The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt

The “Color Circle” is an important chromatic Gestalt in the visual arts. There is not really a formal equivalent in conventional colorimetry. The fact that the hues can be linearly ordered and that such an order is necessarily periodic was intuited by artists in the early 19th century, but only form...

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Main Authors: Jan J. Koenderink, Andrea J. van Doorn, Doris I. Braun
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2024-07-01
Series:i-Perception
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241269314
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author Jan J. Koenderink
Andrea J. van Doorn
Doris I. Braun
author_facet Jan J. Koenderink
Andrea J. van Doorn
Doris I. Braun
author_sort Jan J. Koenderink
collection DOAJ
description The “Color Circle” is an important chromatic Gestalt in the visual arts. There is not really a formal equivalent in conventional colorimetry. The fact that the hues can be linearly ordered and that such an order is necessarily periodic was intuited by artists in the early 19th century, but only formally explained by Ostwald and later Schrödinger a century later. As with musical keys, various metrical orders are in common use. Is there such a thing as a “well tempered” order? We consider this an issue for experimental phenomenology. We discuss an attempt based on observations by 30 (nonartist) observers.
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spelling doaj-art-25beb79d1b234ffcbb768aac4d6f8ba42025-08-20T03:14:47ZengSAGE Publishingi-Perception2041-66952024-07-011510.1177/20416695241269314The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic GestaltJan J. KoenderinkAndrea J. van DoornDoris I. Braun0Justus Liebig University Giessen, GermanyThe “Color Circle” is an important chromatic Gestalt in the visual arts. There is not really a formal equivalent in conventional colorimetry. The fact that the hues can be linearly ordered and that such an order is necessarily periodic was intuited by artists in the early 19th century, but only formally explained by Ostwald and later Schrödinger a century later. As with musical keys, various metrical orders are in common use. Is there such a thing as a “well tempered” order? We consider this an issue for experimental phenomenology. We discuss an attempt based on observations by 30 (nonartist) observers.https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241269314
spellingShingle Jan J. Koenderink
Andrea J. van Doorn
Doris I. Braun
The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
i-Perception
title The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
title_full The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
title_fullStr The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
title_full_unstemmed The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
title_short The well-tempered color circle: A chromatic Gestalt
title_sort well tempered color circle a chromatic gestalt
url https://doi.org/10.1177/20416695241269314
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