In 1847 Sir Charles Eastlake published his two volumes, Methods and Materials of Painting of the Great Schools and Masters. Today it has been reprinted by Dover in paperback. Among his insights into the techniques of Renaissance masters were observations on their palette and color selection. If you were to turn to page 373 you would find a short list of prescribed color pairings. Eastlake had seen a tendency to pair a strong color with its grayed or partially neutralized opposite color. He lists a series of colors and their grayed or neutralized opposites such as, ” the opposite of bright yellow is purplish grey.” His list is not extensive but, if you take his observations and apply them to analyzing the work of various Renaissance and Baroque painters you will notice that he had observed a critical unifying strategy of painters which was widely applied. My first example here is of Tiepolo’s painting of the Assumption of Mary. Her ultramarine blue robe ( signifying her royal station, and her foot on Eden’s black garden serpent showing her triumph over sexual temptation)is complemented by grayed yellows and other warm neutralized grays. Those colors push Mary forward and into space. I have tried following Eastlake’s advice in my two examples here. The first example shows an area of porous yellow and other warm colors set against a pale light blue to violet gray background. The light gray energizes the yellow. The opposite colors, one weak and one strong, generate luminance. In my other example, I more closely mimic the color ideas of Tiepolo. I have sent two Marys walking through Times Square. The yellow-orange areas are offset by a blue/violet gray. The gray is neutal and cool(blued) and helps to activate the yellow-orange spots. Only in one area do I have a blue vs. yellow tension to push the effects of a stronger complementary contrast.
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