Colour and Meaning: Art, Science and Symbolism

Sir Isaac Newton’s famous experiment with light (1666‐1672) depended on “the complete symmetry and reversibility of the triangular prism”. In a chapter here entitled “The fool’s paradise” John Gage traces the convoluted development of this seemingly simple instrument (that rock‐crystal can “intercept the rays of the sun and project rainbow‐colours on to a surface” was noted by Pliny the Elder). The author was encouraged by the acclaim that greeted his (1993) remarkable book Colour and Culture; Colour and Meaning presents more of his scholarly researches into “the history of colour”. Among a vast array of topics discussed are the...