Ominous Glee Ultramarine

Latin ōminōsus, full of foreboding — derived from omen. As a color modifier, ominous implies a deep-and-threatening atmospheric-foreboding quality, the dark cool-gray of Goyaesque storm-laden sky. Sits at the deep-and-threatening end of the grid, parallel to foreboding and menacing in tone.

Old English glēo, music-or-merriment. As a color modifier, glee implies a singing-and-merry-and-bubbling quality, the visual register of Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-glee hand-singing-and-merry-and-bubbling Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-and-catch-singing gleeful-and-singing-and-merry-and-bubbling surfaces under Elizabethan-glee-club-and-madrigal-and-catch-singing parlor-and-tavern-and-court candlelit-music-light. Sits at the modifier-and-mood end of the grid, parallel to mirth and merry in usage.

The pigment ground from lapis lazuli — the Afghan mineral imported through Venice in the late Middle Ages, more expensive by weight than gold during the Renaissance. The color refers to a freshly mixed ultramarine pigment in linseed oil: a saturated, slightly violet-shifted deep blue with the matte finish of micron-ground rock. Deeper than cobalt, cooler than royal, with the art-historical weight of the blue Vermeer reserved for Mary's robe.