Harmony (painting)
In painting, harmony (from ancient Greek ἁρμονία harmonía , German , `` symmetry, harmony '' ) describes a system of optical-emotional regularities that are understood as a basic truth in painting beyond the current taste and changing ideals of beauty . It forms one of the foundations of classical painting . Compared to music, there is no recognized timeless harmony theory of composition in painting either , but only systematized aspects such as B. the color wheel or the mathematical perspective .
The Brothers Grimm write about this: “Harmony is the connection of individual tones struck at the same time to form a harmonious whole, the pleasant arrangement of the colors and groups of a painting.” And according to Goethe's theory of colors , “the actual harmonic effect only arises when all the colors are attached side by side in equilibrium. "
The most detailed investigations into harmony in the fine arts come from Vitruvius , Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer . However, the influence of this research on painting and on other masters is controversial. According to Michelangelo , one loses with such theories “only one's time that is better spent on painting, (the artist) has the right measure in mind.” Similarly, Raphael seems to prefer a “certain idea” and nature to Vitruvius's numbers, such as Even antiquity had constantly redefined the proportions and tried to follow a “certain idea”. Raffael wrote to Castiglione : “In order to paint a beautiful woman, I would have to see more beautiful women, on the condition that you would help me choose; but since there are so few beautiful women and authorized judges, I use a certain idea that comes to mind. "
About history
Erik Hornung wrote in 1989: “Even in the art of the ancient Egyptians, all symmetry is [...] part of a more comprehensive basic principle [...] But even when we look at a stele, false door, statue or coffin decoration, we have the feeling of one perfect symmetry, which, however, hardly ever appears rigid and lifeless. (The paradox of this) living effect of strictly relatedness is explained by the fact that only at first glance appears perfect symmetry, which at second glance reveals itself to be a refined and well thought-out deviation from it. [...] in the scientific literature deviations from symmetry were explained as a mistake or negligence of the Egyptian writer or artist. "
It is not known whether the ancient Egyptian painters and scribes were already assisted by theoretical theory of harmony. The earliest occidental references to such teachings can be found in the harmonia myth of Hesiod's theogony . According to this, Harmonia is the daughter of the god of war Ares and Aphrodite ; her siblings are Phobos (fear) and Deimos (terror). Heraclitus' most influential theory of harmony, along with the Pythagorean, is linked to these ancient sources : "Contradicting fits into and diverging results in harmony and everything arises through contradiction."
“Nature strives for the opposite and brings harmony out of this and not out of the same ... Art also achieves this, apparently by imitating nature. The painting mixes the components of white and black, yellow and red color in the picture and thereby creates the similarity with the original; the music mixes high and low, long and short tones in different voices and thus brings about a uniform harmony ... The same is also expressed in the word of the dark Heraclitus: Connections are: whole - part, concord - discord, harmony - Dissonance and one of all and one of all. "
All concrete harmony teachings that want to give the student direct handling taught the use of certain division ratios. In the fine arts it is no different than in music. But here the original measure of all division was the human body.
“[A rather ideal but indicative picture ...] First they [the immigrants in Ionia] built a temple for Apollon Panionos [...] and called it a Doric temple because they saw a temple of this type for the first time in the cities of the Dorians had. [...] When they wanted to build columns at this temple, they measured because they did not know their symmetries and therefore looked for how they could manage that (the columns) would be suitable for carrying loads and at the same time one in sight proven grace offered the imprint of a male foot and related this measure to the height [of the man]. [...] Then they transferred this measurement to the column, and they made the column, including the capital, six times as high as they made the shaft thick below. So the Doric column began to show the proportion, strength and grace of the male body on the temples. "
The most important ancient theory of proportions in the fine arts comes from Polyklet (5th century BC). He wrote the " canon " , which is now lost, and especially with his Doryphoros (spear bearer) he created the decisive expression of his teaching.
"Chrysippus is of the opinion that beauty does not lie in the symmetry of the elements, but in that of the parts, in the symmetry of one finger to the other and all fingers to the palm and wrist and this to the cubit and the cubit to the upper arm and all to everything, as it is written in the "canon" Polyklets. For in his writing Polyklet taught us all the symmetries of the body; in his work he has confirmed this doctrine by creating a statue in accordance with the prescriptions in his treatise and then calling the statue "canon" like his writing ... "
The conviction to find timelessly valid foundations of fine art in proportions or division relationships is at the same time renewed and relativized in the Renaissance . Criticism of antiquity on the basis of deviating results of our own research on proportions, as well as an insurmountable moment of the arbitrariness of all theories of proportion, intensified the search for a superordinate and non-objective law of vision. From the beginning, only the shortening or perspective (la prospectiva) came into question for such a law of vision.
Long before Galileo's and Newton's research on inertia , Leonardo da Vinci traced the infinite diversity of creation back to an always identical law of nature:
“Every process in nature is carried out in the shortest possible time and manner. Every drive strives for eternity. This is proven by the impression made by the sun in the eye of the beholder, or by the impression of the sound that the clapper produces when the bell is shaken. Every impression strives for eternal duration, as evidenced by the appearance of the movement that sticks to the moving object. "
With the perspective, which also shows all visible things subject to a "shortest effect" - Leonardo speaks of the visual pyramid here - such a uniform law of nature seems to have been found for optics and thus for the visual arts. But neither by Leonardo himself nor in any other extant textbook of the masters ever presented a natural law connection between abbreviation (lo scorto, or la prospettiva) and drawing (il disegno). The distribution of black and white, or the distribution of the "masses" on a picture in connection with the visual law of shortening was only taught in practical instruction by the master and had to be redefined in each work. The abundance of theoretical writings since the Renaissance, especially the emphasis on Leonardo da Vinci's treatises, belies the great reluctance of the masters.
At this point the academic teaching arose.
“A large part of the harmony depends on light and shadow ... The highest unity of mass or the highest harmony can only be found on the sphere, which is illuminated by a single light. The highest light falls on a point and from there as the center point it gradually decreases through completely connected degrees to the strongest shadow. This is the pattern that the painter must adhere to in order to achieve perfect harmony in light and shadow. “Such ideal teaching had to lead to correspondingly questionable conclusions:“ So one does not always have to work towards the highest harmony; because it would often make the whole thing weak. "
The first mathematical investigations of light, or rather the discovery of spectral colors by Isaac Newton , spurred the search for the laws of harmony in the realm of colors alone. What stands out here is the discovery of the color wheel ( Runge , Goethe ). Then harmony comes from the properties of the opposite colors in the color wheel , e.g. B. Red-Green. But the basics of drawing are not included in these color theory either. Hence its very contradicting and often misunderstood meaning in painting.
In the 19th century, painters often used the concept of logic instead of the concept of harmony , as did Eugène Delacroix .
“You have to express yourself as logically as possible. [...] To paint means to create a harmony among numerous references, to transfer it into a separate sound system by developing it according to the law of a new and original logic. [...] There is a logic of colors, the painter only owes its obedience. Never to the logic of the brain, if it surrenders, it is lost. Always the logic of the eyes. "
The term was also used synonymously. A work has no expression, no power, no logic or no harmony, means largely the same within this usage. Charles Baudelaire gives a modern theoretical expression of the concept of harmony in his preface to the “Fleurs du Mal”. In connection with the timelessness of ancient harmony theory, Baudelaire speaks of: "the immortal need of man for monotony, symmetry and surprise", but at the same time also to convince the ignorant of the futility here with instruction.
The main results of these investigations were the following discoveries:
- Harmonious proportions , the Vitruvian man, the golden ratio
- spatial perspective , clear design of foreground and background
- Symmetry as a design element: quality and quantity contrast
- Theories of color , the meaning of primary colors and complementary colors
In abstract art , the theory of harmony is only apparently less important in visual design than in the classical period of painting - on the contrary, exact knowledge of the laws of harmony is also essential for the modern artist in order to use them consciously and playfully or controlled and willed by them to be able to deviate. The implementation of these harmony laws in the picture composition corresponds roughly to the harmony in music.
The various stylistic devices to achieve a well-designed, lively and harmonious picture impression have been further developed taking into account the laws of visual perception , in particular gestalt psychology , in order to achieve harmonizing or irritating effects. For example, a horizontal surface or layering line-like separation (especially in is wide format ) interpreted in the abstract image rapidly as a horizon, higher contrast forms appear as a (distorted) figures, it can consciously misleading scale photo puzzles or other methods of optical illusion can be used to create a vivid by designed Achieve result.
The following were also recognized as decisive factors:
- The painting technique : the multitude of technical design possibilities led to the development of experimental techniques such as collages , frottage and a number of other heterogeneous mixed techniques : in general, however, a harmonious picture impression is easier to achieve with a homogeneous painting style that remains constant over the picture space.
- The color perspective : a color theory that has been further developed with the help of physiological studies of the sense of sight takes into account the psychological effect of simultaneous and successive contrasts , cold-warm and pure color contrasts as well as colored shadows .
Web links
- Küppers' color theory Küppers color theory on color mixing
Individual evidence
- ↑ In fact, Vitruvius does not describe Doric, but late Classical proportions.