On the origin, nature, force, and effect of Colors683
The Thirteenth Chapter
(1) In the beginning, when all created things
Received from their most praiseworthy Creator684
Their origin, form, and being,
Everything that the eye might visibly encompass,
Howsoever multiple, various, or curious in essence,
Had the whole of their color from this*
Most artful Sculptor and Painter:685
How could the wellspring of Colors appear more fulsome?
(2) But as the abyss found itself murky,
Or as the Poets reckon Chaos to have been,
Before things stood in good order,
And the Sky, without light, lay consumed
By all-farraginous Darkness:686
So, too, the colors, with their diverse names,*
Did not yet exist, or if they did,
Remained fully submerged, yet to be revealed.
(3) Now, indeed, wherever Darkness, battling with Light,*
Manages to overmaster or overwhelm it,
No colors are impeded;687 but sight
Is neither strong nor sharp enough
To pierce the black obscurity:
Yet even then, Colors retain
Their distinctive beauty, forfeiting nothing,
Although one fails to see them through the Darkness.
(4) Further to expatiate, I consider*
That the colors, as anywise seen by us,
Were born and have their origin
From the four Elements, hard or soft,
Where the Sun shines upon them, and daylight falls:688
But one might ask what color itself is,
Which, with its various accidental properties,689
Draws form from the four Elements.
(5) Color is in itself the furthermost clarity*
Of any body from within which it is materialized,
Verily the substance of Light;690 for the propinquity
Of Darkness, with its density, compromises
The eye’s ability to discriminate amongst the varieties of light:
But daylight, in particular, confers on the gift of sight**
The power to discriminate unerringly
Amongst every form of Color.
(6) After the retreat of Darkness, the clarity of Light
Brings the beauty of Colors to the fore,
But the force and virtue of Colors shine forth [in this],691
That everything which bears the likeness of something, without exception,*
Has its proper color:692 finally, in a word,
Whatever its form, howsoever strange,
Nothing we behold may exist without color,
And colors arise from a foundation of clarity.
(7) But colors (in the judgment of Pliny)*
Are twofold, however many the pigments:
That is, natural or made by human hands.693
The natural [colors] were named
After the Lands whither one went to procure them,
Which names here to translate
Were easier to wish to do than to accomplish,
Mayhap glaring disparities would oft arise.
(8) Color, an expressly natural quickening*
Of all things, be they still or active,
Is the uppermost layer of their outermost covering,
Whether monochrome, mixed, or polychrome,
Wherefrom the names of many things derive;
It awakens the eye’s hungry gaze,
Which, in the wide kitchen of the World,
Unceasingly craves the food of further sights.694
(9) Color can show the differences amongst things:*
How, for instance, to distinguish Gold noticeably from Copper.695
Color emboldens persons, or startles them,
Color disfigures, or beautifies,
Color oppresses, or exhilarates,
Color causes many a thing to be censured, or praised:696
In sum, color holds visibly in its grasp
Everything created by God in the World.
(10) Color in nature works with wonderful force,*
Whereof further Examples are to be found
Amongst Women who, in conceiving [children], think certain thoughts,
And thus imagining, bear
The fruit aforeseen, be it black or colored otherwise:697
But this we know and see to occur,
That children come to be marked
By that which caused their Mothers to take fright.698
(11) Similarly, when they, as sometimes happens,*
Are suddenly affrighted by fearsome hemorrhaging,
They give birth to children with bloody birthmarks,
Or who teem with [marks] of another color,
If certain fruits or flowers,
Plumped down before their eyes or elsewhere,
Just at the moment their pregnancy begins,
Are not immediately brushed away.699
(12) Herewith, the power of Colors becomes apparent. Likewise apropos,
The story of Jacob may be called to mind;*
Who, laboring for Laban in the East,700
With efficacious colors gave himself a helping hand
By laying speckled branches amongst the flocks
During the mating season, so that every Ram,
Goat, Sheep, Ass, that was
Colored and spotted fell surely to his share.701
(13) The affordances of Color
Are put on show in myriad ways by Birds and Beasts
Which are thereby given a lordly, splendid adornment:
Tigers, for example, Leopards, and Panthers,*
By whose beautiful spots and sweet scent
The forest’s four-footed creatures are drawn,
The smallest along with the largest,
Even to the cost of their lives.702
(14) He who has seen the Phoenix bird, as Pliny’s*
Colored words describe it,703 is delighted
No less than when he sees the glorious Peacock
Making a wheel of its cheerful feathers,
Turning itself to catch the sun’s dazzle.704
How fine it is to see Parrots display,705
So, too, Doves with their shining golden throats,
Wherefrom comes their Latin name, Columba.706
(15) A surfeit of Examples would inflate
Our current subject too much;
But the heart rises up and away from intolerable cares
In early summer when the fields bloom*
With lively colors aplenty, varied so beguilingly
That not even Solomon was so finely adorned
As the lily of the field,
Or so the Lord attests in the Gospels.707
(16) The colors of young person’s bodies:
Women’s in particular, marvelously arouse;*
Many a heart swims in a Sea of pleasures,
Thinking he sees the Graces play
Upon female mouths, cheeks, and dulcet eyes,
On account of whom, amidst fell wars
Numerous heroes bend their necks,
Whereby the power of Colors is affirmed.708
(17) Scipio, and the great Alexander,*
By their martial exploits did lay claim
To great renown, the one no less than the other;
Yet were they reckoned far more valiant
By dint of curbing their lust for Women beautiful in body:709
Veritably, to prevent themselves from gazing at Ladies’ fine coloring,
Some have chosen to become blind,
Fearing to lose control over their desire.710
(18) Equally pertinent to the glory of Colors
Is the Art of writing in black on white,*
Whereby Persons hold in memory
Arts, science, and a wealth of History.
Writing also triggers conflicts, carnage, and grief,
Instigates peace, concord, and heartfelt joy:
Yea even though Persons speed far apart,
Yet can they converse through silent tidings.711
(19) Hieronymus Benzonius of Milan*
Writes on this subject in a manner convenient to our purpose,
That the Indians, being simple People,
When sent as retainers by the Spaniards,
With letters [written] to other Spaniards,
Failed to grasp, even after weighing them [in their hands]
And appealing to one another, how a white object
Streaked in black could somehow speak.712
(20) They knew nothing about writing or reading;*
Atabaliba himself, a great Nobleman,
The powerful King of Peru,
Having been instructed in the faith by a Monk,
Prevailed upon the Brother to explain how he knew
That Christ, who gave up his life for us,
Had also created the World; [the Monk] answered
That his Breviary had told this to him.713
(21) Atabaliba, at the instigation of the Monk,*
Likewise took up the Book and looked at it closely,
But the Book, rather than speaking, remained altogether silent;
And so, he laughed, as if this were a clever prank,
And then, unfavorably disposed toward the Book,
He threw it down and thus came to a bad end.
Thus did these People view reading and writing
As an extraordinary enterprise.
(22) But there formerly hung in that Region’s houses
A great number of cords*
Diverse in color, composed of cotton
And full of knots fashioned variously,
By whose number they heretofore did
Distinguish the Land’s affairs of old;
And certain Persons were appointed for this task,
Who could interpret the sense of the knots.714
(23) To summarize, the world over,
Amongst various Peoples (this is not to be doubted)
The nature of Colors, their power and propensity, hold sway,*
So, too, their influence and signifying effect;
Yet are they transposed amongst the Eastern Javanese,**
For there white signifies and makes allusion
To sadness, and black is a sign
Of everything pleasurable that conduces to joy.715
(24) When we previously spoke of drawing,
We were not oblivious to the Art of Lettering;716
With respect to this, writing is subsumed by the efficacy of colors:717
But Euphranor’s Treatise is lost to us,*
Devoured by the capriciousness of time:718
For jealous age has robbed us
Of a proper Book on the secrets of Color,
By this ancient Painter, artful and much admired.
(25) Finally, what colors are more beautiful than those
Wherewith the Lord wished so generously to endow
Noble, rare, and costly gems:*
It far surpasses Human capacity to suppose,
Imagine, or contemplate with the heart
The finer colors that shall hereafter shine**
In the felicity of heaven, beautiful beyond measure,
Surpassing nature in chastity and purity.
(26) With reference to unalloyed Gold and unblemished glass,
To rare gems such as Sardonyx and Jasper,
Chrysolite, Hyacinth, Topaz,
Amethyst, Emerald, Chrysoprase,
And to superbly fine, pure colors of this kind,
John describes the sweet plain of Heaven.719*
Thus let us here take leave Color, high above the Earth,
Leaving it to its Heavenly dignity.
End of the origin, nature, etc. of Colors.
Footnotes
*
Everything has its color from God.
*
Colors first made their appearance at the creation of the world.
*
Darkness holds sway over the discernment of colors, preventing it.
*
Colors have their origin from the Elements.
*
What Color is.
**
Daylight is most conducive to the differentiation of Colors.
*
No visible things are without color.
*
Colors are of two kinds, natural, and made by Art.
*
Further on what Color is, and what it effects.
*
Color confers difference on things.
*
On the force of Color.
*
Power and effect of Colors.
*
Example of Jacob’s spotted cattle.
*
Example of several animals.
*
Example of the Phoenix.
*
Floral examples.
*
On Women.
*
Scipio and Alexander praised more for having triumphed over their [base] impulses than by cause of military victories.
*
Utility of the Art of Writing.
*
This Benson spent fourteen Years in the West Indies; I have translated his book.
*
The West Indians did not know how to write.
*
Atabaliba presumed that Books must actually speak.
*
With cotton cords of various colors, full of knots, they kept their Annals, or [marked] Yearly Events.
*
Color is universally efficacious.
**
Amongst the Javanese, white is a sign of sorrow, and black, of joy.
*
Euphranor, an ancient Painter, wrote on Colors.
*
On the beauty of gems.
**
On the beauty of the new Jerusalem.
*
Here, finally, color is transported Heavenward.