On the Interpretation of Colors, and what they can signify720
The Fourteenth Chapter
(1) Since the Sun emits so much force*
That the Moon, Stars, and all terrestrial sources of light
Must yield to its incomparable radiance,**
And since its rays are Gold-like,***
And Gold, compared to other metals,
Is the most prominent in rank,721
So, we shall first lay the foundation
Of our varied subject by reference to [the color] yellow which denotes Gold.722****
(2) Amongst all the proper and laudable colors,
We shall begin with Yellow, the most precious,
In that it denotes the color Gold;
For truly, Gold is that which satisfies without sating*
The very covetous hearts of avaricious Men:
These shining entrails, drawn forth from deep within
The fathomless depths of our common Mother’s belly,
Have oft instigated much evil in the World.723
(3) For all evil can be blamed on the intemperate desire of unholy [Men],724*
And not on Gold itself.725
Cadmus, the discoverer of Gold, was the first to get hold of it.726
Within the borders of Samnium, two Kings of Colchis took**
The Earth’s Maidenhood, for the sake of Gold,
Striving to foregather it from out of the water
By means of the hides of Sheep,
Wherefrom the fable of the golden Fleece derives.727***
(4) Yea, the Fable, bruited well nigh round the World,*
Of the Argonauts, Jason’s companions,
More curious to read than worthy of belief:
How they, unaccompanied by Hercules,
Put a woman to work [for them], thus to carry the day:729
But Hippocrates, adducing the origin of the Name Gold,**
Opines that it grew from the stem
Aurora, saffron-like and glowing.730
(5) Or then again, from Aura in Latin,
As Isodorus says, [Gold] took its name,
Which signifies luster, shining brightly,732
And also let us not fail to give Gregory his say
About [Gold’s] special radiance;733
And on the whole, Persons are inclined
Ever to behold with ready sense
Whatever shines gaily, with clarity and brightness.
(6) The most beauteous beauty lies in what is invisibly
Beautiful, the gracious fountainhead of all beauty,
Whereto the bright Sun, not to be outshone,
Is likewise compared:734 and Phoebus
Is called golden-haired, yea, altogether golden:735
The uses of Gold are multifarious;*
Persons maintain themselves by it in various ways,
But its misuse comes from unbridled desire.
(7) Because no colors can surpass*
The beautiful color gold, for this reason
Emperors, Kings, and powerful people
Have their Scepters, royal chains, Crowns,**
And various adornments made of Gold,
Their broidered Mantles and golden Stuffs,
And Clothing, shot through with golden threads,736
Which King Attalus did first occasion.737***
(8) And such [cloth of gold] has kept the name of Attalus-work:
But in Babylon was first discovered*
How, amongst many colors, to embroider with glittering Gold,738
Wherefore, too, they wished to dub
This costly work, priced at many thousands of pounds,
With the name Babylonian;**
For the Emperor Nero did pay a million Sesterces
For an adornment thus wrought.739
(9) Holy Writ also reliably attests*
About very costly golden Ornaments,
And how wise Solomon, rich in influence,
Did clad God’s House all over in pure Gold;**
He covered even the floor with golden patens:
In sum, cheerful and beautiful beyond measure,
Indeed incredibly precious, one can well imagine
How pure gold there shone yellow.
(10) Gold is, according to the import given it by Scripture,*
The action of faith, tried and strong,
Wherewith the Bride of the Lord is everywhere
Mantled;742 which, too, the armbands
Of Rebecca concertedly betoken:743
For he who is faithful and true
Adjured the church [of Laodicea], whose faith had lapsed,
To buy fire-tried Gold from him once again.744
(11) Drawn from the Poets, Maro’s golden bough, and such,*
Were well to ponder over:745
But hear how the Heralds, in blazoning,
Compare the colors of noble coats of arms:**
This highest metal denotes wealth,
Wisdom, high birth, magnanimity, and magnificence;746
Yet by the adjacent color,
They give it a new significance.747
(12) Blue, wherewith [Gold] desires best to be companioned,*
Signifies for those who wear Livery748
Predilection for the World’s joys and pleasures,
Whereas beside gray, it portends nothing more than the careworn recrimination**
Of those who chastise themselves for desuetude:
Beside green, it [stands for] a hopeful inclination toward good content:
Beside violet, consolation in love fulfilled:***
Beside black, patience and constancy in love.749****
(13) Beside flesh-tints, this gold-yellow signifies*
Sober affluence: on occasion, in the same vein,
A rational Person of good estate,**
Truly temperate, and perspicacious in conduct,
And further, of very good counsel, and personable to all:
But amongst all the flawless precious stones,
This most noble gold color is likened
To Topaz (if I do but speak justly).750
(14) Accordingly, yellow is a fine, happy color,
Of light and clear mien, very close to white:751
In the times of both Moses and Solomon,
It was artfully worked and woven into silken
Veils or great curtains:752
But yellow was the most eminent color, wherefore, in fine,*
It appears in no way inappropriate
To place yellow in the first place amongst the colors.
(15) When ancient Painters had no more than four kinds
Of color, as was said above,753
Yellow Ocher was one of the four:754
Without it, what could they have done
To bring their work to the outward appearance of this thing or that?
Whereas we now have on the scene
Four different yellows in addition to Ocher:
Massicot,755 schiet-yellow,756 and two Orpiments.757
(16) Minium, too, will suffice for any yellow tilting
Toward Orange, that is, speaking plainly, for a golden color;758
One can combine it with Massicot to draw
Or render ornaments: for ‘tis folly*
To use Gold [for this]; one must banish it
From one’s work, and, though I have no power
Completely to forbid it, ‘twould be better
Duly to effect ornaments in color.759
(17) Even if there were some who formerly presumed
Beautifully to embellish their works with Gold,
Which those who lacked understanding prized highly,
Yet should this now be thought*
More to disfigure than enhance:
Thus, they who would depict Dido and Aeneas of Troy
Sallying forth to hunt,
Ought not to be lavish with Gold.
(18) Even if Virgil wrote as follows:
There, triumphantly caparisoned in Purple and Gold,
Stood a Horse, high-spirited and proud,
Champing at his bit, so that spume came foaming;
And last of all, Dido ventured forth,
Her fine hair [bedecked] with golden clasps,
Wearing beautiful colored silks, beneath
An incomparable Sidonian mantle.
(19) The golden quiver, with other objects:761
Or he who might wish to portray prattling Croesus,
Pleased vaingloriously to express
The superabundance of his good fortune,
Showing Solon [his] many garments, Jewels, and treasures:762
Observe how gold-gilt highlights fall darkly onto a flat*
Daylit surface,763 rather than lightening it;764
One shall best bring off this [effect] with color.
(20) Gold cannot be accounted the best medium for [portraying] Gold;
For it tends to comport itself badly within a picture,
Even though in times gone by, they smothered it on in great quantity,
But outside, on frames, edges, and borders,
Amidst mascarons, arabesques, and fluttering ribbons;766
To adorn richly, subtly, and skillfully
At the sides, below, and above with Gold,
Deserves highly to be praised, not eschewed.767
(21) Gualtherus Rivius, a well-learned man,
Wanted every Painting expertly
[Made] by artful hands, to be honored*
With a golden frame, but more than this, to be magnified
With precious stones, true and genuine:768
So highly did he in his writings consider a well-made picture
Worthy of esteem; but he brooked no
Gilding of anything within the picture.
(22) After Gold, Silver, radiantly shining with its sheer beams,*
Rightfully claims the highest place amongst all the metals,
As regards value and beauty.769
It were too long a tale to tell
All that God caused to be made with it,
Under the Law, in his honor:770 but see what is**
Thereby signified, in that it is perceived to be white—***
‘Tis innocence and sinless purity.
(23) Amongst the thousands, suchlike was the pure Little Lamb,*
Rich in honor, white, ravishing in its beauty;771
On [Mount] Thabor, his garments glistened, white as snow,772**
In white did the Angels of the Lord appear:773***
Unblemished Truth,774 upright in nature,
Is clad all in white, and moreover,
It has ever pleased our eyes to see
Blameless Youth, Women or Maidens in particular,
Dressed in white.775
(24) Just as on Coats of Arms, Gold, radiant and gleaming,*
Can signify nobility and high state,
And Silver, purity and good-hearted righteousness,
So Red can signify loftiness and courageous audacity,
Blue, fidelity and the pursuit of knowledge,
Green, beauty, goodness, and joy, and further,
Purple, the abundant favor of God and of Men,
Black, iniquity and baseness that reside in the heart.776
(25) Two metals, that is, Silver and Gold,*
Are not to be found on their own
In the crests of the Nobility, and conversely,
Colors are not to be found adjoining without metals.777
Amongst the Planets, Gold is likened**
To the Sun, and we can identify Silver
With the Moon, and red with Mars,
Purple with Mercury, messenger of the Gods.778
(26) Blue is likened to Jupiter, green to Venus,
Black to melancholy Saturn:
Undaunted, one may thus proceed similarly,
Comparing all the days of the week,*
From Sunday on, with these colors,779
And likewise the seven Virtues, excluding none;**
Faith with Gold, benevolent Hope
With Silver, fiery Love with Red,780
(27) Justice, felicitous and celestial, with Blue,
Fortitude, lofty in its resolve, with Green,
Wisdom, accomplished yet unassuming, with Black,
Temperance, moderate by nature,
With a Violet flesh-tint, made from two colors mixed into one,
Their singular names forgotten:781
The seven Ages of human life
Are also analogous to these Colors.782
(28) A child up to seven Years old from birth*
Is Silver or white, innocent and pert,
An inexperienced youngster up to fifteen Years is Blue,
A Youth up to twenty Years is Gold-Yellow,
A Young Man up to thirty Years is Green,
A Man up to fifty Years and stout of heart is Red,
A Man up to seventy Years old is Purple,
And Black is reserved for mourning the dead.
(29) Similarly, the four Human types or complexions appear*
Cognate with four colors: first the Sanguine,
Full of blood, to Red, the irritable Choleric
To Blue, the Phlegmatic,
Always muculent and sniveling, to White,
And the melancholic, somber in mien, to Black.783
So, too, if one wished [to do the same] with the Elements:
Fire with Red, air with Blue, water with white, and the earth with Black.784
(30) Amongst the Year’s four seasons, Green denotes Spring,*
Red, Summer, burning with the Sunlight’s heat,
Blue, Autumn with its bunches of grapes close at hand,
And Black, Winter, sad, without mirth:785
Thus do the Colors evince many meanings,
From which I, having now washed my
Ink-stained hands, will here take my leave,
In order to direct the younger Generation to the Lives of the Painters.786
(31) Had circumstances permitted, I would have wished
To produce more chapters, or make them longer:
And yet, Architectural Painting, with its constituent parts,*
Such as measure and foreshortening, has long since
Been brought into view, very clearly printed in our language:787
What is more, my own affairs, and domestic exigencies,
Coming to disturb me, wrest away my Pen,
Else had I easily rendered up a thousand other matters.
(32) Let [my poem], such as it is, be pleasing to you and
Serve for the best, O Youths [desirous of] painting:
Eschew not the way to Virtue, by reason of its forbidding threshold,790
For, through the sweet savor of prosperity,
It draws to a close in joy:
Examples of which you shall find
In the Lives and Deeds of the Painters, and (as we intend)
Reading, you shall learn at the same time to picture.
End of the Foundation of the Art of Painting.
Footnotes
*
On Gold.
**
On the splendid light of the Sun.
***
On the likeness of the Sun to Gold.
****
Gold classified under yellow.
*
Through Gold, or because of it, much occurs that is evil.
*
The cause is intemperate desire.
**
Salauces,728 and Ebusopes.
***
Wherefrom the Fable of the golden Fleece came about.
*
Orpheus, Valerius Flaccus, and Apollonius have written on the golden Fleece.731
**
From whence Gold has its name.
*
Gold is useful, though misused through unbridled human desire.
*
Why Gold is greatly esteemed.
**
Whereto gold is used.
***
Gold was first used for weaving at the behest of Attalus.
*
Embroidering with gold was first discovered in Babylon.
**
Joshua 7.740
*
3 Kings 6:22 and 6:30.741
**
Wondrous beauty of Solomon’s Temple.
*
Apocalypse 3:18.
*
Maro’s golden bough will signify wisdom.
**
In coats of arms of the Nobility, Gold denotes wisdom, and magnanimity.
*
Gold beside blue signifies predilection for the joys of the world.
**
Beside gray, scrupulousness.
***
Beside violet, consolation in love.
****
Beside black, constancy and patience in love.
*
Beside flesh-tints, circumspect wealth.
**
In a heraldic crest, gold on its own signifies a constant, good, wise, and pious Man.
*
Yellow is the most eminent color.
*
Some writers impugn ornaments painted in gold, even though what looks good, is indeed good; ‘tis an art to ornament circumspectly and well, and no less an art, by whatever means, to arrive at a good result.
*
I transcribe this from other [authors], but yet leave it to everyone to do as they will.760
*
Objects highlighted in Gold on a flat daylit surface produce a dark effect.765
*
The exterior of an artful Painting cannot be adorned too lavishly.
*
On Silver, which is construed to be white, and what it thereby signifies.
**
Exodus 36.
***
Exodus 38.
*
Canticle 5.*
**
Mark 9.
***
Acts 1.
*
Significance of the seven Colors in heraldry.
*
A certain order in the heraldry of Crests and Coats of Arms of the Nobility.
**
The seven colors likened to the seven Planets, which are each to be clad in its respective color.
*
[The seven colors] also likened to the days of the week.
**
The seven Cardinal virtues likened to the [seven] colors.
*
The seven Ages of Human life compared with [the seven] colors.
*
Four colors compared with the four Human types, and the four chief elements.
*
Four colors compared with the Seasons.
*
That is, the Books of Pieter van Aelst, on Geometry, perspective, and architecture, of Hans Bloem,788 and of others.789