color systems & architecture

HISTORY OF COLOR ORDER SYSTEMS DEVELOPED IN RELATION TO ARCHITECTURE Jose Luis CAIVANO caivano@fadu.uba.ar University of Buenos Aires

and Conicet (National Council for Research) Argentina

Grupo Argentino del Color

Aristotle, 350 b.C.

BLACK

BLUE

GREEN

VIOLET

RED

YELLOW

WHITE

color: linear scales and chromatic circles

Aguilonius, 1613

white

yellow

gray

red

blue

green

brown black

Forsius, 1611

Newton, 1704

3D color order systems

Lambert, 1772

Munsell, c.1915

Runge, 1810

Hickethier, 1952

CIELAB 1976

Alberti 1435

Hesselgren 1953

Felibien 1676

Benson 1868

Hård 1970’s

Villalobos 1947

Nemcsics 1980’s

Leon B. Alberti

De pictura

De re aedificatoria

[1404­1472]

Treatise on painting

The ten books on architecture

1435

1452

Neque tamen eos philosophantes aspernandos putem qui de coloribus ita disputant ut species colorum esse numero septem statuant: album atque nigrum duo colorum extrema, unum quidem intermedium…

I do not despise those philosophers who thus dispute about colours and establish the kinds of colours at seven. White and black are the two extremes of colour. Another is established Alberti, De pictura between them.

(On painting) Latin version, 1435

white

black

Reconstruction of Robert Grosseteste’s scheme of 7 colors, circa 1230

Parliamo come pittore. Dico per la permistione de' colori nascere infiniti altri colori, ma veri colori solo essere quanto gli elementi, quattro, dai quali più e più altre spezie di colori nascono.

I speak here as a painter. Through the mixing of colours infinite other colours are born, but there are only four true colours —as there are four elements— from which more and more other kinds of colours may be thus created.

Fia colore di fuoco il rosso, dell'aere celestrino, dell'acqua il verde, e la terra bigia e cenericcia. Gli altri colori … sono permistione di questi.

Red is the colour of fire, blue of the air, green of the water, and of the earth grey and ash. Other colours … are mixtures of these.

Alberti, Della pittura (On Painting) Italian Tuscan version, 1436

blue

yellow

red

green Possible reconstruction of the color system described by Alberti.

Charles Parkhurst & Robert Feller

“Who invented the color wheel”, Color Research and Application, 1982

Narciso Silvestrini & Ernst Fischer www.colorsystem.com

participant of the famous discussions between the advocates of drawing and those of color in the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture

Andre Felibien [1619­1695] France

secretary of the Royal Academy of Architecture

Principles of architecture, sculpture, painting and other arts that rely on them.

With a dictionary of proper terms for each of these arts, 1676 Andre Felibien [1619­1695]

Andre Felibien, 1676

Chapter 10 On Painting with Enamel One of the first known descriptions of color mixtures starting from three primaries: • red • yellow • blue

Heinwig Lang “Trichromatic Theories Before Young” Color Research and Application, 1983

The Yellow is found also …

The Blue is made with enamel of azurine…

The Red … is composed of…

Andre Felibien, 1676

The Colors that I have just named are the basis or, even more, the matter of which all the other colors used for Enamel painting are composed; it is just necessary to mix them in order to make various hues.

ON PAINTING … the same that the Painters do on their palettes.

Blue and Yellow mixed make Green; Blue and Red make Violet; and so on with the others.

Andre Felibien, 1676

Yellow green

orange

Claude Boutet [?]: Traité de la peinture en mignature (Treatise on miniature painting),

Blue

Red purple

1708 Parkhurst & Feller (Color Research and Application, 1982)

attribute this circle to Felibien

William Benson Principles of the science of colour concisely stated to aid and promote their useful application in the decorative arts 1868

Hickethier

Küppers

William Benson Principles of the science of colour concisely stated to aid and promote their useful application in the decorative arts 1868

Colour Atlas

by Villalobos­ Dominguez 1947

Candido Villalobos­ Dominguez [1881­1954] Julio Villalobos [1905­?]

Villalobos, 1947

Villalobos, 1947

Sven Hesselgren [1907­1993]

Color system 1953

Hesselgren 1953

Hesselgren 1953

NCS Natural Color System

Anders Hård [1922­2009], Gunnar Tonnquist, [1925­], Lars Sivik [1933­]

gray axis hue

luminosity

Antal Nemcsics [1927­]

Coloroid system

saturation

gray axis

chromatic elliptical circuit

Nemcsics, Coloroid system

48 basic hues

Nemcsics, Coloroid system

luminosity

white

Nemcsics, Coloroid system

grays

black

saturation

color space

outer space of all perceptible colors inner space of surface colors

Nemcsics, Coloroid system

outer space of all perceptible colors

inner space of surface colors

Nemcsics, Coloroid system

Alberti 1435

Hesselgren 1953

Felibien 1676

Benson 1868

Hård 1970’s

Villalobos 1947

Nemcsics 1980’s

Thank You!

See you in AIC 2012, “Color & Environment” Interim Meeting of the International Color Association Taipei, 22­25 September 2012

www.aic2012.org