DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1183#0204
b PRACTICAL HINTS
and natural appearance by employing such means. White and black can
be reconciled only by the interposition of gray, and red and blue by the
presence of a third colour, combining the properties of hot and cold.
Light will more easily be spread by the lesser lights partaking of the same
hue as the principal, and shadow diffused by the same means, we thus
preserve the breadth observable in nature: but as this would in many
cases produce monotony, we have a third quality to consult, which is
variety, and which in nature being endless, we have an inexhaustible
source to draw upon; and very few colours are necessary to produce this
multiplicity of changes, in the employment of which we must however
always bear in mind the necessity of preserving the breadth of light and
shade, and the balance and union of hot and cold colours.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE I.
Fig. 1 Represents the colours of the iris, which Sir I. Newton describes
as seven, their proportions when produced by means of a prism he cal-
culates to be as follows: supposing the whole to form 100—Red 11,
Orange 8, Yellow 14, Green 17, Blue 17, Purple 11, Violet 22; whether
the harmony depends upon their natural arrangement, or upon the pro-
portions of each, is more an object of philosophy than of painting, which
has to produce an agreeable sensation, independent of all theoretical dis-
quisition. Treatises have been written to prove that the harmony existing
in the seven natural notes in music depend upon the same coincidence,
insomuch that ocular harpsichords have been constructed exhibiting
colours instead of sounds, and professing to give the same gratification to
the eye that the common ones give to the ear, thus endeavouring to prove
and natural appearance by employing such means. White and black can
be reconciled only by the interposition of gray, and red and blue by the
presence of a third colour, combining the properties of hot and cold.
Light will more easily be spread by the lesser lights partaking of the same
hue as the principal, and shadow diffused by the same means, we thus
preserve the breadth observable in nature: but as this would in many
cases produce monotony, we have a third quality to consult, which is
variety, and which in nature being endless, we have an inexhaustible
source to draw upon; and very few colours are necessary to produce this
multiplicity of changes, in the employment of which we must however
always bear in mind the necessity of preserving the breadth of light and
shade, and the balance and union of hot and cold colours.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE I.
Fig. 1 Represents the colours of the iris, which Sir I. Newton describes
as seven, their proportions when produced by means of a prism he cal-
culates to be as follows: supposing the whole to form 100—Red 11,
Orange 8, Yellow 14, Green 17, Blue 17, Purple 11, Violet 22; whether
the harmony depends upon their natural arrangement, or upon the pro-
portions of each, is more an object of philosophy than of painting, which
has to produce an agreeable sensation, independent of all theoretical dis-
quisition. Treatises have been written to prove that the harmony existing
in the seven natural notes in music depend upon the same coincidence,
insomuch that ocular harpsichords have been constructed exhibiting
colours instead of sounds, and professing to give the same gratification to
the eye that the common ones give to the ear, thus endeavouring to prove