' brings together the original texts with original English translations of two closely related primary sources on Renaissance colour symbolism. 'Le Blason de toutes armes et scutz' (The blazon of all arms and shields) was completed about 1420 by Jean Courtois (c. 1375-1436), the Sicily Herald, and printed in Paris in 1495. The second, 'Le Blason des couleurs en armes, livr es, et devises' (The blazon of colours in arms, liveries and devices), by Gilles Corrozet (1510-68), was published in Paris in 1527 by Pierre Le Brodeur. They were first two books on colour to be printed in Europe, and are now available in English for the first time in five centuries. Roy Osborne is an artist, educator and historian, and author of books on colour. He was awarded the Turner Medal of the Colour Group (Great Britain) in 2003, and the Colour in Art, Design and Environment Medal of the International Colour Association in 2019.

Recent restoration campaigns, particularly to the Sistine Chapel, have focused attention on the importance of colour in our experience of paintings, but until recently it has been neglected by art historians. The author believes that the work of art can only be fully appreciated when it is regarded as the product of both the artist's hand and mind. This study utilizes the traditional sources, such as contemporary theoretical writings and iconographical analysis, but in addition draws on the scientific findings of the conservation laboratories. This is a new body of data assembled in large part since World War II, which art historians are only beginning to exploit to fill out the history of technique. Rather than writing merely a history of technique, however, the author has integrated this material with traditional approaches to cultural history. She undertakes to examine twenty major paintings of the period from Giotto to Tintoretto to elucidate how colour and technique contribute to their meaning. She gives us then, the first modern consideration of Renaissance paintings both as physical objects and as monuments of cultural history.

Magnificently illustrated throughout, and with a six-color gold-foil cover, this remarkable book provides an all-encompassing survey of the literature, painting, sculpture, architecture, and decorative arts of the Renaissance.

An encyclopaedic work on color in Western art and culture from the Middle Ages to Post-Modernism.

'Extraordinary. An intellectual feast as well as a visual one' Edmund de Waal, author of The Hare with Amber Eyes The world comes to us in colour. But colour lives as much in our imaginations as it does in our surroundings, as this scintillating book reveals. Each chapter immerses the reader in a single colour, drawing together stories from the histories of art and humanity to illuminate the meanings it has been given over the eras and around the globe. Showing how artists, scientists, writers, philosophers, explorers and inventors have both shaped and been shaped by these wonderfully myriad meanings, James Fox reveals how, through colour, we can better understand their cultures, as well as our own. Each colour offers a fresh perspective on a different epoch, and together they form a vivid, exhilarating history of the world. 'We have projected our hopes, anxieties and obsessions onto colour for thousands of years,' Fox writes. 'The history of colour, therefore, is also a history of humanity.'

Beginning with an account of colour fundamentals and a history of colour theory, the author explores the four dimensions of colour and their application to compositions in various media. This book serves as a useful resource for painters, photographers, interior designers and craftspeople.

"John Gage's Color and Meaning is full of ideas. . .He is one of the best writers on art now alive."--A. S. Byatt, Booker Prize winner

Today we associate the Renaissance with painting, sculpture, and architecture—the “major” arts. Yet contemporaries often held the “minor” arts—gem-studded goldwork, richly embellished armor, splendid tapestries and embroideries, music, and ephemeral multi-media spectacles—in much higher esteem. Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, was typical of the Italian nobility: she bequeathed to her children precious stone vases mounted in gold, engraved gems, ivories, and antique bronzes and marbles; her favorite ladies-in-waiting, by contrast, received mere paintings. Renaissance patrons and observers extolled finely wrought luxury artifacts for their exquisite craftsmanship and the symbolic capital of their components; paintings and sculptures in modest materials, although discussed by some literati, were of lesser consequence. This book endeavors to return to the mainstream material long marginalized as a result of historical and ideological biases of the intervening centuries. The author analyzes how luxury arts went from being lofty markers of ascendancy and discernment in the Renaissance to being dismissed as “decorative” or “minor” arts—extravagant trinkets of the rich unworthy of the status of Art. Then, by re-examining the objects themselves and their uses in their day, she shows how sumptuous creations constructed the world and taste of Renaissance women and men.