S15·E23 The Conquest of Colors (Second Version)

The history of humanity can be seen as a succession of conquests: we never think about the conquest of color, yet it has changed our lives. "The Conquest of Color" is a journey of discovery into how our world has been enriched with millions of hues over the centuries, thanks to the emergence of ever more brilliant hues and colors. We'll begin in the Paleolithic, when humanity essentially had only three colors at its disposal: black, ochre, and white. We'll then explore how the deep Egyptian blue, the first synthetic color in history, and the elegant purple of the Phoenicians and Romans were later added. We'll see how the great glass masters learned to bathe cathedrals in colored light, and how the greatest artists of the past obtained their colors using precious stones, such as lapis lazuli, which was used to create the blue used by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel.