Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light.

It is an achromatic color,
without hue, like white and grey.[2] It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.[3] Black and
white have often been used to describe opposites such as good and evil, the Dark Ages versus Age of
Enlightenment, and night versus day. Since the Middle Ages, black has been the symbolic color of solemnity and
authority, and for this reason it is still commonly worn by judges and magistrates. [3]
Black was one of the first colors used by artists in Neolithic cave paintings.[4] It was used in ancient Egypt and
Greece as the color of the underworld.[5] In the Roman Empire, it became the color of mourning, and over the
centuries it was frequently associated with death, evil, witches, and magic.[6] In the 14th century, it was worn by
royalty, clergy, judges, and government officials in much of Europe. It became the color worn by English romantic
poets, businessmen and statesmen in the 19th century, and a high fashion color in the 20th century. [3] According
to surveys in Europe and North America, it is the color most commonly associated with mourning, the end,
secrets, magic, force, violence, fear, evil, and elegance. [7]
Black is the most common ink color used for printing books, newspapers and documents, as it provides the
highest contrast with white paper and thus is the easiest color to read. Similarly, black text on a white screen is
the most common format used on computer screens. [8] As of September 2019, the darkest material is made
by MIT engineers from vertically aligned carbon nanotubes.[9]

Etymology
The word black comes from Old English blæc ("black, dark", also, "ink"), from Proto-
Germanic *blakkaz ("burned"), from Proto-Indo-European *bhleg- ("to burn, gleam, shine, flash"), from base
*bhel- ("to shine"), related to Old Saxon blak ("ink"), Old High German blach ("black"), Old
Norse blakkr ("dark"), Dutch blaken ("to burn"), and Swedish bläck ("ink"). More distant cognates
include Latin flagrare ("to blaze, glow, burn"), and Ancient Greek phlegein ("to burn, scorch"). The Ancient
Greeks sometimes used the same word to name different colors, if they had the same intensity. Kuanos' could
mean both dark blue and black.[10] The Ancient Romans had two words for black: ater was a flat, dull black,
while niger was a brilliant, saturated black. Ater has vanished from the vocabulary, but niger was the source of
the country name Nigeria,[11] the English word Negro, and the word for "black" in most modern Romance
languages (French: noir; Spanish and Portuguese: negro; Italian: nero; Romanian: negru).
Old High German also had two words for black: swartz for dull black and blach for a luminous black. These are
parallelled in Middle English by the terms swart for dull black and blaek for luminous black. Swart still survives as
the word swarthy, while blaek became the modern English black.[10] The former is cognate with the words used for
black in most modern Germanic languages aside from English
(German: schwarz, Dutch: zwart, Swedish: svart, Danish: sort, Icelandic: svartr).[12] In heraldry, the word used for
the black color is sable,[13] named for the black fur of the sable, an animal.

Art
Prehistoric

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.[10]

Ancient
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.[14]
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. [15]
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". [16] 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.[10]
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.[17]

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

Postclassical
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. [18]
12th and 13th centuries
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". [19]
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.[20]
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. [8]

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.

14th and 15th centuries

In the early Middle Ages, princes, nobles and the wealthy usually wore bright colors, particularly scarlet cloaks
from Italy. Black was rarely part of the wardrobe of a noble family. The one exception was the fur of the sable.
This glossy black fur, from an animal of the marten family, was the finest and most expensive fur in Europe. It
was imported from Russia and Poland and used to trim the robes and gowns of royalty.
In the 14th century, the status of black began to change. First, high-quality black dyes began to arrive on the
market, allowing garments of a deep, rich black. Magistrates and government officials began to wear black robes,
as a sign of the importance and seriousness of their positions. A third reason was the passage of sumptuary
laws in some parts of Europe which prohibited the wearing of costly clothes and certain colors by anyone except
members of the nobility. The famous bright scarlet cloaks from Venice and the peacock blue fabrics
from Florence were restricted to the nobility. The wealthy bankers and merchants of northern Italy responded by
changing to black robes and gowns, made with the most expensive fabrics. [21]
The change to the more austere but elegant black was quickly picked up by the kings and nobility. It began in
northern Italy, where the Duke of Milan and the Count of Savoy and the rulers of Mantua, Ferrara, Rimini and
Urbino began to dress in black. It then spread to France, led by Louis I, Duke of Orleans, younger brother of
King Charles VI of France. It moved to England at the end of the reign of King Richard II (1377–1399), where all
the court began to wear black. In 1419–20, black became the color of the powerful Duke of Burgundy, Philip the
Good. It moved to Spain, where it became the color of the Spanish Habsburgs, of Charles V and of his son, Philip
II of Spain (1527–1598). European rulers saw it as the color of power, dignity, humility and temperance. By the
end of the 16th century, it was the color worn by almost all the monarchs of Europe and their courts. [22]

Philip the Good in about 1450, by Rogier van der Weyden

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Portrait of a Young Woman by Petrus Christus (about 1470)

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558), by Titian

Portrait of Philip II of Spain (1527–1598)