HARMONIES OF COLOUR.

227

17. Harmonies of Sight.-Light and Shade are pleasurable from alternation; they represent in a picture the agreeable cycle of luminous intensity occurring in each day, through which light exercises its cheering influence on the mind. As regards Colour, there are special laws of Harmony. It appears, that whiteness is a balance of all the colours, the effect resulting when all the optic fibres receive their full proportion of stimulus. The eye exposed for some time to one colour desiderates, and is refreshed by, the complement of that, or the colour that with it would produce whiteness.* Next to the complementary colour, the eye can find relief in passing to black, and also, although in a less degree, in passing to white; a strong colour may therefore be agreeably conjoined with black, grey, and white, in a decreasing scale. We have formerly remarked on the great charm of Lustre. It seems to have a power to redeem bad combinations of colours. Red-yellow is unharmonious as colour, but red-gold is a resplendent effect. The blue lake with its green banks would not be agreeable, but for the lustre of the watery expanse. A lustrous surface reflects the light of the surrounding objects and gives rise to the play of a thin radiance, as of a slight film or gauze, softening without obscuring the colour beneath.

18. Proceeding from the optical to the muscular susceptibility of the eye, we encounter harmonies of Movement, and of Dimensions in space. The movements in a Dance keep Time as in music. As regards objects at rest, a plurality of similar things have to be placed at equal intervals, as in rows, tiers, ranks, mosaic work, and other uniform array. To obtain variety, we may introduce larger breaks at uniform distances, as in flower beds; or objects of larger dimensions, as in ornamental railings. This introduces complex harmony, and the idea of subordination, which is a phase of Unity.

*

Two colours harmonize, if one is a primitive colour, and the other a certain mixture of the two remaining colours: thus red harmonizes with green (formed out of yellow and blue); blue harmonizes with orange or gold (a mixture of red and yellow); yellow harmonizes with violet (red and blue).

Wherever any linear object is divided with a view of pleasing the eye, the division must observe some rules of proportion, the determination of which belongs to Fine Art. At first, such proportions were guided solely by the effect; as melodies were composed to please the ear, without reference to musical ratios. At a later period, strict numerical laws were sought.*

The laws of proportion that reign in admired works of art, such as the remains of Grecian Sculpture and Architecture, are not obvious, and different modes of reaching them have been proposed.

To take the simple case of a vertical elevation, harmoniously divided (as a cross), the German critics have laid down a rule, called the 'golden section,' namely, that the shorter part shall bear the same proportion to the longer, as the longer to the whole; the same rule to hold, in farther subdivisions of the parts, as must happen in a great Architectural front. A second law must regulate the proportions of breadth to height, as the arms of the cross compared with the height of the pillar, and the breadth of a front compared with the divisions of the height. Considerable latitude prevails as to this last relation, but one case may be given as an example of an agreeable and simple proportion; namely, when the half breadth is a mean proportional between the short and long divisions of the vertical height. (See Wundt's Menschenund Thierseele, Vol. II., p. 82).

Mr. D. R. Hay maintains that the numerical proportionality of the perfect works of art is to be found, not in the lines, but in the angles subtended by the different linear divisions. Thus in a rectangle, the angles made by the diagonal, should have a simple proportion to a right angle, as (in a square), }, 4, 3, &c.; which, of course, gives the two parts of the right angle simple ratios to each other,-1 to 1, 1 to 2, 1 to 3, 2 to 3, &c. Mr. Hay named these proportions according to those notes of the musical scale having the same ratios in their number of vibrations; although it is not apparent what he obtains by the comparison, seeing that both cases fall under the same rule of simplicity of ratios.

The human face and head are, by Mr. Hay's method, resolved thus. An ellipse is formed, whose greater axis is the whole length of the head, from the crown to the chin. The width, or lesser axis, is determined by harmonic considerations, as follows; the extremities of the major and minor semiaxes are joined, so as to make a right angled triangle, and the acute angles are respectively 30° and 60°, or as 1 to 2; this yields a dominant ellipse, based on a dominant triangle, being the same concord as a fifth in music. But now to give the expansion of the cranium. A circle of the same character as the width of the ellipse, overlies it, and touches it at the apex. The combined figure of circle and ellipse, gives the perfect harmonic outline of the face, with a little smoothing away here and there, for greater approximation to nature.

LAWS OF PROPORTION.

229

19. The principle we are now discussing applies alike to the two elements of Number and Space, giving to both an artistic capability. In the case of a multitude of objects, we arrange in equal and proportionate intervals; and we subdivide in the same way a blank uninteresting expanse. And there is much of the effect of Outline due to the same feeling, especially as regards right-lined figures,―squares, oblongs, parallelograms, triangles, equilateral polygons, &c., -and the symmetrical curves, the circle and the ellipse. In all these, the eye traces equality, or commensurability, in the

As regards the features, the operation is this. From the apex of the head, or the upper extremity of the ellipse, a series of lines are drawn on both sides, making the respective angles, (30°), ‡ (221°), } (18°), † (15o), and ↓ (129). Through the points where they severally meet the circumference of the ellipse, horizontal lines are drawn across the face, making a series of isosceles triangles. Beginning at the outer lines, with the largest angle, namely or 30°; the line joining these, passes through the centre of the eyes, and consequently is one element in determining their position. The line at the angle of 4 (224°), touches the outer circumference of the orbit, and is a second element in determining the eye; the horizontal junction of the two lines, gives the vertical position of the nose. The horizontal junction of the lines of (18°), crosses the top of the upper lip. The lines of (15°), pass through the centres of the eyes, and complete the determination of place and size of the orbits; the horizontal junction gives the lower boundary of the mouth. The horizontal junction of the lines of the angle of give the superior edge of the chin.

By a similar scheme of proportioned angles, Mr. Hay determines the beauty of the Human Figure. He applies the method to the proportions of the Parthenon, and to Architecture generally.

Whether such a device approximately represents the proportions of a beautiful object, or of a work of art, is to be proved or disproved solely by the experimental test of measurement. But if Mr. Hay means to insinuate that the pleasurable feeling of proportion in the mind of the spectator, is a feeling of the proportion of imaginary angles, he advances an incredible hypothesis. It is not to be supposed that the mind, in judging of a face, constructs an ideal diagram, and thereby enjoys a pleasing melody of angles. What the eye fastens upon must be something more within its usual habits of judging than this: the deep angular melody can be accepted only as a mathematical equivalent of some more apparent charm, which Mr. Hay has failed to give any account of. We have still, so far as his views are concerned, to fall back upon the old theory of the sensuous pleasure of curves, as regards curved surfaces; and as regards rectilineal dimensions, we must seek a more palpable order of proportions than his theory provides.

different sides or dimensions. A triangle or quadrilateral, with all the sides unequal, gives no pleasure to the eye as a form or outline (unless it were, like a discord in music, occasionally introduced); while the square and the parallelogram comply with the desire in question. Parallelism is sustained equality, as much as the equality of intervals in a row of objects. When lines converge, as in a pediment, we look for equality in the two converging sides, and are pleased to discern some further regard to proportion, as in the equality of the three sides of the triangle, or the equality or commensurability of the base, and perpendicular height. When an angle prominently arrests the attention, we prefer 45° or 30° as being aliquot parts of a right angle. The oblique equal-sided parallelogram, with the angles 45° to 135°, is an agreeable subdivision of the small-paned window.

20. On the subject of Form and Outline, we must advert to other principles regulating our appreciation of the effects. We have seen that a curved line is intrinsically pleasing, like a waxing or waning sound, and that a varying curvature is preferable to the rigid uniformity of the circle. The oval is thus a pleasing curve; and still more so is a waving or changing curve, as the outline of a pilaster, or vase. There is an original charm, operated through the muscular sensibility of the eye, in the curved outline, to which are superadded associations of ease, freedom, or the absence of restraint. Accordingly, straight forms are unpleasing in themselves; they refuse the gratification that the eye receives from the other, and they suggest a severe and rigid constraint. The mechanical members of the human body, being chiefly levers fixed at one end, naturally describe curves with their extremities; a laborious cultivation alone enables us to describe a straight line with the hand or foot. Whence, straight forms are apt to suggest this painful discipline.* On the other hand, there are

* A rope or chain running horizontally, and tightened to straightness, reminds us of one of our most difficult mechanical attempts; the catenary curve, or the slack rope, is a form suggestive of ease and abandon.

circumstances where rectilinear forms are highly acceptable. A straight path is agreeable, because of its contributing to a manifest convenience. In orderly arrangements of every kind, right lines are essential; or if we depart from these, it is in favour of the regular and symmetrical curves, the circle being the chief. I shall speak presently of the peculiar case of Support; I am now alluding to the regular and methodical distribution of objects on a horizontal plane, with a view to convenience in all our operations. We should never think of partitioning fields with waving fences, or making the ground plan of buildings of a zigzag curvature. The facility of calculation recommends right-lined surfaces, and they also serve the end of compactness, when things are to be crowded into little space. These various considerations, of utility and every-day convenience, induce us to regard with a certain satisfaction the straight outline, even when the eye, in consulting its own primitive sensibility, would turn away from it.*

21. The dimension of up and down has its outline determined by the paramount condition of sustaining objects against the force of gravity; thus bringing in the elements of Pressure and Support. We are so unremittingly subjected to that great power, and so much occupied in counteracting it, that the providing of sufficiency of Support on every needful occasion is our foremost solicitude. Experience soon teaches the infant in arms the evil of a failing prop; the fear of falling manifests itself so early as to be very generally accounted an instinct. But no other explanation of it is necessary than the very decided monitions of falls, and bruises, and stunning pains,-of fractures and scatterings, confusion and loss, from the giving way of stability. So anxious do we become on this head, that the slightest appearance or suggestion of the unstable, afflicts us with the misery of an

* There is something to be explained in the circumstance that all early taste in gardening runs to the rectilineal. Possibly the considerations in favour of the straight line, alluded to in the text, recommend it in the first instance.