A blue more expensive than gold − ultramarine

Travel with us beyond the sea to look at ultramarine, a pigment that was once even more precious than gold.

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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Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lOs0_Yi-G8

You can email us with any questions via [email protected]

Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast

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Paintings mentioned:

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 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