NOTES.

Note A, page 6.

DECISIONS OF CRITICISM.-It is highly important to the student that the question concerning the true rank and esteem of the various styles and departments of painting, and of that of colouring in particular, should be rightly understood, that he may not waste his time and talents in vain and unprofitable endeavours; and, to comprehend this question correctly, it is necessary to consider these styles and departments in their true, natural, and philosophical relations individually, as well as in reference to art and society generally. In the first respect, they are either material and mechanical—sensible and sentimental—or they are moral and intellectual; yet it is impossible to separate these entirely from either branch, or to assign either to either otherwise than by predominance, in which way hand, execution, drawing and whatever concerns the management of the materials of a picture belong to the material and manual;-colour, light, shade, and effect, belong to sense,-and to the intellectual belong invention, composition and expression. Admitting, then, that intellect is above sense, and sense above matter and mechanism, we must accord the highest rank to invention and expression in themselves, and assign the like middle station to colouring; but if the art as a whole have, as it truly has, essentially more of the sensible than it has of either the material or intellectual, then is the sensible principal in the art, and colouring and its allies are principal in painting, although out of the art itself they have not the highest reference.

Styles in art have ever varied with their age and nation according as the people among whom they have been practised have been more or less mechanical, sensible, or intellectual,—without this, art would have terminated in rules, models, and sinensian sameness;-without this there had been neither Dutch, Flemish, nor Venetian schools; and without this there can be no English school. Had the critics and professors of Holland and Flanders inflated the Dutch and Flemish painters with the ambition of rivalling the schools of Michael Angelo, Raphael, and the Caracci, their works would have been rejected by their country, and their attempt to lead their age, instead of leaving art to the impulse of genius and the calls of society, would have had the effects it has had in England of neutralizing patronage or demand, and of depriving the world of a new developement of art, and of the rich produce of a school low in grade, but admirable in effect. Hence, left to its natural course in a free, great, and enlightened country like this, the art cannot fail of those new and transcendant attainments, which have ever sprung from power and riches, accompanied by freedom and intelligence, as witnessed in antient Greece; but the spirit of art in this country has been constantly depressed by false criticism, foreign revilings against its genius, and the domestic outcry of want of patronage for works of magnitude; as if magnitude were synonymous with merit. The Greeks knew how to concentrate

more of the perfections of art on a gem than all the gigantic figures of Egypt, together, could afford;-why, then, shall not the British artist obtain riches and exalted reputation by the free exercise of his talents on works of such a magnitude as may be suited to the customs, climate and calls of his country?

Note B, page 7.

That Sir Joshua Reynolds felt unaffected upon a first inspection of the works of Raffael at Rome, was owing, doubtlessly, to the general unattractiveness of their colouring. Many, he observed, experienced the same indifference toward them. He remarked also, "That those persons only, who, from natural imbecility, appeared to be incapable of relishing those divine performances, made pretensions to instantaneous raptures on first beholding them.”—Reynolds's Works by Farrington.

Gainsborough, with a candour parallel to that of Reynolds, acknowledged to Edwards, upon viewing the Cartoons at Hampton Court, that their beauty was of a class he could neither appreciate nor enjoy.

The present highly talented President of the Royal Academy has remarked, with just discrimination, that "They who have excelled in subjects of a grand and elevated character, have rarely been able to combine with their other accomplishments the merits of colouring, chiaro'scuro, and execution; but let us not, therefore, contract our ideas of excellence, in compliment to their deficiencies, nor endeavour to persuade ourselves that we see in the imperfection of their art a principle of their science."-Elements, Canto v. N. P. 284.

"How colouring and effect may and ought to be managed, to enliven form and invigorate sentiment and expression (remarks Opie), I can readily comprehend, and, I hope, demonstrate ; but wherein these different classes of excellence are incompatible with each other, I could never conceive; nor will the barren coldness of David, the brickdust of the learned Poussin, nor even the dryness of Raffael himself, ever lead me to believe, that the flesh of heroes is less like flesh than that of other men; nor that the surest way to strike the imagination and interest the feelings, is to fatigue, perplex, and disgust the organs through which the impression is made on the mind."--Lect. I. p. 18.

Upon this subject, and upon colouring in general, there has been much ably and eloquently said by Opie,-himself an eminent colourist,-in his fourth and last excellent lecture, which well merits the attention of every colourist, for just feeling and discrimination in this branch of painting.

It is evident, notwithstanding, that he was not well acquainted with the relations upon which harmony depends, since he confounds tone and warmth with harmony, according to a very common error, when he says, "Harmony is secured by keeping up the same tone through the whole, and not at all by any sort of arrangement."-P. 143.

And again," Harmony easily slides into jaundice.”—Ibid.

Now, harmony of colouring is infinite in its varieties, all depending upon arrangement, and tone is but the ruling colour pervading any arrangement or composition-the archeus of the piece; which in like case the harmonist, in the sister art of music, calls the key;-and warmth is the suffusion of a particular tone, the natural key-note of the colouring. Colouring has as many

artificial keys as there are hues ;-as many tones, all applicable to legitimate arrangement, or harmonies in colouring; but not all equally eligible, for this must depend upon taste, nature, sentiment, and judgment. Opie is not, however, singular in confounding tone with harmony; the error is general, and Sir Joshua has fallen into it ;-but monotony of any kind must not be confounded with harmony.

Note C, pages 20. 226.

- FROM CROSSINGS OF BLUE,

GREEN, ORANGE, VIOLET, AND INDIGO PRIMARIES RED, AND YELLOW RAYS.-Newton considered the simple originality of the first four of these colours, together with the three latter, to be demonstrated, because, after having produced them from a beam of light analytically, by prismatic refraction, he could not farther resolv either of them into other colours by passing them through a second prism; for, though variously dispersed, each colour retained its original hue. Hence Newton concluded that there were seven primary colours.

Nevertheless, three of these, blue, red, and yellow, being separated from the others and properly compounded, reproduce colourless light, which again, by prismatic refraction, affords Newton's seven primaries, including green, orange, violet, and indigo; and so on repeatedly. † Another difficulty into which Newton's hypothesis led, was the necessity of admitting two kinds of colours, which he denominated homogeneal and heterogeneal; thus his prismatic green was homogeneal, but a green composed of blue and yellow he called heterogeneal; yet, had he mixed his blue and yellow rays, his prism would have refracted without separating them, and thus the heterogeneal colour would have become homogeneal; we shall not, however, continue an argument which will make artists smile and grave men frown; yet, neither false shame, nor respect for authority, however exalted, ought, in any case, to suppress our regard for and vindication of truth. In the present case, too, that great man, Newton himself, admonishes us not to admit more causes of natural appearances than are both true and sufficient to explain them, agreeably to that more antient maxim, that nature does nothing in vain, and, therefore, would not have instituted seven primaries in a design which is perfectly accomplished by three.

Note D, pages 21. 29. 154. 249.

Having deduced the relations of colours regularly from white or light, through the primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, to black or shade, we might have done the same inversely from black to white. On this plan the tertiaries, olive, russet, and citrine, take the place of the primaries, blue, red, and yellow, while the secondaries still retain their intermediate station and relation to both; thus russet and olive compose or unite in dark purple, citrine and olive in dark green, and russet and citrine in dark orange, as demonstrated pp. 248 and 249. The tertiaries have, therefore, the same order of relation to black that the primaries have to white; and we have black primaries,

* Optics, Prop. 11. Theor. II. Exp. 5.

+ Exp. xxvII. p. 247.

secondaries, and tertiaries, inversely, as we have white primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, directly; or, what is the same thing, we have light and dark colours of all classes.

Theoretically, the tertiaries may be produced either by mixture of the primaries alone, the secondaries alone, or by the primaries and black; but in the latter mode the black must be perfectly neutral and the colours true, to do this practically, and none of our pigments are perfect enough for this; the latter mode is, therefore, a bad practice, and applicable only to the production of shadow colours, distinguished by the term semi-neutrals.-P. 28. It is the imperfection or anomalousness of pigments which renders these distinctions necessary, for had we pigments in the chromatic and relative perfection which belongs to prismatic colours, with also a perfectly transparent and neutral shade-colour with which to combine the whole, the inverse order of our classification would afford us the series from black to white; the contrary order adopted is, however, practically preferable, because we have white pigments sufficiently opaque and pure to compound all tints without changing the denominations of colours; but, as before remarked, we have no black so transparent and neutral as to afford us equally perfect shades: both these orders are, however, represented by the definite scale and the scale of equivalents taken conversely, and the absolute completeness of the natural system of colours is demonstrated analytically and synthetically, or rather antithetically.

Note E, page 22.

Mr. Brockedon, in his late interesting discussion of chromatic and optical phenomena at the Royal Institution, introduced a variety of devices, some of which, by very ingenious arrangement and mechanism, illustrated the combinations, contrasts, and powers of colours upon each other. To do justice to these by description, unassisted by engravings and colours, will be impossible; the following may, however, help the reader in forming a conception of one of them, which consisted of a broad ring, formed upon a white ground, and coloured at equal distances, blue, red, and yellow; these colours, being gradated alternately into each other, form the three secondaries, each opposite to its contrasting primary in regular gradation and series all round the ring or circle. A similar narrower circle of the mean diameter of the above, cut from its ground, internally and externally, formed a ring, which being coloured exactly as the above, but much more faintly, and placed concentrically upon it, colour to colour, alike all round, the power and mass of colour in the large ring negated that of the small incumbent ring, and rendered it nearly colourless to the eye; but the latter being turned half round, so that the colours of the two rings became opposed, colour to contrast, all round the circles, the faint hues of the small ring revived to the eye, with a vigour of colour far exceeding their natural power when viewed alone.

A colourless circular board, of sufficient diameter to cover the larger circle, being perforated with two or more small openings opposite to each other, and turned round concentrically upon this larger coloured ring, exhibited successively all the individual contrasts of the whole circular series, with other pleasing and instructive effects applicable to many uses in the arts.

This portion of Mr. Brockedon's plan is evidently available for our scale of equivalents, so as to isolate single contrasts, or by three or more openings, at equal distances, to indicate a like

number of harmonizing colours, and the proportions on the scale in which they would compose harmoniously in painting.

Many diagrams have been contrived for exhibiting colours under various references; the schemes of Kircher, Lamozzo, Newton, and Harris, are well known. Adopting the doctrine of three primaries, &c. their relations may be illustrated by a great variety of trine figures; of which we have in our "Chromatics" preferred the triangle as the simplest and most analogous for form and composition.

Mr. Clover, who has studied this branch of his art with care and success, has constructed a diagram of this kind equally simple and ingenious, the principal device of which consists of a broad ring (circumscribing a triangle) constituted of three crescents, formed by lines drawn by the compasses from the outward to the inward edges of the ring, and dividing it into three equal portions, coloured severally blue, red, and yellow. It is evident that any diametrical line, drawn across this ring, will point to contrasts which arise from combinations of the primaries all round the ring.

Many other plans might be described, such as Mr. T. Hargreave's, which coincides with our own; Mr. Martin's, by the trisecting of three sets of concentric circles; and Mr. Hayter's, who has published a very curious and ingenious one, consisting of the involution of three spirals ;the principle of all which arises out of the admirable geometrical property of the apt combination of trine figures.

Note F, page 39.

Our theory of the constitution of light, upon which we interpret the phenomena of inherent and transient colours by chemical election, is fully adequate to the explanation of the colours of transmitted and reflected light. Thus, when light passes through transparent coloured glass, it is not the colour of the glass that tinges the light so transmitted, in the manner a colouring substance tinges a liquid, but the colour in the glass neutralizes itself, or retains from the light by election such a proportion of its principles as reduces such colour to an achromatic state, and suffers the remainder of the light to pass through the glass, so constituted as to afford the precise colour of the glass itself. In this manner such a proportion of the principles of light as constitutes redness passes through red glass, and the rest of the light is retained. It is the same with other colours of transparent substances; and in like manner the colours reflected from opaque coloured bodies are not the colours of the bodies themselves, but of the light by which they are illuminated-nor do we in any case see the immediate colours of objects, but those only with which they affect light. As yellow fixes or absorbs one proportion of the elementary principles of light-red another-blue another-and black absorbs the whole of light, so coloured bodies are found to become heated by the sun's rays in proportion as their colours retain or fix light, or refuse its transmission or reflection.

That colours and light itself are oxides of hydrogen is a doctrine which, though we have founded principally upon modern discoveries, is so remarkably coincident with one of a poetical and figurative character, drawn from traditions, and handed down to us by the father of poetry, that we may be pardoned perhaps for introducing it here. According to Hesiod, IRIS was the daughter of THAUMAS (or Osiris) and ELECTRA (or Isis), and trine sister of Aello and Ocypete.