DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1211#0017
13
Colours may be divided into three classes, light, warm, and cold ; those
that incline to red and yellow, are termed warm, those that incline to blue
or black, cold; from the first two resembling in colour the sun and fire,
the latter night and darkness. And as the primitive colour of light is
white, all colours approaching to that, of course, are termed light. Now,
if two men, the one dressed in white, or a warm colour, yellow or red; the
other, in a cold one, blue or black; stand at a distance, you will perceive
the man in white, &c. &c. much plainer than the man in blue, &c. inso-
much, that though both are equally distant, he that is in white, &c. will
even appear nearer to you : a plain proof that light colours come forward to
the eye, and cold ones retire from it.
It follows, therefore, if you wish to give roundness or projection to any
part of an object, you would, from the foregoing observation, place a light
and warm colour on that part you want to come forward, and a cold one on
that you wish to go back, and retire from the eye. There are other essential
points to consider in forming a composition of colours; one is, I that as
there requires a certain degree of shade to set off the light, so there should
be a certain degree of cold colour to balance the warm tints, the one
answering to the other, so as to unite the two extremes gradually and im-
perceptibly with one another; but still in such a manner as to have the
general tone a warm one: for nothing is more unpleasing than harsh cold
shades, nor any thing more inconsistent with a strong light. It is as if you
had placed the shades of evening with the light of noon, and there is an
entire difference between them; the shades of morning being warm, mellow,
and agreeable, whereas those of evening are cold and disagreeable: and the
impropriety of introducing shades of that tint, with a warm light, must be
obvious; and yet, it may be easily done by those who do not consider the
cause of these shades, which, in the one case, is owing to the retiring light;
in the other, only to the interception of some object between them and
the sun, which strongly enlightening the object, it casts a strong shade,
whose extremities are always tinctured with the colour of the object that
casts the shadow, and which being blended with the colour of that it falls
upon, produces that soft, mellow shade before spoken of. The first step
Colours may be divided into three classes, light, warm, and cold ; those
that incline to red and yellow, are termed warm, those that incline to blue
or black, cold; from the first two resembling in colour the sun and fire,
the latter night and darkness. And as the primitive colour of light is
white, all colours approaching to that, of course, are termed light. Now,
if two men, the one dressed in white, or a warm colour, yellow or red; the
other, in a cold one, blue or black; stand at a distance, you will perceive
the man in white, &c. &c. much plainer than the man in blue, &c. inso-
much, that though both are equally distant, he that is in white, &c. will
even appear nearer to you : a plain proof that light colours come forward to
the eye, and cold ones retire from it.
It follows, therefore, if you wish to give roundness or projection to any
part of an object, you would, from the foregoing observation, place a light
and warm colour on that part you want to come forward, and a cold one on
that you wish to go back, and retire from the eye. There are other essential
points to consider in forming a composition of colours; one is, I that as
there requires a certain degree of shade to set off the light, so there should
be a certain degree of cold colour to balance the warm tints, the one
answering to the other, so as to unite the two extremes gradually and im-
perceptibly with one another; but still in such a manner as to have the
general tone a warm one: for nothing is more unpleasing than harsh cold
shades, nor any thing more inconsistent with a strong light. It is as if you
had placed the shades of evening with the light of noon, and there is an
entire difference between them; the shades of morning being warm, mellow,
and agreeable, whereas those of evening are cold and disagreeable: and the
impropriety of introducing shades of that tint, with a warm light, must be
obvious; and yet, it may be easily done by those who do not consider the
cause of these shades, which, in the one case, is owing to the retiring light;
in the other, only to the interception of some object between them and
the sun, which strongly enlightening the object, it casts a strong shade,
whose extremities are always tinctured with the colour of the object that
casts the shadow, and which being blended with the colour of that it falls
upon, produces that soft, mellow shade before spoken of. The first step