DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.20658#0220
206
PRACTICE OF PAINTING.
and disposing the masses of light and groups of figures, and of introducing a variety of Eastern
dresses and characters in their rich stuffs. But the thing is very different with the pupils of the
higher schools. Annibal Carracci thought twelve figures sufficient for any story, conceiving that
more would serve only to fill space; besides it is impossible for a picture composed of so many
parts to produce that effect, so necessary to true grandeur, that of one complete whole. However
contradictory it may be in geometry, it is certainly true in works of taste that many little things
will not make a great one. The sublime impresses the mind at once with one great idea; it is
a single and powerful blow: the elegant may be produced by repetition, by an accumulation of
many minuie circumstances.
SECTION VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS RULES FOR PRACTICE.
Much has been written on the theory of light and colours, which are a most essential part of
the science of painting. To excel in colouring the artist must be thoroughly grounded in the
principles of that branch of optics which treats of the nature of light. He will then find that
zvhite, a general name for light, is not correctly speaking a simple primitive colour, but is com-
pounded of various colours whose number and proportion one to another are well known. These
are found to be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; and although these rays are
unchangeable in their own nature, yet they are continually separated from each other, according
to the various objects on which they fall. Thus for instance—grass reflects the green rays of
light, while port-wine reflects the red rays. In the same manner are the colours of other bodies
accounted for; and by this frequent separation of different rays is nature so beautifully variegated.
Leonardo da Vinci seems, in his Treatise on Painting, to have been aware that light was only
an assemblage of colours, although the proof of this opinion was left to be illustrated by the
immortal Newton. This discovery is of the highest importance to the student in painting : for
although Titian, Correggio and others have become first-rate colourists, without this theoretical
knowledge, yet to be aco^ainted with the philosophy of colours is to be instructed in what may
be called the geography of the art, and thereby to know precisely to what combinations of colours
to apply, for obtaining the various tints and hues wished for. To him who knows that two colours
reflecting on each other form a third, different from but compounded of the two first, it will be
easy to represent a sun-set: for though the light be tinged with yellow or red yet, if the sky be
blue, a greenish tint will be formed, more or less strong in proportion to the depth of the yellow.
An ingenious modern writer on painting says, " that this greenish tint, which may be termed
incipient twilight, is distinguishable in a great degree, if the student will keep patiently viewing
the gradual declension of the sun. When the glow of the evening begins to slacken, a peculiar
chill will pervade his whole frame, which is not entirely to be attributed to the absence of warmth,
but in part to the cold sensation produced on the optic nerve by a green colour. To render this
more perceptible, let the reader view a glowing fire through a green glass, and his eyes will
instantly feel cool: again let him view a well-painted fire with the naked eye, and lie will be led
to feel himself warm." Some of Claude Lorraine's paintings have this slightly greenish hue of
twilight floating in the air, under the appearance of a thin vapory mist; so have many of the
works of the celebrated modem French artist Vernet.
But
PRACTICE OF PAINTING.
and disposing the masses of light and groups of figures, and of introducing a variety of Eastern
dresses and characters in their rich stuffs. But the thing is very different with the pupils of the
higher schools. Annibal Carracci thought twelve figures sufficient for any story, conceiving that
more would serve only to fill space; besides it is impossible for a picture composed of so many
parts to produce that effect, so necessary to true grandeur, that of one complete whole. However
contradictory it may be in geometry, it is certainly true in works of taste that many little things
will not make a great one. The sublime impresses the mind at once with one great idea; it is
a single and powerful blow: the elegant may be produced by repetition, by an accumulation of
many minuie circumstances.
SECTION VIII.
MISCELLANEOUS RULES FOR PRACTICE.
Much has been written on the theory of light and colours, which are a most essential part of
the science of painting. To excel in colouring the artist must be thoroughly grounded in the
principles of that branch of optics which treats of the nature of light. He will then find that
zvhite, a general name for light, is not correctly speaking a simple primitive colour, but is com-
pounded of various colours whose number and proportion one to another are well known. These
are found to be red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet; and although these rays are
unchangeable in their own nature, yet they are continually separated from each other, according
to the various objects on which they fall. Thus for instance—grass reflects the green rays of
light, while port-wine reflects the red rays. In the same manner are the colours of other bodies
accounted for; and by this frequent separation of different rays is nature so beautifully variegated.
Leonardo da Vinci seems, in his Treatise on Painting, to have been aware that light was only
an assemblage of colours, although the proof of this opinion was left to be illustrated by the
immortal Newton. This discovery is of the highest importance to the student in painting : for
although Titian, Correggio and others have become first-rate colourists, without this theoretical
knowledge, yet to be aco^ainted with the philosophy of colours is to be instructed in what may
be called the geography of the art, and thereby to know precisely to what combinations of colours
to apply, for obtaining the various tints and hues wished for. To him who knows that two colours
reflecting on each other form a third, different from but compounded of the two first, it will be
easy to represent a sun-set: for though the light be tinged with yellow or red yet, if the sky be
blue, a greenish tint will be formed, more or less strong in proportion to the depth of the yellow.
An ingenious modern writer on painting says, " that this greenish tint, which may be termed
incipient twilight, is distinguishable in a great degree, if the student will keep patiently viewing
the gradual declension of the sun. When the glow of the evening begins to slacken, a peculiar
chill will pervade his whole frame, which is not entirely to be attributed to the absence of warmth,
but in part to the cold sensation produced on the optic nerve by a green colour. To render this
more perceptible, let the reader view a glowing fire through a green glass, and his eyes will
instantly feel cool: again let him view a well-painted fire with the naked eye, and lie will be led
to feel himself warm." Some of Claude Lorraine's paintings have this slightly greenish hue of
twilight floating in the air, under the appearance of a thin vapory mist; so have many of the
works of the celebrated modem French artist Vernet.
But