Theory of Colours — trans. Charles Lock Eastlake (1840)
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The translator’s English as printed (Charles Lock Eastlake). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
[1] "Ardito veramente alquanto, sanguigno, e quasi fiammeggiante."--_Zanetti della Pittura Veneziana_, Ven. 1771, p. 90. Warm as the flesh colour of the colourists is, it still never approaches a positive hue, if we except some examples in frescoes and other works intended to be seen at a great distance. Zanetti, speaking of a fresco by Giorgione, now almost obliterated, compares the colour to "un vivo raggio di cocente sole."---_Varie Pitture a fresco dei Principali Maestri Veneziani_. Ven. 1760.
[2] Ridolfi.
[3] Zanetti, I. ii.
[4] Two great authorities, divided by more than three centuries, Leon Battista Alberti and Reynolds, have recommended this subdued treatment of white. "It is to be remembered," says the first, "that no surface should be made so white that it cannot be made more so. In white dresses again, it is necessary to stop far short of the last degree of whiteness."--_Della Pittura_, I. ii., compare with Reynolds, vol. i. dis. 8.
[5] Vasari observes, "L'unione nella pittura è una discordanza dicolori diversi accordati insième."--Vol. i. c. 18. This observation is repeated by various writers on art in nearly the same words, and at last appears in Sandrart: "Concordia, potissimum picturæ decus, in discordiâ consistit, et quasi litigio colorum."--P. i. c. 5. The source, perhaps, is Aristotle: he observes, "We are delighted with harmony, because it is the union of contrary principles having a ratio to each other."--_Problem._
[6] See "Occolti Trattato de' Colori." Parma, 1568.
[7] "Volendo l'uomo accoppiare insième colori che all'occhio dilettino--porrà insième il berrettino col leonato; il verde-giallo con l'incarnato e rosso; il turchino con l'arangi; il morello col verde oscuro; il nero col bianco; il bianco con l'incarnato."--_Dialogo di M. Lodovico Dolce nel quale si ragiona della qualità, diversità, e proprietà de' colori_. Venezia, 1565.
NOTE D.--Par. 66.
In some of these cases there can be no doubt that Goethe attributes the contrast too exclusively to the physiological cause, without making sufficient allowance for the actual difference in the colour of the lights. The purely physical nature of some coloured shadows was pointed out by Pohlmann; and Dr. Eckermann took some pains to convince Goethe of the necessity of making such a distinction. Goethe at first adhered to his extreme view, but some time afterwards confessed to Dr. Eckermann, that in the case of the blue shadows of snow (74), the reflection of the sky was undoubtedly to be taken into the account. "Both causes may, however, operate together," he observed, "and the contrast which a warm yellow light demands may heighten the effect of the blue." This was all his opponent contended.[1]
With a few such exceptions, the general theory of Goethe with regard to coloured shadows is undoubtedly correct; the experiments with two candles (68), and with coloured glass and fluids (80), as well as the observations on the shadows of snow (75), are conclusive, for in all these cases only one light is actually changed in colour, while the other still assumes the complemental hue. "Coloured shadows," Dr. J. Müller observes, "are usually ascribed to the physiological influence of contrast; the complementary colour presented by the shadow being regarded as the effect of internal causes acting on that part of the retina, and not of the impression of coloured rays from without. This explanation is the one adopted by Rumford, Goethe, Grotthuss, Brandes, Tourtual, Pohlmann, and most authors who have studied the subject."[2]
In the Historical Part the author gives an account of a scarce French work, "Observations sur les Ombres Colorées," Paris, 1782. The writer[3] concludes that "the colour of shadows is as much owing to the light that causes them as to that which (more faintly) illumines them."
[1] Eckermann's "Gespräche mit Goethe," vol. ii. p. 76 and 280.
[2] "Elements of Physiology," by J. Müller, M. D., translated from the
German by William Baly, M.D. London, 1839.
[3] Anonymous, having only given the initials H. F. T.
NOTE E.--Par. 69.
This opinion of the author is frequently repeated (201, 312, 591), and as it seems at first sight to be at variance with a received principle of art, it may be as well at once to examine it.