Art[edit]

Prehistoric[edit]

Megaloceros cave art at Lascaux

Black was one of the first colors used in art. The Lascaux Cave in France contains drawings of
bulls and other animals drawn by paleolithic artists between 18,000 and 17,000 years ago. They
began by using charcoal, and later achieved darker pigments by burning bones or grinding a
powder of manganese oxide.[9]

Ancient[edit]
For the ancient Egyptians, black had positive associations; being the color of fertility and the rich
black soil flooded by the Nile. It was the color of Anubis, the god of the underworld, who took the
form of a black jackal, and offered protection against evil to the dead. To ancient Greeks, black
represented the underworld, separated from the living by the river Acheron, whose water ran
black. Those who had committed the worst sins were sent to Tartarus, the deepest and darkest
level. In the center was the palace of Hades, the king of the underworld, where he was seated
upon a black ebony throne. Black was one of the most important colors used by ancient Greek
artists. In the 6th century BC, they began making black-figure pottery and later red figure pottery,
using a highly original technique. In black-figure pottery, the artist would paint figures with a
glossy clay slip on a red clay pot. When the pot was fired, the figures painted with the slip would
turn black, against a red background. Later they reversed the process, painting the spaces
between the figures with slip. This created magnificent red figures against a glossy black
background.[13]
In the social hierarchy of ancient Rome, purple was the color reserved for the Emperor; red was
the color worn by soldiers (red cloaks for the officers, red tunics for the soldiers); white the color
worn by the priests, and black was worn by craftsmen and artisans. The black they wore was not
deep and rich; the vegetable dyes used to make black were not solid or lasting, so the blacks
often faded to gray or brown.[citation needed]
In Latin, the word for black, ater and to darken, atere, were associated with cruelty, brutality and
evil. They were the root of the English words "atrocious" and "atrocity".[14] Black was also the
Roman color of death and mourning. In the 2nd century BC Roman magistrates began to wear a
dark toga, called a toga pulla, to funeral ceremonies. Later, under the Empire, the family of the
deceased also wore dark colors for a long period; then, after a banquet to mark the end of
mourning, exchanged the black for a white toga. In Roman poetry, death was called the hora
nigra, the black hour.[9]
The German and Scandinavian peoples worshipped their own goddess of the night, Nótt, who
crossed the sky in a chariot drawn by a black horse. They also feared Hel, the goddess of the
kingdom of the dead, whose skin was black on one side and red on the other. They also held
sacred the raven. They believed that Odin, the king of the Nordic pantheon, had two black
ravens, Huginn and Muninn, who served as his agents, traveling the world for him, watching and
listening.[15]

Statue of Anubis, guardian of the underworld, from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

Greek black-figure pottery. Ajax and Achilles playing a game, about 540–530 BC.
(Vatican Museums).

Red-figure pottery with black background. Portrait of Thetis, about 470–480 BC. (The
Louvre)

Postclassical[edit]
In the early Middle Ages, black was commonly associated with darkness and evil. In Medieval
paintings, the devil was usually depicted as having human form, but with wings and black skin or
hair.[16]
12th and 13th centuries[edit]
In fashion, black did not have the prestige of red, the color of the nobility. It was worn
by Benedictine monks as a sign of humility and penitence. In the 12th century a famous
theological dispute broke out between the Cistercian monks, who wore white, and the
Benedictines, who wore black. A Benedictine abbot, Pierre the Venerable, accused the
Cistercians of excessive pride in wearing white instead of black. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, the
founder of the Cistercians responded that black was the color of the devil, hell, "of death and
sin," while white represented "purity, innocence and all the virtues".[17]
Black symbolized both power and secrecy in the medieval world. The emblem of the Holy Roman
Empire of Germany was a black eagle. The black knight in the poetry of the Middle Ages was an
enigmatic figure, hiding his identity, usually wrapped in secrecy.[18]
Black ink, invented in China, was traditionally used in the Middle Ages for writing, for the simple
reason that black was the darkest color and therefore provided the greatest contrast with white
paper or parchment, making it the easiest color to read. It became even more important in the
15th century, with the invention of printing. A new kind of ink, printer's ink, was created out
of soot, turpentine and walnut oil. The new ink made it possible to spread ideas to a mass
audience through printed books, and to popularize art through black and white engravings and
prints. Because of its contrast and clarity, black ink on white paper continued to be the standard
for printing books, newspapers and documents; and for the same reason black text on a white
background is the most common format used on computer screens.[7]

The Italian painter Duccio di Buoninsegna showed Christ expelling the Devil, shown
covered with bristly black hair (1308–11).

The 15th-century painting of the Last Judgement by Fra Angelico (1395–1455) depicted
hell with a vivid black devil devouring sinners.

Portrait of a monk of the Benedictine Order (1484)

 •

The black knight in a miniature painting of a medieval romance,Le Livre du cœur d'amour
épris (about 1460)

Gutenberg Bible (1451–1452). Black ink was used for printing books, because it provided
the greatest contrast with the white paper and was the clearest and easiest color to read.