Page 72

MORESQUE ORNAMENT.
of objects, the secondary and tertiary on the lower.  This also appears to
be in accordance with a
natural law; we have the primary blue in the sky, the secondary green in
the trees and fields, ending
with the tertiaries on the earth; as also in flowers, where we generally
find the primaries on the
buds and flowers, and the secondaries on the leaves and stalks.
The ancients always observed this rule in the best periods of art.  In Egypt,
however, we do see
occasionally the secondary green used in the upper portions of the temples,
but this arises from the
fact, that ornaments in Egypt were symbolical; and if a lotus leaf were used
on the upper part of
a building, it would necessarily be coloured green ; but the law is true
in the main; the general
aspect of an Egyptian temple of the Pharaonic period gives the primaries
above and the secondaries
below; but in the buildings of the Ptolemaic and Roman periods more especially,
this order was
inverted, and the palm and lotus-leaf capitals give a superabundance of green
in the upper portions
of the temples.
In Pompeii we find sometimes in the interior of the houses a gradual gradation
of colour downwards
from the roof, from light to dark, ending with black; but this is by no means
so universal as to
convince us that they felt it as a law. We have already shown in Chapter
V. that there are many
examples of black immediately under the ceiling.
13. Although the ornaments which are found in the Alhambra, and in the Court
of the Lions
especially, are at the present day covered with several thin coats of the
whitewash which has at various
periods been applied to them, we may be said to have authority for the whole
of the colouring of
our reproduction; for not only may the colours be seen in the interstices
of the ornaments in many
places by scaling off the whitewash, but the colouring of the Alhambra was
carried out on so perfect
a system, that any one who will make this a study can, with almost absolute
certainty, on being
shown for the first time a piece of Moorish ornament in white, define at
once the manner in which it
was coloured. So completely were all the architectural forms designed with
reference to their subsequent
colouring, that the surface alone will indicate the colours they were destined
to receive.  Thus, in
using the colours blue, red, and gold, they took care to place them in such
positions that they should
be best seen in themselves, and add most to the general effect. On moulded
surfaces they placed
red, the strongest colour of the three, in the depths, where it might be
softened by shadow, never
on the surface; blue in the shade, and gold on all surfaces exposed to light:
for it is evident that
by this arrangement alone could their true value be obtained.   The several
colours are either
separated by white bands, or by the shadow caused by the relief of the ornament
itself-and this
appears to be an absolute principle required in colouring-colours should
never be allowed to impinge
upon each other.
14. In colouring the grounds of the various diapers the blue always occupies
the largest area;
and this is in accordance with the theory of optics, and the experiments
which have been made
with the prismatic spectrum.  The rays of light are said to neutralise each
other in the proportions
of 3 yellow, 5 red, and 8 blue; thus, it requires a quantity of blue equal
to the red and yellow
put together to produce a harmonious effect, and prevent the predominance
of any one colour over
the others.  As in the "Alhambra," yellow is replaced by gold,
which tends towards a reddish-
yellow, the blue is still further increased, to counteract the tendency of
the red to overpower the
other colours.
INTERLACED PATTERNS.
We have already suggested, in Chapter IV., the probability that the immense
variety of Moorish
ornaments, which are formed by the intersection of equidistant lines, could
be traced through the
72