When the attention is to be fixed to a particular object, the degree of power given to the accessories will alone establish its degree of consequence: but it must not be wholly insulated; those accessories, being the medium of its own importance, must contribute all to assist it to its place, without weakening its force or imparing its character; as the middle tints find their value and clearness only by the strength of the lights, and the depths of the darks.
Pictures, painted in a 'light key,' possess many advantages:—
Great breadth of Effect is produced by placing the principal mass of shadow on, or rather immediately under, the horizon; graduating upwards into the clouds, and downwards, in a long angle, to a broad light on the base line; on which a figure or any other object, however small, but darker than the rest, being placed, will produce an effect that has become extremely popular of late. This is equally applicable to landscape or sea pieces; and was a favourite arrangement of A. Vandervelde. When the picture is mostly made up of half tint, his manner was to throw all the power of the palette into his figures; bringing them out strong, dark, and cutting on the foreground; and, in the retiring groups, diminishing the force as little as possible; keeping the shadows flat, and a little weaker in colour. This management produces one of the most powerful daylight effects, though not so ærial; but the sacrifice of the last is as nothing to the want of the former. Atmospheric effect is scarcely missed when the whole is on so light a key, as the quantity of half tint employed renders it.
Most of the Dutch landscape painters seem universally agreed on this arrangement, as having that beautiful contrast of force and softness we so often see in coast scenes, and leaving so large a space as two-thirds of the picture for the luminous forms of the clouds.
Broken heaths, road scenes, corn-fields, boats on the water, with their forcible and deep shadows, fishermen on the sands, all readily adapt themselves to this manner; which, likewise, from the light tone that pervades the whole, requires the strongest opposition and contrast of colour—so that the colours be carried well through the picture; that is, if the ground be warm, a figure in blue placed in the foreground may be carried out by being repeated in the blue of the water, and so into parts of the sky, &c. And, on the other hand, if the ground be cool grey, as in a river scene, the boats may be yellow, and the figures red, carried up and diffused into the warm lights of the sky, or striking on the sandy shore and distant buildings, and even reaching the birds in the air—all will help to convey the colours through the work.
In working out this system, let the lights be bright, and their shadows strong and forcible, keeping the middle tints tender, airy, and delicate. A few trials on this plan will soon convince the student of the beauty and real look of daylight it has over many others.
In examining the works of Cuyp, when the picture is painted on a light key, he is sure to make use of very strong colour, to clear up and give vigour to the whole, in his figures; serving, at the same time, to invest the general mass with air, breadth, and extent.
Rembrandt thought it of more consequence to paint light, than the objects seen by it.
'Titian's great care was to express the general colour, to preserve the masses of light and shade, and to give, by opposition, the idea of that solidity which is inseparable from natural objects. When these are preserved, though the work should possess no other merit, it will have, in a proper place, its complete effect; but where any of these are wanting, however minutely laboured the picture may be in detail, the whole will have a false, and even an unfinished appearance, at whatever distance, or in whatever light it can be shown. It is in vain to attend to the variations of tints, if in that attention, the general hue is lost, or to finish ever so minutely the parts, if the masses are not observed, or the whole not well put together. And those who will examine into the artifice, will find it to consist in the power of generalizing, and the shortness and simplicity of the means employed;' and in fixed principles, our general ideas predominating over our individual.
Rubens, in his splendid manner, involved all the schools—Roman, Dutch, and Venetian! yet, with all this magnificence and variety, possessed repose.