An introduction to the experimental psychology of beauty / by C.W. Valentine.

  • Valentine, C. W. (Charles Wilfred), 1879-1964.
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An introduction to the experimental psychology of beauty / by C.W. Valentine. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    more like the red: in other words, in the red there appears to be more pigment than in the pink. And in adding red to pink we make it darker. “ Dark red, therefore, compared with saturated red, has again this peculiar quality of moreness”’ ; it has more sub- stance, 7.e. it appears heavier. Some other interesting points came to light in these experiments with the coloured triangles. The weight- principle was not always supreme. Selections were sometimes made on the basis of a preference for one of the two colours in the triangle. Thus suppose the triangle A to be composed of light green in the lower part and dark blue in the apex, while the triangle B had green at the apex and blue below. Then the triangle A might be preferred to B, because A had more of the colour green in it than B had, the subject having a strong liking for green but not for dark blue. Here the weight-principle would have led to the choice of B, where the dark blue was below the light green. With other subjects, again, the triangle which had the favourite colour in the apex was preferred, even if this were the darker colour, for they felt that the apex was the dominant, important position, and thus their favourite colour appeared more prominent and striking in this position. This influence of position and arrangement upon the effect of a colour will obviously aflect the beauty of more complex objects, such as paintings. The sreater importance of a small object in a picture may make up for the greater area of the less important background. Thus a picture in which a small central figure is of a highly pleasing colour, but the broad background in colour of an indifferent nature, may be more pleasing than another painting in which the body of a picture is of a pleasing colour but where the principal figure is poorly coloured. The greatest perfection is required where one’s attention naturally