The Kiss of Judas by Giotto, 1304-06
The Kiss of Judas by Giotto, 1304-06GETTY IMAGES



If it is possible to feel sorry for a colour, one should feel sorry for yellow. It has, according to the French medieval historian and symbologist Michel Pastoureau, had a sad fall from grace over the centuries. In antiquity yellow was prized as the colour of the sun, and thus of warmth and light; by the Middle Ages, however, attitudes towards it had turned ambivalent, and from the 19th century onwards it has been largely unloved. A 2005 poll to rank colours by popularity — and there was such a thing — put blue way out ahead in the West at 45-50 per cent, while yellow came in at a sickly 5 per cent.

Pastoureau is gradually working his way along the spectrum, and this…