Color: A Natural History of the Palette

Color Discover the tantalizing true stories behind your favorite colors. For example: Cleopatra used saffron-a source of the color yellow-for seduction. Extracted from an Afghan mine, the blue "ultramarine" paint used by Michelangelo was so expensive he couldn't afford to buy it himself. Since ancient times, carmine red-still found in lipsticks and Cherry Coke today-has come from the blood of insects.