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Black
Black was the first color used by human artists, appearing in the Lascaux Cave in France between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic painters began their work using charcoal, the soot from burnt torches, to draw bulls and other animals on the cave walls. They later achieved even darker pigments by burning bones or grinding manganese oxide powder. This earliest use of black was not merely decorative; it was a fundamental tool for survival and expression, allowing early humans to capture the world around them on the hardest surfaces available. The charcoal lines drawn with burnt torch tips remain the oldest evidence of human artistic intent, predating written language by millennia.
The Color Of The Underworld
In ancient Egypt, black held positive associations as the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile River. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld who took the form of a black jackal to offer protection against evil to the dead. Conversely, the ancient Greeks viewed black as the color of the underworld, separated from the living by the river Acheron, whose water ran black. Those who committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest level, where Hades, the king of the underworld, sat upon a black ebony throne. In the social hierarchy of ancient Rome, black was worn by craftsmen and artisans, while purple was reserved for the emperor and red for soldiers. The black dyes used by Romans were not deep or rich; vegetable dyes often faded to gray or brown, and the word for black, ater, became associated with cruelty and evil, forming the root of the English words atrocious and atrocity.
The Rise Of Royal Black
In the 14th century, the status of black began to change dramatically across Europe. High-quality black dyes arrived on the market, allowing garments of a deep, rich black to be worn by magistrates and government officials as a sign of importance and seriousness. This shift was driven by sumptuary laws in northern Italy that prohibited the wearing of costly bright colors like scarlet cloaks from Venice or peacock blue fabrics from Florence by anyone except nobility. Wealthy bankers and merchants responded by changing to black robes made with the most expensive fabrics. The change quickly spread to kings and nobility, beginning in northern Italy with the Duke of Milan and the Count of Savoy, then moving to France under Louis I, Duke of Orleans, and to England at the end of King Richard II's reign. By the end of the 16th century, black was the color worn by almost all monarchs of Europe and their courts, symbolizing power, dignity, humility, and temperance.
Black was the first color used by human artists, appearing in the Lascaux Cave in France between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. Paleolithic painters used charcoal from burnt torches to draw bulls and other animals on the cave walls. This earliest use of black predates written language by millennia.
What did black symbolize in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece?
In ancient Egypt, black held positive associations as the color of fertility and the rich black soil flooded by the Nile River. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld who took the form of a black jackal to offer protection against evil to the dead. Conversely, the ancient Greeks viewed black as the color of the underworld, separated from the living by the river Acheron, whose water ran black.
When did black become the color of European nobility and monarchs?
By the end of the 16th century, black was the color worn by almost all monarchs of Europe and their courts, symbolizing power, dignity, humility, and temperance. This shift began in northern Italy with the Duke of Milan and the Count of Savoy, then moved to France under Louis I, Duke of Orleans, and to England at the end of King Richard II's reign. High-quality black dyes arrived on the market in the 14th century, allowing garments of a deep, rich black to be worn by magistrates and government officials as a sign of importance and seriousness.
Why did the Protestant Reformation adopt black as an emblematic color?
Black became the emblematic color of the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the Puritans in England and America because Protestant doctrine required clothing to be sober, simple, and discreet. John Calvin and Philip Melanchthon denounced the richly colored and decorated interiors of Roman Catholic churches, seeing the red worn by the pope and his cardinals as the color of luxury, sin, and human folly. In the Protestant Netherlands, Rembrandt used this sober new palette of blacks and browns to create portraits whose faces emerged from the shadows, expressing the deepest human emotions.
When did the association between black and witchcraft become widespread in Europe and America?
In the second part of the 17th century, Europe and America experienced an epidemic of fear of witchcraft, leading to the widespread superstition about black cats and other black animals. During the notorious Salem witch trials in New England in 1692 and 1693, nineteen women and men were hanged as witches, cementing the association between black and evil in the popular imagination. People widely believed that the devil appeared at midnight in a ceremony called a Black Mass or black sabbath, usually in the form of a black animal, often a goat, a dog, a wolf, a bear, a deer, or a rooster.
What is the darkest material known to science as of September 2019?
As of September 2019, the darkest material known to science is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. The material was grown by MIT engineers and was reported to have a 99.995% absorption rate of any incoming light, surpassing any former darkest materials including Vantablack, which has a peak absorption rate of 99.965% in the visible spectrum. This scientific achievement mirrors the ancient quest for the deepest black, from the charcoal of the Lascaux caves to the gall-nut dyes of the 14th century.
While black was the color worn by Catholic rulers of Europe, it became the emblematic color of the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the Puritans in England and America. John Calvin and Philip Melanchthon denounced the richly colored and decorated interiors of Roman Catholic churches, seeing the red worn by the pope and his cardinals as the color of luxury, sin, and human folly. In some northern European cities, mobs attacked churches, smashed stained glass windows, and defaced statues. Protestant doctrine required clothing to be sober, simple, and discreet, banishing bright colors and replacing them with blacks, browns, and grays. In the Protestant Netherlands, Rembrandt used this sober new palette of blacks and browns to create portraits whose faces emerged from the shadows, expressing the deepest human emotions. This contrasted sharply with the Catholic Counter-Reformation, where painters like Rubens filled their paintings with bright and rich colors to appeal to the public.
The Black Mass And The Witch
In the second part of the 17th century, Europe and America experienced an epidemic of fear of witchcraft. People widely believed that the devil appeared at midnight in a ceremony called a Black Mass or black sabbath, usually in the form of a black animal, often a goat, a dog, a wolf, a bear, a deer, or a rooster, accompanied by their familiar spirits, black cats, serpents, and other black creatures. This was the origin of the widespread superstition about black cats and other black animals. In medieval Flanders, in a ceremony called Kattenstoet, black cats were thrown from the belfry of the Cloth Hall of Ypres to ward off witchcraft. During the notorious Salem witch trials in New England in 1692 and 1693, one of those on trial was accused of being able to turn into a black thing with a blue cap, and others of having familiars in the form of a black dog, a black cat, and a black bird. Nineteen women and men were hanged as witches, cementing the association between black and evil in the popular imagination.
The Industrial Black
In the 18th century, during the European Age of Enlightenment, black receded as a fashion color, with Paris becoming the fashion capital and pastels, blues, greens, yellow, and white becoming the colors of the nobility and upper classes. However, after the French Revolution, black again became the dominant color. Black was the color of the industrial revolution, largely fueled by coal, and later by oil. Thanks to coal smoke, the buildings of the large cities of Europe and America gradually turned black. By 1846, the industrial area of the West Midlands of England was commonly called the Black Country. Charles Dickens and other writers described the dark streets and smoky skies of London, vividly illustrated in the wood-engravings of French artist Gustave Doré. A different kind of black was an important part of the romantic movement in literature, where black was the color of melancholy, the dominant theme of romanticism. The novels of the period were filled with castles, ruins, dungeons, storms, and meetings at midnight, and the leading poets of the movement were usually portrayed dressed in black.
The Black Square And The Black Dress
In the 20th century, black regained some of the territory it had lost during the 19th century. The Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, a member of the Suprematist movement, created the Black Square in 1915, widely considered the first purely abstract painting. He wrote that the painted work was no longer simply the imitation of reality, but was this very reality, the materialization of an idea. In fashion, the defining moment was the invention of the simple black dress by French designer Coco Chanel in 1926. She famously said that a woman needs just three things: a black dress, a black sweater, and a man she loves. The black dress became the emblem of elegance, worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's. In the 1950s, black came to be a symbol of individuality and intellectual and social rebellion, the color of those who did not accept established norms and values, worn by Left-Bank intellectuals in Paris and members of the Beat Movement in New York and San Francisco.
The Darkest Material
As of September 2019, the darkest material known to science is made from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes. The material was grown by MIT engineers and was reported to have a 99.995% absorption rate of any incoming light, surpassing any former darkest materials including Vantablack, which has a peak absorption rate of 99.965% in the visible spectrum. This scientific achievement mirrors the ancient quest for the deepest black, from the charcoal of the Lascaux caves to the gall-nut dyes of the 14th century. In physics, a black body is a perfect absorber of light, but by a thermodynamic rule, it is also the best emitter. Black holes, regions of spacetime where gravity prevents anything, including light, from escaping, absorb all the light that hits the horizon, reflecting nothing, just like a perfect black body in thermodynamics. The universe itself appears black because it is not infinitely old, and light from stars farther away has not reached Earth, leaving the background color of outer space black.