Venetian colour between East and West

Plenary lecture to mark the end of the Courtauld Institute summer school .

The lecture was given by one of the professors at the Institute Paul Hills. He discussed the effect of trade with the East on colours in Venice. In particular he seemed to concentrate on the effect of the imported blue and white ceramics. I must admit he lost me at this point. I couldn’t make the leap from blue and white pottery to the role of blue and white in pictures. I felt those colours were more about sunshine and blue skies on the lagoon.

I felt the argument wandered around a bit and just showed how good our lecturer for the rest of the week had been.

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