CHAPTER I.
COLOURING AS A MEANS OF ART.
Colouring is the decorative part of Art. It answers to Rhythm and Rhyme in poetry, as the means of attracting the senses. As it is a means of producing, so its indispensable qualification is,—BEAUTY. In the higher aims of Art it should be made subservient to Character and Expression, by according with the nature of the subject; but, still under the limitation and regulation of those principles which govern Pictorial Effect. Under all circumstances, and to whatsoever purposes applied, the first qualification of Colouring as a means of Art is, that it should produce a Picture.
A picture has been elsewhere defined as an arrangement of one or more objects and accessories so as to afford an agreeable subject of Contemplation. And the principles which regulate Chiaroscuro and general arrangement for this purpose, have been pointed out. The same principles must regulate Colouring as a means of Art.
The mere representation of any object, however accurately detailed and coloured, does not constitute a picture. It must be represented with accessories and under Pictorial Effect. This as regards Chiaroscuro has been shown to depend upon Breadth. As regards Colouring it depends upon Harmony.
CHAPTER I.
SECTION I.
HARMONY.
Harmony is a term borrowed from the sister Art of Music, to denote a degree of relation or congruity between two or more colours, so as mutually to support or develope each other's beauties, as is the case with a chord or concord of sounds. The degrees of relation, or qualification for harmony, of sounds, can be ascertained by mathematical calculation incapable of erroneous results. Not so, those of Colours; at least in the present state of the science of Optics. If it should be proved that colours are the effect of vibrations of the air, or any other fluid, as are sounds, the Harmony of Colours may equally become the subject of mathematical calculation, with equally certain results; at present we cannot go beyond rude approximations by guess or supposition; and are vaguely placed under the regulation of Taste, itself as Protean and undefined.