Editing Blue (section)

=== In the Middle Ages ===
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180px">
File:Vitraux Saint-Denis 190110 19.jpg|Stained glass window at [[Saint Denis Basilica]] (1130–1140), coloured with [[cobalt blue]] 
File:Vitrail Chartres Notre-Dame 210209 1.jpg|Detail of the Blue Virgin Window, [[Chartres Cathedral]] (12th c.)
File:Wilton diptych.jpg|The [[Wilton Diptych]] (1395–1399). The [[Virgin Mary]] was traditionally shown in blue(14th c.)
</gallery>
In the art and life of Europe during the early [[Middle Ages]], blue played a minor role. This changed dramatically between 1130 and 1140 in Paris, when the [[Abbe Suger]] rebuilt the [[Saint Denis Basilica]]. Suger considered that light was the visible manifestation of the Holy Spirit.<ref>Lours, Mathieu, "Le Vitrail", Editions Jean-Paul Gisserot, Paris (2021)</ref> He installed [[stained glass]] windows coloured with [[cobalt]], which, combined with the light from the red glass, filled the church with a bluish violet light. The church became the marvel of the [[Christian world]], and the colour became known as the {{lang|fr|"bleu de Saint-Denis"}}. In the years that followed even more elegant blue stained glass windows were installed in other churches, including at [[Chartres Cathedral]] and [[Sainte-Chapelle]] in Paris.{{sfn|Pastoureau|2000|pp=44–47}}

In the 12th century the Roman Catholic Church dictated that painters in Italy (and the rest of Europe consequently) to paint the Virgin Mary with blue, which became associated with holiness, humility and virtue. In medieval paintings, blue was used to attract the attention of the viewer to the Virgin Mary.<!-- lapis lazuli, from the mines of [[Badakshan]], in the mountains of Afghanistan, near the source of the [[Oxus]] River. The mines were visited by Marco Polo in about 1271; he reported, "here is found a high mountain from which they extract the finest and most beautiful of blues." Ground lapis was used in Byzantine manuscripts as early as the 6th century, but it was impure and varied greatly in colour. Ultramarine refined out the impurities through a long and difficult process, creating a rich and deep blue. It was called {{lang|fr|bleu outremer}} in French and {{lang|it|blu oltremare}} in Italian, since it came from the other side of the sea. It cost far more than any other colour, and it became the luxury colour for the kings and princes of Europe.{{sfn|Ball|2001|p=346}}--> Paintings of the mythical [[King Arthur]] began to show him dressed in blue. The coat of arms of the kings of France became an azure or light blue shield, sprinkled with golden [[fleur-de-lis]] or lilies. Blue had come from obscurity to become the royal colour.{{sfn|Pastoureau|2000|pp=51–52}}