{"podcast":{"title":"Stories in Colour","slug":"stories-in-colour-7344920","podcast_index_feed_id":7344920,"rss_url":"https://feeds.captivate.fm/national-gallery-stories-in-colour/","website_url":"https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast","image_url":"https://artwork.captivate.fm/08d30eaf-e5b4-4256-a947-b35583c9e2e8/ZjvIUY6D2AHViTK38f0siuVd.jpg","author":"The National Gallery","episode_count":16,"summary":"These are the stories of how colour has changed the world. 'Stories in Colour’ is a vibrant new podcast from the National Gallery in London. In each episode, we uncover the hidden mysteries woven into colour from antiquity to the present day. Along the way, you'll hear from curators, scientists, historians, artists, and more experts, looking at humanity’s efforts to make colour and make meaning with it. And amongst these stories, you will see - and hear - the National Gallery’s paintings in a whole new spectrum of light. https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast","last_synced_at":null,"page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920"},"episode":{"title":"A blue more expensive than gold − ultramarine","slug":"a-blue-more-expensive-than-gold-ultramarine","published_at":"2026-05-27T03:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920/a-blue-more-expensive-than-gold-ultramarine","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920","url":"https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast","audio_url":"https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/d51762da-a550-4952-9100-551119284922.mp3","summary":"Travel with us beyond the sea to look at ultramarine , a pigment that was once even more precious than gold. In this episode, writer Victoria Finlay joins Beks for a discussion on how researching ultramarine took her to Afghanistan. She journeyed to the blue mines where you can find lapis lazuli, the semi-precious stone ultramarine comes from. Along the journey, we pause to look at some of the National Gallery’s paintings – including one noteworthy for its lack of ultramarine... ------- Victoria has written several books about colour - including 'Colour, Travels through the Paintbox' and 'The Brilliant History of Color in Art' - which involved travelling across the globe to the very places that ancient pigments and dyes came from. Her most recent book is about the hidden histories of fabric. ------- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lOs0_Yi-G8 You can email us with any questions via podcast@nationalgallery.org.uk Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ------- Paintings mentioned: English or French (?), ‘The Wilton Diptych’, About 1395-9 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/english-or-french-the-wilton-diptych Michelangelo, ‘The Entombment (or Christ being carried to his Tomb)’, About 1500-1 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/michelangelo-the-entombment-or-christ-being-carried-to-his-tomb Sassoferrato, ‘The Virgin and Prayer’, 1640-50 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/sassoferrato-the-virgin-in-prayer Titian, ‘Bacchus and Ariadne’, 1520-3 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/titian-bacchus-and-ariadne Pierre-Auguste Renoir, ‘The Umbrellas’, About 1881-6 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/pierre-auguste-renoir-the-umbrellas Claude Monet, ‘Irises’,…","meta_description":"Travel with us beyond the sea to look at ultramarine , a pigment that was once even more precious than gold. In this episode, writer Victoria Finlay joins…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3103,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/stories-in-colour-7344920/episodes/a-blue-more-expensive-than-gold-ultramarine/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920/a-blue-more-expensive-than-gold-ultramarine.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}