FINE ARTS.
THE HARMONIES OF COLOUR.
The last of a series of lectures was delivered by Mr. Wornum at the School of Design on Friday the 7th ; the subject being "the Harmonies of Colour."
The lecturer introduced his *theme by premising, that this-the last point of art-depends on laws altogether physical, not admitting of any arbitrary arrangements. Colour is more or less positive inversely to the amount of light it receives; intensity being in the inverse ratio of quan- tity.. All colour is derived from the decomposition of white light ; a fact scientifically-proved by the experiment of the prism. By this we obtain a riaowledge-il the components of light-red, yellow, blue, the primary colours ; and their secondary derivatives-orange, green, and purple- oneeasupposed to be primaries ; the tertiary colours are russet, citrine, and olive; Every colour is a variety of these three orders ; while white, or the absolute repulsion, and black, or the absolute absorption of light, are not cleated as colour.
The mitten from which the laws of harmony in colour are to be ga- , thered is• the ocular spectrum. The eye, after having been fixed on one of the primaries, creates for itself one of the secondaries, termed the acci- dental or complementary colour-green from red, purple from yellow, orange from blue : each of these combinations is therefore a natural and absolute harmony ; whereas the transition of the eye from one primary to another, being productive of a deadening effect, is a discord. The tertiaries are combinations of two secondaries, or of three primaries. In the speetruni, colours are mixed with some white light ; and black and white enhance all colours; though a lavish admixture of the former is inconsistent 'With natural effect.
The most valuable colours for extensive use are the secondaries and tertiaries ; and it may be laid down as a principle, that the smaller the compartment, the brighter should be its colour. In decoration, the se- condaries should constitute the ground, the primaries the ornament : and variety is no less necessary in colour than in form. The painting of the Alhambra is almost wholly in the primary colours ; but here they are used in such proportions, and so broken up, as, by neutralizing_eauliCther, to preserve harmony. Southern nations seem endowed with a more vivid perception of truth in colour than the Northerna : the beauty of Italian costume is dependent, not on form, but on colour ; both were studied by the ancients as equally essential to pure art. For ourselves, we are but just emerging from a " drabomania" which swamped architecture, cos- tume, and all. The primaries are never becoming in costume, save in small surfaces to heighten effect ; and few complexions will bear even the complementary colours unmodified. Colour is a power in the state : it has much to do with the popularity of an army and the respect inspired by other institutions ; a doctrine in illustration of which Mr. Wornum read an extract from Household Words, where the opening of Parliament figures as a combination of colours.
The issue of these considerations is, that all the three orders should be employed in some form, and combined with their complements -absolutely or proximately, whether presenting the absolute harmony of the spectral complements, a proximate harmony by the union of secondaries, or mined harmonies by the use of many colours. Attention to tone is here most requisite ; chiaroscuro being given by colour as well as by light and shade. The want of this harmonizing quality was shown in the spotty scattered effect of a painted window recently executed from Heine's designs, as contrasted with a work of the sixteenth century. Returning to the unerring lessons of Nature, Mr. Wornum cited the autumnal hues as examples of tertiary harmonies. Complementary ex- =plea are found in foliage as affected by the varieties of Northern and of Southern soils ; in insects and in birds, of which various species were re- viewed in detail. A combination of primaries is rare even in the most gorgeously coloured; while the exclusive union of two primaries is unex- ampled. The laws of colour exist in absolute truth whether perceived or not. As a matter for consideration in its influence on manufactures, it is of 'vital inrportanee, and will beyond doutrt tindicate ita -value,
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