I have been reading Roberto Calasso’s book, Tiepolo Pink. As I was in London, and the National Gallery has one of my favorite collections of Italian painting, I thought I would go looking for pink.
I didn’t find the particular shade of Tiepolo Pink that Proust alludes to in “À la recherche de temps perdu”, but I did find it in abundance in the Masters of both the 15th and 16th centuries working in Florence, Venice and Rome.
Dark and light, tinted with yellow or blue, it sparks everything around it.
It’s a color that resonates today, evinced by the woman whose hair matches the pink of the painting she is looking at.