But, as Ms Neilson points out, in 16th-century Italy when courtesans and aristocrats often dressed alike noblewomen had also taken to favouring yellow.
The latter, Picasso's 1955 interpretation of Delacroix's paintings of four North African courtesans, was created in honor of the recently deceased Matisse.
The most beautiful of cities, with the paint still wet on the late Bellinis and Titians, Venice also had wonderful music, geisha-like courtesans, and a life of endless, mostly free conversation.