§ 50. CONTRAST. 77 



the necessity for the equilibrium of colours, the warm and 

 cold should be " properly balanced " against each other. 

 " Cool colours (he adds, p. 10) produce a softer influence on 

 the eye than warm, and excite it less," and the use " of a warm 

 colour will increase" the general harmony in a picture, as 

 when red is introduced with " the white, blue, grey, and green 

 in a landscape ; " while, on the other hand, the union of warm 

 colours, which " arrest the attention of the spectator in a 

 greater degree, will be increased by the introduction of a 

 cold " one ; and " the harmony of a picture composed of white, 

 yellow, red, and brown, is increased by the introduction of 

 a blue." The value of such an arrangement is seen in the hot 

 and cold tints of lights and shades, and in the primary colours 

 of the draperies in large paintings, where red and blue " are 

 often placed upon the same figures to draw the attention of 

 the spectator to such point ;" and " notwithstanding we are 

 told by Du Fresnoy and others, 'not to permit two hostile 

 colours to meet without a medium to unite them,' we see 

 from the earliest times it has been the practice of all the 

 great painters ; so that red and blue has in a manner become 

 the dress in which from custom we always expect to find 

 certain figures clothed, such as Christ, the Virgin, &c." 

 (Burnet on " Colour in Painting," p. 1 0.) Nor was the use of 

 blue, red, and yellow confined to any one particular school. 



This is the effect of the harmony of contrast, and Aristotle 

 says (Probl. 3 ), " we are delighted with harmony, because it 

 is the union of contrary principles having a ratio to each 

 other;" an idea expressed also by Vasari (vol. i. Introd. 

 Pitt. c. iv.) — " L'unione della pittura e una discordanza di 

 colori diversi accordati insieme." It is this very love of con- 

 trast which makes us admire the effect of a long line of water 

 on the horizon seen through a wood of fir-trees ; and which 

 taught the builders of all ages the necessity of opposing the 

 vertical to the horizontal line. 



