It is not the artist who defines a color, but society that receives it. Thus, the symbolic significance of blue has undergone a tumultuous history from antiquity to the present day. For centuries, it existed in a niche status. In Roman antiquity, only white, black, and red were valued. It was not until the cult of Mary in the 11th century that blue became an important component of clerical and later political iconography. As a symbol of the Virgin Mother and the king, and later also of soldiers, it emerged as a new competitor to red. Pastoureau traces the paths of blue not only through visual evidence but also through numerous descriptions in literary and scientific texts, including Goethe, who addresses it in two ways with his theory of colors and in "Werther." Colors were often attributed specific characteristics, including moral ones.