Blue is the colour of the clear sky and the deep sea.

On the optical spectrum, blue is located between violet and green. Surveys in the U.S. and Europe show that blue is the colour most commonly associated with harmony, faithfulness, and confidence. In U.S. and European public opinion polls it is overwhelmingly the most popular colour, chosen by almost half of both men and women as their favourite colour. It is also commonly associated with the sky, the sea, ice, cold, and sometimes with sadness. Blue is the colour of light between violet and green on the visible spectrum. Hues of blue include indigo and ultramarine, closer to violet; pure blue, without any mixture of other colours; Cyan, which is midway on the spectrum between blue and green, and the other blue-greens turquoise, teal, and aquamarine. Blues also vary in shade or tint; darker shades of blue contain black or grey, while lighter tints contain white. Darker shades of blue include ultramarine, cobalt blue, navy blue, andPrussian blue; while lighter tints include sky blue, azure, and Egyptian blue. (For a more complete list see the List of colours). Blue pigments were originally made from minerals such as lapis lazuli, cobalt and azurite, and blue dyes were made from plants; usually woad in Europe, and Indigofera tinctoria, or True indigo, in Asia and Africa. Today most blue pigments and dyes are made by a chemical process.

Blue is the colour of the deep sea and the clear sky. The harbour ofToulon, France, on theMediterranean Sea.

Pure blue, also known as high blue, is not mixed with any other colours.

Navy blue, also known as low blue, is the darkest shade of pure blue.

Sky blue or pale azure, mid-way on the RBG colour wheel between blue and cyan.

Extract of natural Indigo, the most popular blue dye before the invention of synthetic dyes. It was the colour of the first blue jeans.

A block of lapis lazuli, originally used to make ultramarine.

Ultramarine, the most expensive blue during the Renaissance, is a slightly violet-blue.

Cobalt has been used since 2000 BC to colourcobalt glass, Chinese porcelain, and the stained glass windows of medieval cathedrals.

The synthetic pigmentcobalt blue was invented in 1802, and was popular with Vincent van Gogh and other impressionist painters.

Cyan is made by mixing equal amounts of blue and green light, or removing red from white light.

The colour teal takes its name from the colour around the eyes of thecommon teal duck.

Egyptian blue goblet from Mesopotamia, 15001300 BC. This was the first synthetic blue, first made in about 2500 BC.

Prussian blue, invented in 1707, was the first modern synthetic blue.

Cerulean blue pigment was invented in 1805 and first marketed in 1860. It was frequently used for painting skies.

Etymology and linguistic differences

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. In Russian and some other languages, there is no single word for blue, but rather different words for light blue (, goluboy) and dark blue (, siniy). Several languages, including Japanese, Thai, Korean, and Lakota Sioux, use the same word to describe blue and green. For example, in Vietnamese the colour of both tree leaves and the sky is xanh. In Japanese, the word for blue ( ao) is often used for colours that English speakers would refer to as green, such as the colour of a traffic signal meaning "go". (For more on this subject, see Distinguishing blue from green in language)

History of blue
Blue in the ancient world
Blue was a latecomer among colours used in art and decoration, as well as language and literature. Reds, blacks, browns, and ochres are found in cave paintings from the UpperPaleolithic period, but not blue. Blue was also not used for dyeing fabric until long after red, ochre, pink and purple. This is probably due to the perennial difficulty of making good blue dyes and pigments. The earliest known blue dyes were made from plants - woad in Europe, indigo in Asia and Africa, while blue pigments were made from minerals, usually either lapis lazuli or azurite.

Lapis lazuli, a semi-precious stone, has been mined in Afghanistan for more than three thousand years, and was exported to all parts of the ancient world. In Iran and Mesopotamia, it was used to make jewellery and vessels. In Egypt, it was used for the eyebrows on the funeral mask of King Tutankhamun (13411323 BC). The cost of importing lapis lazuli by caravan across the desert from Afghanistan to Egypt was extremely high. Beginning in about 2500 BC, the ancient Egyptians began to produce their own blue pigment known as Egyptian blue, made by grinding silica, lime, copper and alkalai, and heating it to 800 or 900 degrees C. This is considered the first synthetic pigment. Egyptian blue was used to paint wood, papyrus and canvas, and was used to colour a glaze to make faience beads, inlays, and pots. It was particularly used in funeral statuary and figurines and in tomb paintings. Blue was a considered a beneficial colour which would protect the dead against evil in the afterlife. Blue dye was also used to colour the cloth in which mummies were wrapped. In Egypt, blue was associated with the sky and with divinity. The Egyptian god Amun could make his skin blue so that he could fly, invisible, across the sky. Blue could also protect against evil; many people around the Mediterranean still wear a blue amulet, representing the eye of God, to protect them from misfortune. Blue glass was manufactured in Mesopotamia and Egypt as early as 2500 BC, using the same copper ingredients as Egyptian blue pigment. They also added cobalt, which produced a deeper blue, the same blue produced in the Middle Ages in the stained glass windows of the cathedrals of Saint-Denis and Chartres. The Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon (604-562 BC) was decorated with deep blue glazed bricks used as a background for pictures of lions, dragons and aurochs. The ancient Greeks classified colours by whether they were light or dark, rather than by their hue. The Greek word for dark blue, kyaneos, could also mean dark green, violet, black or brown. The ancient Greek word for a light blue, glaukos, also could mean light green, grey, or yellow.

The Greeks imported indigo dye from India, calling it indikon. They used Egyptian blue in the wall paintings of Knossos, in Crete, (2100 BC). 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. The Romans also imported indigo dye, but blue was the colour of working class clothing; the nobles and rich wore white, black, red or violet. Blue was considered the colour of mourning. It was also considered the colour of barbarians; Julius Caesar reported that the Celts and Germans dyed their faces blue to frighten their enemies, and tinted their hair blue when they grew old. Nonetheless, the Romans made extensive use of blue for decoration. According to Vitruvius, they made dark blue pigment from indigo, and imported Egyptian blue pigment. 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 Romans had many different words for varieties of blue, including caeruleus, caesius, glaucus, cyaneus, lividus, venetus, aerius, and ferreus, but two words, both of foreign origin, became the most enduring; blavus, from the Germanic word blau, which eventually became bleu or blue; and azureus, from the Arabic word lazaward, which became azure.

Lapis lazuli pendant fromMesopotamia (Circa 2900 BC).

A lapis azuli bowl from Iran (End of 3rd, beginning 2nd millennium BC)

A hippo decorated with aquatic plants, made of faience with a blue glaze, made to resemble lapis lazuli. (20331710 BC)

Egyptian blue colour in a tomb painting (Around 1500 BC)

Egyptian faience bowl (Between 1550 and 1450 BC)

a decorated cobalt glass vessel from Ancient Egypt (14501350 BC)

The blue eyebrows in the gold funeral mask of King Tutankhamun are made of lapis lazuli. Other blues in the mask are made of turquoise, glass and faience.

Figure of a servant from the tomb of King Seth I (12441279 BC). The figure is made of faiencewith a blue glaze, designed to resemble turquoise.

A lion against a blue background from the Ishtar Gate of ancient Babylon. (575 BC)

A Roman wall painting ofVenus and her son Eros, from Pompeii (about 30 BC)

Mural in the bedroom of the villa of Fannius Synestor in Boscoreale, (50-40 BC) in theMetropolitan Museum.

A painted pottery pot coloured with Han bluefrom the Han Dynasty in China (206 BC to 220 AD).

A tomb painting from the eastern Han Dynasty (25-220 AD) in HenanProvince, China.

Blue in the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic World

Dark blue was widely used in the decoration of churches in the Byzantine Empire. In Byzantine art Christ and the Virgin Mary usually wore dark blue or purple. Blue was used as a background colour representing the sky in the magnificent mosaics which decorated Byzantine churches.

In the Islamic world, blue was of secondary importance to green, believed to be the favourite colour of the Prophet Mohammed. At certain times in Moorish Spain and other parts of the Islamic world, blue was the colour worn by Christians and Jews, because only Muslims were allowed to wear white and green. Dark blue and turquoise decorative tiles were widely used to decorate the facades and interiors of mosques and palaces from Spain to Central Asia. Lapis lazuli pigment was also used to create the rich blues in Persian miniatures.

Blue Byzantine mosaic ceiling representing the night sky in theMausoleum of Galla Placidia in Ravenna, Italy (5th century).

Blue mosaic in the cloak of Christ in the Hagia Sophiachurch in Istanbul (13th century).

Glazed stone-paste bowl from Persia (12th century).

Decorated page of a Koranfrom Persia (1373 AD)

Blue tile on the facade of the Friday Mosque inHerat, Afghanistan (15th century).

Persian miniature from the 16th century.

Decoration in the Murat IIIhall of the Topkapi Palacein Istanbul (16th century).

Flower-pattern tile fromIznik, Turkey, from second half of 16th century.

Gazelle against a blue sky in the Alhambra Palace, Spain (14th century)

Blue during the Middle Ages

In the art and life of Europe during the early Middle Ages, blue played a minor role. The nobility wore red or purple, while only the poor wore blue clothing, coloured with poor-quality dyes made from the woad plant. Blue played no part in the rich costumes of the clergy or the architecture or decoration of churches. This changed dramatically between 1130 and 1140 in Paris, when the Abbe Suger rebuilt the Saint Denis Basilica. He installed stained glass windows coloured with cobalt, which, combined with the light from the red glass, filled the church with a bluish violet light. The church became the marvel of the Christian world, and the colour became known as the "bleu de Saint-Denis". In the years that followed even more elegant blue stained glass windows were installed in other churches, including at Chartres Cathedral and Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. Another important factor in the increased prestige of the colour blue in the 12th century was the veneration of the Virgin Mary, and a change in the colours used to depict her clothing. In earlier centuries her robes had usually been painted in sombre black, grey, violet, dark green or dark blue. In the 12th century they began to be painted a rich lighter blue, usually made with a new pigment imported from Asia; ultramarine. Blue became associated with holiness, humility and virtue. Ultramarine was made from lapis lazuli, from the mines of Badakshan, in the mountains of Afghanistan, near the source of the Oxus River. The mines were visited by Marco Polo in about 1271; he reported, "here is found a high mountain from which they extract the finest and most beautiful of blues." Ground lapis was used in Byzantine manuscripts as early as the 6th century, but it was impure and varied greatly in colour. Ultramarine refined out the impurities through a long and difficult process, creating a rich and deep blue. It was called bleu outremer in French and blu otramere in Italian, since it came from the other side of the sea. It

cost far more than any other colour, and it became the luxury colour for the Kings and Princes of Europe. King Louis IX of France, better known as Saint Louis (12141270), became the first King of France to regularly dress in blue. This was copied by other nobles. Paintings of the mythical King Arthur began to show him dressed in blue. The coat of arms of the Kings of France became an azure or light blue shield, sprinkled with golden fleur-de-lis or lilies. Blue had come from obscurity to become the royal colour. Once blue became the colour of the King, it also became the colour of the wealthy and powerful in Europe. In the Middle Ages in France and to some extent in Italy, the dyeing of blue cloth was subject to license from the crown or state. In Italy, the dyeing of blue was assigned to a specific guild, he tintori di guado, and could not be done by anyone else without severe penalty. The wearing of blue implied some dignity and some wealth. Besides ultramarine, Several other blues were widely used in the Middle Ages and later in the Renaissance. Azurite, a form of copper carbonate, was often used as a substitute for ultramarine. The Romans used it under the name lapis armenius, or Armenian stone. The British called it azure of Amayne, or German azure. The Germans themselves called it bergblau, or mountain stone. It was mined in France, Hungary, Spain and Germany, and it made a pale blue with a hint of green, which was ideal for painting skies. It was a favourite background colour of the German painter Albrecht Drer. Another blue often used in the Middle Ages was called tournesol or folium. It was made from the plant Crozophora tinctoria, which grew in the south of France. It made a fine transparent blue valued in medieval manuscripts. Another common blue pigment was smalt, which was made by grinding blue cobalt glass into a fine powder. It made a deep violet blue similar to ultramarine, and was vivid in frescoes, but it lost some of its brilliance in oil paintings. It became especially popular in the 17th century, when ultramarine was difficult to obtain. It was employed at times byTitian, Tintoretto, Veronese, El Greco, Van Dyck, Rubens and Rembrandt.

Stained glass windows of the Basilica of Saint Denis (11411144).

Notre Dame de la belle verriere window, Chartres Cathedral. (11801225).

Detail of the windows at Sainte-Chapelle (1250).

The Maesta by Duccio(1308) showed the Virgin Mary in a robe painted with ultramarine. Blue became the colour of holiness, virtue and humility.

In the 12th century blue became part of the royal coat of arms of France.

The Wilton Diptych, made for King Richard II of England, made lavish use of ultramarine. (About 1400)

The Coronation of King Louis VIII of France in 1223 showed that blue had become the royal colour. (painted in 1450).

Blue in the European Renaissance

In the Renaissance, a revolution occurred in painting; artists began to paint the world as it was actually seen, with perspective, depth, shadows, and light from a single source. Artists had to adapt their use of blue to the new rules. In medieval paintings, blue was used to attract the attention of the viewer to the Virgin Mary, and identify her. In Renaissance paintings, artists tried to create harmonies between blue and red, lightening the blue with lead white paint and adding shadows and highlights. Raphael was a master of this technique, carefully balancing the reds and the blues so no one colour dominated the picture.

Utramarine was the most prestigious blue of the Renaissance, and patrons sometimes specified that it be used in paintings they commissioned. The contract for the Madone des Harpies by Andrea del Sarto (1514) required that the robe of the Virgin Mary be coloured with ultramarine costing "at least five good florins an ounce."[29] Good ultramarine was more expensive than gold; in 1508 the German painter Albrecht Drer reported in a letter that he had paid twelve ducats- the equivalent of forty-one grams of gold - for just thirty grams of ultramarine. 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. Pigments made from azurite were less expensive, but tended to turn dark and green with time. An example is the robe of the Virgin Mary in The Madonna Enthroned with Saints by Raphael in theMetropolitan Museum in New York. The Virgin Mary's azurite blue robe has degraded into a greenishblack. The introduction of oil painting changed the way colours looked and how they were used. Ultramarine pigment, for instance, was much darker when used in oil painting than when used in tempera painting, in frescoes. To balance their colours, Renaissance artists like Raphael added white to lighten the ultramarine. The sombre dark blue robe of the Virgin Mary became a brilliant sky blue. 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. He also used layers of finely ground or coarsely ground ultramarine, which gave subtle variations to the blue.

Giotto was one of the first Italian Renaissance painters to useultramarine, here in the murals of the Arena Chapel in Padua (circa 1305).

Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries, the robes of the Virgin Mary were painted with ultramarine. This is The Virgin of Humility by Fra Angelico(about 1430). Blue fills the picture.

In In the Virgin of the Meadow (1506), Raphael used white to soften the ultramarine blue of Virgin Mary's robes to balance the red and blue, and to harmonize with the rest of the picture.

Giovanni Bellini was the master of the rich and luminous blue, which almost seemed to glow. This Madonna is from 1480.

Titian used an ultramarine sky and robes to give depth and brilliance toBacchus and Ariadne(15201523)

In this painting of The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints an early work by Raphael in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the blue cloak of the Virgin Mary has turned a green-black. It was painted with less-expensiveazurite.

Glazed Terracotta of The Virgin Adoring the Christ Child, from the workshop of Andrea della Robbia(1483)

The Trs Riches Heures du Duc de Berry was the most important illuminated manuscript of the 15th century. The blue was the extravagantly expensive ultramarine, whose fine grains gave it its brilliant colour. It shows the Duc Du Berry himself seated at the lower right. His costume shows that blue had become a colour for the dress of the nobility, not just of peasants.