DOI issue:
Nr. 2
DOI issue:Obsah / Contents
DOI article:Piñero Moral, Ricardo Isidoro; Dohna Schlobitten, Yvonne: Iconosophy: the relationship between colour theory and iconography (Goethe and Turner. The labyrinth of word and light)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31179#0233
created their own personal style and interprétations
of the topice"
Leonardo in his writings and sketches of the
"Deluge" had gone beyond the mere imitation of na-
ture, analysing scientihcaiiy the rules and the causes
of natural phenomena like wind, water, air, and so
on. For him it was impossible to paint the deluge
and so he forced his image to the extreme limits of
imitatio. Leonardo made visible what is not visible.
His image was based on nature and imitated the
natural event provoking however émotions stronger
than reality, creating a kind of terror in the observer
with a chaos of lineš and forms. In Leonardo, we
do not only Und the "profanization" of the paint-
ing: the deluge is announced by a wild and terrifying
nature, but for the hrst time we can talk about the
independent language of line.
We have also several new studies on the techni-
cal and aesthetic inventions of the independence of
colour in the Renaissance which transformed static
painting into dynamic paintings in which we perceive
the how of time, especially in Leonardo.
One of the hrst art historians who talked about
the transformation of iconography through colour
in Renaissance art was John Shearman in his 1992
book 0%/y He ušed the term "energia" when
describing this process. He showed how in the ico-
nography of that period we can observe a constant
évolution modifying the expressions of the earlier
compositions/' The hgures become more life-like
and nature more dramatic, and represent the power
of colour in paintings. Marianne Koos,^ in turn, says
that we can recognize also in the theoretical writings
of the time how the ideal of the "Wirkmacht" (power
of effect) inspired by Aristode grew in importance.
In the Renaissance, artists were deeply focused on
developing the expression of colour.
In her book do/or PAort
A Rř/Mpr^rí' P^APyg from 1992,'" Marcia Hall tries
to reveal the language of colour through the analy-
EINEM, H. von: ALATzygPo. Stuttgart 1959, p. 65. Michel-
angelo, instead, represents the universality of the deluge
m the Sistine Chapel but he underlines a cruel aspect, the
desperation of the people, by changing the traditional order
of the narrative images in his cycle.
SHEARMAN, J.: 0%/y Hrř A tA
ILTMAMWř. Princeton 1992, p. 66.
L HywďfA A I7Æ ^ /L/i. Lo^P^, Roy^/
sis of technique. She follows the séminal studies of
Hetzer on Titian and Shearman on Leonardo, daims
that in art history we are always moving farther away
from the analysis of the work of art in itself. "dWA/
AAory o/ Po/jçgTypAy proRd-
777g A 77t h? C07p^0777' Ař 7^<97p
pPtdcA Her book grew out of the desire
to provide new inspiration and new tools for this
essential mission of art history. Today, she daims,
utilizing the new knowledge generated by the scien-
tihc examination of paintings, we can gain a better
understanding of the artists' techniques. Exploring
the works from the neglected perspective of colour,
she discovers new interprétations of the works of
art. She points out, insightfully, that the idea of the
eternal which had dominated much of the Florentine
painting — the almost Platonic suggestion that what
we see in the picture is immutable because it has
been freed from ail accidentai quaüties — was drasti-
cally transformed with the introduction of oil. The
scene in the painting was meant to depict a particular
moment in the continuum of time, creating a new
^ KOOS, M.: Titian's Women, Giorgione's Men? In: REAvA
BřEfAg 26,1998, No. 2, pp. 63-72.
^ HALL, M.: Pmr/rř^/TAřcryARř^A^rř
P^Tz'yg. Cambridge 1992, p. 67.
229
of the topice"
Leonardo in his writings and sketches of the
"Deluge" had gone beyond the mere imitation of na-
ture, analysing scientihcaiiy the rules and the causes
of natural phenomena like wind, water, air, and so
on. For him it was impossible to paint the deluge
and so he forced his image to the extreme limits of
imitatio. Leonardo made visible what is not visible.
His image was based on nature and imitated the
natural event provoking however émotions stronger
than reality, creating a kind of terror in the observer
with a chaos of lineš and forms. In Leonardo, we
do not only Und the "profanization" of the paint-
ing: the deluge is announced by a wild and terrifying
nature, but for the hrst time we can talk about the
independent language of line.
We have also several new studies on the techni-
cal and aesthetic inventions of the independence of
colour in the Renaissance which transformed static
painting into dynamic paintings in which we perceive
the how of time, especially in Leonardo.
One of the hrst art historians who talked about
the transformation of iconography through colour
in Renaissance art was John Shearman in his 1992
book 0%/y He ušed the term "energia" when
describing this process. He showed how in the ico-
nography of that period we can observe a constant
évolution modifying the expressions of the earlier
compositions/' The hgures become more life-like
and nature more dramatic, and represent the power
of colour in paintings. Marianne Koos,^ in turn, says
that we can recognize also in the theoretical writings
of the time how the ideal of the "Wirkmacht" (power
of effect) inspired by Aristode grew in importance.
In the Renaissance, artists were deeply focused on
developing the expression of colour.
In her book do/or PAort
A Rř/Mpr^rí' P^APyg from 1992,'" Marcia Hall tries
to reveal the language of colour through the analy-
EINEM, H. von: ALATzygPo. Stuttgart 1959, p. 65. Michel-
angelo, instead, represents the universality of the deluge
m the Sistine Chapel but he underlines a cruel aspect, the
desperation of the people, by changing the traditional order
of the narrative images in his cycle.
SHEARMAN, J.: 0%/y Hrř A tA
ILTMAMWř. Princeton 1992, p. 66.
L HywďfA A I7Æ ^ /L/i. Lo^P^, Roy^/
sis of technique. She follows the séminal studies of
Hetzer on Titian and Shearman on Leonardo, daims
that in art history we are always moving farther away
from the analysis of the work of art in itself. "dWA/
AAory o/ Po/jçgTypAy proRd-
777g A 77t h? C07p^0777' Ař 7^<97p
pPtdcA Her book grew out of the desire
to provide new inspiration and new tools for this
essential mission of art history. Today, she daims,
utilizing the new knowledge generated by the scien-
tihc examination of paintings, we can gain a better
understanding of the artists' techniques. Exploring
the works from the neglected perspective of colour,
she discovers new interprétations of the works of
art. She points out, insightfully, that the idea of the
eternal which had dominated much of the Florentine
painting — the almost Platonic suggestion that what
we see in the picture is immutable because it has
been freed from ail accidentai quaüties — was drasti-
cally transformed with the introduction of oil. The
scene in the painting was meant to depict a particular
moment in the continuum of time, creating a new
^ KOOS, M.: Titian's Women, Giorgione's Men? In: REAvA
BřEfAg 26,1998, No. 2, pp. 63-72.
^ HALL, M.: Pmr/rř^/TAřcryARř^A^rř
P^Tz'yg. Cambridge 1992, p. 67.
229