development of the idea of simple colors in the 16th and early 17th centuries
TRANSCRIPT
Development of the Idea of Simple Colorsin the 16th and Early 17th Centuries
Rolf G. Kuehni4112 Blaydes Court, Charlotte, NC 28226
Received 18 December 2005; revised 8 April 2006; accepted 14 July 2006
Abstract: The development of the idea of simple or funda-mental colors in Western culture from classical Greece tothe early 17th century is shown, with particular emphasison writers in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Fourstreams of thought are found: (1) Aristotle’s seven colors,congruent with seven tastes and seven tones, thus sympto-matic of an underlying general harmony; (2) Four-basic-color sequences where colors are emblematic of the fourclassical elements; (3) Spectral sequences; (4) Three sim-ple chromatic colors between white and black, based oncolorant mixture. In the late 16th century seven-colorsequences came to represent categorical sequences, inaddition to shorter fundamental color sequences. � 2007
Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 32, 92 – 99, 2007; Published online
in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/
col.20296
Key words: color theory; history; simple colors
INTRODUCTION
The idea in Western culture of the elemental nature of certain
colors reaches far back in history. According to Plutarch, in
the 5th century BC, the Pythagoreans posited four color spe-
cies from which all other colors derived: white, black, red,
and yellow. These colors were believed to result from various
mixtures of the four classical elements of the material world,
air, fire, water, and earth. Some 200 years later the eminent
Greek philosopher Plato maintained four species but replaced
yellow with ‘‘bright,’’ thinking that there was a separate entity
that provided certain color appearances with their intrinsic
brightness, as well as being responsible for the visual experi-
ence of ‘‘dazzle.’’ The idea of the elemental nature of simple
colors lasted well into the 17th century, in part supported by
alchemical ideas. However, the relationship between the four
material elements and the related four elemental colors varied
widely by author.
Plato’s student and successor Aristotle departed signifi-
cantly from this view. He saw chromatic colors to be gener-
ated by mixture of white and black (‘‘The intermediate colors
arise from the mixture of white and black as the intermediate
tastes arise from sweet and bitter : : :’’1(p41)). In different writ-
ings Aristotle described two systems of basic colors. In Senseand sensibilia he declared the fundamental color species to be
seven in number, however in a circuitous manner: ‘‘There are
seven species each [colors and tastes] if (reasonably) we
regard gray as a variety of black. But then indeed yellow
would have to be included in white just as oil is included in
sweet. Intermediate between white and black were scarlet,
purple, green, and blue.’’1(p42) The original Greek terms for
the seven colors are leukon, xanthon, phoinikun, alourgon,prasinon, kuanoun, and phaion/melan. Interpretations of themeaning of these terms vary from the earliest translations. A
major channel of communicating Aristotles’ scale of simple
colors was Bartholomaeus Anglicus’ widely copied encyclo-
pedic work of the early 14th century De proprietatibus rerum(On the properties of things).2 In chapter 7 he described the
five chromatic middle colors of Aristotle’s scale as ‘‘glaucum
: : : puniceum, id est citrinum : : : rubeum : : : purpureum : : :viridem,’’ (in the English translation by Batman [1582]
‘‘yeolow, citrine, redde, purple, greene,’’)3 thus changing it to
yellow, orange, red, purple, and green. In the 13th century
Thomas Aquinas used the terms albus, flavus, puniceus [iden-tified by him as red], alurgon [identified as citrinus, orange],
viride, ciarus [identified as the color of the sky], and niger.4
In 1530 Nicolaus Leonicus Thomaeus translated them as
albus, flavus, puniceus, purpureus, viride, ceruleus, and niger(Ref. 1, p 42). The idea of chromatic colors deriving from
mixture of white and black and the seven simple colors, with-
out certain meaning, became a part of the canon of Western
literature on color. It is generally assumed that Aristotle’s
selection represents a kind of brightness scale, beginning with
white, followed by yellow, Phoenician color (brownish scar-
let?), violet, green, deep blue, and black. The number seven
of the constituents of this scale had an additional purpose: toCorrespondence to: Rolf G. Kuehni (e-mail: [email protected]).
VVC 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
92 COLOR research and application
show congruence with the then well established musical scale
of seven tones and the possibility of a law of color harmony
comparable to that of musical consonance. Aristotle referred
to this when suggesting mixtures of the simple colors in ratios
of 3 to 2 or 3 to 4, the diapente (fifth), respectively diates-seron (fourth) of Pythagorean musical theory. This system of
basic colors found supporters and re-interpreters all the way
into our time. One of the key supporters of the idea of seven
basic colors (but in his case all chromatic), related to musical
tones, was Newton.
In Meteorologia Aristotle presented a different, less well
known, picture in relation to the rainbow. He recognized in it
phoinikun, prasinon, and alourgon (scarlet, green and violet)
as the three major colors (but mentioned that on occasion also
xanthon is visible). ‘‘Clearly, then, when sight is reflected it isweakened : : : so it makes white look less white, changing it
and bringing it nearer to black. When the sight is relatively
strong the change is to red; the next stage is green, and a fur-
ther degree of weakness gives violet.’’5 These statements
imply another series: white, red, (yellow), green, violet, black,
an arrangement, in its chromatic sequence, based on the spec-
trum.
There is an additional work attributed to Aristotle, but
more likely it is the work of his successor Theophrastus, titled
Aristotelis, vel Theophrasti, de coloribus libellus (Aristotle’s,or Theophrast’s little book on colors). It was translated from
Greek into Latin and commented by the Italian philosopher
Simone Portio (1497–1554) and first published in Florence in
1548. It begins by stating ‘‘Simple colors are those which
belong to the elements, i.e., to fire, air, water, and earth. Air
and water in themselves are by nature white, fire (and the
sun) yellow, and earth is naturally white. : : : Black is the
proper color of elements in process of transmutation. The
remaining colors, it may easily be seen, arise by blending
from mixture of these.’’6 Here, the simple colors have been
reduced to white and yellow, with black the result of their
transmutation.
Most of Plato’s and Aristotle’s works were unknown in
Europe until the early second millennium. Earlier translators
of selected works were Chalcidius (ca. 300 AD, Plato’s
Timaeus dialog, containing a section on color with a complex
mixture theory based on the four mentioned basic colors) and
Boethius (ca. 500 AD, Greek works on music and Aristotle’s
treatises on logic). In his commentary on Timaeus, Chalcidius(paragraph 333) offers a sequence of simple colors where
chromatic colors are limited to three.7 He begins by calling
those things most different from each other contraries, defined
as genera, one of these being color. Here, the contraries are
white and black, furthest apart from each other. Closest to
white is pale yellow (pallidus), followed by red, blue, and at
furthest distance black. Chalcidius is the earliest writer posit-
ing a theory of three chromatic simple colors. He did not dis-
cuss reasons for his choice, and it is not known if he had
access to Aristotle’s writings on color. Nothing is known
about his life, so it is not possible to speculate on a possible
input to his statement from artists.
By the 10th century most of Aristotle’s writings had been
translated into Arabic and represented an important input into
Arabic philosophical thinking. In the 13th century Aristotle’s
texts in Arabic or Greek became available in Western Europe
through contacts with Arabic writers in Spain and through
access to Byzantine libraries after the fall of Constantinople
during the 4th crusade. Thomas Aquinas integrated Aristotle’s
work into Christian theology in his Summa teologica, in this
manner making it an accepted part of Western thought. The
translation of Aristotle’s works and their accessibility after
the invention of book printing made his scales of simple col-
ors widely known and commented/interpreted in the 16th cen-
tury.
INFLUX OF EMPIRICAL KNOWLEDGE
Observers of the rainbow and early experimenters with prisms
found a reality different from Aristotle’s scale of seven but
could agree on and expand his scale of three basic colors in
the rainbow.
One of the first of Western writers to attempt a scientific
explanation of the rainbow was Robert Grosseteste (ca.
1170–1253) of Oxford and Lincoln where he was a bishop.
His best-known scientific essay is on the subject of light,
which he thought to be the basis of matter. He also wrote an
essay on the rainbow and another, brief one, on color. He
offered the first explanation of the rainbow as resulting from
a kind of refraction together with reflection. The colors of the
rainbow, according to Grosseteste, are the result of a combi-
nation of three effects: purity of the medium, brightness of,
and quantity of light, and their rise and decline. When all
three factors are at their highest the color of light is white, at
their lowest it ‘‘tends toward hyacinthine [blue] and the
obscure [i.e. black].’’8 The first writer placing the cause of the
rainbow in light refraction in raindrops was Theodoric of
Freiberg (ca. 1250–ca. 1310), a German theologian and natu-
ral scientist, describing it in his early 14th century manuscript
De iride (on the rainbow). He also authored a brief manu-
script on color (Tractatus de coloribus) in which he placed
the order of the middle colors between white and black as
ruber, glaucus, viridis, lazulius (red, yellow, green, and blue)
claiming, in accordance with Aristotle, that red was closest to
white and blue to black, and limiting them to four.9 Theodoric
used a hexagonal transparent crystal as a model to study
refraction, perhaps influenced by the writings of the Roman
philosopher and dramatist Lucius Annaeus Seneca (3 BC–65
AD) who in his Quaestiones naturales (questions on nature)
referred to spectral colors viewed with a prism.10 Figure 1 is a
schematic drawing from Theodoric’s manuscript on the rain-
bow illustrating the refractive effect of a hexagonal crystal
with the spectral colors displayed twice on a screen, between
n and o and between p and q, with the locations of the spectralcolors being reversed in the two spectra.
Another influx of empirical knowledge came from painters
and theoreticians of the art of painting. Chalcidius’ three
chromatic simple colors have already been mentioned as pos-
sibly based on paint mixture. The practical knowledge of
paint mixture to obtain new colors is old. The Greek philoso-
pher Empedocles, living in the 4th century BC, is quoted later
Volume 32, Number 2, April 2007 93
by the Anatolian-Greek philosopher Simplicius as having said
‘‘When painters who, as a result of knowledge of their craft,
produce colored consecration plates, taking thier brightly
colored powders to hand, mixing them in certain ratios, more
of one and less of another, they create with the help of the col-
ors forms that are images of all things : : :.’’11 InMetereologiaAristotle described his three colors of the rainbow as ‘‘almost
the only colors which painters cannot manufacture; for there
are colors which they create by mixing, but no mixing will
give scarlet, green, and violet.’’5
CARDANO AND SCALIGER
In the subsequent 200 years treatment of the subject of color
was left largely to painters and theorists on painting, such as
Alberti and Leonardo. The Italian physician, mathematician,
and astrologer Girolamo Cardano (1501–1576) addressed the
subject matter of color in three of his works: (1) De Subtilitate(On subtleness) first published in 1550, a book on many
aspects of natural science, including optics. In this field Car-
dano described a biconvex lens as a component of a camera
obscura and the resulting improvement of sharpness of
image.12 (2) De rerum varietate (On the variety of things) first
printed in 155813; (3) The essay De gemmis et coloribus (Ongems and colors) in a collection of shorter essays first printed
in 1562.14 Cardano’s view on color was conventional, largely
according to Aristotle as expressed in De sensu. His list of
‘‘principal’’ colors consists of nine, however, with both white
and black having double terms, as Aristotle had alluded to:
albus/flavus, croceus, puniceus, purpureus, viridis, caeruleus,niger/fuscus, thus yellow is included with white (as gray with
black) and saffron-color (orange) is introduced. Cardano
offered a related list of nine tastes and of seven bodies from
our solar system (Mars interestingly related to blue, not red).
In Rerum varietate he described red as obtained from an equal
mixture of white and black. (It was shown above that Bartho-
lomaeus Anglicus provided an interpretation of the Aristote-
lian color terms to end up with red in the center of the scale.)
What was new in Cardano’s treatment of color is a list
found in De gemmis in which some colors (not all simple col-
ors) are ordered according to perceived lightness with degrees
of lightness given in numbers. Yellow is said to contain
between 65 and 78 parts of light. There are two greens in the
list, viridis (green) and herbaceus (leaf green), with 62 and 40parts of light, respectively. Red has 30, blue 25, and gray 20
parts. Cardano did not indicate how he arrived at these num-
bers. In all three works Cardano offered discussions of a con-
siderable list of color names and their meaning, perhaps in
response to Antonio Telesio’s 1526 small work De coloribuslibellus (Little book on colors), mostly of etymological
nature.15
In 1557 the Italian physician, linguist, translator, and com-
mentator Julius Caesar Scaliger (1484–1558), mostly active
in France, wrote in his usual, somewhat intemperate style a
lengthy critique of Cardano’s De subtilitate under the title
Exotericarum exercitationum de subtilitate ad H. Cardanum(Esoteric exercise in subtleness against H. Cardano).16 Exer-
cise 325 is titled De colorum. Here Scaliger contrasts his
views on color against those of Cardano. Light is the form of
color. Together with the qualities of the four elements it forms
color. Black is not a color but the absence of light, darkness.
‘‘The color black is a disposition, and as such is visible: it
contains light, it is a presentation of visibility. This opinion
about light, although it is obscure, nevertheless deserves
admission because of its subtleness.’’ He struggles to explain
the apparent contradiction between black being the absence
of light and the perceptual fact of black objects. Scaliger
approvingly quotes the Arab philosopher Averroıs’ denial that
the other colors are composed from white and black. He
explains colors more along the lines of Plato than Aristotle.
As a result he posits four primary colors: white, related to
earth; green to water; blue to air; and yellow to heat or fire.
This list maintains Plato’s relationship between elements and
colors, but the specific relations are different and red is absent
as a primary color. White is a part of all colors, black of none.
When it comes to the basic species of color Scaliger reverts
to Aristotle’s list of seven: albus, flavus, ruber, purpureus,viridis, caeruleus, and niger. The generation of these species
from the four primaries is not explained. He then continues
with a lengthy discussion of the seven species and the color
names that fall under each of them.
FIG. 1. Theodoric of Freiberg’s sketch of light refractionon a hexagonal glass prism. Two rays of light proceedfrom the sun g, pass through the prism and produceimages of the spectral sequence on a screen at the bot-tom. From a manuscript of Theodoric’s De iride.
94 COLOR research and application
BERNARDINO TELESIO
The Southern Italian philosopher and humanist Bernardino
Telesio (1508–1588), not to be confused with Antonio Tele-
sio, was leader of an intellectual revolt against Aristotelian-
ism, believing that the Aristotelians relied too much on reason
and not enough on what their senses told them. Telesio did
not see the world in terms of Aristotle’s matter and form but
in terms of matter and waxing and waning forces. His most
important force was heat and its waning or absence, cold. In
1570 he published a small book of 12 printed pages De col-orum generatione opusculum (Little book on the generation
of color).17 Consistent with his general natural system he
described the generation of colors to be the result of interac-
tion of heat and cold and named the principal colors as:
‘‘white, scarlet, yellow, green, blue, and purple.’’ Among
other means for seeing these colors Telesio refers to serrated
glass, that is, the sequence is spectral. Telesio agrees with
Aristotle that scarlet is next to white, followed by yellow. In
the serrated glass he perceives between scarlet and yellow
subrufus and croceus (a near-red and orange), thus expands
the number of spectral colors. In addition, colors can be mixed
in innumerable ways, resulting in innumerably different ones.
The idea that colors from white to red to yellow contain more
heat (are warmer) than those from green via blue and purple to
black proved an enduring and perhaps intuitively acceptable one.
MOCENIGO AND SCARMILIONIUS
Filippo Mocenigo (life dates not known) was a member of an
important family in Venice, related to Alvise Mocenigo who
was Doge of the Republic of Venice from 1570–1577, Filippo
was Archbishop of Cyprus, then an outpost of the republic. In
1571, while he was in Cyprus, forces of the Ottoman empire
occupied the island and Filippo retired in Italy. In 1581 he
published the book Universales institutiones ad hominum per-fectionem (Universal instruction for the improvement of man-
kind).18 In Contemplation IIII, Part I, he discussed on 10
pages the subject of color. Mocenigo was a supporter of Aris-
totle, particularly in regard to the relationship between color
and music. However his number of median chromatic colors
between white and black is limited to three and the choice
and placement unorthodox.
‘‘The colors farthest from each other, having a relationship
as in the diapason [octave], are white and black. : : : Betweenwhite and black are three simple median colors; they are the
color red, located closer to black than to white, the color yel-
low or golden, located closer to white, and the color hyacinti-nus [a kind of darker and perhaps reddish blue, a term used
earlier by Grosseteste, see Ref. 8] that is in the middle. With
respect to black it refers to the diapente, with respect to whitethe diatesseron, with respect to red the semitonum and to yel-
low the ditonum. Yellow in respect to red is the diapente, andto black the ditonum.’’
Mocenigo’s linear system of simple colors, therefore, is
white, yellow, hyacinthine, red, and black. This arrangement
allows the generation of harmonic intervals that strike Moce-
nigo as similar to the corresponding musical intervals of the
Pythagorean scale. Other colors are generated by suitable mix-
tures of the five, e.g. blue is a mixture of hyacinthine and white,
green one of equal mixture of yellow and black, ash colored is
obtained from equal mixture of white and black, and fuscus(dark gray) from black with a smaller amount of white.
Of interest is a graphic representation Mocenigo describes
that may have been influenced by the story of Er the Pamphy-
lian in Plato’s Republic dialog, a story referring to universal
harmony. In Mocenigo’s model there are five concentric
circles representing the five simple colors. White has the larg-
est circle, followed by yellow, hyacinthine, red, and black in
the center with the smallest circle (Fig. 2). Mocenigo here
repeated the harmonic relationships between the circles.
Mocenigo then described object colors and the nature of
colorants out of the four classical elements, with each element
waxing and waning, together with dryness and humidity, heat
and cold. When the mixtures of the elements are perfect the
result is the simple colors, in case of imperfectness or by mix-
ture of the simples, all other colors are generated. In a sub-
chapter Mocenigo also described apparent colors, those not
represented by materials but by light only. He discussed the
sequence of colors of primary and secondary rainbows and
the colors emanating from a glass prism. Green is always in
the center, but the positions of red and hyacinthine vary
depending on the situation.
A much larger work on color was published in 1601 by the
Viennese professor of theoretical medicine Vitus Antonius
Scarmilionius (life dates unknown). His book of 192 pages is
titled De coloribus, libri duo (On color) and demonstrates that
he was widely read on the subject.19 Book I is essentially a
discussion on the subject of light and vision. Color is seen as
a mixture of brightness and darkness. In chapter 17 apparent
colors are discussed. Among other places Scarmilionius finds
them in light and fire. But the basic species of color is
unchanged regardless of the form in which it appears: ‘‘either
FIG. 2. Sketch of Mocenigo’s description of his five basiccolors represented by five concentric circles.
Volume 32, Number 2, April 2007 95
imperfectly formed, progressing, vigorous, full, saturated, or
subdued, there is only one kind of purple.’’ One discussion
deals with the effect colored glass has on sunlight and how
the color of the glass is transmitted to the light. Further,
(among many more subjects) there is discussion about the
image that passes through the pupil and how the components
of the image are preserved in the process.
Color is the main subject of Book II. In a classic sense,
according to Scarmilionius the bright colors are white, yel-
low, scarlet, green, purple, and blue. The brightest is white,
and the least bright is blue. Black has the least amount of light
and the highest opacity. In the matter of simple colors the Py-
thagorean four and their relationship to the elements is men-
tioned, as are the Aristotelian seven. Among quoted predeces-
sors Scarmilionius distinguished between the ‘‘old’’ and the
‘‘new.’’ One of the most quoted among the new is Mocenigo,
and we find his five simples mentioned (as a principle cred-
ited to Cardano). But Scarmilionius thinks that the rise and
fall of brightness is a more important ordering principle than
harmonic relationship. He also cannot reconcile Mocenigo’s
simples with the colors projecting from the glass prism. Aris-
totle’s three colors of the rainbow are mentioned. But in the
end he accepts the Aristotelian order of seven simples with
one change: ‘‘It is evident why white and black can be called
simples. It can be seen that they modify light, by intercepting
or restricting it in a proportionate gradual manner; as a result
the primary, or so to speak the simple colors appear. They are
white, yellow, scarlet, green, purple, blue, and black.’’ Thus,
Aristotle’s sequence of alourgon, prasinon, has been changedto viridis, purpureus by Scarmilionius. The largest portion of
Book II is dedicated to discussion of the major categories of
colors in a manner reminiscent of Scaliger (who is often
quoted). It is interesting to note the sequence and naming of
the categories: white, black, red (rubor), green, yellow, blue,violet, and ‘‘other colors.’’ Purple (purpureus) and halurgus(from the Greek alourgon) are listed in the red category.
Scarmilionius’ book is distinguished by its in-depth discus-
sions of vision, numerous detailed references to his sources,
and a much enlarged vocabulary compared to his immediate
predecessors.
SAVOT
The French physician, architect, and inventor Louis Savot
(1579–1640) was a man of many interests. He was for a time
the king’s physician, invented the raised grate for fireplaces
(the first installed in the Louvre in Paris), but also wrote
books on the architecture of French battlements and on an-
tique medallions. In 1609 he published a small book of 45
pages titled ‘‘Nova, seu verius nova-antiqua de causis col-orum sententia (A new, or rather neoclassical, way of think-
ing about the causes of colors).20 Savot begins by saying that
every philosopher agrees: to know the nature of color is very
difficult. Chapter 4 discusses primary colors. Savot states:’’
: : : it is incumbent on me to state that the number of simple
colors is without doubt four, white, black, red, and the color
Gallic people call bleu and all others are composed from these
four. : : : I call these four primary, unmixed : : : ‘‘According to
Savot (chapter 8) yellow is obtained from mixture of red and
white:’’ when mixed with white first zinzolin (saffron-col-
ored) is obtained, then orange, followed by golden-yellow,
and then pale yellow (jaune-paille, the Latin pallidus): : : ‘‘Insupport Savot quotes Plato and Aulus Gellius, as well as the
alchemists (specifically the 8th century Arabic alchemist Jabir
ibn Hayyan) who claimed that yellow consists of equal parts
of white and red. Yellow and blue conventionally produce
green, and red and blue violet if blue predominates and purple
if red does. In chapter 19 Savot lists other four-color theories.
One is mentioned by Pliny; accordingly early Greek painters
only used four pigments: white, black, red, and sil atticum.Savot interprets sil atticum as a blue pigment (interpreted by
Pliny as a yellow pigment and giving rise to lengthy later argu-
ments about the ability of early Greeks to see blue). Another is
that by the Pythagoreans (white, black, red, and ochre). In
addition to the primary colors Savot also has a list of principal
colors. Their number is seven. They differ from the Aristote-
lian seven and are as follows: white, black, red, gray, yellow,
green, and purple (no explanation given for the missing blue).
In several chapters the colors generated from the four pri-
maries in two- and three-color combinations are discussed in
a manner reminiscent of Scaliger who is often quoted, some-
times dismissively.
FORSIUS
In the year Savot’s book was published, the Norwegian physi-
cist and astronomer Sigfridus Aronus Forsius (1560–1624)
wrote a manuscript on physics containing a chapter on
vision.21 It was never published in book form and received lit-
tle if any distribution, languishing in the archives of the
Swedish king who employed Forsius at the time. To represent
the full range of colors Forsius arranged them in four linear
scales ending in common white and black (Fig. 3). The center
scale is a gray scale, the four chromatic scales are in spectral
order from red on the left, via yellow, green, to blue on the
right. The scales are not always of constant hue: the red scale
descends from red through purple and brown to violet-brown
and black, for example. Forsius regarded mid-gray as a pri-
mary color (but not white and black) and compared the five to
the five senses and the then known five planets.
AGUILONIUS
Two years later, in 1613, the Belgian Jesuit priest Francois
d’Aguilon (1567–1617) published the first of three planned
volumes on optics, Opticorum libri sex (The six books on
optics).22 d’Aguilon died before he could publish companion
volumes on dioptrics and catoptrics. Life in a monastery gave
him the time to study the subject matter in depth, but as mem-
ber of the gentry he also had wide social contacts. One of
these was the painter Peter Paul Rubens with whom he had
extensive discussions on the subject of color and who pro-
vided seven engraved illustrations for his book.
d’Aguilon used a new academic style by dividing the book
into propositions, each with its own theorem. The theorem of
96 COLOR research and application
proposition 39 is ‘‘The number of simple color species if five,
and there are three species of mixed colors.’’ As several
authors before him he distinguished among real (object) col-
ors, intentional colors (colors of lights, either direct light or
light that had passed through a transparent colored medium),
and notional colors (successive contrast colors and similar
effects). All eight species can be generated in any of the three
modes. He located the first kind of colors in the objects and
materials, the second in light, and the third in the eye. The
five unmixed simple species, according to d’Aguilon, are
white and black at the extremes, and yellow (flavus), red(ruber), and blue (caeruleus) between them. It seems evident
that this choice is affected by his discussions with Rubens
and the latter’s experience with paint mixture. Such experi-
ence led d’Aguilon not only to consider the result of the mix-
ture of the three chromatic simples with white and black but
also pairwise mixture among themselves. He chose the names
of aureus (golden), viridis (green), and purpureus (purple) forthe pairwise mixtures of the chromatic simples. Here he
quoted Aristotle’s comparison between the mixture of colors
and the harmonic mixture of two tones.
d’Aguilon found a suitable graphical method to represent
the complex mixture interactions in a model invented by the
late Roman philosopher and author of a commented book of
translations of Greek texts on music, Boethius (5th century
AD) that shows the harmonic relationship between musical
tones. The tones are arranged in a horizontal series and their
relationships are indicated by circle segments above and
below the line of simples (see Fig. 4 for an example). Boe-
thius’ book on music was widely copied in the Middle Ages
and is among the earliest printed books. Boethius used this
kind of scheme also to graphically demonstrate the relations
between logical categories in his translations of Aristotle’s
books on logic. Figure 5 shows d’Aguilon’s use of this dia-
gram style to show the results of mixture between the five
simple colors, thereby providing a ‘‘complete’’ representation
of the world of colors. It is more complete than Forsius’s
because he also considered mixtures of the chromatic simples
among themselves. This approach to simple colors was cop-
ied by Kircher and others into the early 18th century.
DISCUSSION
Color, with its three kinds of appearances, object, intentional,
and apparent, was and remains a difficult subject. As yet, with
all the modern tools we have available, the nature of color is
unknown. It is for this reason that the thinking of the Greek
philosophers, in particular Aristotle, has continued to inform
the thinking of writers on the subject for some 2000 years.
Aristotle saw color as generated out of the interaction of light
and darkness. His sequence of five chromatic colors is formed
by mutually opposite intention (rise) and remission (fall) of
the two basic forces. But he could not overlook the facts of
the natural sequence of colors in the rainbow that does not
follow the brightness sequence of his seven-color scale. In
scarlet, green, and violet he recognized color mixture primar-
ies. These colors, forming the beginning, middle, and end of
the spectrum much later in time became the cornerstones of
the Maxwell diagram (see Table I).
His seven-color scale has been strongly influenced by
views on fundamental similarity of the senses, at least color,
taste, and hearing. A possible fundamental law of harmony
FIG. 3. Forsius’ arrangement of five color scales betweencommon white (top) and black (bottom). The pure chro-matic colors on the central horizontal line are (from left)red (Rodt), yellow (Gult), green (Gront), blue (Blaau).
FIG. 4. Graphical illustration of the harmonic relationshipbetween musical tones from a 13th century manuscript ofBoethius’ De musica.
FIG. 5. d’Aguilon’s schematic depiction of color mixturebetween pairs of his five simple colors. Opticorum libri sex,1613.
Volume 32, Number 2, April 2007 97
for both tones and colors remained an important idea to which
in the late 17th century also Newton bowed. Seven-color
sequences remained important into the early 17th century.
However, Scaliger and Savot recognized them no longer as
fundamental colors but as species of the genus color or princi-
pal rather than primary colors, with Savot no longer placing
them in a sequence beginning and ending with white, respec-
tively black. The sequence can be regarded as a list of basic
color categories, especially in case of Cardano. Compared to
Berlin and Kay’s 20th century list23 of chromatic basic cate-
gories his list only lacks brown (that he included in yellow)
and pink (included in red).
In the historical period considered there was disagreement
about the proper sequence of basic colors in the Aristotelian
brightness scale. This is not surprising given the confusing
facts of nature. When comparing the colorimetric brightness
of spectral lights extracted, for simplicity’s sake, from an
equal energy light source at 475 (‘‘blue’’), 515 (‘‘green’’), 575
(‘‘yellow’’), and 700 nm (‘‘red’’) we find the brightest color to
be green, followed by yellow (approximately half the bright-
ness), blue (approximately one fifth of the brightness), and
red (approximately 1/200th). It is not surprising that Moce-
nigo wanted to place red next to black. In case of object col-
ors the situation is different. Highest chroma Munsell color
chips of blue (10B 5/12), green (5G5/12, yellow (2.5Y 8.5/
14) red (5R 4/14), and purple (2.5RP 4/12) were used as
examples for comparison and adjustments were made for the
Helmholtz-Kohlrausch effect (chromatic colors, depending
on hue and saturation, appear brighter than a gray of the same
luminous reflectance). The results, expressed in (adjusted,
rounded) CIELAB L* values (approximately representative
of perceptual lightness) compare as follows: blue 60, green
55, yellow 90, red and purple each 50. Yellow is clearly and
distinctly lighter than the others, all others being similar in
lightness. Depending on the examples used it is evident that
opinions about the sequence can differ.
The earliest four-color sequence of fundamentals is the
mentioned one of the Pythagoreans, linking the classical four
elements with four colors (for a different view see Theophras-
tus). Scaliger’s scale of four primary colors, linked to the ele-
ments, is different from the Pythagorean scale by lacking
black (that Scaliger did not take to be a color) but classically
linking earth with white, fire with yellow, water with green,
and air with blue. Red, in his view, is not a primary color.
Savot later did not link his four primaries to the elements, but
reinstated black and replaced yellow with red, while viewing
green as a mixed color (Table I).
The idea of three simple chromatic colors began with
Chalcidius, who did not explain his reasons for it. Moceni-
go’s three chromatic simples yellow, hyacinthine (perhaps
violet-blue), and red are only surprising in their sequence,
based on his idea that red is the darkest chromatic color
and should be placed next to black. Aguilonius, finally,
selected the three chromatic primaries that maintained im-
portance in the general public until today. It is interesting
to note that the late Renaissance artist with the greatest
scientific bent, Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1500 described in
his notebooks a list of simple colors that included four
chromatic colors, placed in spectral order between white
and black: yellow, green, blue, and red.24 It is a fact that
all hues of an object color hue circle can be generated from
mixtures of a yellow, a red and a blue colorant, but the
resulting samples are of widely varying saturation and
lightness, such as the later designers of three-dimensional
color order systems based on these chromatic primaries
discovered (e.g. Lambert in 1772). Many other colorant
triples can be used to generate all hues of a hue circle but
varying in a different manner in regard to saturation and
lightness. Color photography and halftone printing demon-
strated at the end of the 19th century that yellow, magenta,
and cyan are the optimal three primary colorants to repro-
duce a large portion of the optimal object color space.
The 16th and early 17th century was a time when the clas-
sical Greek views on color began to give way to a different
view, based on the empirical facts of spectral colors and
clearer understanding of colorant mixture results. It was also
the time when a distinct separation between fundamental col-
ors and color categories began to take place.
TABLE I. Simple and categorical color sequences.
1. Aristotelian seven colorsAristotle Leukon Xanthon Phoinikun Alurgon Prasinon Kuanoun MelanCardano Albus/flavus Croceus Puniceus Purpureus Viridis Caeruleus Niger/fuscusScaliger, species Albus Flavus Ruber Purpureus Viridis Caeruleus NigerScarmilioni Albus Flavus Puniceus Viridis Purpureus Caeruleus NigerSavot, principal Albus Niger Ruber Gris Jaune Viridis Pourpre
2. Spectral sequenceAristotle Phoinikun Xanthon Prasinon AlourgonTheodoric Albus Ruber Glaucus Viridis Lazulius NigerB. Telesio Albus Puniceus Flavus Viridis Caeruleus Purpureus Niger
3. (Elemental) four color sequenceScaliger Albus Flavus Viridis CaeruleusSavot, primary Albus Niger Ruber Bleu
4. Three simple chromatic colorsChalcidius Albus Pallidus Ruber Cyaneus NigerMocenigo Albus Flavus Hyacintinus Ruber NigerAguilonius Albus Flavus Ruber Caeruleus Niger
See the appendix for an alphabetical list of English translations of these words.
98 COLOR research and application
APPENDIX
Translation of Color Terms in Table I
albus (L): white; alourgon (G): violet; bleu (F): blue; caeru-
leus (L): blue; croceus (L): orange; cyaneus (L): blue; flavus
(L): yellow; fuscus (L): gray; glaucus (L): for a time with the
meaning of yellow; gris (F): gray; hyacintinus (L): reddish
blue, violet; jaune (F): yellow; kuanoun (G): blue; lazulius
(L): blue; leukon (G): white; melan (G): gray: niger (L):
black; pallidus (L): pale yellow; phoinikun (G): purple;
pourpre (F): purple; prasinon (G): green; puniceus (L): scar-
let; purpureus (L):purple; rubber (L): red; visridis (L): green;
xanthon (G): yellow.
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3. Bartholomaeus Anglicus. Batman upon Bartholome, his book De
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5. Aristotle. Meteorology, 372a. In: Barnes J, editor. The CompleteWorks
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libri XXI. Published simultaneously in Nurnberg, Germany, and
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varietate libri XVII. Avignon: Vincentius; 1558. p 111–115.
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15. Telesio A. Antonii Thylesii Cosentini libellus de coloribus, Venice,
1529. For a discussion of Telesio’s color terms see R. Osborne, Tele-
sio’s dictionary of Latin color terms. Color Res Appl 2002;27:140–146.
16. Scaliger JC. Iulii Caesaris Scaligeri exotericarum exercitationum
liber quintus decimus de subtilitate ad Hieronumum Cardanum.
Paris: Vascosani; 1557. p 434–444.
17. Telesio B. Bernardini Telesii concentini de colorum generatione
opusculum. Naples: Cacchius; 1570.
18. Mocenigo F. Universales institutions ad hominum perfectionem.
Venice: Manutius; 1581. p 305–315.
19. Scarmilionius VA. Vidi Antonii Scarmilionii fulginatis, de coloribus
libri duo. Marburg: Egenolphus; 1601.
20. Savot L. Nova, seu verius nova-antiqua de causis colorum sentential.
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21. Forsius SA. Physica, Codex Holmiensis, D. 6. Stockholm: Royal
Library; 1611. Translated (in part) Feller RL, Stenius AS. On the
color space of Sigfrid Forsius, 1611. Color Eng 1970;8:48–51.
22. d’Aguilon F. Francisci Aguilonii opticorum libri sex. Antwerp: Plan-
tin; 1613. p 38–41.
23. Berlin B, Kay P. Basic Color Terms. Berkley, CA: University of
California Press; 1969.
24. Leonardo da Vinci. Trattato della pittura, Codex Urbinas, translated
in: Leonardo on Art and the Artist, Mineola, NY: Dover; 1961.
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