Bonus nonsense:
Glittering Images by Camille Paglia
I stopped reading after this horrendous introduction. I would describe the prose as Redditor adjacent. The author identifies as a civil rights era liberal and atheist, while condemning black art and Piss Christ. There were some pretty pictures in the book tho. I don't know who this author lady is/was but she sucks. 2/10
E: if you look this lady up, as many in the comments have done already, turns out she's a racist, transphobic pedophile. classic anticommunist
No you see, before davinci painters were dum dums and advances in pigments composition bear no relation to renaissance, they just liked monochrome fills
It’s not like half the 19th century chemistry can be described “how the fuck do we make indigo?” Or ultramarine for painters in 13th, by other means ^or how to crush the venezian cartels^
Or whatever was going on with paintbrushes and canvases, they didn’t fall out of coconut tree as well
society (invisible hand of the market) says blue color is impossible to make cheaply, well, good luck to your artistic soul drawing a sky, mate. same for early white pigments ageing (or bright greens, if i remember correctly)