Goethe's Theory of Colours by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1619. It was republished at Rotterdam in 1718.
8317 words | Chapter 28
[17] "Ita quod magis ex hiis evadit atramentum picturæ summopere
idoneum." Thus, if _atramentum_ is to be understood, as usual, to
mean a glazing colour, the passage can only refer to the immixture of
varnish with the transparent colours applied last in order.
[18] In a passage that follows respecting the mode of extracting
nut-oil, Caneparius appears to mistranslate Galen, c. 7--"De Simplicium
Medicamentorum facultatibus." The observations of Galen on this
subject, and on the drying property of linseed, may have given the
first hint to the inventors of oil-painting. The custom of dating
the origin of this art from Van Eyck is like that of dating the
commencement of modern painting from Cimabue. The improver is often
assumed to be the inventor.
[19] Milan, 1590.
[20] The particulars here alluded to are to be found in the first
edition of Vasari (1550) as well as the second.--v. i. c. 21, &c.
[21] "Osservasioni nella Pittura." In Venezia, 1580. Sorte, who, it
appears, was a native of Verona, had worked in his youth with Giulio
Romano, at Mantua, and communicates the methods taught him by that
painter, for giving the true effects of perspective in compositions
of figures. He is, perhaps, the earliest who describes the process of
water-colour painting as distinguished from distemper and as adapted to
landscape, if the art he describes deserves the name.
[22] "Della nobilissima Pittura e sua Arte," Venezia, 1549. Biondo is
so ignorant as to attribute the Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, to
Mantegna.
[23] "Disegno del Doni," in Venezia, 1549.
[24] "Dialogo di Pittura," Venezia, 1548. Pino, in enumerating the
celebrated contemporary artists, does not include Paul Veronese, for a
very obvious reason, that painter being at the time only about 17 years
of age. Sorte, who wrote thirty years later, mentions "l'eccellente
Messer Paulino nostro," alone.
[25] The Dialogues of Lodovico Dolce, and various other works, are not
referred to here, as they contain nothing on the subject in question.
The latest authority at all connected with the traditions of Venetian
practice, is a certain Giambatista Volpato, of Bassano: he died in
1706, and had been intimate with Ridolfi. The only circumstance he
has transmitted relating to practical details is that Giacomo Bassan,
in retouching on a dry surface, sometimes adopted a method commonly
practised, he says, by Paul Veronese (and commonly practised still),
namely, that of dipping his brush in spirits of turpentine; at other
times he oiled out the surface in the usual manner. Volpato left a MS.
which was announced for publication in Vicenza in 1685, but it never
appeared; it, however, afterwards formed the ground-work of Verci's
"Notizie intorno alla Vita e alle Opere de' Pittori di Bassano."
Venezia, 1775. See also "Lettera di Giambatista Roberti sopra Giacomo
da Ponte," Lugano, 1777. Another MS. by Natale Melchiori, of about the
same date, is preserved at Treviso and Castel Franco: it abounds with
historical mistakes; the author says, for instance, that the Pietro
Martyre was begun by Giorgione and finished by Titian. The recipes for
varnishes and colours are very numerous, but they are mostly copied
from earlier works.
[26] That distemper was not very highly esteemed by the Venetians
may be inferred from the following observation of Pino:--"Il modo di
colorir à guazzo è imperfetto et più fragile et à me non diletta onde
lasciamolo all' oltremontani i quali sono privi della vera via." It is,
however, certain that the Venetians sometimes painted in this style,
and Volpato mentions several works of the kind by Bassan, but he never
hints that he began his oil pictures in distemper.
[27] Boschini says, that the Venetians (he especially means Titian)
rendered their pictures sparkling by finally touching on a dry
surface (_à secco_). The absence of varnish in the solid colours, the
retouching with spirit of turpentine, and even _à secco_, all suppose a
dull surface, which would require varnish. The latter method, alluded
to by Boschini, was an exception to the general practice, and not
likely to be followed on account of its difficulty. Carlo Maratti, on
the authority of Palomino, used to say, "He must be a skilful painter
who can retouch without oiling out."
[28] See a letter by Francesco Bocchi, and another by Vasari, in
the "Lettere Pittoriche" of Bottari. The circumstance is mentioned
incidentally; the point chiefly dwelt on is, that some persons who
passed were deceived, and bowed to the picture, supposing it to be the
pope.
[29] Federici, "Memorie Trevigiane," Venezia, 1803. The altar-piece of
S. Niccolo at Treviso is attributed, in the document alluded to, to
Fra Marco Pensabene, a name unknown; the painting is so excellent as
to have been thought worthy of Sebastian del Piombo: for this opinion,
however, there are no historical grounds. It was begun in 1520, but
before it was quite finished the painter, whoever he was, absconded: it
was therefore completed by another.
[30] Titian's stay in Rome was short, and with respect to the Treviso
altar-piece, a week or two only, at most, can have elapsed between the
completion and the varnishing. Cennini, who recommends delaying a year
at least before varnishing, speaks of pictures in distemper.
[31] See Borghini, Armenini, their Venetian copyist Bisagno, and
Palomino. The last-named writer, though of another school and much
more modern, was evidently well acquainted with the ancient methods:
he says, "Se advierte que siempre que se huviere de barnizar alguna
cosa conviene que la pintura y el barniz estèn calientes."--_El Museo
Pictorico_, v. ii.
[32] Burnt alum, one of the ingredients recommended, might perhaps
account for a shining fracture in the indurated pigment in some old
pictures.
[33] Of the earlier Spanish writers Pacheco may be mentioned next to
Palomino as containing most practical information. Carducho, De Butron,
and others, seldom descend to such details. Palomino contains all the
directions of Pacheco, and many in addition.
[34] See Cean Bermudez, "Sobre la Escuela Sevillana," Cadiz, 1806. The
same reasons induced the later Venetian machinists to paint on dark
grounds, and to make use of (drying) oil in excess. See Zanetti, _Della
Pittura Veneziana_, 1. iv.
[35] Borghini, in describing the method of making a gold-size (the
same as Cennini's), speaks of boiling the "buccie de' colori" in oil;
this only means the skin or pellicle of the colour itself--in fact, he
proceeds to say that they dissolve in boiling. Vasari, in describing
the same process, uses the expression "colori seccaticci."
[36] "Maggio 4 (1520) Per un cadin (catino) per depentori. Per
scudellini per li depentori."--_Mem. Trev._, vol. i. p. 131. Pungileoni
("Memorie Istoriche di Antonio Allegri") quotes a note of expenses
relating to two oil-pictures by Paolo Gianotti; among the items we find
"colori, telari, et brocchette."--vol. ii. p. 75.
[37] Salmon, in his "Polygraphice" (1701), gives the following
direction:--"Oyl colors, if not presently used, will have a skin grow
over them, to prevent which put them into a glass, and put the glass
three or four inches under water," &c.
[38] This varnish appears to have been known some centuries before Van
Eyck's time, but he may have been the first to mix it with the colours.
[39] See Vasari, Life of Antonello da Messina.
NOTE W.--Par. 608.
In the second volume Goethe gives the nomenclature of the Greeks and
Romans at some length. The general notions of the ancients with regard
to colours are thus described:--"The ancients derive all colours from
white and black, from light and darkness. They say, all colours are
between white and black, and are mixed out of these. We must not,
however, suppose that they understand by this a mere atomic mixture,
although they occasionally use the word μίξις;[1] for in the remarkable
passages, where they wish to express a kind of reciprocal (dynamic)
action of the two contrasting principles, they employ the words κρᾶσις,
union, σύγκρισις, combination; thus, again, the mutual influence of
light and darkness, and of colours among each other, is described by
the word κεράννυστας, an expression of similar import.
"The varieties of colours are differently enumerated; some mention
seven, others twelve, but without giving the complete list. From a
consideration of the terminology both of the Greeks and Romans, it
appears that they sometimes employed general for specific terms, and
_vice versâ_.
"Their denominations of colours are not permanently and precisely
defined, but mutable and fluctuating, for they are employed even with
regard to similar colours both on the _plus_ and _minus_ side. Their
yellow, on the one hand, inclines to red, on the other to blue; the
blue is sometimes green, sometimes red; the red is at one time yellow,
at another blue. Pure red (purpur) fluctuates between warm red and
blue, sometimes inclining to scarlet, sometimes to violet.
"Thus the ancients not only seem to have looked upon colour as a
mutable and fleeting quality, but appear to have had a presentiment of
the (physical and chemical) effects of augmentation and re-action. In
speaking of colours they make use of expressions which indicate this
knowledge; they make yellow redden, because its augmentation tends to
red; they make red become yellow, for it often returns thus to its
origin.
"The hues thus specified undergo new modifications. The colours
arrested at a given point are attenuated by a stronger light darkened
by a shadow, nay, deepened and condensed in themselves. For the
gradations which thus arise the name of the species only is often
given, but the more generic terms are also employed. Every colour, of
whatever kind, can, according to the same view, be multiplied into
itself, condensed, enriched, and will in consequence appear more or
less dark. The ancients called colour in this state," &c. Then follow
the designations of general states of colour and those of specific hues.
Another essay on the notions of the ancients respecting the origin
and nature of colour generally, shows how nearly Goethe himself has
followed in the same track. The dilating effect of light objects,
the action and reaction of the retina, the coloured after-image, the
general law of contrast, the effect of semi-transparent mediums in
producing warm or cold colours as they are interposed before a dark or
light background--all this is either distinctly expressed or hinted
at; "but," continues Goethe, "how a single element divides itself into
two, remained a secret for them. They knew the nature of the magnet,
in amber, only as attraction; polarity was not yet distinctly evident
to them. And in very modern times have we not found that scientific
men have still given their almost exclusive attention to attraction,
and considered the immediately excited repulsion only as a mere
after-action?"
An essay on the Painting of the Ancients[2] was contributed by Heinrich
Meyer.
[1] See Note on Par. 177.
[2] Vol. ii. p. 69, first edition.
NOTE X.--Par. 670.
This agrees with the general recommendation so often given by high
authorities in art, to avoid a tinted look in the colour of flesh. The
great example of Rubens, whose practice was sometimes an exception
to this, may however show that no rule of art is to be blindly or
exclusively adhered to. Reynolds, nevertheless, in the midst of his
admiration for this great painter, considered the example dangerous,
and more than once expresses himself to this effect, observing on one
occasion that Rubens, like Baroccio, is sometimes open to the criticism
made on an ancient painter, namely, that his figures looked as if they
fed on roses.
Lodovico Dolce, who is supposed to have given the _vivâ voce_ precepts
of Titian in his Dialogue,[1] makes Aretino say: "I would generally
banish from my pictures those vermilion cheeks with coral lips; for
faces thus treated look like masks. Propertius, reproving his Cynthia
for using cosmetics, desires that her complexion might exhibit the
simplicity and purity of colour which is seen in the works of Apelles."
Those who have written on the practice of painting have always
recommended the use of few colours for flesh. Reynolds and others quote
even ancient authorities as recorded by Pliny, and Boschini gives
several descriptions of the method of the Venetians, and particularly
of Titian, to the same effect. "They used," he says, "earths more than
any other colour, and at the utmost only added a little vermilion,
minium, and lake, abhorring as a pestilence _biadetti, gialli santi,
smaltini, verdi-azzurri, giallolini_."[2] Elsewhere he says,[3] "Earths
should be used rather than other colours:" after repeating the above
prohibited list he adds, "I speak of the imitation of flesh, for in
other things every colour is good;" again, "Our great Titian used to
say that he who wishes to be a painter should be acquainted with three
colours, white, black, and red."[4] Assuming this account to be a
little exaggerated, it is still to be observed that the monotony to
which the use of few colours would seem to tend, is prevented by the
nature of the Venetian process, which was sufficiently conformable to
Goethe's doctrine; the gradations being multiplied, and the effect
of the colours heightened by using them as semi-opaque mediums.
Immediately after the passage last quoted we read, "He also gave this
true precept, that to produce a lively colouring in flesh it is not
possible to finish at once."[5] As these particulars may not be known
to all, we add some further abridged extracts explaining the order and
methods of these different operations.
"The Venetian painters," says this writer,[6] "after having drawn in
their subject, got in the masses with very solid colour, without making
use of nature or statues. Their great object in this stage of their
work was to distinguish the advancing and retiring portions, that the
figures might be relieved by means of chiaro-scuro--one of the most
important departments of colour and form, and indeed of invention.
Having decided on their scheme of effect, when this preparation was
dry, they consulted nature and the antique; not servilely, but with the
aid of a few lines on paper (_quattro segni in carta_) they corrected
their figures without any other model. Then returning to their brushes,
they began to paint smartly on this preparation, producing the colour
of flesh." The passage before quoted follows, stating that they used
earths chiefly, that they carefully avoided certain colours, "and
likewise varnishes and whatever produces a shining surface.[7] When
this second painting was dry, they proceeded to scumble over this or
that figure with a low tint to make the one next it come forward,
giving another, at the same time, an additional light--for example, on
a head, a hand, or a foot, thus detaching them, so to speak, from the
canvas." (Tintoret's _Prigionia di S. Rocco_ is here quoted.) "By thus
still multiplying these well-understood retouchings where required, on
the dry surface, _(à secco)_ they reduced the whole to harmony. In this
operation they took care not to cover entire figures, but rather went
on gemming them _(gioielandole)_ with vigorous touches. In the shadows,
too, they infused vigour frequently by glazing with asphaltum, always
leaving great masses in middle-tint, with many darks, in addition to
the partial glazings, and few lights."
The introduction to the subject of Venetian colouring, in the poem by
the same author, is also worth transcribing, but as the style is quaint
and very concise, a translation is necessarily a paraphrase.[8]
"The art of colouring has the imitation of qualities for its object;
not all qualities, but those secondary ones which are appreciable by
the sense of sight. The eye especially sees colours, the imitation
of nature in painting is therefore justly called colouring; but the
painter arrives at his end by indirect means. He gives the varieties
of tone in masses;[9] he smartly impinges lights, he clothes his
preparation with more delicate local hues, he unites, he glazes: thus
everything depends on the method, on the process. For if we look
at colour abstractedly, the most positive may be called the most
beautiful, but if we keep the end of imitation in view, this shallow
conclusion falls to the ground. The refined Venetian manner is very
different from mere direct, sedulous imitation. Every one who has
a good eye may arrive at such results, but to attain the manner of
Paolo, of Bassan, of Palma, Tintoret, or Titian, is a very different
undertaking."[10]
The effects of semi-transparent mediums in some natural productions
seem alluded to in the following passage--"Nature sometimes
accidentally imitates figures in stones and other substances, and
although they are necessarily incomplete in form, yet the principle
of effect (depth) resembles the Venetian practice." In a passage that
follows there appears to be an allusion to the production of the
atmospheric colours by semi-transparent mediums.[11]
[1] "Dialogo della Pittura, intitolato l'Aretino." It was first
published at Venice in 1557; about twenty years before Titian's death.
In the dedication to the senator Loredano, Lodovico Dolce eulogises
the work, which he would hardly have done if it had been entirely his
own: again, the supposition that it may have been suggested by Aretino,
would be equally conclusive, coupled with internal evidence, as to the
original source.
[2] Introduction to the "Ricche Minere della Pittura Veneziana,"
Venezia, 1674. The Italian annotators on older works on painting are
sometimes at a loss to find modern terms equivalent to the obsolete
names of pigments. (See "Antologia dell 'Arte Pittorica.") The colours
now in use corresponding with Boschini's list, are probably yellow
lakes, smalt, verditer, and Naples yellow. Boschini often censures the
practice of other schools, and in this emphatic condemnation he seems
to have had an eye to certain precepts in Lomazzo, and perhaps, even
in Leonardo da Vinci, who, on one occasion, recommends Naples yellow,
lake, and white for flesh. The Venetian writer often speaks, too, in
no measured terms of certain Flemish pictures, probably because they
appeared to him too tinted.
[3] "La Carta del Navegar Pitoresco," p. 338.
[4] Ib. p. 341. In describing Titian's actual practice ("Ricche
Minere"), he, however, adds yellow (ochre). The red is also
particularised, viz., the common terra rossa.
[5] High examples here again prove that the opposite system may attain
results quite as successful.
[6] Introduction to the "Ricche Minere."
[7] See Note to Par. 555. Here again, assuming the description to be
correct, high authorities might be opposed to the Venetians.
[8] The following quatrain may serve as a specimen; the author is
speaking of the importance of the colour of flesh as conducive to
picturesque effect:--
"Importa el nudo; e come ben l'importa!
Un quadro senta nudo è come aponto
Un disnar senza pan, se ben ghe zonto,
Per più delicia, confetura e torta."--p. 346.
In his preface he anticipates, and thus answers the objections to his
Venetian dialect--"Mi, che son Venetian in Venetia e che parlo de'
Pitori Venetiani hò da andarme a stravestir? Guarda el Cielo."
[9] The word _Macchia_, literally a blot, is generally used by Italian
writers, by Vasari for instance, for the local colour. Boschini
understands by it the relative depth of tones rather than the mere
difference of hue. "By macchia," he says, "I understand that treatment
by which the figures are distinguished from each other by different
tones lighter or darker."--_La Carta del Navegar_, p. 328. Elsewhere,
"Colouring (as practised by the Venetians) comprehends both the macchia
and drawing;" (p. 300) that is, comprehends the gradations of light
and dark in objects, and the parts of objects, and consequently, their
essential form. "The macchia," he adds, "is the effect of practice, and
is dictated by the knowledge of what is requisite for effect."
[10]
"Ma l'arivar a la maniera, al trato
(Verbi gratia) de Paulo, del Bassan,
Del Vechio, Tentoreto, e di Tician,
Per Dio, l'è cosa da deventar mato."--p. 294, 297.
[11] The traces of the Aristotelian theory are quite as apparent in
Boschini as in the other Italian writers on art; but as he wrote in the
seventeenth century, his authority in this respect is only important as
an indication of the earlier prevalence of the doctrine.
NOTE Y.--Par. 672.
The author's conclusion here is unsatisfactory, for the colour of
the black races may be considered at least quite as negative as that
of Europeans. It would be safer to say that the white skin is more
beautiful than the black, because it is more capable of indications
of life, and indications of emotion. A degree of light which would
fail to exhibit the finer varieties of form on a dark surface, would
be sufficient to display them on a light one; and the delicate
mantlings of colour, whether the result of action or emotion, are more
perceptible for the same reason.
NOTE Z.--Par. 690.
The author appears to mean that a degree of brightness which the organ
can bear at all, must of necessity be removed from dazzling, white
light. The slightest tinge of colour to this brightness, implies that
it is seen through a medium, and thus, in painting, the lightest,
whitest surface should partake of the quality of depth. Goethe's view
here again accords, it must be admitted, with the practice of the best
colourists, and with the precepts of the highest authorities.--See Note
C.
NOTE A A.--Par. 732.
Ample details respecting the opinions of Louis Bertrand Castel, a
Jesuit, are given in the historical part. The coincidence of some
of his views with those of Goethe is often apparent: he objects,
for instance, to the arbitrary selection of the Newtonian spectrum;
observing that the colours change with every change of distance between
the prism and the recipient surface.--_Farbenl._ vol. ii. p. 527.
Jeremias Friedrich Gülich was a dyer in the neighbourhood of Stutgardt:
he published an elaborate work on the technical details of his own
pursuit.--_Farbenl._ vol. ii. p. 630.
NOTE B B.--Par. 748.
Goethe, in his account of Castel, suppresses the learned Jesuit's
attempt at colorific music (the claveçin oculaire), founded on the
Newtonian doctrine. Castel was complimented, perhaps ironically, on
having been the first to remark that there were but three principal
colours. In asserting his claim to the discovery, he admits that there
is nothing new. In fact, the notion of three colours is to be found in
Aristotle; for that philosopher enumerates no more in speaking of the
rainbow,[1] and Seneca calls them by their right names.[2] Compare with
Dante, Parad. c. 33. The relation between colours and sounds is in like
manner adverted to by Aristotle; he says--"It is possible that colours
may stand in relation to each other in the same manner as concords
in music, for the colours which are (to each other) in proportions
corresponding with the musical concords, are those which appear to
be the most agreeable."[3] In the latter part of the 16th century,
Arcimboldo, a Milanese painter, invented a colorific music; an account
of his principles and method will be found in a treatise on painting
which appeared about the same time. "Ammaestrato dal quai ordine Mauro
Cremonese dalla viola, musico dell' Imperadore Ridolfo II. trovò sul
gravicembalo tutte quelle consonanze che dall' Arcimboldo erano segnate
coi colori sopra una carta."[4]
[1] "De Meteor.," lib. 3, c. ii. and iv. He observes that this is the
only effect of colour which painters cannot imitate.
[2] "De Ignib. cœlest." The description of the prism by Seneca is
another instance of the truth of Castel's admission. The Roman
philosopher's words are--"Virgula solet fieri vitrea, stricta vel
pluribus angulis in modo clavæ tortuosæ; hæc si ex transverso solem
accipit colorem talem qualis in arcu videri solet, reddit," &c.
[3] "De Sensu et sensili."
[4] "Il Figino, overo del Fine della Pittura," Mantova, 1591, p. 249.
An account of the absurd invention of the same painter in composing
figures of flowers and animals, and even painting portraits in this
way, to the great delight of the emperor, will be found in the same
work.
NOTE C C.--Par. 758.
The moral associations of colours have always been a more favourite
subject with poets than with painters. This is to be traced to the
materials and means of description as distinguished from those of
representation. An image is more distinct for the mind when it is
compared with something that resembles it. An object is more distinct
for the eye when it is compared with something that differs from it.
Association is the auxiliary in the one case, contrast in the other.
The poet, of necessity, succeeds best in conveying the impression
of external things by the aid of analogous rather than of opposite
qualities: so far from losing their effect by this means, the images
gain in distinctness. Comparisons that are utterly false and groundless
never strike us as such if the great end is accomplished of placing
the thing described more vividly before the imagination. In the common
language of laudatory description the colour of flesh is like snow
mixed with vermilion: these are the words used by Aretino in one of
his letters in speaking of a figure of St. John, by Titian. Similar
instances without end might be quoted from poets: even a contrast can
only be strongly conveyed in description by another contrast that
resembles it.[1] On the other hand it would be easy to show that
whenever poets have attempted the painter's method of direct contrast,
the image has failed to be striking, for the mind's eye cannot see the
relation between two colours.
Under the same category of effect produced by association may be
classed the moral qualities in which poets have judiciously taken
refuge when describing visible forms and colours, to avoid competition
with the painters' elements, or rather to attain their end more
completely. But a little examination would show that very pleasing
moral associations may be connected with colours which would be far
from agreeable to the eye. All light, positive colours, light-green,
light-purple, white, are pleasing to the mind's eye, and no degree
of dazzling splendour is offensive. The moment, however, we have to
do with the actual sense of vision, the susceptibility of the eye
itself is to be considered, the law of comparison is reversed, colours
become striking by being opposed to what they are not, and their moral
associations are not owing to the colours themselves, but to the
modifications such colours undergo in consequence of what surrounds
them. This view, so naturally consequent on the principles the author
has himself arrived at, appears to be overlooked in the chapter under
consideration, the remarks in which, in other respects, are acute and
ingenious.
[1] Such as--
"Her beauty hangs upon the cheek of night,
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear."
_Romeo and Juliet_.
NOTE D D.--Par. 849.
According to the usual acceptation of the term chiaro-scuro in the
artist world, it means not only the mutable effects produced by light
and shade, but also the permanent differences in brightness and
darkness which are owing to the varieties of local colour.
NOTE E E.--Par. 855.
The mannered treatment of light and shade here alluded to by the
author is very seldom to be met with in the works of the colourists;
the taste may have first arisen from the use of plaster-casts, and
was most prevalent in France and Italy in the early part of the last
century. Piazzetta represented it in Venice, Subleyras in Rome. In
France "Restout taught his pupils that a globe ought to be represented
as a polyhedron. Greuze most implicitly adopted the doctrine, and in
practice showed that he considered the round cheeks of a young girl or
an infant as bodies cut into facettes."[1]
[1] See Taylor's translation of Merimée on oil-painting, p. 27.
Barry, in a letter from Paris, speaks of Restout as the only painter
who resembled the earlier French masters: the manner in question is
undoubtedly sometimes very observable in Poussin. The English artist
elsewhere speaks of the "broad, happy manner of Subleyras."--_Works_,
London, 1809.
NOTE F F.--Par. 859.
All this was no doubt suggested by Heinrich Meyer, whose chief
occupation in Rome, at one time, was making sepia drawings from
sculpture (see Goethe's Italiänische Reise). It is hardly necessary to
say that the observation respecting the treatment of the surface in the
antique statues is very fanciful.
NOTE G G.--Par. 863.
This observation might have been suggested by the drawings of Claude,
which, with the slightest means, exhibit an harmonious balance of warm
and cold.
NOTE H H.--Par. 865.
The colouring of Paolo Uccello, according to Vasari's account of him,
was occasionally so remarkable that he might perhaps have been fairly
included among the instances of defective vision given by the author.
His skill in perspective, indicating an eye for gradation, may be also
reckoned among the points of resemblance (see Par. 105).
NOTE I I.--Par. 902.
The quotation before given from Boschini shows that the method
described by the author, and which is true with regard to some of the
Florentine painters, was not practised by the Venetians, for their
first painting was very solid. It agrees, however, with the manner
of Rubens, many of whose works sufficiently corroborate the account
of his process given by Descamps. "In the early state of Rubens's
pictures," says that writer,[1] "everything appeared like a thin wash;
but although he often made use of the ground in producing his tones,
the canvas was entirely covered more or less with colour." In this
system of leaving the shadows transparent from the first, with the
ground shining through them, it would have been obviously destructive
of richness to use white mixed with the darks, the brightness, in
fact, already existed underneath. Hence the well-known precept of
Rubens to avoid white in the shadows, a precept, like many others,
belonging to a particular practice, and involving all the conditions of
that practice.[2] Scarmiglione, whose Aristotelian treatise on colour
was published in Germany when Rubens was three-and-twenty, observes,
"Painters, with consummate art, lock up the bright colours with dark
ones, and, on the other hand, employ white, the poison of a picture,
very sparingly." (Artificiosissimè pictores claros obscuris obsepiant
et contra candido picturarum veneno summè parcentes, &c.)
[1] "La Vie des Peintres Flamands," vol. i.
[2] The method he recommended for keeping the colours pure in the
lights, viz. to place the tints next each other unmixed, and then
slightly to unite them, may have degenerated to a methodical manner
in the hands of his followers. Boschini, who speaks of Rubens himself
with due reverence, and is far from confounding him with his imitators,
contrasts such a system with that of the Venetians, and adds that
Titian used to say, "Chi de imbratar colori teme, imbrata e machia
si medemi."--_Carta del Navegar_, p. 341. The poem of Boschini is in
many respects polemical. He wrote at a time when the Flemish painters,
having adopted and modified the Venetian principles, threatened to
supersede the Italian masters in the opinion of the world. Their
excellence, too, had all the charm of novelty, for in the seventeenth
century Venice produced no remarkable talent, and it was precisely
the age for her to boast of past glories. The contemptuous manner in
which Boschini speaks of the Flemish varnishes, of the fear of mixing
tints, &c., is thus always to be considered with reference to the time
and circumstances. So also his boasting that the Venetian masters
painted without nature, which may be an exaggeration, is pointed at
the _Naturalisti_, Caravaggio and his followers, who copied nature
literally.
NOTE K K.--Par. 903.
The practice here alluded to is more frequently observable in slight
works by Paul Veronese. His ground was often pure white, and in some
of his works it is left as such. Titian's white ground was covered
with a light warm colour, probably at first, and appears to have
been similar to that to which Armenini gives the preference, namely,
"quella che tira al color di carne chiarissima con un non so che di
fiammeggiante."[1]
[1] "Veri Precetti della Pittura," p. 123.
NOTE L L.--Par. 919.
The notion which the author has here ventured to express may have
been suggested by the remarkable passage in the last canto of Dante's
"Paradiso"--
"Nella profonda e chiara sussistenza,
Dell' alto lume parremi tre giri
Di tre colori e d'una continenza," &c.
After the concluding paragraph the author inserts a letter from a
landscape-painter, Philipp Otto Runge, which is intended to show that
those who imitate nature may arrive at principles analogous to those of
the "Farbenlehre."
THE END.
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