Fields Chromatography | Page 6

have it warm, we cool its
antagonist; and if transparent, we oppose it by an opaque contrary, and
vice versâ: indeed, in practice, all these must be in some measure
combined.
Such are some of the powers of contrast in colouring alone, and such is
the diversity of art upon which skill in colouring depends. It must not
be forgotten, however, that contrasts or extremes, whether of light and
shade, or of colours, become violent and offensive when they are not
reconciled by the interposition of their media, or intermediates, which
partake of both extremes of the contrasts. Thus blue and orange in
contrast become reconciled, softened in effect, and harmonized, when a
broken colour composed of the two intervenes. The same may be said
of other colours, shades, and contrasts.
Seeing that the management and mastery of colours are to a great
extent dependent on the same principles as light and shade, it might
become a point of good discipline, after acquiring the use of black and
white in the chiaroscuro, to paint designs in contrast; that is, with two
contrasting colours only, in conjunction with black and white--for
example, with blue and orange, before attempting the whole. Indeed,
black can be dispensed with in these cases, because it may be
compounded, since the neutral grey and third colours always arise from
the compounding of contrasting colours. In this way, even flesh may be
painted--for instance, with red and green alone, as Gainsborough is said
at one period to have done.
Some artists have produced pictures in the above hot and cold colours
only; which, although captivating to the eye, and true in theory with
respect to colour, light and shade, are generally false in practice with
regard to nature, which rarely employs such extreme accordances.
Colouring like this, therefore, is more beautiful than true. It is as
though a painter were to execute a landscape in the full light of day, as

he saw it looking through a prism, so that every object glowed with
rainbow hues. Such a picture would present a beautiful fairy scene, and
be true as regards colours, but as respects nature, it would be false.
Colour, and what in painting is called transparency, belong chiefly to
shade. It has been a common error to ascribe those properties to light
only, and hence many have employed a uniform shade tint, regarding
shadows as simply darkness, blackness, or the mere absence of light;
when, in truth, shadows are infinitely varied by colour, and always so
by the colours of the lights which produce them. But while we incline
attention toward the relation of colour to shade, both light and shade
being strictly co-essential to colour, a vicious extreme must be avoided.
For although, as transparent, colour inclines to shade, and, as opaque, it
partakes of light; yet the general tendency of colour is to transparency
and shade, all colour being a departure from light. Hence it becomes a
maxim, which he who aspires to good colouring must never lose sight
of, that the colour of shadow is always transparent, and only that of
extreme light objects opaque. It follows, that white is to be kept as
much as possible out of shadow, and black, for the same reason, out of
colour. In their stead, whenever it is necessary to cover, opaque tints
may be employed, glazed over with transparent colours. Such practice
would also be more favourable to durability of the tones of pictures,
than the shades and tints produced with black and white. The hues and
shadows of nature are in no ordinary case either black or white, which,
except as local colours, are always poor and frigid. The perfection of
colouring is to combine harmony with brilliancy, unity with variety,
and freshness with force, without violating the laws of nature.
With regard to the perspective of colours, or the manner in which they
affect the eye, according to position and distance, it is a branch of aërial
perspective or the perspective of light and shade. This is distinguished
from linear perspective, or the perspective of drawing, as drawing is
from colouring; and they have progressed alike in the art. The most
ancient painters seem to have known little of either; and linear
perspective was established as science before the aërial, as drawing and
composition preceded colouring.

The perspective of colours depends upon their powers to reflect the
elements of light, powers which are by no means uniform. Accordingly,
blue is lost in the distance before red, and yellow is seen at a point at
which red would disappear; yet blue preserves its hue better than
yellow, because colours are cooled in the distance. In this respect, the
compound colours partake of the powers of their components, in
obedience to a general rule, by which local