of the Eye in relation to the Perception of Distance. 59 



been convinced that these alleged characteristics were some- 

 tliincr more than associations with blue sky and red rocks ; 

 and the uniyersality and tenacity with which artists pronounce 

 this opinion is surely indicative of a reality somewhere. The 

 opinion of Goethe on this point sums up the whole matter. 

 I quote from Sir Chas. Eastlake's edition of the ' Farben- 

 lehre '*. 



'^ As the upper sky and distant mountains appear blue, so a 

 blue surface seems to retire from us." 



^' Rooms which are hung with pure blue appear in some 

 degree larger, but at the same time empty and cold." 



38. So the blueness of the lower misty air may, as Alpine 

 travellers know, cause the base of a mountain actually to ap- 

 pear jnoQ'e distant than its summit. Mr. Ruskin has noted 

 this in his ' Modern Painters ^f ; and the fact has been familiar 

 to artists for centuries, having been described by Leonardo 

 Da Vinci in his Trattato clella Pittiira, and is alluded to by 

 Goethe. 



39. The sun and moon when red at setting or rising, and 

 the moon when red in total eclipse, look nearer — or, some 

 people say, larger — than at other times. 



40. For the sake of giving prominence or nearness to the 

 foreground of a picture, painters v"ill contrive to introduce a 

 scarlet flower, or a patch of red rock, or a figure dressed in 

 red — a practice sanctioned and well known in Art, but quite 

 inexplicable except on the train of reasoning we have been 

 attempting to follow, 



41. The immense importance of these facts of physical and 

 physiological optics has long been recognized in Art. The 

 study of aerial perspective has been carried long since to a 

 pitch that renders it worthy to be put upon a basis more than 

 merely empirical. There can be little doubt that other 

 emipirical laws may be similarly accounted for. Visitors to 

 picture-galleries may be constantly observed scanning a land- 

 scape through a rolled up catalogue, or under the arched 

 fingers of the hand. Is there not an explanation, too, for 

 this ? The square frame of gold asserts the flatness of the 

 surface, and prevents the mind from realizing that which the 

 eye perceives — that all the rays of light do not focus at once 

 upon the retina, but that each tint retires or advances to its 

 own appropriate distance. Landscapes without figures or 

 architecture, especially, are improved by this method of treat- 

 ment ; and the reason is plain : in them the eye judges the 



* Goetlie's 'Theory of Colours.' translated by Sir C. L, Eastlake, R.A., 

 F.R.S. (London: lf^40), p. 311. par. 780 and 783. 

 t Vol. i. p. 182. 



