Meticulous Exploration Of Goethe’s Color Theory

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832),a German literary giant,has a wide range of involvement and research in literature,philosophy,aesthetics,natural science and art.He has devoted himself to the study of color theory for many years.The book “Theory of Colours”is the most concentrated embodiment of his scientific experiment and color theory.Western academic circles have always been controversial about his color theory,and Rudolf Arnheim,who is very influential in the field of modeling theory in the 20 th century,quotes a lot of Goethe’s color theory in his book “Art and Visual Perception”,and Johannes Eaton also repeatedly mentioned Goethe’s color theory in his “Color Art”.However,there are few research results on Goethe’s color theory in domestic academic circles.Even today,210 years after the publication of the book itself,there is no Chinese translation.There is no doubt that Goethe’s theoretical achievement is an indispensable link in the development history of Western color art,which has unique value and research necessity.This paper is divided into three chapters.The first chapter mainly discusses the formation basis of Goethe’s color theory,including the political and economic situation of Germany at that time,the transformation of Goethe’s own view of nature and aesthetics,the indissoluble relationship between Goethe and plastic art,and the development of the color theory before Goethe’s color theory.The second chapter analyzes the main body of Goethe’s color theory and summarizes it into four aspects.The content of this chapter is mainly based on Goethe’s view of nature.Goethe divides color phenomena into three parts:physiological color,physical color and chemical color.Physiological colors are produced by our eyes;Physical color appears through the medium of light,which is divided into four parts: refractive color,reflective color,peripheral optical color and floodlight color;Chemical color belongs to the substance itself and has some persistence.The second is two important concepts in Goethe’s color theory: polarity and prototype.Third,Goethe’s understanding of the relationship between chromatics and other fields.Fourth,Goethe’s colorology focuses on the color of painting.The third chapter mainly analyzes the influence and evaluation of Goethe’s color theory,including five parts.The first part mainly combs the research and development of colorology in Goethe’s same period and after The second part mainly discusses the influence of Goethe’s color theory.The third part analyzes the value and contribution of Goethe’s color theory.The fourth and fifth parts try to summarize many limitations contained in Goethe’s color theory through the systematic analysis of Goethe’s color theory,and summarize and explain the root causes of its long-term neglect in domestic academic circles.