APPENDIX TO CHAPTER II
33
grasp such relations from a diagram should have a model of the Color Tree[1] at hand when studying these chapters.
Three horizontal slices are taken through the diagrams and central drawing,to represent charts 30, 50, and 70 of the Color Atlas[1] on whose measured scales are printed symbols giving the proportions by which any pair or group of colors may be balanced. This is also illustrated in the folded color plate (V.) at the end of the book. Masks of black paper will aid in the selection of such groups, as suggested in paragraphs 47 and 167-171. In these color scales any fractional part of a decimal series is discarded for the sake of simplicity, but may be estimated by the eye.
The Color Sphere[1] appears in each diagram as a circle struck from middle gray. It excludes the uneven maxima of color described in paragraph 34, and represents Nature’s determination to temper color by dimming the brilliance of white and the blackness of velvet, fading the discords of the bill-board, and enriching the envelope of old paintings, tapestries, ceramics, and prints.
This may be tested in any museum of art, for with the maxima in one hand and the middle colors of the sphere in the other, it becomes evident that the latter abound in the most beautiful examples, while the maxima are absent or admitted only as small accents to balance large fields of quiet chroma.
