290 REVIEWS AND PAMPHLETS ON ART

ground were independently laid, it would be in a neutral grey, susceptible afterwards of harmony with any tone he might determine upon, and not in the vivid brown which necessitated brilliancy of subsequent effect. We believe, accordingly, that while some of the pieces of this master’s richer colour, such as the Adam and Eve in the Gallery of Venice, and we suspect also the miracle of St. Mark,¹ may be executed on the pure Flemish system, the greater number of his large compositions will be found based on a grey shadow; and that this grey shadow was independently laid we have more direct proof in the assertion of Boschini,² who received his information from the younger Palma: “Quando haveva stabilita questa importante distribuzione, abboggiave il quadro tutto di chiaroscuro;” and we have, therefore, no doubt that Tintoret’s well-known reply to the question, “What were the most beautiful colours?” “Il nero, e il bianco,”³ is to be received in a perfectly literal sense, beyond and above its evident reference to abstract principle. Its main and most valuable meaning was, of course, that the design and light and shade of a picture were of greater importance than its colour; (and this Tintoret felt so thoroughly that there is not one of his works which would seriously lose in power if it were translated into chiaroscuro); but it implied also that Tintoret’s idea of a shadowed preparation was in grey, and not in brown.

32. But there is a farther and more essential ground of difference in system of shadow between the Flemish and Italian colourists. It is a well-known optical fact that the colour of shadow is complemental to that of light: and that therefore, in general terms, warm light has cool shadow, and cool light hot shadow. The noblest masters of the

¹ [For the “Adam and Eve,” see Vol. III. p. 509; for the “Miracle of St. Mark,” see a passing allusion in Stones of Venice, vol. iii., Venetian Index, s. “Accademia.”]

² [Le Ricche Minere della Pittura Veneziana, seconda impressione 1674 (in the account of Tintoret in the Introduction).]

³ [“Dimandato quali fossero i più belli colori, disse, il nero ed il bianco; perchè l’uno dava forza alle figure profondando le ombre; l’altre, il rilievo” (Ridolfi: Le Meraviglie dell’ Arte, 1648, ii. 59). For other references to the saying, see Vol. X. p. xxxv., Vol. XI. p. 364.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]