Part 4 (1/2)

II

The siht and color, the sensation of the eye as such Yet there is no branch of aesthetic which is so incoht or color, if not too weak or too violent, is in itself pleasing The bright, the glittering, shi+ning object, so long as it is not painful, is pleasantly sti Gems, tinsel, lacquer, polish, testify to this taste, from the most primitive to the ht, nor too le colors have been the object of comparatively little study Experihtness--white, red, and yellow--are preferred

Baldwin, in his ”dynaenic” experiments,<1> based on ”the view that the infant's handare the best index of the kind and intensity of its sensory experiences,” finds that the colors range thereen, brown Further corrections lay more emphasis upon the white Yelloas not included in the experiments

Cohn's results, which show a relative dislike of yellow, are contradicted by other observers, notably Major and Baker,<2> and (unpublished) experi the aesthetic preferences of seven or eight different sets of students at Radcliffe and Wellesley colleges Experiments of this kind are particularly difficult, inasmuch as the material, usually colored paper, varies considerably from the spectral color, and differences in saturation, hue, and brightness -tone of association, individual or racial, very often intrudes But other things being equal, the bright, the clear, the saturated color is relatively , and white, red, and yellow seem especially preferred

<1> _Mental Development in the Child and the Race_, 1895, pp 39, 50, ff

<2> E S Baker, _Univ of Toronto Studies, Psychol Series_, No 4; J Cohn, _Philos Studien_, vol X; Major, _A to the Hering theory of color, white, red, and yellow are the so-called ”dissireen, and yellow-blue, corresponding to three hypothetical visual substances in the retina These substances, that is, in undergoing a kind of cheht-rays, are supposed to give the sensations white, red, or yellow respectively, and in renewing thereen, and blue The dissier reactions on the physiological side, as if it were aprocess Thus it is found<1> that as rip under the stimulation of the respective colors, red has particularly exciting qualities, but the other colors have an analogous effect, lessening, however, with the descent froht red, or yellow, for instance,in the purely physiological effect of the color If red works like a trumpet call, while blue calms and cools, and if red is preferred to blue, it is because a sharp stimulation is so felt, and so preferred

<1> Ch Fere, _Sensation et Mouvement_, 1887, p 80

The question of the demands of the eye in color combination is still more complicated It has been traditional to consider the coreen, blue-yellow, and the other pairs resulting from the ical explanation is of course found in the relief and refreshans in successive alternation of the processes of assimilation and dissih this stronger functioning of the retina, of the complementary colors themselves This tendency tofor so the gaze to a white or gray expanse The ireen Per contra, theco alternation of processes in the retina, a fatiguing repetition results Red and orange (red-yellow), or red and purple (red-blue), successively stimulate the red- process with most evil effect

This contrast theory should, however, not be interpreted too narrowly There are pairs of so-called complementaries which make a very crude, harsh, even painful i<1> that the ideal combination involves all three contrast factors, hue, saturation, and brightness Contrast of saturation or brightness within the same hue is also pleasant For any two qualities of the color circle, in fact, there can be found degrees of saturation and brightness in which they will for effect will be based on some form of contrast

But the absolute and relative extension and the space-forreat influence on the pleasurableness of combinations

<1> A Kirsch des Licht und Farbencontrastes,” _Philos Studien_, vol vii

Further rules can hardly be given; but the results of various observers<1> seem to show that the best co the coether in the color circle than complementaries, which are ”warmer” The reason for this last is that, in Chevreul's phraseology, coe each other's peculiar hue the most, and of warm colors the least; because the coht, and each, appearing on the field of the neighboring cold color, seems to fade it out; while the coht, and do not have sufficient strength to affect their neighbors at all With a coreen for instance, a yellow shade would appear in the green and a red in the blue Such a result fails to satisfy the deeneity of color,--that is, for uni of color

<1> Chevreul, _De la Loi du Contraste Simultane des Couleurs_

ES Banker, op Cit

What significance have these abstract principles of beauty in the combination of colors for representative art? In the choice of objects with a definite local color, of course, these laill be found operative A scheme of blues and yellows is likely to be more effective than one of reds and violets

If we analyze the , we shall find that e at first supposed to be the wonderful single effects of color is really the result of juxtapositions which bring out each color to its highest power

III

While all this may be true, however, the most important question has not yet been asked Is truth of color in representative art the saht be said that the whole procedure of the so-called Impressionist school, in fact the whole trend of the ranted Yet we must discriminate Truth of color iven objects, alone or together; in this case we should have to say that beauty did or did not exist in the picture, according as it did or did not exist in the original combination A red hat on a purple chair would set one's teeth on edge, in model or picture Secondly, truth of color ht, and in this case truth would iven scene are in general not colors which the objects themselves, if isolated, would have, but the colors which the eye itself is forced to see The bluish shadow of an object in bright sunlight (yellowish light) is only an expression of the law that in the neighborhood of a colored object we see its complementary color If such an effect is reproduced in a picture, it gives the sainal effect showed the need of The eye fatigued with yellow sees blue; so if the blue is really supplied in the picture, it is not only true, but on the road to beauty, because ave the local color of an object, with an adhts, and a warm dark for the shadows; the modern--which had been touched on, indeed, sporadically, by Perugino and Verives in the shadow the coht falling upon it--all conditions of favorable stiiven in the”values,” that is, coht and shade The real tones of objects including the sky, light, etc, can never be reproduced The older schools, conscious of this, were satisfied to paint in a scale of correspondence, in which the relative values were fairly kept But even by that iven, for the brightest spot of any painting is never hter than the darkest, while the gray sky on a dull rainy day is four hundred and twenty tihter than a white painted cross-bar of aseen against the sky as background<1> There were various ways of co this difficulty Rembrandt, for instance, as Kirschmann tells us, chose the sombre brown tone, ”not out of caprice or an inclination for e side of the color-reatest number of intervals between full saturation and the darkest shade” The precursors of the I absolute values, confining theamut; for this reason the first landscapes of the school were all gray-green, dull, cloudy But Monet did not stop there He painted the ABSOLUTE VALUES of objects IN SHADE on a sunny day, which of course deot the lighted objects the the relative values, but getting an extraordinary joyous and glowing effect; and one, too, of unexpected verisimilitude, for it would seem that in a sunlit scene we are really attentive to the shaded objects alone, and what becomes of the others does not so much matter This effect was made still more possible by the so-called dissociation of colors,--ie the juxtaposing of tints, the blending of which by the eye gives the desired color, without the loss of brightness which atouches of black and white side by side, for instance, a gray results ; or blue and red spots are blended by the eye to an extraordinarily vivid purple Thus, by thesethe nature of retinal functioning, Monet and his followers raised the color scale htness Noe have seen that the eye loves light, war color-effects, related to each other in the way that the eye must see them

Impressionism, as the name of the method just described, makes it more possible than it had been before to ht and color, to recover ”the innocence of the eye,” in Ruskin's phrase Truth to the local color of objects is relatively indifferent, unless that color is beautiful in itself; truth to the reciprocal relations and changes of hue is beauty, because it allows for the eye's own adaptations of its surroundings in the interest of its own functioning Thus in this case, and to sum up, truth is synonymous with beauty, in so far as beauty is constituted by favorable stian The further question, how far this vivid treatht is of importance for the realization of depth and distance, is not here entered on

<1> Kirschmann, _Univ of Toronto Studies, Psychol Series_ No

4, p 20

IV

The moment we touch upon line-form we are already, in strictness, beyond the elements For with form enters the motor factor, which cannot be separated from the motor innervations of the whole body It is possible, however, to abstract for the moment from the form as a unit, and to consider here only what ht or broken, and if curved, curving continuously or brokenly, etc That this quality of line is distinct fro a spiral--a logarithmic spiral, let us say--in different ways about its focus The aesthetic effect of the figure is absolutely different in the different positions, and yet the feeling about the character of the line itself seems to remain the same In what sense, and for what reasons, does this curved line satisfy the demands of the eye?

The discussion of this question precipitates us at once into one of the burning controversies of aesthetics, which may perhaps best be dealt with at this point