The dark halo technique in the oeuvre of Michael Sweerts and other Flemish and Dutch baroque painters. A 17th c. empirical solution to mitigate the optical ‘simultaneous contrast’ effect?

Although the topic is rarely addressed in literature, a significant number of baroque paintings exhibit dark, halo-like shapes around the contours of the dramatis personae. Close examination of both finished and unfinished works suggests that this intriguing feature was a practical tool that helped the artist in the early painting stages. When applying the final brushwork, the halo lost its function, with some artists undertaking efforts to hide it. Although their visibility might not have been intended by the artists, today this dark paint beneath the surface is partially visible through the upper paint layers. Moreover, the disclosure of many halos using infrared photography (IRP), infrared reflectography (IRR) and macro X-ray fluorescence imaging (MA-XRF), additional to those that can be observed visually, suggests that this was a common and established element of 17th-century painting practice in Western Europe. Building on an existing hypothesis, we argue that halos can be considered as a solution to an optical problem that arose when baroque painters reversed the traditional, 15th- and 16th-century painting sequence of working from background to foreground. Instead, they started with the dominant parts of a composition, such as the face of a sitter. In that case, a temporary halo can provide the essential tonal reference to anticipate the chromatic impact of the final dark colored background on the adjacent delicate carnations. In particular, we attempt to clarify the prevalence of dark halos as a response to optical effects such as ‘simultaneous contrast’ and ‘the crispening effect’, described in literature only centuries later. As such, the recently termed ‘ring condition’ can be seen as the present-day equivalent of the ‘halo solution’ that was seemingly empirically or intuitively developed by 17th-century artists. Modern studies in visual perception proves that by laying a black ring around a target color, the optical impact of a surrounding color can be efficiently neutralized. Finally, by delving into works by Michael Sweerts, it becomes clear that resourceful artists might have adapted the halo technique and the underlying principles to their individual challenges, such as dealing with differently colored grounds.

The Dark Halo Technique in the Oeuvre of Michael Sweerts and Other Flemish and Dutch Baroque Painters. A 17th C. Empirical Solution to Mitigate the Optical ‘Simultaneous Contrast’ Effect?

Although the topic is rarely addressed in literature, a significant number of baroque paintings exhibit dark, halo-like shapes around the contours of the dramatis personae. Close examination of both finished and unfinished works suggests that this intriguing feature was a practical tool that helped the artist in the early painting stages. When applying the final brushwork, the halo lost its function, with some artists undertaking efforts to hide it. Although their visibility might not have been intended by the artists, today this dark paint beneath the surface is partially visible through the upper paint layers. Moreover, the disclosure of many halos using infrared photography (IRP), infrared reflectography (IRR) and macro X-ray fluorescence imaging (MA- XRF), additional to those that can be observed visually, suggests that this was a common and established element of 17th -century painting practice in Western Europe. Building on an existing hypothesis, we argue that halos can be considered as a solution to an optical problem that arose when baroque painters reversed the traditional, 15th - and 16th -century painting sequence of working from background to foreground. Instead, they started with the dominant parts of a composition, such as the face of a sitter. In that case, a temporary halo can provide the essential tonal reference to anticipate the chromatic impact of the final dark colored background on the adjacent delicate carnations. In particular, we attempt to clarify the prevalence of dark halos as a response to optical effects such as ‘simultaneous contrast’ and ‘the crispening effect’, described in literature only centuries later. As such, the recently termed ‘ring condition’ can be seen as the present-day equivalent of the ‘halo solution’ that was seemingly empirically or intuitively developed by 17th -century artists. Modern optics proves that by laying a black ring around a target color, the optical impact of a surrounding color can be efficiently neutralized. Finally, by delving into works by Michael Sweerts, it becomes clear that resourceful artists might have adapted the halo technique and the underlying principles to their individual challenges, such as dealing with differently colored grounds.

Lightness And Luminance: Perceptual Qualities in Conditions Of Simultaneous Contrast

This article is devoted to the research of the influence of induction and crispening effects on the lightness of objects. The target of this research is to simplify and clarify the analysis of the light distributions derived from the results of lighting calculations and measurements, and also to form the recommendations for obtaining preferred lightness contrasts in the case of visual perception of objects on different backgrounds. To provide such possibilities, it is necessary to refine the model of the lightness calculation in modern colour appearance models, which, in turn, requires the results of new experiments to take into account the induction and crispening effects in the conditions of simultaneous contrast. The same experiment was established by Takasaki on visual perception of grey squares on grey backgrounds. The article substantiates the necessity to refine the results of the Takasaki experiment and conduct the new experimental approach in more strictly specified conditions and in the expanded luminance range to ensure conditions of the modern standards. Here we propose setting up an experiment that provides these refinements and considers the properties of the proximal field – the contour of objects. The search of the results uses multi-objective optimization methods. The first results of this experiment are presented, based on them, were formed proposals to determine the preferred luminance of objects to ensure the required levels of lightness contrast when working on specified backgrounds. The calculations of the lightness deviations obtained as the result of the experiment and in the CIECAM02 colour appearance model, are presented. The peculiarities of translations of lighting engineering literature in the field of modelling a light-colour environment are noted, which require clarification for a correct and reliable understanding of colour appearance models, for which is proposed to open a discussion on this subject.

The Simultaneous Contrast of Colors and Its Application in the Art Analysis

The phenomenon of simultaneous contrast of colors is examined in terms of optical explanation and practical recommendations for artists. But there is a lack of research that explores the results of the application of this contrast to the works of art. This article is dedicated to stylistic analysis of the role of simultaneous contrast in paintings and graphic works. In the first part of the research the reasons and mechanism of mutual influence of adjacent colors are examined on the basis of M. Chevreul’s research “The Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors” which explains the optical nature of the contrast by changes in visual perception of the light rays reflected by colored objects. The second part of the article explores the application of this theory to the stylistic analysis of painting and graphic arts. The use of different variations of simultaneous contrast and its consequences for the perception of the images were analyzed on the examples of art works of Titian, artist of J. Tintoretto’s circle, P. P. Rubens, T. Gainsborough, H. Daumier, V. van Gogh, R. Delaunay, M. Vrubel, M. Nesterov, T. Shevchenko, O. Murashko. It allowed to determine the range of artistic problems that simultaneous contrast helps to solve. This artistic device enriches the color scheme, makes it more complex and provokes vibrating, changeful color effect which can have aesthetic and meaningful value. Simultaneous contrast is widely used to balance cold and warm colors and to compensate the missing or poorly manifested component of the color scheme. It is also the instrument for emphasizing the reflexes and shadows on the depicted objects, for creating more convincing and holistic spatial sense in the image. This contrast can play a big role in concretization of the coloristic and material characteristics of different objects. The examples analyzed in this article do not comprise all the variability of simultaneous contrast, they are the basis for further extension of the research.

Pure Painting and Mottled Colour

On the eve of World War I, Guillaume Apollinaire announced the birth of ‘pure painting’. Scholars have typically understood this as an early version of mid-century theories of abstract art; however, that interpretation ignores the poet’s close association with Robert and Sonia Delaunay. Those artists were deeply influenced by M. E. Chevreul, a nineteenth-century colour theorist who showed that complementary hues appear more pure when seen simultaneously. Most often discussed in relation to the phenomenological changes that occur when red and green are viewed side-by-side, simultaneous contrast suggests an alternative view of purity. For the Delaunays, pure painting was not a retreat from the world, but a way of making its dichotomies and conflicts more visible.