Universal Principles of Art

17 COLOR THEORY

UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCE OF COLOR

From the Renaissance onward, artists and scientists sought a conceptual framework for understanding color perception. Both Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci wrote on the subject, but it wasn’t until Sir Isaac Newton’s Opticks was published in 1704 that the scientific world joined the search in earnest.

Arriving at a useful model of color relationships was made more difficult because reflective color (subtractive color), the kind experienced looking at a painting, combines in a very different way from that of pure colored light (additive color). Red, green, and blue pigments mix together to make a dark gray; conversely, red, green, and blue light wavelengths combine together to make white light. ...