Blue was considered a beneficial colour which would protect the dead against evil in the afterlife. A painting by William Hogarth from 1854 shows a polling station with the blue flag of the Tory party and the orange flag of the Whigs. Blue is a mix of green and purple shades, and it's the favorite color of many. Beginning in the 1950s, they became an essential part of uniform of young people in the United States, Europe, and around the world. [25] Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic period, but not blue. Lapis lazuli pigment was also used to create the rich blues in Persian miniatures. Learn more. This was the first synthetic blue, first made in about 2500 BC. The National Basketball Association, the premier basketball league in the United States and Canada, also has blue as one of the colours on their logo, along with red and white also, as did its female equivalent, the WNBA, until March 28, 2011, when the latter adopted an orange and white logo. Lapis lazuli, mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, was used for jewellery and ornaments, and later was crushed and powdered and used as a pigment. This product gradually replaced natural indigo, and after the end of the First World War, it brought an end to the trade of indigo from the East and West Indies. The walls of Roman villas in Pompeii had frescoes of brilliant blue skies, and blue pigments were found in the shops of colour merchants. The Marquis de Lafayette in the uniform of the Garde Nationale during the French Revolution (1790). pp. It made a fine transparent blue valued in medieval manuscripts. [31], In Egypt blue was associated with the sky and with divinity. Like azurite, it is not a long-lived pigment. [12], The sea is seen as blue for largely the same reason: the water absorbs the longer wavelengths of red and reflects and scatters the blue, which comes to the eye of the viewer. It was employed at times by Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, El Greco, Van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt.[47]. It is the common colour of overalls, Blue is traditionally associated with the sea and the sky, with infinity and distance. Uruguay are known as the La Celeste, Spanish for 'the sky blue one', while Argentina are known as Los Albicelestes, Spanish for 'the sky blue and whites'.[130]. [citation needed] Blue became associated with holiness, humility and virtue. The rise of the colour blue in fashion in the 12th and 13th centuries led to a blue dye industry in several cities, notably Amiens, Toulouse, and Erfurt. The blue necktie of former British Prime Minister David Cameron represented his Conservative Party. The RYB model was used for colour printing by Jacob Christoph Le Blon as early as 1725. "the color of the clear sky," c. 1300, from blue (adj.1). In Vincent van Gogh's Irises, the blue irises are placed against their complementary colour, yellow-orange. Synonyms & Antonyms of blue (Entry 1 of 2) 1 depicting or referring to sexual matters in a way that is unacceptable in polite society was shocked at the blue banter on that satellite-radio talk show A painted pottery pot coloured with Han blue from the Han Dynasty in China (206 BC to 220 AD). The National Football League, the premier American football league in the United States, also uses blue as one of three colours, along with white and red, on their official logo. Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière window, Chartres Cathedral. In addition, the colour is present on the logos of many sports associations. Find more ways to say blue, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. Use the font generator app to try out new text styles every day. The Wilton Diptych, made for King Richard II of England, made lavish use of ultramarine. King Louis IX of France (on the right, with Pope Innocent) was the first European king to wear blue. The vision of Blue World Technologies is to retire the combustion engine and replace it with clean, efficient and competitive methanol fuel cell systems. [17] In humans, the pigmentation of the iris varies from light brown to black. The 19th-century Japanese woodblock artist Hokusai used Prussian blue, a synthetic colour imported from Europe, in his wave paintings, such as in The Great Wave off Kanagawa. Riley, Eva Heller, Psychologie de la couleur – effets et symboliques p. 38, "Estonia in brief: National Symbols" at Estonica website. Sixteen other teams either regularly feature blue hats or utilise the colour in their uniforms. Whether it's a primary color or a saddened mood, blue is used often as an adjective for people and things. A tomb painting from the eastern Han Dynasty (25–220 AD) in Henan Province, China. A lapis lazuli bowl from Iran (End of 3rd, beginning 2nd millennium BC), A hippopotamus decorated with aquatic plants, made of faience with a blue glaze, made to resemble lapis lazuli. A woman struggles to find a way to … Chinese blue and white porcelain from about 1335, made in Jingdezhen, the porcelain centre of China. In 1778 the Congress asked George Washington to design a new uniform, and in 1779 Washington made the official colour of all uniforms blue and buff. Blue is commonly used in the Western Hemisphere to symbolise boys, in contrast to. In 2002, more than 38,000 tons of synthetic indigo was produced, often for the production of blue jeans.[61]. Lasers emitting in the blue region of the spectrum became widely available to the public in 2010 with the release of inexpensive high-powered 445–447 nm laser diode technology. In Germany, Wassily Kandinsky and other Russian émigrés formed the art group called Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), and used blue to symbolise spirituality and eternity. (See underwater and euphotic depth). And it's getting more and more absurd. The invention of new synthetic pigments in the 18th and 19th centuries considerably brightened and expanded the palette of painters. During his Blue Period (1901–1904) Pablo Picasso used blue and green, with hardly any warm colours, to create a melancholy mood. The nobility wore red or purple, while only the poor wore blue clothing, coloured with poor-quality dyes made from the woad plant. Indigofera tinctoria, a tropical shrub, is the main source of indigo dye. [76], Monet and the impressionists were among the first to observe that shadows were full of colour. The team in St. Louis is primarily nicknamed after the eponymous music genre. In the eighth century Chinese artists used cobalt blue to colour fine blue and white porcelain. [7] Colour names often developed individually in natural languages, typically beginning with black and white (or dark and light), and then adding red, and only much later – usually as the last main category of colour accepted in a language – adding the colour blue, probably when blue pigments could be manufactured reliably in the culture using that language.[7]. Vivid blues can be created by chemical reactions, called chemiluminescence. 1971, "Egyptian blue as a pigment and ceramic material." In Québec Province of Canada, the Blues are those who support sovereignty for Quebec, as opposed to the Federalists. The pastel industry was threatened in the 15th century by the arrival from India of the same dye (indigo), obtained from a shrub widely grown in Asia. Flower-pattern tile from Iznik, Turkey, from the second half of the 16th century. Metropolitan Police officers in Soho, London (2007). [50], Often painters or clients saved money by using less expensive blues, such as azurite smalt, or pigments made with indigo, but this sometimes caused problems. The sense "lead-colored, blackish-blue, darkened as if by bruising" is perhaps by way of the Old Norse cognate bla "livid, lead-colored." Objects become more blue and lighter in colour the farther they are from the viewer, because of Rayleigh scattering. Originally the coat and trousers were different colours, but in the 19th century the suit of a single colour became fashionable. Other common blue pigments made from minerals are ultramarine (Na8–10Al6Si6O24S2–4), cerulean blue (primarily cobalt (II) stanate: Co2SnO4), and Prussian blue (milori blue: primarily Fe7(CN)18). The Bhaisajyaguru, or "Medicine Master of Lapis Lazuli Light", is the Buddha of healing and medicine in Mahayana Buddhism. Farmer ["Slang and Its Analogues Past and Present," 1890] offers the theory that this meaning derives from the blue dress uniforms issued to harlots in houses of correction (from c. 1600), but he writes that the earlier slang authority John Camden Hotten "suggests it as coming from the French Bibliothèque Bleu, a series of books of very questionable character," and adds, from Hotten, that, "Books or conversation of an entirely opposite nature are said to be Brown or Quakerish, i.e., serious, grave, decent.". This is considered the first synthetic pigment. The colour of the sea is also affected by the colour of the sky, reflected by particles in the water; and by algae and plant life in the water, which can make it look green; or by sediment, which can make it look brown. blue definition: 1. of the colour of the sky without clouds on a bright day, or a darker or lighter type of this…. Blue, red and white are the national colours of Australia, In the middle of the 18th century, blue was the colour of, By the time of the American Revolution, The Tories were in power and blue and buff had become the colours of the opposition, In the United States, television commentators use the term ". It was not one of the four primary colours for Greek painting described by Pliny the Elder (red, yellow, black, and white), but nonetheless it was used as a background colour behind the friezes on Greek temples and to colour the beards of Greek statues. Blue tile on the facade of the Friday Mosque in Herat, Afghanistan (15th century). Well, obvious to us, at least, as you can see below. What do I do to make you want me? One government in Germany outlawed the use of indigo in 1577, describing it as a "pernicious, deceitful and corrosive substance, the Devil's dye. In 1737 both the French and German governments finally allowed the use of indigo. Blue jeans, made of denim coloured with indigo dye, patented by Levi Strauss in 1873, became an essential part of the wardrobe of young people beginning in the 1950s. Therefore, when looking at the sunset and sunrise, the colour red is more perceptible than any of the other colours. Dark blue suits were still rare; this one is blue-green or teal. It was made of ultramarine combined with a resin called Rhodopa, which gave it a particularly brilliant colour. If You Come Back. The modern English word blue comes from Middle English bleu or blewe, from the Old French bleu, a word of Germanic origin, related to the Old High German word blao (meaning shimmering, lustrous). (See RYB colour system.). The figure is made of faience with a blue glaze, designed to resemble turquoise. In 1709 a German druggist and pigment maker named Johann Jacob Diesbach accidentally discovered a new blue while experimenting with potassium and iron sulphides. Since the 18th century, natural blue dyes have largely been replaced by synthetic dyes. By 1710 it was being used by the French painter Antoine Watteau, and later his successor Nicolas Lancret. The person who who left you broken. The Romans used it under the name lapis armenius, or Armenian stone. Blue was considered the colour of mourning, and the colour of barbarians. Following the London plague of 1665 and the London fire of 1666, King Charles II of England ordered that his courtiers wear simple coats, waistcoats and breeches, and the palette of colours became blue, grey, white and buff. Several languages, including Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lakota Sioux, use the same word to describe blue and green. Painting by Caillebotte. For blue ribbon see cordon bleu under cordon. It was a favourite background colour of the German painter Albrecht Dürer. (For more on this subject, see Distinguishing blue from green in language), Linguistic research indicates that languages do not begin by having a word for the colour blue. This ruined the dye industries in Toulouse and the other cities that produced pastel, but created a thriving new indigo commerce to seaports such as Bordeaux, Nantes and Marseille. [74], Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy includes "the lavish lapis lazuli, the darker indigo pigment and the paler cobalt."[75]. CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (. [83], During the American Revolution, the leader of the Whig Party in England, Charles James Fox, wore a blue coat and buff waistcoat and breeches, the colours of the Whig Party and of the uniform of George Washington, whose principles he supported. Blue had first become the high fashion colour of the wealthy and powerful in Europe in the 13th century, when it was worn by Louis IX of France, better known as Saint Louis (1214–1270). Blue in Paganism: Blue is associated with peace, truth, wisdom, protection, and patience. The new style had a long tail coat cut to fit the body and long tight trousers to replace the knee-length breeches and stockings of the previous century. Woad and true indigo were used to produce indigo dye used to colour fabrics blue or indigo. Find more ways to say blue-green, along with related words, antonyms and example phrases at Thesaurus.com, the world's most trusted free thesaurus. In the late 18th century, the blue uniform became a symbol of liberty and revolution. Natural ultramarine, made by grinding and purifying lapis lazuli, was the finest available blue pigment in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Blues with a higher frequency and thus a shorter wavelength gradually look more violet, while those with a lower frequency and a longer wavelength gradually appear more green. In October 1774, even before the United States declared its independence, George Mason and one hundred Virginia neighbours of George Washington organised a voluntary militia unit (the Fairfax County Independent Company of Volunteers) and elected Washington the honorary commander. In his La Gare Saint-Lazare, the grey smoke, vapour and dark shadows are actually composed of mixtures of bright pigment, including cobalt blue, cerulean blue, synthetic ultramarine, emerald green, Guillet green, chrome yellow, vermilion and ecarlate red. [52] Titian created his rich blues by using many thin glazes of paint of different blues and violets which allowed the light to pass through, which made a complex and luminous colour, like stained glass. 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