The Philosophical Review/Volume 1/Summary: Kirschmann - Die psychologisch-aesthetische Bedeutung des Licht und Farbencontrastes
The purpose of this article is to show the importance to the artist of the effects of contrasts in lights and colors. The degree of success to which an artist attains in producing in the observer the ideas and states of mind intended depends upon three factors: the spiritual constitution of the observer, the position of the work of art, and the execution of the picture by the artist. Each of these factors is treated at some length, the discussion of the last, however, making up about, three-fourths of the article. A special difficulty of the artist lies in the fact that in nature objects vary in brightness from the shining blue-white of the sky on a clear day to the absolute darkness of the deepest shadows, while the deepest black among the painter's pigments is 1-66 as bright as his clearest white. By means of the polarization-photometer K. has compared various natural objects with respect to brightness, and a table of fifteen such comparisons is given. The gray wall of a house in full daylight is to the bright sky as 1 to 50. The brightness of a very clear night sky is to that of the moon as 1 to 4800. It is only by the employment of contrasts that the artist can overcome the limited compass of brightness in the materials at his disposal. K. illustrates these contrasts of brightness by a consideration of the effects produced and means used in a number of well-known paintings. Besides contrasts of brightness those of color-tone and saturation are briefly discussed.