CHAPTER II.

SECTION XII.

ABSTRACT PRINCIPLES TO WHICH THESE ARRANGEMENTS MAY BE REFERRED.

These several styles of colouring may be reduced to certain abstract principles, which may be made the foundation for other and different arrangements, as the taste and talent of the artist or amateur may dictate.

Pictures may be made up of a balance, or harmonic arrangement of TONES.

Or, of a balance, or harmonic arrangement of COLOURS.

Or, of a balance, or harmonic arrangement of TONES and COLOURS.

Or, by relieving a SPARK of COLOUR against a mass of TONES.

Or, by relieving a spot of black or white, _the concentration of_ TONES, against a general aspect of COLOURS.

Pictures may be warm in tone, qualified by so much cool tint as will prevent their appearing hot.

Or cool, with so much warm tint as will prevent their appearing cold.

A small spark of bright colour will balance a large mass of subdued tint. Equal brightness will require equal masses.

For the principles by which the shapes and situations of masses and points must be governed, the reader is referred to the Sketcher's Manual, where they will be found at length, and carefully illustrated. The same regulations that govern the distribution of several lights or shadows, must guide the positions of several masses of the same colour. If two or more are introduced, they must not be equal in size, nor similar in shape, nor must they be so placed, that a line drawn through them, would be either horizontal or vertical--parallel with either base or side. The great principle of colouring being Variety within the limits of Harmony, such masses of similar tints should be of different sizes and shapes, and should be interspersed at different distances through the picture, so as to suggest an undulating line, traversing all, or at least three, of the four quarters of the picture, that all the particular colour shall not be on one side, and none on the other, nor all at the lower, and none in the upper half of the picture. But if the arrangement of relieving a spark of colour against a mass of tones, or the reverse be adopted, it must not be placed in the centre of the picture, nor equidistant from either top and base, or the two sides.

With regard to the beauty of individual tints, it would be difficult to come to any very strict definition, as what is pleasing to one person, is not so to another; and particularly in reference to the use of colours in Art, for they then become so dependent upon the other tints by which they are surrounded, that they may be said to cease to have positive designations, and to become only comparative; and there is scarcely any tint, however disagreeable in itself, but may be made by Art to appear agreeable, if not beautiful. But the object of the present work being to collect the certain or decided principles of Art, for the benefit of those who desire to derive pleasure or amusement from it, the doubtful or questionable hypotheses will be left untouched, and those points only brought forward which are calculated to ensure success.

For this purpose, the amateur should avoid greenish blues and greenish yellows; they both appear sickly: and never place such a green between blue and yellow as would result from the mixture of the particular tints of those two colours which are made use of.

Both blue and yellow become agreeable as they incline to red. Red becomes rich as it inclines to blue, brilliant as it inclines to yellow. All shades and tones of purple or orange are agreeable; but of greens, those only which incline to yellow. Blueish greens require either to be very pale, as shown in Turner's first principle (_See Plate_), or moderated with black, so as almost to cease to be colours, and become tones. All shades and tints of the tertiary compounds are agreeable in their places; they receive value by the opposition of the colour which enters least into their composition, and become difficult to manage only when they approach full blueish green.

White and black give value to all colours and tones.

It may be necessary to make an observation upon the foregoing warning, and almost proscription, of the use of green in Art, as that colour is found to be exceedingly agreeable in Nature, and is used with success in manufactures, and for other general purposes. It is found to afford great relief to weak sight, and is abstractedly so much admired, that it appears singular and paradoxical to say, that green must be sparingly used in pictures, even in landscapes, whose greatest charm in nature consist of luxuriance of vegetation: but such is the case. The general tone of a picture may be yellow, as in the works of Cuyp, Both, Ludovico Caracci (_see Plates_); red, as in the second principle of Titian (_see Plate_); blue, as in the first principle of Turner (_see Plates_); grey or brown, as in the works of Ruysdael and the Dutch School (_see Plates_); but a green picture, however true to nature, instantly excites an universal outcry as being disagreeable; and if any of the modern school, to which we shall presently advert, have been for a moment tolerated, it has arisen from the previous great reputation of the artist, or for other merits in the work, and in _spite_ of its being a green picture.

The following hypothesis _may_ be the mode of accounting for this paradox, and, at the same time, _may_ throw some light upon another, which will be noticed; that although painting is an imitative art, imitation, to the extent of deception, does not constitute its highest excellence.

The eye is excited by Colour, and the object of painting, independent of poetical expression or character, is to excite the eye agreeably. But green is found to excite the eye _less_ than any other tint, (thereby affording some corroboration to the idea that, strictly speaking, its opposite red, is the only true _colour_,) not even excepting black; so that it acts as an opiate, and is used for counteracting the brightness of the sun, by means of parasols or glasses, and to guard weak eyes from the effects of light by means of silk shades.

It is thrown out as a suggestion that, in looking at a picture in which excitement to the degree of pleasure is _expected_, a disappointment _may_ arise from finding a prevalence of those tints which do not excite, except to a very slight extent, and that _thus_ a green picture _may_ occasion dissatisfaction. In looking at Nature we do not wish to be always excited, and green is admired or valued as affording repose; but in looking at a picture, the very object is excitement, within certain limits, which green has a tendency to destroy.

Certain tints of green become disagreeable in certain parts of pictures, from association of ideas. Green in flesh, excites the idea of corruption and decay. Green in skies, occasioned by blending the warm yellows of sunset with the blue, excite the impression of want of skill to prevent the one tint running into the other.

But in reservation it must be repeated, that there is no tint that cannot be controlled and made available, by great skill and management, to the purposes of Art. These warnings are for beginners and amateurs; and the work is intended to show them what they may do with safety; as they attain proficiency, they may attempt difficulties, which principally reside in _truth_ of detail _in combination_ with agreeable general effect. When to this is added a just subservience to Poetical Character, the greatest requisitions of the Art have been complied with; all other difficulties, of whatever nature, being merely a species of mountebank trickery, beneath the aim of high Art, and deserving of the well-known sarcasm of Dr. Johnson upon some difficult music, that "he wished it were impossible."