DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1183#0210
10 PRACTICAL HINTS
general harmony pervading the whole. Cool colours produce a softer
influence upon the eye than warm, and excite it less; their predominance
therefore in subjects of a soft or tender nature is according to the practice
of the best masters, and founded upon a union of the several parts, to
preserve the general character of the picture. The introduction of a
warm colour will increase this harmony, as those tints which appear
distinct from each other will appear less so when compared with one of
a still more opposite character: thus the white, blue, gray, and green
existing in a landscape will appear more harmonious, and a greater
freshness will be produced by the introduction of a red, and that colour
will have greater point from the harshness arising from its situation.
Warm colours produce a greater excitement, and therefore arrest the
attention or attract the spectator in a greater degree; and their union
will be increased by the introduction of a cold colour: thus we find those
figures red which are required to attract the eye; and the harmony of a
picture, composed of white, yellow, red, and brown, is increased by the
introduction of a blue, which in its turn will have more value from its
partaking less of that harmony which unites the other colours.
This mode of making the light harmonize with the shade is one cause
why we often find a hot or cold colour introduced into a variety of situa-
tions; we also find the harmony of a picture sustained by a proper
equilibrium of hot and cold, which requires a warm colour to be placed
on the cold side of a picture, and vice versa; we often find a red or blue
placed where the light rounds into the shadow, for the sake of breadth
and extension of the light: and seeing that they are the strongest and
more opposed than any of the other colours, they are often placed upon
the same figure, to draw the attention of the spectator to such point; and
notwithstanding we are told by Du Fresnoy and others, u not to permit
two hostile colours to meet without a medium to unite them," we see
from the earliest times it has been the practice of all the great painters;
so that red and blue has in a manner become the dress in which, from
custom, we always expect to find certain figures clothed, such as Christ,
the Virgin, &c.
general harmony pervading the whole. Cool colours produce a softer
influence upon the eye than warm, and excite it less; their predominance
therefore in subjects of a soft or tender nature is according to the practice
of the best masters, and founded upon a union of the several parts, to
preserve the general character of the picture. The introduction of a
warm colour will increase this harmony, as those tints which appear
distinct from each other will appear less so when compared with one of
a still more opposite character: thus the white, blue, gray, and green
existing in a landscape will appear more harmonious, and a greater
freshness will be produced by the introduction of a red, and that colour
will have greater point from the harshness arising from its situation.
Warm colours produce a greater excitement, and therefore arrest the
attention or attract the spectator in a greater degree; and their union
will be increased by the introduction of a cold colour: thus we find those
figures red which are required to attract the eye; and the harmony of a
picture, composed of white, yellow, red, and brown, is increased by the
introduction of a blue, which in its turn will have more value from its
partaking less of that harmony which unites the other colours.
This mode of making the light harmonize with the shade is one cause
why we often find a hot or cold colour introduced into a variety of situa-
tions; we also find the harmony of a picture sustained by a proper
equilibrium of hot and cold, which requires a warm colour to be placed
on the cold side of a picture, and vice versa; we often find a red or blue
placed where the light rounds into the shadow, for the sake of breadth
and extension of the light: and seeing that they are the strongest and
more opposed than any of the other colours, they are often placed upon
the same figure, to draw the attention of the spectator to such point; and
notwithstanding we are told by Du Fresnoy and others, u not to permit
two hostile colours to meet without a medium to unite them," we see
from the earliest times it has been the practice of all the great painters;
so that red and blue has in a manner become the dress in which, from
custom, we always expect to find certain figures clothed, such as Christ,
the Virgin, &c.