Green. The History of Color

The study is a continuation of a large-scale project by French historian Michel Pastureau, dedicated to writing the history of color in Western European societies, from Ancient Rome to the 18th century. Starting with the prestigious blue and continuing with the controversial black, the author turned to deciphering green. Up until the 19th century, this color was one of the most complex in production and fixation: chemically unstable, it was for many long centuries associated with everything transient, ephemeral, fleeting: childhood, love, hope, luck, play, chance, money. Only the Romantics discerned its close connection to nature, which remains relevant to this day, when green, now the color of health, freedom, and hope, has been entrusted with the high mission of saving the planet.