Color Spaces

PERIOD from 1860 to 1928 on page 08. 01

COLOR  SPACE  PERIOD  (from 450 BC to 1860)

A simple 2D or
3D color space

550 BC

08-00-00

450 BC

08-00-01

White  for Fire
Black  for Water
Red for Air
Orange-Yellow for Earth

400 BC

08-00-02

White
Black
Red
Yellow-Green

390 BC

08-00-03

White
Black
Red
Shiny

334 BC

08-00-04

Aristoteles viewed all color to be the product of a mixture of white and black
and this was the prevailing belief until 1666 when Sir Isaac Newton's prism experiments provided the scientific basis of understanding of color.            
Newton's prism in SPECTRA on page 03. 03

1000

08-00-05

 An optical theory about rainbow colors. The Muslim scientist Ibn Al-Haytham, known as Alhacen or Alhazen in the West, developed a broad theory of vision based on geometry and anatomy in his "Book of Optics". Al-Haytham postulated that every point on an illuminated surface radiates light rays in all directions, but that only one ray from each point can be seen. The ray that strikes the eye perpendicularly. The other rays strike at different angles and are not seen. Alhazen was a great authority on optics in the Middle Ages and lived around 1000 on the Gregorian calendar, invented the pinhole camera, and explained why the image was upside down.

1593

08-00-06

His experimental research in optics and other fields was undermined by his credulous preoccupation with magic and the miraculous. .

1611

08-00-07
 

The oldest color system known that is worth naming originates  from the Finnish born A. S. Forsius.

1613

08-00-08

Possibly the oldest system to use the trio of red, yellow and blue, colors are defined within a linear division.
Their mixing options can be deduced using bows.
"One can see in his achievement the quietness of the monastery, which can permeate into the smallest detail of a work" was Goethe’s comment on the work Franciscus Aguilonius, whom he rated highly.

1646

08-00-09
 

Color music intended for instrumental performance in conjunction with a simultaneous
projection of changing colors onto a screen.
Athanasius Kircher said  that each musical sound has a necessary, objective correspondence to a certain color.

1660

08-00-10
 

English physicist, mathematician, and natural philosopher, considered one of the most important scientists of all time.
Newton showed that a prism could break up white light into a range of colors. 
Newton used the seven color names red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet for segments of the spectrum by analogy with the seven notes of the musical scale.
Newton's prism in SPECTRA on page 03. 03

1686

08-00-11

?

1772

08-00-12

A color-circle based on four colors, red, blue, green and yellow, divided into  3 x 4 = 12 segments.
His color-circle is provided with fanciful names:
blue, sea-green, green, olive-green, yellow, orange-yellow, fire-red, red, crimson, violet-red, violet-blue and fire-blue.

1772

08-00-13
 

1775

08-00-14

1776

08-00-15

Harris created the first artists color wheel designed specially as an aid to color mixing:
The Natural System of Colors. In this work, Harris, examines the work of Newton and attempts to reveal the multitude of colors which can be created from three basic ones.
Harris wishes to understand the relationships between the colors.

1801

08-00-16

Tri-chromatic theory.
Young proposed that the eye detects three primary colors.
Red, Green and Blue.
Refined about 50 years later by Hermann van Helmholtz.

1809

08-00-17

Philipp Otto Runge's color sphere.
White at the top and Black on bottom, the colors wrap around the middle of the sphere.
He chooses the wrong primary colors: Red, Yellow, and Blue opaque plus the pigment Black for shades.

1810

08-00-18

Goethe's "Theory of Colors" said that the eye produces a "complementally hue upon each color".
This is not the same meaning as understood by a complement in today's art.
The after image effect to which he refers relates to a phenomenon known as successive contrast.
Goethe's interpretation of the color spectrum is in conflict with his early contemporary Newton
 - a battle which was finally obvious decided in the advantage of Newton.
Newton's theory seemed to be the most exact and was clearly confirmed by measurements.
Nonetheless, many stick to the more human interpretation of Goethe, a.o. the Antroposofical movement.  

1817

08-00-19

?

1840

08-00-20

?

1851

08-00-21

Tri-chromatic theory.
Helmholtz proposed that the eye detects three primary colors. Red, Green and Blue.

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 Last update
2010-05-18