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The doctrine of color theory of knowledge. The doctrine of color

The doctrine of color theory of knowledge. The doctrine of color

20.02.2019

» Goethe's doctrine of color

To the doctrine of color. Chromatics.
Essay on the doctrine of color (excerpts)

Sensually-moral action of flowers

758 Since color occupies such a high place among the primordial phenomena of nature, undoubtedly fulfilling the simple circle of actions assigned to it with great variety, we will not be surprised if we learn that in its most general elementary manifestations, regardless of the structure and form of the material, on the surface of which we perceive it, has a certain effect on the sense of sight, to which it is predominantly confined, and through it on the mood of the soul. This action, taken separately, is specific, in combination it is partly harmonious, partly characteristic, often also inharmonious, but always definite and significant, adjoining directly to the realm of the moral. Therefore, taken as an element of art, color can be used to promote higher aesthetic goals.

759 Colors in general cause great joy in people. The eye needs them just as it needs light. Remember how we come to life when, on a cloudy day, the sun suddenly illuminates part of the area and the colors become brighter. From a deep feeling of this indescribable pleasure, the idea was probably born that colored noble stones have the healing power that was attributed to them.

760 The colors that we see on objects are not something completely alien to the eye, by means of them it is for the first time, as it were, determined to this sensation; no. This organ is always disposed to produce these colors by itself, and enjoys a pleasant sensation when something in accordance with its nature comes to it from without, when its purpose is expressed in a significant way in a certain direction.

761 From the idea of the opposite of a phenomenon, from the knowledge that we have acquired about its special conditions, we can conclude that individual colorful impressions cannot be confused, that they must act specifically and in a living organ cause unconditionally specific states.

762 And it's the same in my heart. Experience teaches us that individual colors evoke special spiritual moods. They say about a witty Frenchman: // pretendoit, que son ton de conversation avec Madame etoit change depuis qu "elle avoit change en cramoisi le meuble de son cabinet qui etoit bleu ( He believed that the tone of his conversation with Madame had changed since the furniture in her office was a different color: crimson instead of blue.).

763 In order to fully experience these individual significant effects, one must completely occupy the eye with one color, for example, be in a one-color room, look through colored glass. Then you identify yourself with the color, it adjusts the eye and spirit in unison with itself.

764 Colors positive side the essence is yellow, red-yellow (orange), yellow-red (red lead, cinnabar). They evoke a cheerful, lively, active mood.

Yellow

765 It is the color closest to the light. It occurs by the slightest attenuation of light, whether by a cloudy medium or a slight reflection from a white surface. In prismatic experiments, it alone extends far into light space and can be observed there, when both poles are still apart from each other and yellow has not yet mixed with blue into green, in the most perfect purity ...

766 In its highest purity, yellow always has a light nature and is distinguished by clarity, cheerfulness and soft charm.

767 At this stage, it is pleasing as an environment, whether in the form of clothes, curtains, wallpaper. Gold in perfect pure form gives us, especially if brilliance is added, a new and lofty idea of this color; likewise, a bright yellow tint, which appears on shiny silk, for example, on satin, makes a magnificent and noble impression.

768 Experience shows that yellow makes an exceptionally warm and pleasant impression. Therefore, in painting, it corresponds to the illuminated and active side of the picture.

769 This warm impression can be felt most vividly when looking at some place through yellow glass, especially on gray winter days. The eye will rejoice, the heart will expand, the soul will become more cheerful; it seems that warmth is blowing directly on us.

770 If this color in its purity and clarity is pleasant and joyful, in its full strength it has something cheerful and noble, then, on the other hand, it is very sensitive and gives an unpleasant impression if it is dirty or to a certain extent shifted towards cold tones. . So, the color of sulfur, giving off green, has something unpleasant.

771 Such an unpleasant impression is obtained if yellow paint is imparted to impure and ignoble surfaces, like ordinary cloth, felt, and the like, where this color cannot manifest itself with full force. A slight and imperceptible shift turns the beautiful impression of fire and gold into a disgusting one, and the color of honor and nobility turns into the color of shame, disgust and displeasure. This is how the yellow hats of bankrupt debtors, the yellow rings on the cloaks of the Jews, could have arisen; and even the so-called color of cuckolds is, in fact, only a dirty yellow.

red yellow

772 Since no color can be considered unchanged, yellow, thickening and darkening, can intensify to a reddish hue. The energy of the color is growing, and it seems to be more powerful and beautiful in this shade.

773 Everything we said about yellow applies here, only to a higher degree. Red-yellow, in essence, gives the eye a sense of warmth and bliss, representing both the color of more intense heat and the softer glow of the setting sun. Therefore, he is also pleasant in surroundings and more or less joyful or magnificent in clothes. A faint shade of red gives yellow an immediate different look; and if the English and Germans are still content with a pale yellow, light color of the skin, then the Frenchman, as Father Castel already remarks, loves the yellow color, intensified towards red, as in general everything that stands on the active side pleases him in colors.

yellow red

774 Just as a pure yellow color easily changes into red-yellow, so the latter rises irresistibly to yellow-red. The pleasant cheerful feeling that red-yellow gives us rises to unbearably powerful in bright yellow-red.

775 The active side reaches its highest energy here, and it is not surprising that energetic, healthy, stern people especially rejoice at this paint. A tendency to it is found everywhere in wild peoples. And when the children, left to themselves, begin to color, they do not spare cinnabar and minium.

776 It is enough to look closely at a completely yellow-red surface, so that it seems that this color really hit our eye. It causes incredible shock and retains this effect to a certain degree of darkening.

Showing a yellow and red handkerchief disturbs and makes the animals angry. I also knew educated people who, on a cloudy day, could not bear to look at a man in a crimson cloak when they met.

777 The colors of the negative side are blue, red-blue and blue-red. They cause a restless, soft and dreary mood.

Blue

778 Just as yellow always brings light with it, so blue can always be said to always bring something dark with it.

779 This color has a strange and almost inexpressible effect on the eye. Like a color it's energy; but it stands on the negative side, and in its greatest purity is, as it were, an agitating nothingness. It combines some kind of contradiction of excitement and rest.

780 As we see the heights of the heavens and the distance of the mountains as blue, so the blue surface seems to be moving away from us.

781 Just as we willingly pursue a pleasant object that eludes us, so we look at the blue, not because it rushes at us, but because it draws us along with it.

782 Blue makes us feel cold, just as it reminds us of a shadow. We know how it is derived from black.

783 The rooms, finished in pure blue, seem to a certain extent spacious, but, in essence, empty and cold.

784 Blue glass shows objects in a sad way.

785 It cannot be called unpleasant when positive colors are added to a certain extent to blue. Greenish color sea wave rather nice paint.

Red blue

786 Just as in yellow we very easily found the increase in color, so in blue we notice the same phenomenon.

787 Blue is potentized very gently into red, and thus acquires something active, although it is on the passive side. But the nature of the excitement it causes is completely different from that of red-yellow - it does not so much enliven as it causes anxiety.

788 Just as the growth of color itself is unstoppable, so one would like to go further with this color all the time, but not in the same way as with red-yellow, always actively stepping forward, but in order to find a place where one could rest.

789 In a very weakened form, we know this color under the name of lilac; but even here he has something alive, but devoid of joy.

blue red

790 This anxiety increases with further potentiation, and one might perhaps argue that a wallpaper of a perfectly pure saturated blue-red color will be unbearable. That is why, when it is found in clothes, on a ribbon or other decoration, it is used in a very weakened and light shade; but even in this form, according to its nature, it makes a very special impression.

791 Of the higher clergy, who appropriated this restless color, one can perhaps say that along the restless steps of an ever-increasing ascent, they unrestrainedly strive for the cardinal's purple.

Red

792 With this name, everything that in red could give the impression of yellow or blue should be removed. Imagine a perfectly pure red color, perfect carmine dried on a white porcelain saucer. We have often called this color, for the sake of its high dignity, purple, although we know that the purple of the ancients gravitated more towards blue.

793 Anyone who knows the prismatic origin of purple will not consider it paradoxical if we assert that this color, partly actually, partly potentially, contains all other colors.

794 If we have seen the tendency of yellow and blue to rise to red, and in doing so have noticed our feelings, then we can foresee that the conjunction of the potentized poles will bring a real calm, which could be called ideal satisfaction. Thus, in physical phenomena, this highest of color phenomena arises through the approaching of two opposite ends, which themselves, little by little, prepared themselves for union.

795 As a pigment, it is ready and most perfect red in the form of cochineal; however, this material, when chemically treated, tends to be either positive or negative, and, perhaps, it can be considered that only in the best carmine is there a complete balance.

796 The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. He gives the same impression of seriousness and dignity, as well-willedness and charms. It produces the first in its dark condensed form, the second - in a light diluted form. And thus the dignity of old age and the courtesy of youth can be clothed in one colour.

797 The story tells us a lot about the addiction of rulers to purple. This color always gives the impression of seriousness and magnificence.

798 Purple glass shows a well-lit landscape in a terrifying light. Such a tone should have covered earth and sky on the day of judgment.

799 Since both materials, which are predominantly used in the dyeing business in obtaining this color, kermes and cochineal, tend to a greater or lesser extent to plus or minus, which can also be promoted in one direction or another by treatment with acids or alkalis, it should be noted that the French are on the active side, as shown by the French crimson, tinged with yellow; the Italians, on the other hand, remain on the passive side, so that their purple gives a premonition of blue.

800 A similar alkaline treatment produces crimson, apparently a color very hated by the French, since the expressions sot en cramoisi, mechant en cramo / s / 25 they denote the extreme degree of vulgarity and malice.

Green

801 If yellow and blue, which we consider the first and simplest colors, are combined together at their first appearance in the first stage of their action, then that color will arise, which we call green.

802 Our eye finds real satisfaction in it. When the two mother colors are in a mixture just in balance, so that neither of them is noticed, then the eye and soul rest on this mixture, as on a simple color. I don't want to and I can't go any further. Therefore, for rooms in which you are constantly located, green wallpapers are usually chosen.

Wholeness and harmony

803 So far, for the purposes of our presentation, we have assumed that the eye can be forced to identify itself with some particular color, but this is only possible for a moment.

804 For when we see ourselves surrounded by a single color that arouses in our eye a sense of its own quality and compels us to remain in the state identical with it, then our eye is reluctantly in this forced situation.

805 As soon as the eye sees any color, it immediately enters into an active state, and it is natural for its nature, as unconsciously as it is inevitable, to give rise to another color, which, together with the given one, contains the wholeness of the entire color wheel. One particular color excites in the eye, by means of a specific sensation, the desire for universality.

806 And so, in order to see this wholeness, in order to satisfy itself, the eye searches for the colorless next to the colored space in order to evoke the required color in it.

807 This, therefore, is the basic law of any harmony of colors, which everyone can see on own experience, having become acquainted in detail with those experiments that we presented in the section on physiological colors.

808 When the wholeness of color is presented to the eye from without as an object, the eye rejoices in it, since the sum of its own activities is presented to it here as a reality. Therefore, we will focus primarily on these harmonic comparisons.

809 In order to grasp this most easily, one need only imagine in the indicated color wheel 26 movable diameter and drive it around the whole circle: both ends of it will successively show colors that require each other, which, however, in the end can be reduced to three simple opposites.

810 Yellow calls for red-blue, blue calls for red-yellow, purple calls for green, and vice versa.

811 When the arrow suggested above is displaced from the middle of one of the colors arranged by us in a natural order, then with the other end it moves further from the opposite division, and with the help of such a device for each requiring color it is easy to find the one required by it. It would be useful to make a color wheel for this, which would not be discontinuous as ours, but would show colors in their continuous advancement and transition into each other, for here we are talking about very important issue deserving all our attention.

812 If, when considering individual colors, we were to a certain extent morbidly excited, carried away by individual sensations and feeling now animated and striving, now soft and yearning, now elevated to the noble, then drawn down to the vulgar - now the need for wholeness, innate in our body, takes us out of this limitation, the organ liberates itself, causing the opposite of the solitary impression imposed on it and thereby a peaceful wholeness.

813 How simple, therefore, are those actually harmonic opposites that are given to us in this narrow circle, how important is the hint that nature tends to lead us to freedom through wholeness and that in this case we directly receive a natural phenomenon for aesthetic use.

814 Assuming, therefore, that the color wheel, as we assume it, already in its material evokes a pleasant sensation, it will be appropriate to mention here that the rainbow has so far been incorrectly cited as an example of color integrity: because it lacks the main color, pure red, purple , which cannot arise, since in this phenomenon, as in the traditional prismatic picture, yellow-red and blue-red cannot reach each other.

815 In general, nature does not give us a single all-encompassing phenomenon, where this color wholeness would be quite evident. With the help of experiment, this can be called up in all its perfect beauty. But how such a phenomenon is located in a circle, it will be best understood if pigments are applied to paper, until at last, with a certain ability and after some experience and exercise, we are completely imbued with the idea of \u200b\u200bthis harmony and feel it perceived by our spirit.

Characteristic color combinations

816 In addition to these purely harmonic combinations, which arise by themselves and carry wholeness in themselves, there are still others that are created by arbitrariness and which are most easily characterized by the fact that in our color wheel they are located not in diameter, but in chords, and, moreover, first of all so that one intermediate color is skipped.

817 We call these combinations characteristic, because in all of them there is something significant that imposes itself on us with a certain expression, but does not satisfy us, because any characteristic arises only because it stands out as a part of the whole with which it is connected, without dissolving. in him.

818 Knowing the colors both in their origin and in their harmonic relations, we can expect that the characteristic of arbitrary combinations can turn out to be of the most varied significance. Let's consider each combination separately.

yellow and blue

819 This is the simplest of these combinations. We can say that it is too scarce, since there is not a trace of red in it, then it is too far from wholeness. In this sense, it can be called pale and - since both poles are on the lowest rung - ordinary. But it has the advantage that it is closest to green, and therefore to real satisfaction.

Yellow and purple

820 Has something one-sided, but fun and gorgeous. Both ends of the active side are visible next to each other; but continuous becoming is not expressed. Since a yellow-red color can be expected from their mixture in pigments, they replace this color to a certain extent.

Blue and purple

821 Both ends of the passive side with the overweight of the upper end to the active side. Since the mixture of both produces blue-red, the combination of them approaches this color.

Yellow-red and blue-red

822 In combination, they, like the potentized ends of both sides, have something exciting, bright. Purple is anticipated in them, which arises from them in physical experiments.

823 Thus all four combinations have this in common, that if they were mixed, the colors of our circle lying between each pair would be obtained; this is what happens when the combined paints consist of small parts and are viewed from a distance. A surface with narrow blue and yellow stripes appears green at some distance.

824 If the eye sees blue and yellow next to each other, then in a strange way it tries all the time to call green, but without success, and therefore it cannot achieve peace in particular, but in general - a sense of integrity.

825 So, it is clear that we have not without reason called these combinations characteristic, as well as the fact that the nature of each combination depends on the nature of the individual colors from which they are composed.

Uncharacteristic color combinations

826 We turn now to the last kind of combinations which are easy to obtain on our circle. These will be those that are marked by smaller chords, when they do not jump over the entire intermediate color, but only through the transition from one to another.

827 Such combinations can indeed be called uncharacteristic, because they are too close together to make a significant impression. But still most of to a certain extent, they are legitimate, because they indicate a certain progressive, but little noticeable, movement.

828 Thus, yellow and yellow-red, yellow-red and purple, blue and blue-red, blue-red and purple express the next stages of potentization and culmination, and in certain proportions of the masses can have a good effect.

829 Yellow and green in combination always have something vulgar-cheerful, and blue and green - even vulgar-nasty; therefore, our good ancestors called this last combination a stupid color.

The ratio of combinations to light and dark

830 These combinations can be diversified by the fact that both colors are taken light, both dark, one light, and the other dark; and, however, what had a common meaning for these combinations is preserved in each particular case. Of this infinite variety which is present here, we shall only mention the following.

831 The active side, when combined with black, wins in strength; passive - loses. Active, when combined with white and light, loses its strength; passive in this combination wins in gaiety. Purple and green with black have a dark and gloomy look, with white, on the contrary, it is joyful.

832 To this is added the fact that all colors can be more or less polluted, to a certain extent made unrecognizable, and in this form partly compared with each other, partly with pure colors; and although the ratios thus vary to infinity, yet everything that has been said about pure colors remains valid here.

Historical remarks

833 Since the main provisions on the harmony of colors were stated above, it will not be unreasonable to repeat once again everything that has been said in connection with observations and examples.

834 These basic propositions were derived from human nature and from the recognized correlations of color phenomena. In experience we encounter many things that correspond to these basic propositions, and many things that contradict them.

835 Savages, uncultured peoples, children have a great inclination towards color in its highest brightness, and therefore especially towards yellow-red. They also have a penchant for variegation. Variegated is obtained when the colors in their greatest brightness are combined without harmonic balance. If, however, this balance, instinctively or accidentally, is found, then a pleasant action occurs. I remember how a Hessian officer, returning from America, painted his face with pure colors, following the example of savages, which resulted in a kind of wholeness that did not cause an unpleasant impression.

836 The peoples of southern Europe wear clothes of very bright colors. Silk goods, cheap with them, contribute to this inclination. Especially women, with their bright corsages and ribbons, are always in harmony with the locality, and they are not able to outshine the brilliance of heaven and earth.

837 The history of the art of dyeing teaches us that certain technical conveniences and advantages had a very great influence on the clothes of nations. Thus, the Germans often wear blue, because it is a durable cloth dye; also in some localities all the peasants are in green teak, because the latter is well painted with this paint. If the traveler would pay attention to this, he would soon be able to make pleasant and instructive observations.

838 As colors create moods, so they themselves also adapt to moods and circumstances. Lively, lively nations, such as the French, love intensified colors, especially on the active side; the moderates, the English and the Germans, like straw and red-yellow, with which they wear dark blue. Nations, like the Italians and Spaniards, who want to show their dignity, wear red cloaks with a bias towards the passive side.

839 The character of a person is judged by the nature of the color of clothing. Thus, one can observe the relationship of individual colors and their combinations to complexion, age and position.

840 The female youth keeps pink and blue; old age - purple and dark green. The blonde has a penchant for purple and light yellow, the brunette has a penchant for blue and yellow-red, and everyone is right.

Roman emperors were very jealous of purple. The clothes of the Chinese emperor are orange, woven with purple. Lemon yellow may also be worn by his servants and clergy.

841 Educated people have some aversion to flowers. This may be due partly to a weakness of the eye, partly to an indefiniteness of taste which readily takes refuge in complete nothingness. Women now go exclusively in white, men in black.

842 In general, it will be useful to note here that a person, no matter how willingly he stands out, is just as willingly lost among his own kind.

843 The black color was supposed to remind the Venetian nobleman of republican equality.

844 To what extent the cloudy northern sky has little by little expelled the color may also yet be explored.

845 The use of pure dyes is, of course, very limited; on the other hand, polluted, dead, so-called fashionable colors reveal an endless series of tones and shades, most of which are not without pleasantness.

846 It should also be noted that women, when using pure colors, are in danger of making an already faded complexion even more dull; as in general, they are forced, wanting to maintain balance with a brilliant environment, to enhance the color of their complexion with the help of rouge.

847 Here one more work should be done, namely, on the basis of the above provisions - an assessment of the uniform dress, liveries, cockades and other badges. One could generally say that such clothes and badges should not have harmonious colors. Uniform dress should be distinguished by character and dignity; liveries could be vulgar and conspicuous. There will be no shortage of examples of good and bad sorts, since the color wheel is limited and has already been tested quite often.

Aesthetic action

848 From the sensual and moral impact of colors, both singly and in combination, as discussed above, follows their aesthetic impact on the artist. We will also give only the most necessary indications about this, after we first consider general terms and Conditions pictorial image, light and shadow, which are directly adjacent to the phenomenon of color.

Chiaroscuro

849 Chiaroscuro, clair-obscur, we call the phenomenon of bodily objects, when only the influence of light and shadow on them is considered.

850 In a narrower sense, sometimes the shaded part, illuminated by reflection, is also called so; but we use the word here in its first, more general sense.

851 The separation of chiaroscuro from all color phenomena is possible and necessary. The artist will more easily solve the riddle of the image if he first imagines chiaroscuro regardless of colors and studies it in its entirety.

852 Chiaroscuro makes the body look like a body, and it is light and shadow that give us the impression of the density of the body.

853 In this case, it is necessary to take into account the brightest light, the middle line, the shadow, and in the latter, again the body's own shadow cast on other bodies, and the illuminated shadow or reflex.

854 To compose yourself general concept, a sphere would be suitable as a natural example for chiaroscuro; but it is not sufficient for aesthetic purposes. The merging unity of such a rounding causes a vague impression. To create an artistic effect, we need to create surfaces so that the parts of the shadow and light side are more separate.

855 The Italians call it il plazzoso; it could be called "superficial". If the ball is thus an example of natural chiaroscuro, then the polyhedron is an example of artificial, where you can see all kinds of illuminated, semi-illuminated, shadows and reflections.

856 Grapes are also recognized good example a pictorial whole in chiaroscuro, especially since in its form it can form an excellent group; but it is suitable only for a master who knows how to see in him everything that he is only capable of doing.

857 To be clear on the simplest example, for which the polyhedron is still too complicated, we offer a tube, three visible sides which, separately from each other, show the illuminated, middle line and shadow side.

858 But in order to move on to the chiaroscuro of a complex figure, we choose as an example an open book, which brings us closer to a greater variety.

859 antique statues the heydays are very expediently made to produce such an effect. The illuminated parts are treated simply, but the shadow sides are all the more interrupted to make them susceptible to various reflections; in this case, we can recall the example of a polyhedron.

860 To this are added examples of ancient painting - Herculan paintings and Aldobrandini's wedding.

861 Contemporary examples are found in the face of some figures of Raphael, in entire paintings by Correggio, the Netherlandish school, especially Rubens.

The pursuit of color

862 In painting, paintings made in black and white are rare. Some of the works of Polydor, as well as our engravings and prints, may serve as an example of such. These works, insofar as they pay attention to forms and postures, have their value; however, they are not pleasing to the eye in that they arise from powerful abstraction.

863 If the artist surrenders to his feeling, something colorful immediately appears. As soon as black becomes bluish, there is a need for yellow, which the artist then instinctively separates and partially adapts in order to revive the whole in a pure form for illuminated places, partly in the form of a reddish and polluted, Brown color for reflexes as it seems to him the most expedient.

864 All types of kamaye, or paint in paint, ultimately come down to the fact that the required contrast or some kind of color effect is added. Thus, Polydorus, in his frescoes, painted in black and white, introduced a yellow vessel or something of the kind.

865 In general, in art, people instinctively always strive for color. One has only to observe daily how draftsmen move from ink or black chalk on white paper to colored paper, then apply different crayons, and finally turn to pastel. Nowadays, one can see pencil portraits animated by red cheeks and colorful clothes, even silhouettes in colorful uniforms. Paolo Uccello painted colored landscapes with colorless figures.

866 Even the sculpture of the ancients could not resist this need. The Egyptians painted their bas-reliefs. The eyes of the statue were made of colored stones. Porphyry robes were added to marble heads and limbs, and pedestals of colorful limestone were taken for busts. The Jesuits did not fail to compose their St. Aloysius in Rome in the same way, and the latest sculpture distinguishes the body from the clothes by means of coloring.

Location

867 If in linear perspective the gradual removal of objects is depicted by reducing them, then aerial perspective shows the gradual removal of objects with the help of greater or lesser clarity of their image.

868 And although distant objects, in accordance with the nature of our eye, we do not see as clearly as closer ones, nevertheless, aerial perspective is based essentially on the important position that all transparent media are to some extent cloudy.

869 The atmosphere is therefore always more or less cloudy. This is especially noticeable in southern areas with a high position of the barometer, dry weather and a cloudless sky, when one can observe a very noticeable gradual distinctness of objects even at their slight distance from each other.

870 This phenomenon is generally known to everyone; the artist, on the other hand, sees this gradualness at the slightest difference in distance, or believes that he sees it. In practice, he accomplishes this by depicting parts of a body, for example, a face completely turned forward, with different strength. This is where lighting comes into its own. It is considered falling from the side, while the perspective position is from the front in depth.

coloring

871 Turning now to colorization, we assume that the painter is generally familiar with the outline of our doctrine of color and has fully mastered those chapters and rubrics that especially concern him, for only then will he be able to easily deal with both theoretical and practical and in the knowledge of nature and in its application to art.

Color of the place

872 The first manifestation of color is found in nature at the same time as the location in space, because the aerial perspective rests on learning and turbid environments. The sky, distant objects, even close shadows, we see blue. Simultaneously luminous and illuminated objects seem to us to have all shades from yellow to purple. In some cases, the physiological demand for colors immediately arises, and a completely colorless landscape, in connection with this and other contradictory definitions, will turn out to be completely colorful before our eyes.

The color of objects

873 The colors of objects are common elementary colors, but specified depending on the properties of the bodies and their surfaces on which these colors are visible.

874 Big difference whether you see dyed silk or wool in front of you. Every kind of manufacture and weaving already brings differences. Roughness, smoothness, gloss - all this must be taken into account.

875 Therefore, a very harmful prejudice in art is the notion that a good painter should not pay attention to the material of clothing, but should always paint, as it were, abstract folds. Doesn't this take away all the characteristic diversity, and is the portrait of Leo X28 less successful because in this picture velvet, satin and moire are presented next to each other?

876 In the works of nature, the colors are more or less modified, specified, even individualized; this is well observed on stones and plants, on bird feathers and animal hair.

877 The main thing in the artist's art always remains the ability to imitate the appearance of a certain material and to destroy the general, elementary in the color phenomenon. The greatest difficulty in this case is when depicting the surface of the human body.

878 Its color is generally on the active side, but bluish shades of the passive also intervene here. In the body, the color left its elemental state and was neutralized.

879 To harmonize the color of the place with the color of the object for the thinking artist, after considering everything that has been said in the doctrine of color, it will become easier than it has been until now, and he will be able to depict infinitely beautiful, diverse and, moreover, real phenomena.

characteristic color

880 The juxtaposition of colored objects, as well as the coloring of the space in which they are located, should occur in accordance with the goals that the artist sets himself. For this, knowledge of the effect of colors on the senses, both individually and in combination, is especially necessary. Therefore, the painter must be imbued with both universal duality and particular oppositions; he also had to learn in general what we said about the properties of colors.

881 The characteristic can be understood under three main headings, which we shall designate for the moment: powerful, delicate, and brilliant.

882 The first is obtained by the predominance of the active side, the second by the passive, the third by integrity and the representation of the entire color wheel in balance.

883 A powerful effect is achieved with yellow, yellow-red and purple, which is still on the positive side. You can add some purple and blue, as well as green. A gentle effect is caused by blues, violets and purples, with a bias, however, towards the negative side. There may be a small amount of yellow and yellow-red, but a lot of green is required.

884 If it is desired to invoke both effects in their full meaning, then you can reduce additional colors to a minimum and show them only to the extent that this, as it seems, is unquestioningly required by a premonition of integrity.

Harmonic color

885 Although both of the characteristic types just indicated can also be called harmonious to a certain extent, yet a real harmonic action arises only when all neighboring colors will be brought into balance with each other.

886 This can evoke both the brilliant and the pleasant, but both, however, will always have something universal and in this sense devoid of character.

887 This is the reason why the coloring of most of the new artists is uncharacteristic; for when they follow only their instinct, then the final thing for them, where it can lead them, is the integrity, which they more or less achieve, but because of this, at the same time, they miss the character that the picture could still have. .

888 If, on the contrary, we keep in mind the fundamental principles mentioned, then it is clear how a different color scheme can be chosen for each object. True, such an application requires endless modifications, which only one genius can succeed if he is imbued with these fundamentals.

True tone

889 If they continue to borrow from music the word "tone", or rather "tonality", and use it in painting, then this can be done in best sense than has been done so far.

890 Not without reason one could compare the picture of a powerful effect with musical piece in major, and a canvas of gentle effect with a piece in minor, just as other comparisons could be found for modifications of these two main effects.

False tone

891 What has hitherto been called tone was, as it were, a veil of a single color spread over the whole picture. It was usually taken yellow, when, by instinct, they wanted to shift the picture in a strong direction.

892 If the picture is viewed through yellow glass, then it will appear to us in this tone. It is worth doing this experiment and repeating it in order to find out exactly what actually happens during such an operation. This is a kind of night lighting, strengthening, but at the same time clouding the positive side and pollution of the negative.

893 This fake tone came from instinct, out of a misunderstanding of what to do, so that instead of wholeness, uniformity was created.

Weak color

894 It is this uncertainty that causes the colors of the paintings to be so weakened that they write from gray and back to gray and color is used as weakly as possible.

895 In such paintings, harmonic juxtapositions of colors are sometimes quite successful, but lack courage, as they are afraid of variegation.

Motley

896 A painting can easily become motley if colors are placed next to each other in all their strength purely empirically, under the influence of vague impressions.

897 If, on the contrary, weak colors are applied next to each other, even if they are nasty, then the unpleasant effect, however, is not striking. They transfer their uncertainty to the viewer, who, for his part, can neither praise nor blaspheme.

898 It is also important to take into account that even if it were possible to arrange the colors in the picture correctly, the picture would still have to become variegated if the colors were falsely applied in relation to light and shadow.

899 Such a case can happen all the more easily since light and shadow are already given by the drawing, as if contained in it, while colors still remain subject to discretion and arbitrariness.

Fear of the theoretical

900 Even to this day, one can detect in artists a fear, even a resolute aversion to any theoretical consideration of colors and everything related here, which, however, did not go to their detriment. For until now the so-called theoretical has been groundless, unstable and with hints of empiricism. We wish that our efforts would somewhat lessen this fear and encourage the artist to test the proposed basic provisions in practice and put them into practice.

Final goal

901 For without seeing the whole, the final goal will not be reached. Let the artist be imbued with all that we have set forth so far. Only thanks to the consistency of light and shadow, perspective, correct and characteristic placement of colors, can the picture, from the side from which we are currently considering it, turn out to be perfect.

More about the psychology of color:

Bazyma B.A. Color and psyche. Monograph. KhSAC. - Kharkov, 2001. -172s.
Rowe K. The concept of color and color symbolism in the ancient world.

Teaching about color. Theory of knowledge

War'nicht das Auge sonnenhaft,

Wie konnten wir das Licht erblicken?

Lebt'nicht in uns des Gottes eigne Kraft,

Wie konnt'uns Gottliches entziicken?

Foreword

When you are going to talk about colors, the question naturally arises whether it is necessary to mention light first of all. To this question we will give a short and direct answer: since so many different opinions have been expressed about light so far, it seems superfluous to repeat what has been said or multiply the statements that have been so often repeated.

Actually, after all, all our efforts to express the essence of any thing remain in vain. Actions are what we perceive and full story these actions would embrace - no doubt, the essence of this thing. In vain do we try to describe the character of man; but compare his actions, his deeds, and a picture will arise before you. his character.

Colors are deeds of light, deeds and suffering states. In this sense, we can expect them to clarify the nature of light. Colors and light stand, it is true, in the most exact relationship to each other, however, we must imagine them as inherent in all nature: through nph, nature is completely revealed to the sense of sight.

In the same way, the whole nature is revealed to another sense. Close your eyes, open, sharpen your ears, and from the most gentle breath to a deafening noise, from the simplest sound to greatest harmony, from the most passionate cry to the meekest words of reason, you will hear nature and only nature, which speaks, which reveals its being, its strength, its life and its relationships, so that the blind, for whom the infinite visible world is closed, can embrace the world in audible infinitely alive.

So says nature to the rest of the senses - to the familiar, and the unrecognized and unfamiliar senses; thus she speaks to herself and to us through a thousand manifestations. To the careful observer, she is nowhere dead or mute; and even to the inert earthly body she gave a breastplate, metal, in the smallest parts of which we could see what is happening in the whole mass.

However verbose, confusing, and incomprehensible this language may often seem to us, its elements remain the same. Quietly tilting first one and then the other pan of the scales, nature oscillates here and there, and in this way two sides arise, there arises an up and down, before and after, and all the phenomena that you encounter in space and time are determined by this duality.

These general movements and definitions we perceive most in various ways, sometimes as a simple repulsion and attraction, sometimes as a peeping and again disappearing light, like the movement of air, like a shaking of the body, like oxidation and deoxidation; but they always unite or separate, set things in motion and serve life in one form or another.

Assuming that these two directions are unequal to each other in their action, they tried to somehow express this ratio. Everywhere they noticed and called plus and minus, action and reaction, activity and passivity, advancing and restraining, passionate and moderating, male and female; this is how a language arises, a symbolism that can be used by applying it to similar cases as a likeness, a close expression, a immediately suitable word.

To apply these universal designations, this language of nature also to the doctrine of colors, to enrich and expand this language, relying on the diversity of the phenomena studied here, and thereby facilitate the exchange of higher views among the friends of nature - this is the main task of this work.

The work itself is divided into three parts. The first gives an outline of the doctrine of colors. Innumerable occurrences of phenomena are subsumed in this part under the known basic Phenomena, arranged in an order which the introduction is to justify. Here it can be noted that although we everywhere adhered to experience, everywhere we laid it at the basis, nevertheless we could not pass over in silence the theoretical view, according to which this selection and order of phenomena arose.

And in general, the demand sometimes put forward, although it is not fulfilled even by those who put it, is extremely surprising: to present the evidence of experience without any theoretical connection and leave the reader, the student, to form a conviction for himself to his liking. But when I only look at a thing, it does not move me forward. Every looking turns into looking, every looking into thinking, every thinking into binding, and therefore it can be said that already with every attentive look thrown at the world, we theorize. But to do and apply it consciously, with self-criticism, with freedom, and - to use a bold expression - with a certain irony: such a device is necessary so that the abstraction that we fear is harmless, and the experimental result that we expect is sufficiently alive and useful.

In the second part we are engaged in the exposure of Newton's theory, which imperiously and influentially closed the way to a free view of color phenomena up to now; we contest a hypothesis which, though no longer considered valid, still retains traditional authority among men. In order that the doctrine of colors should not lag behind, as hitherto, from so many better processed parts of natural science, it is necessary to clarify true value this hypothesis, old misconceptions must be eliminated.

Since this second part of our work will seem dry in content, perhaps too harsh and passionate in presentation, then, in order to prepare for this more serious matter and at least somewhat justify this lively attitude towards it, let me give here the following comparison.

Newton's theory of colors can be compared to an old fortress, which was at first founded with youthful haste by the founder, subsequently gradually expanded and furnished by him according to the needs of the time and circumstances, and strengthened to the same extent, in view of hostile collisions.

So did his successors and heirs. We were forced to enlarge the building, to attach it here, to complete it there, to build an outbuilding somewhere else - we were forced, thanks to the growth of internal needs, the pressure of external enemies and many accidents.

All these alien parts and outbuildings had to be connected again with the most amazing galleries, halls and passages. What was damaged by the hand of the enemy or the power of time was immediately restored again. As needed, they made deeper ditches, raised walls and did not skimp on towers, towers and loopholes. Thanks to these careful efforts, a prejudice about high value this fortress, despite the fact that architecture and fortification during this time have greatly improved, and in other cases people have learned to arrange much better dwellings and fortifications. But the old fortress was in honor, especially because it had never yet been possible to take it, that many assaults were repulsed by it, not a few enemies were put to shame, and it always kept a virgin. This name, This glory does not die to this day. No one comes to mind that old building became uninhabited. Everyone is again talking about> her remarkable strength, her excellent device. Pilgrims go there to worship; sketchy drawings of her are shown in all schools and instill in the receptive youth respect for the building, which meanwhile is already empty, guarded by a few invalids who quite seriously imagine themselves fully armed.

Thus, there is no question here of a long siege or a strife with a dubious outcome. In fact, we find this eighth wonder of the world already as an abandoned monument of antiquity, threatening to collapse, and immediately, without any fuss, we begin to demolish it, from the ridge and roof, in order to finally let the sun into this old nest of rats and owls and open the eyes of the astonished traveler all this incoherent architectural labyrinth, its appearance for the sake of temporary needs, all its random heaps, everything deliberately sophisticated, somehow patched in it. But to throw such a glance is possible only if wall after wall falls, vault after vault, and the garbage is removed as soon as possible.

To carry out this work and, if possible, to level the place, to arrange the extracted material so that it can be used again in a new building, this is the difficult task that we have charged ourselves with in this second part. But if we manage, with joyful use of the possible dexterity, to tear down this bastille and acquire a free place, then it is not at all our intention to build up again and burden it immediately with a new building; no, we want to use it to present to the eyes of the viewer a marvelous series of various Figures.

The third part is therefore devoted to historical research and preparatory work. If we said above that the history of man paints us his appearance, then it can also be argued that the history of spiders is science itself. It is impossible to achieve pure knowledge of what one possesses until one is familiar with what others have possessed before us. Those who do not know how to appreciate the advantages of the past, will not be able to truly and sincerely rejoice in the advantages of their time. But writing a history of flowers, or even preparing material for it, was impossible as long as Newton's teachings remained valid. For never before has any aristocratic self-conceit looked at everyone who did not belong to his guild, with such intolerable arrogance with which the Newtonian school rejected everything that was created before it and next to it. With annoyance and indignation, you see how Priestley, in his history of optics, and others before and after him, count the years of the “saved” world of flowers from the era of split (in their imagination) light and shrug their shoulders, looking at ancient and newer writers, calmly kept the right way and left us separate observations and thoughts, which even we could not have been better able to produce and more correctly Formulate.

(excerpts)

Sensually-moral action of flowers

758 Since color occupies such a high place among the primordial phenomena of nature, undoubtedly fulfilling the simple circle of actions assigned to it with great variety, we will not be surprised if we learn that in its most general elementary manifestations, regardless of the structure and form of the material, on the surface of which we perceive it, renders famous action on the sense of vision, to which it is predominantly confined, and through it on the mood of the soul. This action, taken separately, is specific, in combination it is partly harmonious, partly characteristic, often also inharmonious, but always definite and significant, adjoining directly to the realm of the moral. Therefore, taken as an element of art, color can be used to promote higher aesthetic goals.

763 In order to fully experience these individual significant effects, one must completely occupy the eye with one color, for example, to be in a one-color room, to look through colored glass. Then you identify yourself with the color, it adjusts the eye and spirit in unison with itself.

764 The colors of the positive side are yellow, red-yellow (orange), yellow-red (red lead, cinnabar). They evoke a cheerful, lively, active mood.

Yellow

766 In its highest purity, yellow always has a light nature and is distinguished by clarity, cheerfulness and soft charm.

767 At this stage, it is pleasing as an environment, whether in the form of clothes, curtains, wallpaper. Gold in a completely pure form gives us, especially if brilliance is added, a new and high idea of \u200b\u200bthis color; likewise, a bright yellow tint, which appears on shiny silk, for example, on satin, makes a magnificent and noble impression.

768 Experience shows that yellow makes an exceptionally warm and pleasant impression. Therefore, in painting, it corresponds to the illuminated and active side of the picture.

red yellow

yellow red

775 The active side reaches its highest energy here, and it is not surprising that energetic, healthy, stern people especially rejoice at this paint. A tendency to it is found everywhere among savage peoples. And when the children, left to themselves, begin to color, they do not spare cinnabar and minium.

Showing a yellow and red handkerchief disturbs and makes the animals angry. I also knew educated people who, on a cloudy day, could not bear to look at a man in a scarlet cloak when they met.

777 The colors of the negative side are blue, red-blue, and blue-red. They cause a restless, soft and dreary mood.

Blue

778 Just as yellow always brings light with it, so blue can always be said to always bring something dark with it.

779 This color has a strange and almost inexpressible effect on the eye. Like a color it is energy; but it stands on the negative side, and in its greatest purity is, as it were, an agitating nothingness. It combines some kind of contradiction of excitement and rest.

780 As we see the heights of the heavens and the distance of the mountains as blue, so the blue surface seems to be moving away from us.

781 Just as we willingly pursue a pleasant object that eludes us, so we look at the blue, not because it rushes at us, but because it draws us along with it.

782 Blue makes us feel cold, just as it reminds us of a shadow. We know how it is derived from black.

783 The rooms, finished in pure blue, seem to a certain extent spacious, but, in essence, empty and cold.

784 Blue glass shows objects in a sad way.

785 It cannot be called unpleasant when positive colors are added to a certain extent to blue. The greenish color of the sea wave is rather a pleasant paint.

Red blue

786 Just as in yellow we very easily found the increase in color, so in blue we notice the same phenomenon.

789 In a very weakened form, we know this color under the name of lilac; but even here he has something alive, but devoid of joy.

blue red

Red

793 Anyone who knows the prismatic origin of purple will not consider it paradoxical if we assert that this color, partly actually, partly potentially, contains all other colors.

796 The effect of this color is as unique as its nature. He gives the same impression of seriousness and dignity, as well-willedness and charms. It produces the first in its dark condensed form, the second in its light diluted form. And thus the dignity of old age and the courtesy of youth can be clothed in one colour.

797 The story tells us a lot about the addiction of rulers to purple. This color always gives the impression of seriousness and magnificence.

798 Purple glass shows a well-lit landscape in a terrifying light. Such a tone should have covered earth and sky on the day of judgment.

Green

Wholeness and harmony

803 So far, for the purposes of our presentation, we have assumed that the eye can be forced to identify itself with some particular color, but this is only possible for a moment.

806 And so, in order to see this wholeness, in order to satisfy itself, the eye searches for the colorless next to the colored space in order to evoke the required color in it.

807 This, therefore, is the basic law of any harmony of colors, of which everyone can be convinced by their own experience, having become acquainted in detail with those experiments that we have given in the section on physiological colors.

809 In order to grasp this most easily, one need only imagine a movable diameter in the indicated color wheel26 and move it around the whole circle: both ends of it will successively show colors that require each other, which, however, can ultimately be reduced to three simple opposites.

810 Yellow calls for red-blue, blue calls for red-yellow, purple calls for green, and vice versa.

811 When the arrow suggested above is displaced from the middle of one of the colors arranged by us in a natural order, then with the other end it moves further from the opposite division, and with the help of such a device for each requiring color it is easy to find the one required by it. It would be useful to make a color wheel for this, which would not be discontinuous as ours, but would show the colors in their continuous advancement and transition into each other, for here we are talking about a very important issue that deserves all our attention.

812 If, when considering individual colors, we were to a certain extent painfully excited, carried away by individual sensations and feeling now animated and striving, now soft and yearning, now elevated to the noble, then drawn down to the vulgar - now the need for wholeness, innate in our body, takes us out of this limitation, the organ liberates itself, causing the opposite of the solitary impression imposed on it and thereby a peaceful wholeness.

813 How simple, therefore, are those actually harmonic opposites that are given to us in this narrow circle, so important is the hint that nature tends to lead us to freedom through wholeness and that in this case we directly receive a natural phenomenon for aesthetic use.

Characteristic color combinations

yellow and blue

Yellow and purple

Blue and purple

821 Both ends of the passive side with the overweight of the upper end to the active side. Since the mixture of both produces blue-red, the combination of them approaches this color.

Yellow-red and blue-red

822 In combination, they, like the potentized ends of both sides, have something exciting, bright. Purple is anticipated in them, which arises from them in physical experiments.

Uncharacteristic color combinations

827 Such combinations can indeed be called uncharacteristic, because they are too close together to make a significant impression. But still, most of them are legitimate to a certain extent, because they indicate a certain progressive, but hardly noticeable, movement.

829 Yellow and green in combination always have something vulgar-cheerful, and blue and green - even vulgar-nasty; therefore, our good ancestors called this last combination a stupid color.

The ratio of combinations to light and dark

Historical remarks

839 The character of a person is judged by the nature of the color of clothing. Thus, one can observe the relationship of individual colors and their combinations to complexion, age and position.

Roman emperors were very jealous of purple. The clothes of the Chinese emperor are orange, woven with purple. Lemon yellow may also be worn by his servants and clergy.

842 In general, it will be useful to note here that a person, no matter how willingly he stands out, is just as willingly lost among his own kind.

843 The black color was supposed to remind the Venetian nobleman of republican equality.

844 To what extent the cloudy northern sky has little by little expelled the color may also yet be explored.

Aesthetic action

848 From the sensual and moral impact of colors, both singly and in combination, as discussed above, follows their aesthetic impact on the artist. We will also give only the most necessary indications about this, after we first consider the general conditions of the pictorial representation, light and shadow, to which the phenomenon of color immediately adjoins.

Chiaroscuro

849 Chiaroscuro, clair-obscur, we call the phenomenon of bodily objects, when only the influence of light and shadow on them is considered.

850 In a narrower sense, sometimes the shaded part, illuminated by reflection, is also called so; but we use the word here in its first, more general sense.

852 Chiaroscuro makes the body look like a body, and it is light and shadow that give us the impression of the density of the body.

854 In order to form a general concept for oneself, a sphere would be suitable as a natural example for chiaroscuro; but it is not sufficient for aesthetic purposes. The merging unity of such a rounding causes a vague impression. To create an artistic effect, we need to create surfaces so that the parts of the shadow and light side are more separate.

856 The vineyard is also recognized as a good example of a pictorial whole in chiaroscuro, the more so because in its form it can form an excellent group; but it is suitable only for a master who knows how to see in him everything that he is only capable of doing.

857 To be clear on the simplest example, for which the polyhedron is still too complicated, we offer a tube, the three visible sides of which separately from each other demonstrate the illuminated, middle line and shadow side.

858 But in order to move on to the chiaroscuro of a complex figure, we choose as an example an open book, which brings us closer to a greater variety.

859 Antique statues of the heyday are quite expediently made to evoke such an effect. The illuminated parts are treated simply, but the shadow sides are all the more interrupted to make them susceptible to various reflections; in this case, we can recall the example of a polyhedron.

860 To this are added examples of ancient painting - Herculan paintings and Aldobrandini's wedding.

861 Modern examples are found in the face of some figures of Raphael, in entire paintings by Correggio, the Netherlandish school, especially Rubens.

The pursuit of color

863 If the artist surrenders to his feeling, something colorful immediately appears. As soon as black becomes bluish, there is a need for yellow, which the artist then instinctively separates and adapts partly to revive the whole in a pure form for illuminated places, partly in the form of a reddish and polluted, brown color for reflections, as it seems to him most expedient.

Location

867 If in linear perspective the gradual removal of objects is depicted by reducing them, then the aerial perspective shows the gradual removal of objects with the help of greater or lesser clarity of their image.

870 This phenomenon is generally known to everyone; the artist, on the other hand, sees this gradualness at the slightest difference in distance, or believes that he sees it. In practice, he accomplishes this by depicting parts of a body, for example, a face completely turned forward, with different strengths. This is where lighting comes into its own. It is considered falling from the side, while the perspective position is from the front in depth.

coloring

Color of the place

The color of objects

873 The colors of objects are common elementary colors, but specified depending on the properties of the bodies and their surfaces on which these colors are visible.

874 It makes a big difference whether you see dyed silk or wool in front of you. Every kind of manufacture and weaving already brings differences. Roughness, smoothness, gloss - all this must be taken into account.

876 In the works of nature, the colors are more or less modified, specified, even individualized; this is well observed on stones and plants, on bird feathers and animal hair.

878 Its color is generally on the active side, but bluish shades of the passive also intervene here. In the body, the color left its elemental state and was neutralized.

characteristic color

881 The characteristic can be understood under three main headings, which we shall designate for the moment: powerful, delicate, and brilliant.

882 The first is obtained by the predominance of the active side, the second by the passive, the third by integrity and the representation of the entire color wheel in balance.

884 If it is desired to bring both effects to their full extent, then the complementary colors can be reduced to a minimum and only shown to the extent that the foreboding of wholeness seems to implicitly require it.

Harmonic color

885 Although both of the characteristic genera just indicated may also be called harmonious to a certain extent, yet a real harmonic action occurs only when all neighboring colors are brought into balance with each other.

886 This can evoke both the brilliant and the pleasant, but both, however, will always have something universal and in this sense devoid of character.

True tone

889 If we continue to borrow the word "tone" from music, or rather "tonality", and use it in painting, then this can be done in a better sense than hitherto has been done.

890 It would not be without reason to compare a picture of powerful effect with a piece of music in major, and a canvas of gentle effect with a piece in minor, just as other comparisons could be found for modifications of these two main effects.

False tone

893 This fake tone came from instinct, out of a misunderstanding of what to do, so that instead of wholeness, uniformity was created.

Weak color

894 It is this uncertainty that causes the colors of the paintings to be so weakened that they write from gray and back to gray and color is used as weakly as possible.

895 In such paintings, harmonic juxtapositions of colors are sometimes quite successful, but lack courage, as they are afraid of variegation.

Motley

896 A painting can easily become motley if colors are placed next to each other in all their strength purely empirically, under the influence of vague impressions.

899 Such a case can happen all the more easily since light and shadow are already given by the drawing, as if contained in it, while colors still remain subject to discretion and arbitrariness.

Fear of the theoretical

Final goal

THE TASK OF THE TEACHER

A rapidly changing world places ever-increasing and ever-changing demands on us. At the moment when we already feel that we have achieved perfection in one direction of our development, something new immediately appears. Many discoveries in the field of technology, for example, can no longer be perceived by the layman. Thus, a person can get the feeling that he is constantly trying to catch up with something. And as a result, he tends to just turn a blind eye to these things. Dealing with external impressions and their effect on the internal is not so easy. The extremes of our world are quite distant from each other and cause great tension. How to find balance? Each of us is familiar with such internal processes.

We as individuals evolve from the conjunction of opposing forces. On the one hand, we are connected by our bodies to the vegetable and mineral kingdoms of nature; on the other hand, we have lofty ideals, desires and hopes that feed our spiritual essence. The impulses emanating from these two poles are picked up and connected by our soul. The soul is formed under the influence of ideals. It is nourished, on the one hand, by our ideals, and, on the other hand, by the creative forces that arise in our will. And the soul itself acquires polarity. The life of the senses maintains this balance. On the physical level this is expressed through rhythmic breathing, in which there is a constant connection between the inner and the outer. The heart and circulation also connect the bottom and the top. An idea that has acquired the form of a clear image through thinking, we can embody through our enthusiasm (warm attitude towards something) with the help of our will (for example, our hands). On the other hand, action can arise unconsciously, being initiated from within: we are, so to speak, filled with enthusiasm for something that, in the end, can lead us to an idea or thought. There are always two areas involved. Sensual life builds a bridge between these essentially different qualities: thinking and action.

The world of the soul, in which these three spiritual qualities- thinking, feeling and will - function independently, but still together, in small child still too small. The soul develops as it acquires more experiences. Through new actions, feelings and thoughts the soul matures. In the sensual and spiritual sphere, between the one-time and the repeatable, between creativity and exercise, there is tension. When the natural living inner action that takes place in the soul stops due to the mutual isolation of these three spiritual qualities from each other, then stress and fear take possession of the soul. And what the head is talking about has nothing to do with what the arms and legs do. Ideas remain unrealized. Feelings are suppressed or hidden. At a later stage, the individual may remain apathetic and unfulfilled. The distance between the inner life and the outer world increases. Soon the soul is no longer able to make connections. In contrast, the healthy development of the soul always leads to wholeness. Qualities can develop, which helps us to get answers to external and internal matters.

Art provides us with a special opportunity to support spiritual development, being in the area where all three spiritual qualities are combined in creativity. Creativity breeds enthusiasm. And ideas develop from this. As soon as an image appears, feelings weigh what exactly needs to be done to embody it. Then the necessary actions complete the implementation of the idea. Essentially, all forms of art follow this path.

What place does painting take next to drawing forms or plasticizing (clay modeling)? The main thing in drawing forms is to catch the movement: swift or light, made by hand, foot or whole body. The downward movement expressed by a line is the essence of drawing shapes. A line is a frozen movement, in other words, it is a path of movement. The life of the lines takes place in a one-dimensional world. The lines become clearly visible, contrasting with the paper. So we can use the rich tones of crayons, chalk or pencils in drawing shapes. Color in this area does not play a role. The eye must be allowed to follow the movement freely, without obstruction. We choose to describe verbs rather than nouns, which are too fixative and often evoke fixed images. The words "fall asleep" or "wake up" give the student more than the word "spiral". We are now talking about an internal movement that generates an external one. Verbs tend to emphasize the process, the path taken.

Painting introduces us to a two-dimensional space, to the depth created by various color effects. Colors create space through their pure action. A suitable term for this is "color perspective". In order to view drawings from this point of view, certain eye exercises are required. Establishing connections between light and line seems very easy, and darkness is also needed to create space. Among the works classical artists XX century, you can find many examples of color perspective. They fought for a new way of thinking and rejected old traditions. The paintings became more "flat", and as a result, the interaction of colors became more expressive. Physically perceptible space gave way to a new alternative representation of reality. Blurred spots, fixed compositional schemes no longer play a role in their work. When looking at Cezanne's canvases, one notices that the objects painted are free from their surroundings due to the way colors have been used. They seem to be freed from the gravity of the earth, thus creating a new reality in another dimension.

Here is how Steiner emphasizes the features of these paintings: “Deep penetration into colors, one way or another, dissipates, and the artistic approach today gives way to a distorted creativity. Today we prefer to paint, plastically forming three-dimensional figures of people on canvases. For this purpose, a spatial perspective was developed, which, in general, appeared in the 5th post-Atlantic era and which, from its point of view, turns some objects into the background, and others into the foreground, while offering only spatial forms. All this initially rejects the most important material for the artist, since he creates on a flat surface, and not in space, and it is rather absurd to want to experience a thing in space, based on a flat material.

An art that truly needs physical space manifests itself in sculpture. Clay modeling - plasticizing is a world in which there are concepts of "front and back", "right and left", "top and bottom". Sculpture explores space and, in its development, gives itself to space. We can observe the sculpture from different points of view.

In the program of the free Waldorf school, we see that these three various ways interactions with space - through line, color and image - are presented in three separate courses of study: drawing forms, painting and sculpting. In upper secondary school, these directions can certainly be intertwined by all possible ways. But in the first three years of schooling, it is very important to separate these three areas and realize in which particular area the teacher is with the student now. Each of them meets specific needs, reflecting in its own way artistic processes. Therefore, it is very important to be vigilant, both when using color in drawing shapes, and when defining the area of the painterly in clay modeling. By working in clearly separated three areas, students will not tend to fill in the rest of the areas with color or start painting with a brush when drawing shapes. The combination of painting and drawing may be appropriate for certain purposes, but in a rhythmic weekly lesson, it is very important to first consider and discover all the possibilities of working with one-, two- and three-dimensional space.

Goethe, the great teacher in the field of knowledge life processes nature, draws our attention to his arguments about color in the following way: “Color is an elementary natural phenomenon intended for our vision; it expresses itself, like everything else, through separation and contrast, through mixing and uniting, intensification and separation, which is best observed and understood in relation to these basic natural formulas.

Goethe perceives the world of color as originating in "the deeds and sufferings of light." Thus, he builds the integrity of the world from light, darkness and "muddy environment" - a three-membered world with color in the center. In the "muddy environment", between light and darkness, colors appear. In his physics, he constantly returns to the concept of metamorphosis, polarity and intensification ("Steigerung", lit. - increase, increase, intensification). By this he expresses the processes that take place outside visible world, but which, however, determine the final manifestations in it.

Goethe distinguishes only two pure colors: blue and yellow. They are polar, which means that it is impossible to detect blue in pure yellow and vice versa. This discovery is the result of comparing what happens when clouded matter is in front of light and when illuminated matter is in front of darkness. When a cloudy medium permeated with light is in front of darkness, a blue-violet color appears. When the sun illuminates the earth's atmosphere, the blue color of the sky floats before the blackness of the universe. Yellow/red we can pick out from the sun when its light streams softly through the atmosphere during the day and is more obscured at sunrise or sunset. Yellow, orange and red, therefore, come from the activity of darkness before light, blue and violet from the work of light in darkness.

These two simple phenomena are the principles of Goethe's theory of color. By strengthening both processes, yellow-red and blue-red colors appear. When these two colors "shine" on each other, magenta is produced. When blue and yellow mix, green is formed, completing the circle. This color circle arises from the development and interaction of colors, expressing the action of vital forces. In section 6 we will touch on this in more detail.

Goethe's starting point is that the role of darkness is just as great as the role of light. Light is the reason that objects are illuminated, after which we can observe them. In the discovery of Goethe's ancestral phenomenon, Steiner found confirmation of the idea of polarity in nature and man. All living beings combine opposites in themselves. These opposites constantly need to be balanced. Steiner goes even further in describing darkness, color and light as spiritual entities, based on phenomena in the field of physical and mental life, as well as human spirituality. Three separate forces work in the above order: light, darkness, and their balancing. This idea of tripartiteness can also be found in Aristotle. In red-yellow, light dominates darkness. In blue-violet - darkness dominates light. And in green - they are in balance. Goethe said correctly: "My theory of color is as old as the world." His understanding of nature builds a bridge between self-knowledge and knowledge of the world.

With Goethe, the most important thing is how he makes his observations and from where he draws his conclusions. His way of observation became a new method of research. He plunged headlong into reality, but did not meet there the ideas that Newton had. Newton considered colors as the scattering of light in the form of a fan. This represents all colors to be the same in quality, but in fact the difference is only in quantity (i.e., in the number of vibrations per second). Goethe opens the way to scientific, but not materialistic observation and consideration of colors. His theory of color forms the most important foundation of painting.

It is known that Goethe himself valued his color work above his own. poetic creativity. great poet He did not agree with Newton's theory of light and color and, in contrast, created his own. Goethe's interest in color has been noted since childhood. As W. Voigt and W. Zukker (1983) note, Goethe's sensually visual method was the reason why Goethe's concept was received "with hostility" by his contemporaries. Goethe was accused of dilettantism and advised to do his own thing. Goethe complains about the cold attitude of his contemporaries to his theory in one of his letters to Schiller. We are primarily interested in that part of Goethe's teaching, which he calls the "Sensual-moral action of flowers."

Goethe believed that color "regardless of the structure and form of the material (to which it belongs - author's note) has a certain effect ... on the mood of the soul" (# 758). Thus, the impression caused by color is determined, first of all, by itself, and not by its objective associations. "Individual colorful impressions ... must act specifically and ... cause specific states" (#761). And further, in #762: "certain colors evoke special states of mind." According to these provisions, Goethe associates certain colors with certain psychological states person. Goethe illustrates this property of color by describing those changes in the “state of mind” that occur when a person is exposed to color for a sufficiently long time, for example, through colored glasses.

Based on these basic provisions of the psychological section of his teaching, Goethe divides the colors into "positive" - yellow, red-yellow (orange) and yellow-red (red lead, cinnabar) and "negative" - blue, red-blue and blue-red. The colors of the first group create a cheerful, lively, active mood, and the second - restless, soft and dreary. Green Goethe referred to the "neutral". Let's take a closer look at psychological characteristics flowers given by Goethe.

Yellow. If you look through the yellow glass, then “the eye will be delighted, the heart will expand, the soul will become more cheerful, it seems that ... it breathes with warmth” (# 769). Pure yellow is pleasant. However, when it is contaminated, shifted towards cold tones (sulfur color) or applied to an “ignoble” surface, yellow acquires a negative sound and negative symbolic meaning. According to Goethe, such yellow symbolizes debtors, cuckolds and belonging to the Jewish nation.

Orange. What is said (positively) about yellow is also true for orange, but to a higher degree. Orange is "more energetic" than pure yellow. Maybe that's why this color, according to Goethe, is more preferred by the French than by the British and Germans.

Yellow-red. The pleasant and cheerful feeling evoked by orange rises to unbearably powerful in bright yellow-red (#774). The active side in this color reaches its highest energy. As a result of this, according to Goethe, energetic, healthy, stern people especially "rejoice" (prefer) this paint. This color attracts savages and children. Causes a sense of shock.

Blue. “Like a color, it is energy: however, it stands on the negative side and, in its greatest purity, is, as it were, an exciting nothingness” (# 779). Goethe subtly feels the "mysticism" of blue and writes about it as creating a strange, inexpressible effect. Blue, as it were, entails, “leaves” a person. Blue as the idea of dark is associated with the feeling of cold. Dominant rooms of blue color seem spacious, but empty and cold. If you look at the world through blue glass, it appears in a sad form.

Red-blue (lilac). This color evokes a feeling of anxiety. The color is lively, but bleak.

Blue-red. The impression of anxiety is greatly increased. Goethe believed that to withstand this color long time very difficult if it is not diluted.

Pure red Goethe considers as a harmonious combination of the poles of yellow and blue, and therefore the eye finds "ideal satisfaction" in this color (# 794). Red (carmine) gives the impression of seriousness, dignity or charm and goodwill. Darker symbolizes old age, and lighter symbolizes youth.

Speaking of purple, Goethe indicates that it is the favorite color of rulers and expresses seriousness and grandeur. But if you look at the surrounding landscape through the purple glass, then it appears in a terrifying form, as on the day of the "Last Judgment" (# 798).

Green. If yellow and blue are in an equilibrium mixture, green is produced. The eye, according to Goethe, finds real satisfaction in it, the soul "rests". I don't want to and can't go any further (#802).

The impact of individual colors, causing certain impressions and states in a person, thereby, in Goethe's terminology, "limits" the soul, which strives for wholeness. Here Goethe draws a parallel between color harmony and the harmony of the psyche. As soon as the eye sees any color, it comes into an active state. It is in its nature to produce another color which, together with the given one, contains the whole of the color wheel (#805). So the human soul strives for wholeness and universality. These provisions of Goethe, in many respects anticipate the results of experimental studies by S.V. Kravkova of the relationship between color perception and the activity of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) of a person. Goethe identifies the following harmonious color combinations: yellow - red-blue; blue - red-yellow; purple - green.

Based on Goethe's teachings on color harmony and wholeness, we can conclude that the psychological impact of, say, yellow, requires the impact of red-blue (violet) to balance it. There are complementary relationships between the harmonic color pair. These six colors make up Goethe's "color wheel", where harmonious combinations are located opposite each other diagonally.

In addition to harmonious color combinations (leading to integrity), Goethe distinguishes "characteristic" and "uncharacteristic". These color combinations also cause certain spiritual impressions, but unlike harmonious ones, they do not lead to a state of psychological balance.

"Characteristic" Goethe calls such color combinations that make up colors separated in the color wheel by one color.

Yellow and blue. According to Goethe - a meager, pale combination, which lacks (for integrity) red. The impression it creates is what Goethe calls "ordinary" (#819).

The combination of yellow and purple is also one-sided, but cheerful and gorgeous (#820).

Yellow-red in combination with blue-red causes excitement, the impression is bright (#822).

Mixing the colors of a characteristic pair generates a color that is (on the color wheel) between them.

"Uncharacteristic" Goethe calls combinations of two adjacent colors of his circle. Their proximity leads to an unfavorable impression. This is how Goethe calls yellow and green "funny merry", and blue and green - "vulgarly nasty" (# 829).

Goethe assigns an important role in the formation of the psychological impact of color on a person to the lightness characteristics of colors. The "active" side (positive colors) when combined with black wins in terms of impression strength, and the "passive" side (negative colors) loses. And vice versa, when combined with white, the passive side wins more, becoming more "cheerful" and "cheerful" (#831).

Affects Goethe and intercultural differences in color symbolism and the psychological impact of color. He considers love for the bright and colorful to be characteristic of savages, "uncivilized" peoples and children. In educated people, on the contrary, there is a certain "disgust" for colors, especially bright ones. Goethe associates the color of clothing both with the character of the nation as a whole and with the individual. Lively, lively nations, Goethe believes, prefer the intensified colors of the active side. Moderates are straw and red-yellow, with which they wear dark blue. Nations seeking to show their dignity - red with a bias towards the passive side. Young women prefer light shades - pink and blue. Old men - purple and dark green (#838-848).

The value of "Teachings about color" for the psychology of color is very great. What was blamed on Goethe - artistic method, subjectivism, allowed the great German poet to consider the subtle relationships between color and the human psyche. The metaphor of the "light-bearing soul of man" received convincing confirmation in Goethe's work. Goethe's color is no longer a symbol of divine, mystical powers. It is a symbol of the person himself, his feelings and thoughts, and, moreover, the symbol is not poetic, but psychological, having a certain, specific content.

The doctrine of color theory of knowledge. The doctrine of color

To the doctrine of color. Chromatics. Essay on the doctrine of color (excerpts)

Sensually-moral action of flowers

Yellow

red yellow

yellow red

Blue

Red blue

blue red

Red

Green

Wholeness and harmony

Characteristic color combinations

yellow and blue

Yellow and purple

Blue and purple

Yellow-red and blue-red

Uncharacteristic color combinations

The ratio of combinations to light and dark

Historical remarks

Aesthetic action

Chiaroscuro

The pursuit of color

Location

coloring

Color of the place

The color of objects

characteristic color

Harmonic color

True tone

False tone

Weak color

Motley

Fear of the theoretical

Final goal

(excerpts)

Sensually-moral action of flowers

Yellow

red yellow

yellow red

Blue

Red blue

blue red

Red

Green

Wholeness and harmony

Characteristic color combinations

yellow and blue

Yellow and purple

Blue and purple

Yellow-red and blue-red

Uncharacteristic color combinations

The ratio of combinations to light and dark

Historical remarks

Aesthetic action

Chiaroscuro

The pursuit of color

Location

coloring

Color of the place

The color of objects

characteristic color

Harmonic color

True tone

False tone

Weak color

Motley

Fear of the theoretical

Final goal

To the doctrine of color. Chromatics.
Essay on the doctrine of color (excerpts)