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SECTION II.

PAINTING ON THE SYSTEM OF FLAT TINTS.

(301.) IN painting in flat tints, the colours are neither. shaded nor blended together, nor modified by the coloured rays coming from objects near those imitated by the painter.

In pictures which belong to this kind of painting, the representation of the model is reduced to the observance of linear perspective, to the employment of vivid colours in the foreground, and to that of pale and grey colours in the more distant planes.

If the choice of contiguous colours has been made in conformity with the law of simultaneous contrast, the effect of the colour will be greater than if it had been painted on the system of Chiar'oscuro. When, therefore, we admire the beauty of the colours of the paintings in flat tints which come from China, we must, in comparing them exactly with ours, take into consideration the system followed in them, otherwise we should exercise an erroneous judgment by comparing pictures painted on different systems.

(302.) If it be indisputable that painting in flat tints preceded that in chiar'oscuro, it will, I think, be an error to believe that at the point we have arrived at in Europe, we must renounce the first to practise the second exclusively, for in every instance where painting is an accessory and not a principal feature, painting in flat tints is in every respect preferable to the other.

(303.) The essential qualities of painting in flat tints necessarily consist in the perfection of the outlines and colours. These outlines contribute to render the impressions of colours stronger and more agreeable, when, circumscribing forms clothed in colours, they concur with them in suggesting a graceful object to the mind, although in fact, the imitation of it does not give a faithful representation.

(304.) We may, in conformity with what has been said, consider that painting in flat tints will be advantageously employed,

1. When the objects represented are at such a distance that the finish of an elaborate picture would dis

appear.

2. When a picture is an accessory, decorating an object whose use would render it improper to finish it too highly, on account of its price-such are the paintings which ornament screens, work-boxes, tables, &c.-in this case, the objects preferable as models are those whose beauty of colours and simplicity of form are so remarkable, as to attract the eye by outlines easily traced, and by their vivid colours: as birds, insects, flowers, &c.

SECTION III.

CHAPTER I.

ON COLOURING IN PAINTING.

- ON THE VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS OF THE WORD COLOURING IN PAINTING AND IN ORDINARY LANGUAGE.

(305.)-(322.)

CHAPTER II.-UTILITY OF THE LAW OF SIMULTANEOUS CONTRAST OF COLOURS IN THE SCIENCE OF COLOURING.

(323.)-(366.)

117

SECTION III.

COLOURING IN PAINTING.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE VARIOUS SIGNIFICATIONS OF THE WORD "COLOURING" IN PAINTING AND IN ORDINARY LANGUAGE.

(305.) I HAVE elsewhere (298.) defined true or absolute colouring to be the faithful reproduction in painting of the modifications which light enables us to perceive in the objects which the painter selects for his models. But, for want of analysing these modifications, the word colouring usually defined-the result of the application, upon a plane surface, of coloured materials (pigments) with which the painter imitates a natural, or represents an imaginary object-receives in its applications to the simplest as well as to the most complex pictures (when we regard them under the twofold relation of the number of colours employed, and of the number of objects painted), significations so diverse, according to the kind of pictures, the taste and knowledge of the persons using this word, that my object will not be attained if, to the various significations it has in ordinary language, I do not apply the analysis which I have made of the different elements of absolute colouring.

(306.) After what has been stated, I believe that in the ordinary use of the word colouring, we allude to the manner, more or less perfect, in which the painter has complied with the rules

1. Of aerial perspective relative to white light and to shade, or, in other words, irrespective of colour;

2. Of aerial perspective relative to variously coloured light;

3. Of the harmony of local colours, and of that of the colours of the different objects composing the picture.

ARTICLE 1.

Of Colouring with regard to aerial perspective, relative to white light and to shade.

(307.) We must not suppose that the employment of many colours in a composition is indispensable to give the name of colourist to the artist, for in painting in camaïeu, the simplest of all, in which we only distinguish two colours, including white, the artist will be honoured with the title of colourist, if his work presents lights and shades distributed as they are upon the model, leaving out, of course, those modifications arising from colours which he had not on his palette. And, to convince ourselves that the expression is not inaccurate, it will suffice to remark that the model might very well appear to the painter coloured in a single colour, modified by light and shade; in the same sense this name can always be applied to the engraver, who by means of his burin, reproduces a picture as faithfully as possible in respect both to the aerial perspective of its different planes, and to the relief of each particular object.

ARTICLE 2.

Of Colouring with regard to aerial perspective, relative to variously coloured light.

(308.) It may happen that the imitation is perfectly faithful, or the reverse.

A. Perfectly faithful imitation.

(309.) A picture in which the aerial perspective is faithfully reproduced, with all its modifications of white and coloured light and of shade, has a true or absolute colouring (298.); but I do not pretend to conclude that the imitation in which this quality is found will be universally judged as perfect as that in which this quality is not found, at least in the same degree.