COLORING, one of the essential parts of painting—namely, that part which relates to colors. Besides a knowledge of the art of pre paring and mixing colors, and the whole me chanical process from the beginning to the fin ishing of a picture, which in the various kinds of painting varies according to the ma terials of each, coloring comprehends the knowl edge of the laws of light and colors, and all the rules deducible from the observation of their effects in nature, for the use of the artist. This subject has been treated by Leonardo da Vinci in his work on painting; Lomazzo and Gerard Lairesse in books on the same subject; Mengs in his (Praktischer Unterriche ; Goethe in his (Farbenlehre); etc. The skill of the painter presupposes a natural ability founded on su perior sensibility—namely, the ability to image forth, and to with characteristic truth, the peculiar substance and can- of any object under the influences of the light and air. With the limited range of pigment ci lots at his dis posal, bounded at one end by the dead white of a piece of white paper, many degrees darker than a sunlit cloud, and at the other end by a flat black many degrees lighter than a piece of black velvet, the artist's work becomes prac tically a translation from nature, instead of an imitation. For if the colors of nature were re produced faithfully, her effects would be lost through the limited scale of expression avail able. The skill of the artist is exhibited in so adapting his translations of local colorings that the effects of nature are virtually reproduced in colors so correct relatively to the other colors of the painting that they are recognized as eminently truthful. To make this translation successful, accurate attention to the relative values of the local tones and tints is requisite. By local tones we understand the natural color of an object as it appears on the spot where it stands, or from the spot where the spectator is supposed to be stationed. In works of art the
natural color of an object appears always as a local tone, because every object must be re garded from only one point of view, conform ably to which the natural color is modified ac cording to the supposed distance. By tints we understand, in a more restricted sense, the gradations of the clear and obscure which lights and shadows produce on the colored surface. In no object of art do these modifications and shacks exist in greater delicacy and diversity than in the human 'face, which is consequently the most difficult subject for a painter. Color ing, in as far as it is an imitation of the color and character of flesh (the naked body), is called carnation (q.v.). If, in addition to the skilful translation of the natural colors, local tones and tints of its original, the artist also ex presses in his work the peculiar character of the substance of which the object consists, the coloring is called true. But to truth should be joined beauty, which is attained by the har monious union of all the tones of the painting into one dominant tone. The coloring must. conform to and promote the object of the painting as a work of art, and by the harmony of the colors and lights, as well as by the truth of the local colors, and of the individual parts of the subject, constitute one beautiful whole. In the choice of lights and the distribution of colors the artist should aim not only at clear ness of representation, but at the same time at the production of a pleasing harmony, which should aid the general impression of the work. Consequently harmony and chiaroscuro are comprised in the idea of correct, beautiful color ing. We often see pictures in which the colors are true to nature but which have little merit and are deficient in a harmonious union of ex-• cellences.